The Archbishop of Barcelona basically ignored it when this priest’s paying for abortions was revealed by the press a few years ago. Of course, this made all of these “wimmin’s” and homosexual organizations feel even more powerful, and when the Pope went to Barcelona to consecrate the Sagrada Familia, there were some truly shocking and shameful demonstrations by these groups, who had surrounded the building. The fallout over this was supposedly so severe that Sistach (often referred to as Nostach by Spanish writers who justifiably don’t like him and his failure to perform his duties) obviously had to take action when this book came out.
Better late than never, I suppose, and maybe he’ll try to do better in the future. But it’s very sad, because Catalonia has the lowest rate of church attendance in Spain, few to no vocations (depending on the diocese), and is sunk in the rankest Catalan separatist nationalism. Sistach has been fully behind the latter, even though the left-wing politicization of the Church in Catalonia is probably the source of all its other problems. He’s got a lot of work ahead of him if he wants to make it into the “good bishops” column.
I really think that BXVI looks like everybody's favorite Opa . . . but I would not want to get chewed out by him. I think he could be pretty severe. "Beware the wrath of a patient man."