Pope Francis leaves after praying at the tomb of St. Nicholas in the crypt of the Pontifical Basilica of St. Nicholas in Bari, southern Italy, on July 7. (Photo by Alberto Pizzoli/AFP)
The late American writer and intellectual, Gore Vidal, often recounted a conversation he had with John F. Kennedy sometime in 1961 during the U.S. president's first year in office.
"Jack," he said in one version of the story, "You're going to have to do something to break up this military-industrial complex. It's got the Pentagon out of control."
"And who will be your candidate for the next election?" JFK responded, pointing out that he'd have to spend the entire four years of his first term doing nothing else but dealing with this one issue and, thus, wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of getting re-elected.
Fortunately, Pope Francis doesn't have to worry about re-election. But with the latest rash of sex abuse scandals in Latin America and an even more pernicious one involving a U.S. cardinal, he now faces a similar choice that confronted President Kennedy.
Will Francis take JFK's approach of kicking the can down the road or will he step up to the challenge to take the bull by the horns?
If the pope decides to get to the root of the clergy sex abuse crisis and the hierarchy's disastrously inadequate response to it, he will have to devote the rest of his pontificate almost exclusively to this gargantuan endeavor.
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