Pope Francis I leads a mass for cardinals at the Vatican's Sistine Chapel on Thursday: photo: EPA (Vatican handout)
“Paedophilia, homosexuality and violations of celibacy... will be an immense challenge for the new pope,” Father Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski declared in an interview with business news source money.pl.
The priest argued that such scandals represent “not just one of the problems, but the main and the greatest issue.
“It will be extremely difficult for him,” Isakowicz-Zaleski reflected.
“Only when he gets to view all the confidential reports will he see how difficult a task lies before him,” the priest said.
“I do not envy him... Francis can be the greatest pastor in the world, but if you are not able to deal with the Curia, then nothing will change,” he said.
Father Isakowicz-Zaleski is regarded as an uncompromising figure within the Polish Church, a factor that has won him both committed supporters and enemies.
One of the so-called “Solidarity priests,” he was twice beaten up by communist security services during the 1980s.
In 2007, he published a book about collaboration between Polish clergyman and the Cold War era secret services, causing a backlash from elements within the Church.
Last year, Isakowicz-Zaleski claimed in a new book that “homosexual circles have always had a strong influence at the Vatican.”
On the situation in Poland, he said that the Church is compromised by “a gay mafia”, and that “the higher up you go, the worse it gets.”
Descended from Armenians who settled in Poland in the 14th century, Isakowicz-Zaleski is ordained as both a Roman and an Armenian Catholic priest, and he is one of the figureheads of the Polish-Armenian community. (nh)