. . . gathered by “deeply saddened” and wholly supportive Fr. Z.

First, his apologia pro vita sua, explaining why this, why now?

I had always believed and hoped that the hierarchy of the Church could find within itself the spiritual resources and strength to tell the whole truth, to amend and to renew itself.

That is why, even though I had repeatedly been asked to do so, I always avoided making statements to the media, even when it would have been my right to do so, in order to defend myself against the calumnies published about me, even by high-ranking prelates of the Roman Curia.

But now that the corruption has reached the very top of the Church’s hierarchy, my conscience dictates that I reveal those truths….

Second,  how Benedict corralled McCarrick, or tried to:

Pope Benedict had imposed on Cardinal McCarrick sanctions similar to those now imposed on him by Pope Francis: the Cardinal was to leave the seminary where he was living [fox, get out of the chicken coup], he was forbidden to celebrate [Mass] in public, to participate in public meetings, to give lectures, to travel, with the obligation of dedicating himself to a life of prayer and penance.

A through clipping of wings.

Third, the Wuerl effect:

Cardinal Wuerl, well aware of the continuous abuses committed by Cardinal McCarrick and the sanctions imposed on him by Pope Benedict, transgressing the Pope’s order, also allowed him to reside at a seminary in Washington D.C.

In doing so, he put other seminarians at risk.

Having abominably turned a blind eye to the s.o.b., not to mention thwarting Benedict, one of a long line of prelates who neutralized the Pope.

more more more to come . . .

via Archbp. Viganò testifies about corruption and cover up. Pope Francis knew. | Fr. Z’s Blog

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, nuncio (ambassador) to the U.S., 2011-2016, is the whistleblower.

Vigano made the claims in a lengthy statement that concludes with a call for Francis’ resignation: “In this extremely dramatic moment for the universal Church, he must acknowledge his mistakes and, in keeping with the proclaimed principle of zero tolerance, Pope Francis must be the first to set a good example to Cardinals and Bishops who covered up McCarrick’s abuses and resign along with all of them,” he writes.

Admit you are wrong and get out of town. It’s the penance you recommend to the faithful.

via Pope Francis knew of abusive priest, claims former Vatican official in calling for resignation – CBS News

. . . launches the movement’s favorite missile, HOMOPHOBIA.

Aimed this time at Catholic pastors who object to or ignore his program.

Parishes, he said, should strive to listen to LGBT parishioners — “trust that the Holy Spirit will guide them in their formation as Christians and Catholics,” rather than “simply repeating Church teaching without considering their lived experience.”

That’s a key statement for him and his ilk. Go for the Holy Spirit, not for “church teaching.” So much for the church being guided by that very same Holy Spirit through the ages. (Or so we unenlightened have understood for a very long time.)

It’s tantamount to Francis’ recommendations to look into one’s heart for what is right, not  church teaching — a theme for this papacy.

That and the grossly misapplied spiritual tactic, discernment, intended by St. Ignatius as key to the strategy of finding one’s best (moral) choice among possibilities on offer, all of them moral, some better than others, in which the moral man or woman has a choice while remaining within bounds set by the church — by now driven into the ground by Francis as way to justify the impermissible.

Sloppy, opportunistic, mendacious.

Martin is a worthy disciple of Francis, though sometimes it looks the other way around.

via Fr. James Martin Criticizes ‘Homophobic’ Pastors at WMOF

He continues to offer too little, too late.

With recent revelations of institutional cover-ups of sexual abuse in the United States and Chile, many Catholics had hoped that Francis, who has struggled throughout his tenure to grasp the enormity of the scourge, would use the wreckage of the Irish church as a backdrop to announce muscular new measures to protect children in his church.

Instead, on the first day of his two-day visit here for the ninth World Meeting of Families event, he offered a familiar account of his disgust at the sins of priests and bishops, disappointing advocates of abuse survivors who found his remarks too tepid and disconnected from concrete plans to take action.

