Pope Francis is no longer turning a blind eye to pedophilia accusations against his priests. USA and China seem to have put an end to their trade war and the Republicans need to stop acting guilty.
Pope acknowledges abuse at long last
The abuse of minors by pedophile priests is one of the most open and at the same time one of the most well protected secrets of the Catholic church. Despite widespread furore on the matter, the church has preferred to protect its priests than to take a stand on the issue.
However, it seems like Pope Francis has finally begun to acknowledge the depth of this global crisis, editorialises The New York Times.
“The catalyst was a scandal in Chile, one of Latin America’s most staunchly Catholic countries, where for years the church establishment failed to act on multiple complaints of sexual abuse against an influential priest, Fernando Karadima. On a trip to Chile in January, the pope condemned Father Karadima’s actions but then refused to meet with his victims and dismissed allegations of inaction by bishops as slander.”
After widespread outrage, the Pope appointed investigators who produced a damning report confirming systematic efforts by the Chilean Catholic hierarchy to conceal clerical sexual abuse.
As a result, the Pope was forced to acknowledge and apologise for the “grave errors” in Chile.
But “more important is what he will do to repair the profound damage done to the Catholic Church worldwide by pedophile priests and their enablers. The pope has made a good and welcome start in acknowledging that his bishops did not tell him the truth and in opening his ears and heart to victims who have suffered not only sexual abuse, but also the derision of churchmen they tried to talk to. But it is just a start.”
China-USA trade war truce
China and USA have vowed to initiate measures to substantially reduce the trade deficit between the two nations. The Chinese government has also agreed to increase their exports of consumer products from USA, which will greatly benefit the United States economy.
The two nations have also agreed to increase the export of US agriculture and energy products as well as to create favorable conditions for expanding trade in manufacturing goods and services.
“Trade between the two countries has continued to grow since China launched its reform and opening-up policy, allowing it to become the largest bilateral trader of goods in the world. In recent years, both nations’ service trade markets have shown substantial growth. China’s surplus of trade in goods with the US has gradually expanded due to several factors, making it the world’s largest trade surplus.”
However, while these new measures may seem like USA has managed to come out on top in the bi-lateral trade talks,the focus of the China-US economic and trade consultations was to discuss how China will expand its imports from the US as the large deficit reflects the imbalance between the two nations’ trade systems. The main direction of the consultation is to promote and balance China-US trade. Global Times editorialises.
Republicans need to stop acting guilty
“If Republicans are trying to uncover serious FBI misconduct, they aren’t acting like it. Instead, every move President Trump and his lackeys in Congress have made lately suggests they are constructing, at the expense of the reputation and effectiveness of federal law enforcement, a slanted, a-factual narrative to discredit any negative stories that might emerge from the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III,” The Washington Post editorialises.
What is more, preventing the Democrats from having a seat at the table is not helping their case.
“As it stands, Democrats can fairly point to the closed meeting itself as evidence that congressional investigative powers are being misused to build a self-serving GOP tale about FBI perfidy.”