Barack Obama, Pope Francis and the Will to Lead

Apparently there really is a "gay lobby" in the Vatican, as La Reppublica newspaper in Rome has reported and a Vatican spokesman has denied, characterizing the reports as defamatory, "unverified, unverifiable or completely false." It may be time for the Vatican to reconsider its commentary because no less a perspn than Pope Francis recently lamented that a "gay lobby" was at work at the Vatican. He made the comment in private remarks to the leadership of a key Latin American church group - a stunning revelation that appears to confirm the earlier reports about corruption and dysfunction in the Holy See. The group, known by its Spanish acronym CLAR, said it was greatly distressed that a document it had prepared to summarize the encounter with Pope Francis had been published and apologized to the Pope. The CLAR report appeared Tuesday in Spanish on the progressive Chilean-based website "Reflection and Liberation" and was picked up and translated by the blog Rorate Caeli, which is read in Vatican circles. In the report, Pope Francis is quoted as being remarkably forthcoming about his administrative shortcomings, saying he was relying on the group of eight cardinals he appointed to lead a reform of the Vatican bureaucracy. Earlier, the gay lobby had been accused of something that sounds a lot like blackmail - that is, using information it has about gay Vatican bureaucrats to influence papal decision-making. It has been suggested to be one of the reasons Benedict decided to resign. Italian journalists have also said details of the scandal were laid out in the secret dossier prepared for Benedict by three trusted cardinals who investigated the leaks of papal documents last year. Benedict left the dossier for Francis. The Vatican spokesman said he could make no comment about rhe Pope's remarks because it was a private meeting and as a result he had nothing to say. The members of CLAR said no recording had been made of Francis' remarks but that the members of its leadership team - a half-dozen men and women from religious orders - together wrote a synthesis of the points he had made for their own personal use. ~~~~~ Dear readers, if we combine the Pope's gay lobby remarks with his recent comment that he did not want to be Pope, and his statement that he is relying on a committee to reform the Vatican - a picture is emerging of a priest who is as much an outsider at the Vatican as Barack Obama is an outsider in Washington. That comparison may seem odd, but it points to a real similarity in the problem the Vatican and the American federal government face. They are both the titular headquarters of a far-flung political system. The Catholic Church. The United States. Both headquarters are run by consummate insiders who pretty much do as they please because their constituencies have no evident mechanism to stay current with their policies and actions - and their oversight institutions, the Pope and the US Congress, are usually insiders, too. The last Pope, Benedict XVI, was an outsider who finally resigned, undoubtedly because the gay lobby was just one of many insider groups who made it impossible for him to function because he didn't understand the insider "codes." President Obama has only one major success in five years. Obamacare. And he largely left it to the Democrat Congress to achieve it. Just as Francis is leaving the badly needed Vatican reform, a major reason for his election to the papacy, to insiders. These are two leaders who have their noses pressed to the candyshop window, watching others eat the candy that ought to belong to them. It is too late for President Obama to do anything but survive - if he can avoid the darker scenarios related to the deluge of scandals washing over his administration. But Pope Francis is new on the job and he should stop talking about how he doesn't want to be Pope. He should move into the papal apartments, if for no other reason than as a show of authority. He should take personal control of the Vatican bureaucracy and bend it to his will - his immense popularity should make this possible. And he should understand that he has been called to a vitally important mission - preserving Christianity by making it relevant to the 21st century. Francis can do this. The question is - does he have the will and the force of character to bring it off. I truly hope he does.