Double Trouble for Pope Francis
I have to admit that, since I’m not a Catholic, I don’t typically pay a lot of attention to the ups and downs of the Catholic Church. When it comes to the sex scandals that have rocked the Church for the past twenty years, I simply recall something a friend once told me: “When you put religion up against sex, sex almost always wins.”
Nonetheless, like many people with liberal tendencies, I saw the election of Pope Francis as a positive sign. Francis seemed primed to bring back a concern for humility and service to the Catholic religion, as well as a more progressive attitude. Unfortunately, now it appears that Francis may himself be dragged down into mud of the sexual abuse scandal, with a former Vatican official accusing the Pope of aiding in the cover up of one of the errant priests.
A friend who describes herself as a “recovering Catholic” recently made me aware of how important this accusation is the Church and the people, in and out, whose lives it has marked. So, I decided to look at Pope Francis’ chart, and what I saw was not comforting. (Click on Pope Francis to see the chart.)
Pope Francis is currently in the midst of two important transits. Saturn, which turns direct next week, will cross in Descendant in December, while Uranus, which crossed his Midheaven in May, is currently moving retrograde and will hit it again in October. Then Uranus will turn direct in Jan. 2019 and cross Francis’ Midheaven for the last time in March.
It is interesting that it was in April, just as Uranus way approaching its first conjunction with the Pope’s Midheaven, that Francis remarked to a gay man that “God made you like this. God loves you like this.” This indicates to me that, despite the outcry over recent changes in the Church’s policy regarding divorced people, it will be this remark that will haunt Francis during the rest of his Uranus transit.
When Uranus conjuncts the Midheaven it typically brings shocking changes involving a person’s career and reputation. It shakes things up and makes possible what might have earlier seemed impossible. The accusations that Francis was involved in the cover-up of a priest’s sexual abuse of a minor has certainly shaken the Church and caused some to demand that Francis resign. It should be noted that the priest in question (a Cardinal, actually) is a homosexual, continuing the theme that began in April.
While the Uranus aspect shakes things up, the passage of Saturn across Francis’ Descendant it going to bring him an important choice or turning point. Francis has thus far not replied to the accusation made against him. He is apparently waiting for this matter to blow over. I think he’s going to be severely disappointed. After Saturn turns direct, I think that the pressure on Francis is going to increase. There may fresh accusations or a surprising turn in events in October, when Uranus makes its second conjunction to his Midheaven. But everything is going to hinge on a decision that the Pope makes in December.
It is no secret that Pope Francis has enemies within the Church. There are many conservatives who seem to believe that the only way to purify the Church is to take it backwards in time, instead of forwards. Francis, a forward-looking Sagittarian represents a threat to their traditionalism. I think what we’re going to see between now and March of next year is a battle between these conservatives and those people within the Church who understand that change is good, or at least inevitable.
