Catholics are fed up?

And wouldn't object to a federal investigation?

Who is Austin Ruse to make a claim like that?  What Catholics are saying that?  What do these people believe?  Are they really Catholic?  Or do they worship Trump and the U.S. Government?

It’s possible the president does not know what the Vatican is really doing to handle the crisis. Someone should tell Trump that Pope Francis and his men have been content to remain silent and allow media cutouts to slander the accuser, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who released his j’accuse two weeks ago.

President Trump should understand that Catholics are fed up and would not object to federal intervention into this crisis. Consider that high-ranking officials of a foreign government have covered up the criminal sexual assault of American men and boys. This is how this crisis should be viewed by the U.S. government. 

The U.S. government should request that the Vatican release all documents related to McCarrick’s sexual assaults. There are files in the Vatican embassy in Washington DC and in various offices in Rome. Again, the President should act as if that criminal behavior against Americans was covered up by officials of a foreign government. - Ruse

Bringing it on themselves.

These people believe Government can fix everything, that Trump can make the Church great again.  They are willing to surrender their religious freedom to the Government.  They don't know what they are asking, they don't know of what spirit they are.

Mr. Ruse and his fellow ideologues have lost any shred of credibility they maybe once had.  This proposal is sheer demagoguery.  You cannot serve God and mammon.  History demonstrates the lunacy of government intervention in the Church.  Be careful what you wish for and the precedent you are willing to sell Peter for.

NB: To be sure, criminal acts should be prosecuted, and victims should be free to alert the police when crimes are committed, as in the case of sexual abuse of minors and rape.  Mistakes were made when victims appealed to chanceries and bishops in the past.  However, sexual misconduct with adults, as in McCarrick's case is probably not a criminal offense.  It's sexual harassment most likely, but if victims did not report, or were ignored, and a culture of abuse ensued, I'm not sure it is a criminal offense in the same way as abuse of minors. I'm not a lawyer.

It should be noted that as in the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report, several priests who were listed for 'credible charges of abuse' were either found innocent or their cases dismissed - nevertheless, their names remain on the list of priests with credible allegations.  This is how it works in every diocese.  It's one thing to have a DA or Grand Jury to review records, it's quite another to call on the Trump Administration to intervene.

"When we try to use the federal government to intercede in religious affairs, it inherently weakens the unique character of Christ's kingdom." - Jimmy Carter

Mexico

Spain

Fun painting.

I'm working on Nativity backgrounds for a priest friend of mine.  The photo shown here is part of a series I did for a creche a few years ago.  They are fun to paint because it's all imaginative - just a landscape with romantic scenes.  I looked up my old photos to see how they compare, so far my new stuff is darker.  This kind of thing is fun to do.

As politicized white folks screaming at each other doesn't meet any credible standard of "news" - Whispers

What's that supposed to mean?

Just kidding, kinda.  A friend sent me the Rocco quote this morning.  I love how people use 'white folks' to insinuate some sort of racist motive - or not.  Last week Cupich suggested the enemies of the Pope didn't like him because he's Latino - I thought that was stupid too.  Especially considering Francis is Italian, born in Argentina.  Anyway, he was deflecting as usual.

Talk about politicized.

Mass hysterics ... Now Catholics want the Government to step in?

Blognic in an egg.

(I depicted Thomas Peters in the papal tiara.)

Catholic Vote Thomas Peters is sounding more and more like Michael Voris.

Church Militant says Catholic Trump supporters would like the trump administration to step in an resolve clergy sex abuse scandal and make the American Church great again.

Politically conservative, angry Catholic Trump supporters want the federal government to take action and end the scourge of sex abuse and cover-up by Catholic clergy and leaders, and these are the voters among Catholics that Trump needs to pay attention to - regular Mass attending Catholics. - CM

Peters has lost it as well, writing:

I have come to the difficult conclusion, along with Hugh Hewitt and others, that a government-led investigation into the Catholic hierarchy is probably the only means at our disposal to be an example for the universal church for how to uproot this network of corruption inside our church and yes, to get priests and bishops to begin speaking out and turning each other in, following the trail back to the loggia of Rome. 49 more state attorney generals and the Attorney General using every means at their disposal to discover which bishops and cardinals have endangered children by moving predator priests, have orchestrated cover ups to protect abusive priests and bishops and cardinals and have individually and collectively preyed upon young men and seminarians. Open up the files. Follow the paper trail. Deposition. Subpoena. Jail. - CatholicVote

You Mr. Peter's think like American lobbyists and political pundits.  Talk about partisanship and tribalism - who knew uber-Catholics would be the ones to bring on the persecution?  They literally have more faith in the secular government and Trump than in Christ and the Church.  Be careful what you wish for Poodles.

"Christ wins in the end." - Pope Benedict

Be careful what you wish for.