He’s been talking a good line, in generics, from Day One, but remains sooo cautious in this matter. Why? Has someone got his number among the institutional conspirators that surround him?

If Illinois (that is, Chicago) goes this Pennsylvania-style route, one might say so goes the nation. It’s a town with a sign on it, Church Run It.

via abc7chicago.com

Ouch. Not exactly, with all respect to the busy headline writer.

The letter, after scrolling down:

I much appreciated Georgie Anne Geyer’s defense of the media in Sunday’s Sun-Times. Typically for her, it was a clear and concise statement of that defense.

I was surprised to see her close the column urging people to “start reading, and paying for and appreciating, real news as reported by newspapers — or just lean back and be had.”

This sounded too much as if the market ought to wise up and do the right thing before it’s too late. It’s like General Motors telling car buyers to wake up and smell the coffee and buy their cars.

Newspapers can do nothing about trends that treat them harshly or competition like cable news. All they can do is come up with a product that sells.

Jim Bowman, Andersonville

That is to say, generally speaking, the producer can bemoan the market, as people can bemoan the weather. But doing something about it? Nope. Look to the product, therefore, not the ingrates who don’t appreciate it.

As for making a splash, it’s what daily papers have been doing anyhow, for a long, long time. It’s been their bread and butter. My quarrel with the head is that it made explicit what I left unsaid.

And you know what? It’s the letter that’s to blame, and it’s my fault.

I think.

via Keep bicycles off Chicago’s busiest streets: letters (after scrolling down)

He told lay people it’s on them too.

The letter offered no specific plans, but the pope said all lay members of the church should take part in those efforts. He laid much of the blame for the sex-abuse crisis on excessive deference to the church’s hierarchy. [boldface added]

Is he kidding? Hardly. He really believes if lay people paid less deference to bishops — in what way, we ask — there would have been less covering up? I don’t know how he could.

He spared his own operation, complains Amnesty International’s Colm O’Gorman, an abuse survivor .

“There’s no acknowledgment of responsibility by the Vatican for what’s been perpetrated across the Catholic world. Yes, the pope talks about cover-up, but he doesn’t say who’s responsible for the cover-up. Yes, he talks about accountability, but he doesn’t say who’s going to be held to account and why.”

His own record, before this letter, included the Chilean fiasco in January, when he admitted disowned his behavior while blaming others.

The pope later said he had committed grave mistakes in the matter because he had been misled.

Trying to repair the matter, he called for resignations, then ignored a process he himself had established.

[The] pope has accepted five. But critics, including [abuse survivor Marie] Collins [former member of the pope’s child-protection commission, who resigned last year to protest Vatican inaction], objected that the bishops were allowed to resign rather than go through the process Pope Francis established in 2016 to discipline bishops who cover up sex abuse.

In other words, the more things change . . .

via Pope Expresses Shame Over Pennsylvania Report on Sex Abuse – WSJ

(For the full text of the letter, go here, keeping in mind Antonio on quoting Scripture to one’s purpose. Also consider the dangers and prevalence of  pious pap in what church people say.)

. . . and a familiar complaint:

“Everybody’s always lambasting the Catholic Church,” complained Elizabeth Rhodes, a former Fox News producer, as she had lunch with her daughter near the campus of Catholic University of America on Thursday.

“They don’t look at people in sports, the ones who are training kids in soccer. There are plenty of other religious communities, Jewish and others, where there’s sexual exploitation.

Any religion, any time, it’s a tragedy, but I hate this focus (on Catholics).”

I’m glad for it. How else get some change?

Also, focus on the church is a backhanded compliment, a recognition, intended or not, of what the church considers its role in the world, a beacon not just another socio-political gadfly.

via NOLA.com

A man who has decided to live out his term in this heartland diocese:

It is time to admit that there is a homosexual subculture within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church that is wreaking great devastation in the vineyard of the Lord.

Unless Francis finds a way to get him out of there before he’s 75.

via Vox Cantoris