Published: Wednesday, 14th April, 2010 5:00pm

Women are the only hope for the Church

"The winner writes the history, the official version for public consumption by the gullible. The loser has no voice. This my take on the real story of the last 50 years of Catholic Church history.

Pope John called the council in order to reform the institutions of the Church from the top down. For him that meant a change of attitude, of mindset, of spirit, starting from the top with the Papacy and hierarchy.

I am convinced that he was a prophet to lead the way to reform, in the spirit of the ancient phrase, ecclesia semper est reformanda, the Church is in constant need of reform. It is significant that he bypassed the curia. Unconsciously, John was the living model of his vision for renewal, in his own humble person. Almost from the first day of his short spell as Pope the whole human race fell in love with this remarkable man. For a brief magic moment back then and for the first time in human history peace reigned over the whole world, despite the bomb and the Bay of Pigs fiasco.

"I was there in time and spirit, living every moment of it on a transistor radio, among the Moslems on Mindanao. It is no exaggeration to say that we young priests held our breaths in awe at what we naively thought was coming. Christians, Jews, Moslems, Hindhus, Buddhists, atheists, all men and women of good will and even bad will, fell under the spell of this old, fat, jolly soul. And his council of bishops got the message and drew up a blueprint for renewal that would the Church for ever, and bring in the women from the cold. Then John died and the dream died with him.

"What has happened since that golden summer of our innocence? Is it not peculiar that the blessed name of John is so utterly and so quickly forgotten in the Vatican? Surely it cannot be possible that his memory has been deliberately buried? But how else can the black-out be explained?

It was clear from the first day that the powers-that-be in the curia did not like his style. He frightened them, threatened their positions of power. No one, not even a pope had ever before dared to bypass these mandarins. It is clear to me that they collectively swore a mighty, unspoken oath that, once he was gone, they would never let such a faux-pas happen again.

And they took steps to ensure this in that usual slow, deliberate, long-headed way for which the curia is rightly famous.

"There were two young German periti, experts, present at the Council at the behest of their bishops. Like all young priests worth their salt back then, these two friends were all for real, genuine renewal in the spirit of John. Shortly after the council they parted ways; one has stuck to his guns to this day. The other had a change of heart. He was lured by the Curia; the bait was a bishop's mitre. He never looked back, only up and up to this day.

This man has been the real power, the driving-force, under Paul and John-Paul. It has been his policy that has filled the Church with yes-men bishops and cardinals.

He made sure to slam and bolt shut the window John had opened. In fact one often hears it hinted from Rome that poor doting John has been the cause of all the trouble, that he opened the sluice-gates and let the world's evils into the holy Church.

"The names of the two periti are of course Hans Kung and Joseph Ratzinger. We know Kung's mind from his monumental works, wide-open for the world to peruse. We know that Rome has tried to silence him, more than once. The mind of Pope Benedict was and is unknowable. As Christ said, 'By their fruits you shall know them.' You will find the basis for what I am saying in the writings of Kung, if you care to look. See what he thinks of the 'Holy Father'. The rottweiler has changed his bark but not his bite.

"I have nothing to gain, or lose, either way; in former times people like me were burned at the stake. Do you believe that the Council was scuttled? Do you think that, in my old age, I am losing it and have dreamt up this crazy conspiracy theory out of thin air? Either way, why the reluctance among the clergy to speak out and tell the truth in plain English?

Surely, the litany of abuses, the obvious policy of cover-up, the persistent denial, the muzzle of silence, the recent charade in Rome, the double-speak, all speak for themselves. It stinks to high heaven.

If what I say is not true will somebody please say so without mental reservation. Let me say one more time that I am not attacking the Church but trying to defend the Church I love from the enemy within.

"As I have been saying ad nauseam the only hope for the Church is the women. But how are they going to be able to break into this power structure. The system is the very antithesis of the actions and words of Christ.

Every day that passes brings fresh revelations of an entrenched mindset, from the pope down, that judges the behaviour of clerics by canon law not moral or civil law. God help the poor Church held in bondage by these wrong-headed automatons for centuries, buried as she is under that beautiful, monstrous mausoleum called the Vatican. Will she ever be free.

'Allow the little children to come to me'. If I hear that quoted from the pulpit once more, I'm going to puke. But in time the truth will out.