Protests too much ...

What?

Me thinks.

These days, just be careful who is outing who, Poodles.

That's all.

“Express how you feel and then be quiet. Because the truth is humble, the truth is silent, the truth isn't noisy." - P. Francis

When the lies and hypocrisies are exposed, the lusts and indecency out in the open ... 

Amid the shouting, Jesus walked in peace through the midst of them.

I think this is what is happening - the shouting and accusations and stories circulating within ourselves, keep us from recollection and prayer.  The fighting - the competition between politics and religion and our social calendars and agenda; the betrayal of trust, the hypocrisy, the in-fighting, the name calling, vanity and greed, placing our trust in all that is not God, the lying ...  

So they picked up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid and went out of the temple area. - John 8:59

We encounter Christ rejected, in the sin that wears a thousand faces.

How could we possibly have the heart to mock these people or to hate them, this multitude of sinners with whom we rub shoulders?

The solitude of God in fraternal charity; it is Christ serving Christ, Christ in the one who is serving and Christ in the one being served. - Madeleine Delbrel

He walked in peace through the midst of them. 

The world revolves, the cross remains the same.  It's not just a pious platitude.  Misguided churchmen think the papacy will become irrelevant, that the Church will collapse, and everyone feels an urgent need to call out warnings, making calls for battle, and so on, yet Christ remains with the Church.  He remains with us, in his silent loving action in the Eucharist.  The same yesterday, today and tomorrow. 

I need to try and make reparation.

There is a time for everything,

a time to be silent,

 and a time to speak. - Eccl 3:7

Nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor ...

Eternal Father, 

we offer You the Adorable Face of Your well-beloved Son,

 for the Honor and Glory of Your Holy Name, 

and for the salvation of all men. Amen.

The Readings for Today.

I've gone too far online, I've sat among the scorners and offered reproaches against my neighbor, slandered and/or spread scandalous theories and speculation regarding the moral life of those I don't know.  Once again, I've engaged in spreading gossip regarding the scandals in the Church.  This isn't what religion is all about - this isn't religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father.  This behavior has nothing to do with true devotion and reparation.

This morning I understood how the Holy Face of Jesus is the perfect reflection of what the Church suffers, and how all of the reproaches, scorn and contempt filling the Internet have fallen upon the Holy Face of Jesus - in his sacred passion of course, but also once again in the current crisis the Church is going through.  I am guilty. I need to try and make reparation.  

Many of us have aligned ourselves with factions which are more political in nature - identifying as liberal or conservative and so on.  The Church has to be above that.  I think that would be the message of Christ's silence before Pilate, and likewise, his silent loving gaze in the Veil of Veronica, and in the Eucharist.  He remains silent.  I may be wrong, but it seems to this is a mystery we cannot lightly attribute to anyone save Christ and the Church.  

I look at the Holy Face, covered with blood, sweat, spittle, bruising from slaps, covered once again in the barrage of daily scorn and contempt, and shouts, repeating in our own mendacious manner: "Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?" And they spoke many other words against him, reviling him."  We keep doing it.

I have to try to make reparation.

Happy indeed is the man
who follows not the counsel of the wicked,
nor lingers in the way of sinners
nor sits in the company of scorners,
but whose delight is the law of the Lord
and who ponders his law day and night.

He is like a tree that is planted
beside the flowing waters,
that yields its fruit in due season
and whose leaves shall never fade;
and all that he does shall prosper.
Not so are the wicked, not so!

For they like winnowed chaff
shall be driven away by the wind.
When the wicked are judged they shall not stand,
nor find room among those who are just;
for the Lord guards the way of the just
but the way of the wicked leads to doom.

Catholics need to 'Man Up' I guess.

A beard is a beard is a beard.

Buck up their swords and polish their shields.*

I didn't realize Fr. Longenecker does Catholic Man conferences.  In his latest article he has some decent advice - and not just for men I guess.  I know, it's just his handle, like his pop-Catholic advice.  One dumb idea after another - he blamed Brother Sun, Sister Moon for effete seminarians and priests last week.  I'm glad I'm not the only crackpot online.  Anyway, his latest is just so, so - though somewhat dismissive - I suppose it fits the Catholic man-talk strategy.

I say respond, react to the scandals any way you like - just let the hierarchy know you want straight answers and that you want to see reform.  In the meantime amuse yourselves, talk among yourselves, and enjoy the drama.

It's a great time to be Catholic, so long as one is content with a sufficiency and not worried about cashing in.

*Wait - I think I read that book.

I have a lot on my mind today ...

Minnesota State Fair Advice ...

The Viganò Manuscript

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano

What if Vigano's 'letter' was just a script for another Dan Brown novel?

