Response to Viganò’s letter reveals a church divided

Viganò's letter

The response to the publication of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s letter has followed a predictable trajectory.

It reveals what John Cornwell, writing in Vanity Fair, calls an internecine battle raging between the conservative “neats” and liberal “scruffies” within the Catholic Church.

Many of them are using the letter as a weapon to further their cause.

A clerical abuse survivor, Peter Isley, told the New York Times such infighting factions are exploiting the abuse crisis and victims of clergy sexual abuse as leverage in the struggle for church power.

“The sexual abuse crisis is not about whether a bishop is a liberal or a conservative. It is about protecting children,” he said.

However, the letter has revealed a deep division in the church.

There are seemingly irreconcilable differences that could split the Church in two.

Cornwell says the stakes of the battle are larger even than Francis himself; the warriors on either side are fighting to remake the Church in their side’s image.

He warns that as the conflict unfolds, people “should be wary of the blogs, tweets and editorials of those Catholic neats and scruffies: they seldom preach an unadulterated gospel.”

The mainline secular media has tended to take a more measured response to the letter.

It tends to waver between taking papal silence as a token of papal dignity or papal guilt, Cornwell says.

Writing in La Croix, Paul Moses says: “There are always judgment questions, which is what makes journalism interesting.

“But since Viganò’s allegations are uncorroborated—and the tone of the letter rather overwrought—it is a mistake to put too much weight on any single claim.”

Here is a selection of opinion pieces commenting on the letter released by Viganò :

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