I’m confused now. Why would The Pope do this now? I can see him making such statements now if this is a matter of unfinished business, left over from Pope Benedict’s time of service.
As I understand it, the Pope actually doesn’t do much of anything other than public appearances. The Vatican bureaucracy actually carries out most day-to-day activity.
Because the media is watering down his message. He intends to extract the unholy from the holy see. A return to sanity, and it is high time.
The canonical penalties against Mr. (formerly Rev.) Greg Reynolds must have been "in the pipeline" for quite some time, probably being initiated under Pope Benedict; still, nothing would have come out over Pope Francis' signature unless he had wanted it so. So I give him credit for that as well.
Its almost funny to see how bumfoozled the media people are about this.
Maybe it was blow back on the media and the Lefty Catholics, who were wrongly thrilled about the Pope’s interview last week, the one everyone turned upside down from the truth.
I, also, thought the timing odd, given the thrill of the Marxists with the Pope’s every utterance.
BOOM! We knew this was coming, but, Wow.
Which is very likely exactly what it is. Taking such an action against a priest requires a long, formalized legal examination. Pope-Emeritus Benedict had already defrocked and excommunicated Maryknoll Father Ray Bourgeois for the same set of issues during his tenure as pope. I suspect this incident was just the legal process reaching the needed action point at this point in time.