I bet that's it.  Maybe a rewrite of one of Malachi Martin's books?  A reality TV show plot?  Many people are bringing up Malachi Martin, suggesting he was some sort of prophet.  Seriously, Vigano's letter fits in with all the prophecies and conspiracy theories and Goth-fiction stories from 1P5 and The Remnant over the years.  Even Fr. Z is scared. 

Anyway, I'm in a much better mood today.  I'm grateful for living in interesting times.

Maybe this was a sign after all?

This too?

Another omen?

Vigano lost me here ...

Babbo ... sweet Christ on earth.

It is a complete absurdity to give credence to a statement such as the following:

June of 2013, only a few months after Francis’s election — one notes that Viganò never says he explicitly mentioned any specific allegation against McCarrick. He also does a good deal of reading between the lines, and attributes motive:

I began the conversation, asking the Pope what he intended to say to me with the words he had addressed to me when I greeted him the previous Friday. And the Pope, in a very different, friendly, almost affectionate tone, said to me: “Yes, the Bishops in the United States must not be ideologized, they must not be right-wing like the Archbishop of Philadelphia, (the Pope did not give me the name of the Archbishop) they must be shepherds; and they must not be left-wing — and he added, raising both arms — and when I say left-wing I mean homosexual.” Of course, the logic of the correlation between being left-wing and being homosexual escaped me, but I added nothing else. - CWR

Okay then.  I'm fine now.

A man's enemies will be those of his own household. - Matt 10:36

Remember the saints who lived through anti-papist and schismatic times.  Some of them made mistakes about which pope was true, others, Like Catherine of Siena kept her eyes upon the true Pope, because she prayed and lived in intimate union with Christ, she stood by the Pope, united to the Church.  The Pope is Christ's vicar and as Our Lady pointed out, just like her Son, he will have much to suffer.  I seriously never expected the Pope would suffer this, not in modern times.  Talk about the Devil's final battle!  So we must pray and remain faithful to the Church, come what may.

This may be what the ugly side of clericalism looks like when threatened with reform.  I may be wrong, but I stand with our 'sweet Christ on earth'.

The following helps me to know my place when it comes to the current crisis of bishops:

"Only the Pope could correct the defects of the priests," (in Catherine's day), and not the laity who should always revere them, since Christ left to the Apostle Peter and his successors the key of His Blood, from which all the Sacraments gain life.  (Of course the author is speaking in the historical context - I used it here to point out that it remains true that only the pope can discipline bishops.)  "The Pope, with ardent faith recognised by Catherine as "sweet Christ on earth" and called with tender affection "My kindest daddy" is asked to work strongly for the reform of the Church. "Intervene to eliminate the stink of the ministers of the Holy Church; pull out the stinking flowers and plant scented plants, virtuous men who fear God". - S. Caterina and Priests.

I have never been so sad, or felt more betrayed.

Ex-Nuncio Accuses Pope Francis of Failing to Act on McCarrick’s Abuse. 

The Holy Father venerated the relics of Matt Talbot today.

Pope Francis stops to pray before the relics of the Irish dock worker who overcame his alcohol addiction.

An alcoholic who, thanks to a vote, managed to overcome his addiction. Matt Talbot, a Dublin worker who died in the 1920s, receives the homage of Pope Francis who stops to venerate his relics in Our Lady’s Church in Lourdes, Dublin. Talbot was a drunkard during his youth: he worked on the harbor docks, he slurred and spent all his money on wine and beer, so that none of his friends or companions wanted to offer him more to drink.  Story here.

Venerable Matt Talbot pray for us and for those most in need of grace and mercy.

Pope Francis kissing a cross that belonged to Venerable Matt Talbot.
(Saturday 25th August 2018, 3:25 pm)

An artist I like.

Stefano Di Stasio is an Italian visual artist who was born in 1948 in Naples, Italy.
He lives and works in Rome and Spoleto.
Di Stasio participated in the Quadriennale di Roma in 1986, 1992 and 2000.

He participated in the Biennale di Venezia, with his personal space, in 1984 and 1995.

Per più informazioni leggi qui: https://www.tuttartpitturasculturapoesiamusica.com/2017/08/Stefano-Di-Stasio.html
© Tutt'Art@ | Pittura * Scultura * Poesia * Musica |

Can't stop it now ...

le déluge!

So much will be unraveling now ...

Don't be surprised.

Pray for the Holy Father and the bishops in communion with him.  I think this is part of the prayer and penance Our Lord requires right now.

The call to prayer and penance from the Holy Father is very serious and urgent.  We need great charity to respond.  Ask for it.

St. Bernard

If only those who are incapable of remaining continent would fear to profess perfection rashly and to assume the title of celibacy...it would without doubt have been better to marry than to burn (1 Cor 7:9), to be saved in the humble ranks of the faithful than to live less worthily in the lofty ranks of the clergy and be more severely judged...They abstain from from the remedy afforded by marriage and give themselves up to all forms of vice.  (On Conversion, a Sermon to Clerics, trans. Bernard Saïd, OSB)

Cry of the faithful.

