In a year that has seen him appear on the cover of Rolling Stone and be named Time's Person of the Year, Pope Francis is widely considered to have rehabilitated the Catholic Church's image since his election in March 2013. But what happens when we look beyond his much-publicised humble lifestyle and his conciliatory remarks around issues such as homosexuality and atheism?
In a column for the Huffington Post, the National Secular Society's executive director Keith Porteous Wood argues that little has changed under Pope Francis, something that is clear when we look at the way in which he has addressed the issue of clerical abuse of children:
It is clear that there has been no perceptible change in the treatment of clerical child abuse since Benedict, particularly since the Holy See refuses, despite all protests, to accept that it is responsible for enforcing the Convention on the Rights of the Child throughout the worldwide Church.
It is no longer credible to hope that the Pope has not been behind, or fully supportive of, the Holy See's strategy at the UNCRC. After decades of electing arch conservative cardinals, the conclave simply wanted business as usual, but with better PR. So, in retrospect, it is no surprise that the papal election was such a short one.
Read more at the Huffington Post.
