After the Fall.

McCarrick with young clerics.

Scandal.

Anyone who uses the power at his disposal in such a way that it leads others to do wrong becomes guilty of scandal and responsible for the evil that he has directly or indirectly encouraged. - CCC

I've wasted hours on Facebook posting stupid commentary and emotional soundbites while trying to avoid the reality of former Cardinal McCarrick's fall from grace and final laicization.  Why should it bother me?  What difference does it make to me?  He's so far removed from my way of life.  He's a retired, former prelate and we would never have anything in common.

Except I've been a Catholic all of my life, dependent upon the Church and her ministers.  The sense of betrayal, the temptation to skepticism and cynicism, assails my spirit.  It's a struggle many Catholics may be contending with.

Yesterday at Mass I couldn't even look at the priest.  I could barely stand his homiletic performance - which is what it seemed like.  In an older interview, Cardinal Muller described the sexual abuse by clergy as an anti-clerical act in itself.  I felt the temptation to anti-clericalism.  The only way I could deal with it was to recollect myself as best I could, and not look at anyone.

It is part of the crisis that one does not wish to see the true causes and covers them up with the help of propaganda phrases of the homosexual lobby. Fornication with teenagers and adults is a mortal sin which no power on earth can declare to be morally neutral. That is the work of the devil – against whom Pope Francis often warns – that he declares sin to be good. “Some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error, and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, and having their conscience seared.” (1 Tim 4:1f) It is indeed absurd that, suddenly, ecclesial authorities utilize the Jacobin, Nazi, and Communist anti-Church combat slogans against sacramentally ordained priests. The priests have the authority to proclaim the Gospels and to administer the Sacraments of Grace. If someone abuses his jurisdiction in order to reach selfish goals, he himself is not clerical in an exaggerated form, but, rather, he himself is anti-clerical, because he denies Christ Who wishes to work through him. Sexual abuse by clergymen is then, at most, to be called anti-clerical. But it is obvious – and can only be denied by someone who wishes to be blind – that sins against the Sixth Commandment of the Decalogue stem from disordered inclinations and thus are sins of fornication which exclude one from the Kingdom of God, at least as long as one has not repented and made atonement, and as long as there does not exist the firm resolve to avoid such sin in the future. This whole attempt at obfuscating things is a bad sign of the secularization of the Church. One thinks like the world, but not as God wills it. - Muller, Lifesite Interview Nov. 21, 2018

In the '70's while in Italy I ran into

cinema posters very much like this one,

but for x-rated films about priests, monks and nuns.

I was horrified by it and prayed

in reparation.  Now, today ...

Temptations to sin are sure to come; but woe to him by whom they come!

 It's striking that Muller says: "ecclesial authorities utilize the Jacobin, Nazi, and Communist anti-Church combat slogans against sacramentally ordained priests."  Since I have often thought the chatter online from Catholic sources pretty much emulates the Jacobin-Nazi-Communist anti-clerical propaganda of an earlier age.  It also echoes the Protestant anti clericalism of the early 20th century and before, in colonial times and England.

What has happened today - so it seems - the terrible anti-clerical propaganda has become a reality.  Priests raping nuns, nuns raping novices, priests sleeping with seminarian, molesting altar boys.  All of that used to be anti-Catholic propaganda, and now it is being revealed as true, scandal after scandal coming to light.

I couldn't locate the quote, but elsewhere Cardinal Muller mentioned something to the effect that because of guys like McCarrick instituting policy, this may explain why prohibitions against admitting gay men to seminaries were ignored.  Likewise, he points to the general accpetance of LGBTQ ideology as a worldliness infecting the Church and her ministers.

So.  Be on guard.  Be humble.  Pray for the Pope and especially the conference this week in Rome on sexual abuse.

Pope Francis has asked Catholics to pray for the upcoming anti-abuse summit at the Vatican.

I'm praying. Significantly the conference begins on the feast of S. Peter Damian, the great reformer saint who knew all about these things way back when. The eve of the conference is the feast of St. Jacinta Marto, whose devotion to the Pope was well known, and as a child saint, along with her brother St. Francisco, they are perhaps great intercessors for those who were abused. Then the conference takes place during the monthly novena to the Infant Jesus, which I do in union with the Carmelites, and my intentions are for the conference and the Holy Father. 

Prayer is good, but suffering is better. A saintly Carmelite once said that, so I am offering what little I have - otherwise life makes no sense.

I will also remember what St. John of the Cross taught: "Never take a man for your example - however holy he may be - for the devil will show you his faults."

France Anticlerical caricature at the time of the 

separation of church and state. 1905

Those who want the state to conduct investigations

into Church records, as well as laity

to oversee these matters, ought to 

be careful what they wish for.