Powerful stuff.

Fr. John Harvey wrote a great book, The Truth About Homosexuality, The Cry of the Faithful - the title comes to mind frequently as the McCarrick scandal unfolds - which is why I titled this post Cry of the faithful ...  The laity and select priests are all speaking out concerning the truth of homosexuality.  Many pundits online are stopping their ears and protesting that people are doing that, accusing those who do so as homophobic, and/or engaging in a witch hunt, and so on.  Most of us are only speaking out on the topic simply to help explain how and why a conspiracy of silence and complicity existed as long as it has among the bishops and select clergy.

Fr. Z has a very courageous post discussing why clergy, specifically priests, have often been blocked from reporting sexual abuse by fellow priests, and or sexual improprieties engaged in by homosexual clerics.  (This would also apply to heterosexual misconduct of course, but as I've tried to point out in my own posts, there is a different dynamic within homosexual culture.)

That said, Fr. Z offers just one tidbit I left out in my posts, especially as concerns secrecy in the Church and it is the dilemma of the seal of confession.  I thought of it while writing about secrecy in the Church earlier.  I recalled the time a confessor shared something about a religious brother in his community who engaged in sexual sins, saying he made frequent confessions, and probably would keep repeating the same sins until he died.  I don't allow myself to discuss any more details of that encounter, which happened decades ago, but I wasn't consoled - believe me.  Long story short, he would never have been able to say anything outside the confessional if the brother ever was arrested for indecency, nor would he ever be able to inform his superiors that he had some issues - since he was bound by the seal of the confessional. 

Fr. Z points out that sometimes malefactors deliberately use the confessional to buy silence and pretty much ensure protection. 

Also, as a priest, there are the truly sacrilegious ways that some of these agents of Hell will work to shut up priests who don’t and won’t putt from the ruff. They use the Seal of the confessional against the solid non-queer priest confessor. They go to confession to a good confessor to bind him by the Seal. Of course that is pretty underhanded, satanic even. It is a horrible sacrilege. A lot of good priests know that if they hear something in the confessional they must never ever talk about it. They don’t know what to do, and, in prudence, they clam up about their brethren. This is one reason why the Church’s law discourages a superior of hearing the confessions of those under his authority. - Fr. Z

So yeah, like I keep saying, it is a homosexual problem - but it is even more so a problem of corruption which festers and spreads easily in a homosexual culture of secrecy and deviancy.  Few are willing to admit that.

Fr. Z said it was the hardest post he has ever written.  It's more than helpful for many of us, I think.  It helps explain what he had to endure throughout seminary, and it also demonstrates how difficult this scandal is for good priests and good bishops to endure.  Fr. Z will remain in my prayers.  God bless him.

Sheep without a shepherd.

They keep smiling and laughing.

You know God has to act.

When it has gotten this bad.  He has to act - especially when faithful Catholics are dismissed as homophobes and blamed for getting the bishops they deserve.  Blaming the oppressed for the sins of the fathers.  These really and truly are sins that cry to heaven for vengeance.

Watch and pray.

Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Anselmo Lopez

St. Maximilian Kolbe

"St. Maximilian Kolbe, Martyr of Charity", Neilson Carlin

As a child, Maximilian had a vision of Our Lady, who offered him two crowns, one for chastity, the other for martyrdom.  He explained:

"... the Blessed Mother appeared to me holding in her hands two crowns: one white the other red. She looked at me with tenderness and asked me if I wanted these two crowns. The white one signified that I would preserve my purity and the red that I would be a martyr."
[...]
In 1973 Paul VI beatified him and in 1982 John Paul II canonized him as a Martyr of Charity. - Source

St. Maximilian offered his life in exchange for a prisoner who was to be executed.  he died by lethal injection, after many days of starvation.  Kolbe's death was truly a heroic act of the most perfect charity by which he won his martyr's crown.  Since his canonization, the Saint's intercession is often sought for people addicted to drugs because of the manner in which he died.  However, I see his death foreshadowing the growing practice of euthanasia we hear about in our times: withholding nutrition and hydration, as well as lethal injection.  That is exactly how Kolbe was put to death - although much more cruelly, no clinical pretensions to comfort.  On account of this, Kolbe must be considered a major patron of the pro-life movement, especially for the abolition of the death penalty and to stop the trend towards euthanasia.  

The Benedict Option of Ampleforth and Downside Abbeys ...

One monk, Fr Piers Grant-Ferris was convicted of 20 counts 

of indecent assault against 15 boys 

from Ampleforth’s junior school, in 2005.  

Source

"Appalling"

Two leading Roman Catholic schools "prioritised monks and their own reputations over the protection of children", a report says. 

"Appalling" abuse was inflicted on pupils at Ampleforth in North Yorkshire and Downside in Somerset over 40 years, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) said. - BBC

"Isaac from the Thebaid said to his brothers, 'Do not bring boys here. Boys are the reason why four monasteries in Scetis were deserted.'"

Thinking with St. Francis of Assisi

I think I will observe the Lent of St Michael again this year.

Information for the Lent of St. Michael here.

For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.

‘The Church is opposed, and the priests are despised because of the bad ones who give scandal. Help Me, by suffering, to repair for so many offenses, and thus save AT LEAST IN PART, humanity precipitated in a slough of corruption and death’. - Our Lord to Blessed Elena Aiello (1954)

Infinitely sad ...

Imagine how many souls are led astray ...

Sometimes I get really, really scared. 

Gotta give it up ...

This is good - from Bishop Barron.

I have to let my participation in any discussion fade away.  I hurt too many feelings with my commentary.  I'm so sorry.

The McCarrick Mess | Word on Fire

So what should be done? The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has no juridical or canonical authority to discipline bishops. And even if it tried to launch an investigation, it has, at the moment, very little credibility. Only the Pope has juridical and disciplinary powers in regard to bishops. Hence, I would suggest (as a lowly back-bencher auxiliary) that the bishops of the United States—all of us—petition the Holy Father to form a team, made up mostly of faithful lay Catholics skilled in forensic investigation, and to empower them to have access to all of the relevant documentation and financial records. Their task should be to determine how Archbishop McCarrick managed, despite his widespread reputation for iniquity, to rise through the ranks of the hierarchy and to continue, in his retirement years, to function as a roving ambassador for the Church and to have a disproportionate influence on the appointment of bishops. They should ask the ecclesial version of Sen. Howard Baker’s famous questions: “What did the responsible parties know and when did they know it?” Only after these matters are settled will we know what the next steps ought to be. - Read more here

Will our sons be safe in seminary? Who wants to know?

1994 film "Priest"

Will our children be safe in the Church, and will our sons be safe in seminary?

In 1994 there was a film Catholics called out as blasphemous and anti-Catholic. I saw it and thought it played true, the only negative for me initially is that it seemed to be a film arguing against clerical celibacy. There was more to the film than that however, which seems now almost prophetic.

The opening scene, if I remember correctly, featured a parish priest going across town with a huge crucifix that he smashed through the bishop's mansion window. It played out featuring a pastor with a 'wife' and a young curate attracted to men who acts out when the going gets tough ... just like real life folks.

So we gotta get a grip and stop and think - the film many resisted turned out to be pretty true to life. In fact, we were all told about what was going on way before the news stories broke. I was told too. Now every one of us seems to be reacting in anger as the priest in the opening credits did, when he attacked the corrupt bishop. Sometimes, as the film suggests, there is reason for that.

Remnant 

Watch out for the fanatics.

What's happening, right now, today, is online pundits and critics are talking about 'decimating' the bishops in a way that sounds more like the posse marching over to burn down Dr. Frankenstein's lab and kill the monster than thinking adults discussing what to do. Granted, bishops like Wuerl are suggesting some pretty dumb fixes, but so are people like those who call for an 'inquisition' - I'm not sure we know of what spirit we are when we suggest that type of thing.

Something needs to be done, that is for sure, but I think the crazy talk doesn't do much. I really think people need to listen to moms and dads this time. Real Catholic parents - faithful Catholic parents, like Katrina R Fernandez for one. The very worst thing about bishops and priests is they usually dismiss the women - like Christ's disciples did in the Gospel, they usually say, 'get rid of her'!  Like the corrupt judge in the Gospel, they won't even give them a hearing ...

What Cardinal McCarrick's abuse represents is an attack upon the family. He slithered into the trust of parents and corrupted their kids - the swimsuit photo makes that perfectly clear.

Start listening to parents, to moms and dads, now.

Recruiting vocations.

The wind was against them ...

For I am the LORD, your God,

who grasp your right hand;

It is I who say to you, Do not fear,

I will help you.

We have the choice of two Gospels today.  Both uniquely sufficient for the day - and the evil thereof.

The wind was against them, and they were terrified.  Anxious.  Attempting to cross over the lake amid a tempest, all by themselves.  Jesus demonstrates we can't do it alone - we need to remain where we are, with the companionship he permits, and he pulls us to himself, not letting one of his little ones to be lost... scolding us gently, calming the tempest, his face so close to ours, we can feel his breath - his lips speaking against ours.  "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"

"Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.  So let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind ..."

I have grasped you by the hand in the depths of your misery, I know how to heal you, I know you, I have come to save sinners, I grasp you.  No one who comes to me will I ever reject.

If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.

Song for this post here.

Charlotte Rae

1926 - 2018

She played Sylvia in Car 54 Where Are You?

She was my favorite character.

RIP

The Feast of the Transfiguration of Hiroshima

It was the strangest thing ...

This morning at prayer, I began lectio with Exodus 24 - when the Glory of the Lord covered Sinai and God called Moses ... the Lord was seen as a consuming fire ...

My first thought was 'this is so amazing that this reading is used to commemorate Hiroshima.  I knew it was the feast of the Transfiguration, but I remembered  it is also the anniversary of Hiroshima, and in my mind ...  My 'confusion' was disconcerting for a moment - at my age that's a genuine concern.  However, I've long wondered about the mystery of light which occurred on Mt. Tabor, foreshadowed in Moses' encounter on Mt. Sinai, and the 'mystery of iniquity' which detonated over Hiroshima on this date.

The mystery of iniquity.

That was the word I woke up to this morning - and it influenced my meditation - hence my idea that Hiroshima was a sort of 'epiphany' of the mystery of iniquity... fortunately, my personal meditations are not to be trusted. 

Today is the anniversary of the death of Bl. Paul VI as well.  Now he was a prophet... 'somehow, through some fissure, the smoke of Satan has entered the Church ...'

I wonder what could mean?

Mass Chat

Never mind.

Raw sewage

Austin Ruse titles it The Fetid Sea in Which They Swim.

Ruse documents and brings to light what he calls the gaying of the Church which the McCarrick scandal has now made more 'believable' if you will.  I say it that way since powerful voices, like McCarrick and Fr. Martin have always dismissed as homophobia any report that the sexual abuse scandals were homosexual in nature.  I myself have been strongly criticized whenever I wrote about the inappropriate lgbtq outreach conducted by some parishes, including participation in gay pride events, and so on.

Now we are forced to look at the raw sewage that has risen to the top of an already polluted sea of immorality and corruption - something Laudato si never touched upon.

Cardinal McCarrick’s crimes are at least something of a gift since no one can claim this was merely pedophilia. It was homosexual predation like practically all the others.

If you wonder how a Prince of the Church spent decades sexually assaulting boys and young men not only with impunity but with high honors and acclaim, look no further than this gaying of the Church. An authority on that is one Joseph Sciambra who has painstakingly chronicled this fetid sea in which the likes of Cardinal McCarrick swim.

When he was just beginning his gay life many years ago, Sciambra went to Catholic priests who did not try to dissuade him but rather confirmed him in his disordered desires. This helped to set Sciambra on years of sexual degradation. Nothing has changed since those days. In fact, according to Sciambra, they have gotten worse. There are now priests openly promoting the gay lifestyle, usually under the guise of gay-friendly outreach at the parish level. - Crisis

I'm not a Crisis subscriber, but Austin Ruse's article lays it out quite bluntly.  It's literally sickening to read, and I am amazed at how Church leaders have deceived and manipulated Catholics over the decades.  It doesn't shake my faith - because my faith is in Christ, but it makes me sad to have lost respect for that segment of clergy who have taken advantage of ordinary Catholics.


Everyone must admit that the real problem of clergy sexual abuse ...


Fr. Regis Scanlon makes a great contribution to the discussion in his article, Clergy Abuse: We finally know the  problem ...

...[N]ow that everyone must admit that the real problem of clergy sexual abuse is homosexuality and has witnessed the impotency of the Church’s past regulation concerning homosexuals entering seminaries and religious life, the Church must up date the past regulations regarding these matters.

According to the Congregation for Catholic Education’s Nov. 2005 Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders it necessary to state clearly that the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called “gay culture.”

This directive is good but it does not go far enough. Ruling out “deep seated homosexual tendencies” is not sufficient to protect our young men from clergy sexual abuse. The past epidemic of clergy homosexual predation on the young is evidence of this. 

A person’s sexuality lies at the center of their identity and is, therefore, always “deeply” related to the person. So, in reality, there is really no such thing as a “shallow seated homosexual tendency” or a so-called slight homosexual tendency or one not so “deeply seated.” Every homosexual tendency is “deeply seated’ and a danger to the young. Even though a priest may think that he has overcome not so “deeply seated homosexual past tendencies, “these tendencies can be fanned into flames in an instant when a priest and young man are together in a private and secluded place, like a confessional, discussing the young man’s problems with masturbation or some other sexual difficulty. 

Is it really necessary to put these young men at risk just to satisfy the politically correct notion that we must consider homosexuals for the priesthood for the sake of justice? - Fr. Scanlon

It seems to me the reason these instruction have never been followed is because many of the clergy/hierarchy are homosexual or have friends and colleagues who are, while religious houses and oratories have been established as 'safe havens' for them - in some cases to ostensibly 'minister' to the fallen and 'rehabilitate them'.  One can't deny Christ may be present and inspired these apostolates, but there is a tendency to 'cover' for those who abused their position of 'power' and/or lived double lives.  The subject is too complicated to get into here.

Is it really necessary to put the faithful at risk by making these men bishops and cardinals?

Finally, I want to mention Magister's article, McCarrick and His Proteges.

It's truly creepy to think a Cardinal came through the Legion under Maciel and then became a close protege of McCarrick and climbed the ladder to Cardinal, and he never knew anything about their homosexual proclivities much less their sexual antics?

After leaving the Legion, Farrell was incardinated as a priest of the archdiocese of Washington. And at the end of 2001 he became auxiliary bishop there, when McCarrick had been archbishop for a year.

McCarrick’s promotion as archbishop of the capital of the United States - at the summit of an ascent that had seen him become auxiliary of New York, then bishop of Metuchen, and then archbishop of Newark - had already prompted serious objections back then, motivated precisely by what had already leaked out about his insatiable sexual practices. The objections made it all the way to Rome. But the appointment moved forward all the same, and the following year McCarrick was also made a cardinal.

But the appointment of the Irishman Farrell as his auxiliary caused astonishment too. His previous militancy among the Legionaries of Christ was certainly not set down in his favor, seeing what was starting to leak out about the double life of its founder, Maciel, and about the complicity or the culpable silence of many around him. But by this time McCarrick was a force to be reckoned with, in the upper echelon of the American hierarchy and not only there. He wanted Farrell there with him and he got him, ordaining him bishop personally. And he also wanted him to live in the same apartment with him in Washington, not in the bishop’s residence but on the fourth floor of a former orphanage, conveniently renovated. Once again, it appears implausible that Farrell knew nothing about the ongoing casual sexual adventures of his patron. - Sandro Magister

For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

It smells and looks raw sewage to me - polluting the waters which should be flowing out of the Church to refresh and give life to every sort of living creature?  Laudato si almost seems a very bad irony in contrast.

The oceans are the common heritage of the human family. Only with a deep sense of humility, wonder and gratitude can we rightly speak of the ocean as “ours”. To care for this common inheritance necessarily involves rejecting cynical or indifferent ways of acting. We cannot pretend to ignore the problems of ocean pollution resulting, for example, from plastic and micro-plastics that enter the food chain and cause grave consequences for the health of marine and human life. Nor can we remain indifferent before the loss of coral reefs, essential places for the survival of marine biodiversity and the health of the oceans, as we witness a marvellous marine world being transformed into an underwater cemetery, bereft of colour and life (cf. Laudato Si’, 41).

Blood and water flowing from the side of Christ

I trust in you.

Song for this post here.

The Feast of Our Lady of the Angels of the Porziuncola

Preaching on the Sacred Pardon.

"St. Francis loved this place above all others; this place he commanded his brothers to venerate with a special reverence; this place he willed to be preserved as a model of humility and highest poverty for their order, reserving the ownership of it to others, and keeping only the use of it for himself and his brothers."

In thanksgiving for the intercession and patronage 

of St. Francis and the Sacred Pardon of Assisi.

Prayer of St. Francis to Our Lady

Hail, O Lady, Holy Queen,
Mary, holy Mother of God:
you are the Virgin made Church
chosen by the most Holy Father in heaven
whom He consecrated with His most holy beloved Son
and with the Holy Spirit the Paraclete,
in whom there was and is all fullness of grace and every good.

Hail His Palace!
Hail His Tabernacle!
Hail His Dwelling!
Hail His Robe!
Hail His Servant!
Hail His Mother!

And hail all you holy virtues
Which are poured into the hearts of the faithful
through the grace and enlightenment of the Holy Spirit,
that from being unbelievers,
you may make them faithful to God. Amen.

Ralph Martin's Letter to Troubled Catholics

Ralph Martin gets it.

I remember Ralph Martin from a prophecy he received in 1975 regarding the coming purification of the Church, given at St. Peter's the Monday after Pentecost:

“Because I love you, I want to show you what I am doing in the world today. I want to prepare you for what is to come. Days of darkness are coming on the world, days of tribulation....Buildings that are now standing will not be standing. Supports that are there for my people now will not be there. I want you to be prepared, my people, to know only me and to cleave to me and to have me in a way deeper than ever before. I will lead you into the desert...I will strip you of everything that you are depending on now, so you depend just on me. - Read more here.

Ralph Martin's prophecy fits hand in glove with the prophetic view of the Church made by Ratzinger as a young priest, long before he was a cardinal or pope:

“The church will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning.

She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes…she will lose many of her social privileges…. As a small society, [the Church] will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members…." - Ratzinger

Unfortunately, the rot is wide and deep...

I came across Ralph Martin's recent letter on FB this morning.  He looks the problem straight in the eye.

The Archbishop McCarrick case may prove to be the "straw that broke the camel's back." It may make the bureaucratic, carefully worded, evasive statements that have come from our leaders finally address sin and repentance, instead of the mere policies and processes they typically focus on. Could it be-finally-that the revelation of the long-term sexual harassment of seminarians and priests that never stopped Archbishop McCarrick's rise in the hierarchy will be so totally repugnant that real repentance may actually start to happen? I have never prayed more for the pope and our leaders than I have in the last several years, and we all must continue to do so. More about that later.

Unfortunately, the Archbishop McCarrick case is certainly only the "tip of the iceberg." The cumulative effect of revelation after revelation of immorality in high places is devastating. First, a number of years ago, a cardinal from Austria was forced to resign over homosexual activity; then, more recently, a cardinal from Scotland resigned over sexual harassment of seminarians and priests; and then the archbishop of Guam underwent a canonical trial in Rome over the sexual abuse of minors; and now cardinals in Chile (one of whom is on the pope's Council of Cardinals that oversees reform) are under heavy suspicion for covering up homosexual abuse in their country. In fact, the whole bishops' conference of Chile, acknowledging complicity in not taking seriously reports of a bishop's cover up of sexual abuse, recently gave their resignations to the pope, and he has so far accepted several of them. The pope himself at first stubbornly backed the appointment of this bishop and dismissed the victims' pleas as "calumny" and "gossip." And before we could absorb this news, there was news of an archbishop in Australia getting a prison sentence for covering up abuse on the part of a priest. And just today, as I am writing this, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ordered the release of a grand jury report implicating more than 300 "predator priests" in six of the eight Pennsylvania dioceses involved in the sexual abuse of minors over many years.

Unfortunately, the rot is wide and deep and years of covering up abuse (and the concomitant reluctance to really preach the Gospel and call people to faith and repentance) and its ultimate exposure have injured the faith of millions. How shocking and tragic was it to see tens of thousands of Irish people in the streets of Dublin wildly celebrating that they could now legally kill babies!!!! Just when the Irish bishops needed to speak most strongly on fundamental moral issues, their credibility was destroyed when it was finally exposed that they had covered up abuse for decades. Satan is indeed like that wild boar Scripture talks about that rampages though the vineyard of the Lord because the hedges of protection have been destroyed (Ps 80:12-13). The corruption, ineptitude, and cowardice runs wide and deep, and its effects on the eternal salvation of millions, and the destiny of nations, is devastating. - Finish reading here.

Cracked-pots.

Ralph Martin points out this is not the first time the Church has faced such a crisis of decadence and corruption, he cites the Dialogue of Catherine of Siena, I would also mention St. Peter Damien's efforts and influence at the beginning of the Second Millennium - c1049 - to cleanse the Church of the epidemic of sodomy among the clergy.  None of these, nor the prayers of those who cry out to heaven for justice were ever accused of self-righteous Pharisaism, condemning the sinner while justifying themselves in the process.  Corruption and decadence is a deadly rot which destroys souls.  It is not limited to progressives and liberals, it infects conservative as well as traditionalists alike.

Of course we need to repent and do penance with the entire Church, no doubt about that.  I recall a traditionalist blogger once expressed suspicion over my writing because I always wrote about penance and our need to do penance - that is still my style.  She thought it odd, even questionable, apparently thinking I was a crack-pot blogger.  Though she was right about that.  But the time of penance is here, more important than ever.  Though priest and prophet forage in a land they know not, we can sit alone and in silence, praying and hoping in the Lord, encouraging one another as we ought to do.

The Church is going through a radical purification under the chastising hand of God.

Ralph Martin includes very good advice in his Letter, advice we can all follow and remain steadfast in the Lord:

We need to go about our daily lives, trying to live each day in a way pleasing to God, loving Him and loving our neighbor, including the neighbor in our own families. We need to look to ourselves, lest we fall.

We need to remember that even though we have this treasure in earthen vessels (or as some translations put it, "cracked pots"), the treasure is no less the treasure. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater! Baby Jesus is the treasure, and He is still as present as ever and still as ready to receive all who come to Him. And the Mass! Every day, He is willing to come to us in such a special way. Let's attend daily Mass even more frequently, to offer the sacrifice of Jesus' death and resurrection to God the Father, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for the salvation of souls and the purification of the Church.

We need to remember that the Catholic Church is indeed founded by Christ and, despite all problems, has within it the fullness of the means of salvation. Where else can we go? Nowhere; this is indeed our Mother and Home, and she needs our love, our prayers, and our persevering in the way of holiness more than ever.

We need to remember that there are many truly holy and dedicated bishops and priests, and we must pray for them and support them. They need and deserve our support. - R. Martin