Vigano And Strickland To McCarrick: Repent Publicly For Your Soul's Sake - And A Theme Song For Cardinal Wuerl

Archbishop Vigano, whose testimony was key in finally obliterating the charade carried out by ex-cardinal McCarrick, has issued an open letter to McCarrick to urge his public repentance.  He was joined by Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, TX.  Some might recall that it was Bishop Strickland who came and joined "The Bishops Knew" rally during the USCCB meeting two months ago.

Meanwhile Cardinal Wuerl is still engaging in sophistry to wiggle out of the mess his lie has caused him.  What a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive!  He asks for "understanding", you see?  Oh, we understand quite well!  We understand that you lied and can not be trusted.   As I read that piece, I couldn't help but be reminded of the song below.  Perhaps he can learn it and sing it as a "theme song" at the youth rally Mass, if he still has the audacity to be there.

Yet Another Reason To Curtail In-Pew Donations In Washington - And Federal Investigations Commence!

As if the $50k-per-month retainer arrangement wasn't enough, we now learn that the Archdiocese of Washington paid CNN to run ads that extol the supposed "accomplishments" of Cardinal Wuerl.  Now what does it really mean when we say "Archdiocese of Washington paid"?  It means, fellow Catholics of the Archdiocese of Washington, that the funds for this image-rehabilitation futility came from our donation dollars. Well, not mine since I made the corrections not to allow my donation dollars to be funneled to diocesan bank accounts.

The hubris and self aggrandizement of Wuerl is an outrage.   Does he really believe that we are so stupid as to fall for that codswallop hook-line-and-sinker?  I regret that some still persist in stubborn denial, but more and more are having the scales fall from their eyes.

Speaking of expenses, one might wonder if Cardinal Wuerl might be dismissing the Jones Day law firm, the one to which the archdiocese was paying a monthly retainer of $50k to cover the Cardinal's, uh.., "hind regions".  I wouldn't bet on that.  Federal investigators are launching their own probes into the allegations broached by the state of Pennsylvania.  Once again, that means that both Wuerl and McCarrick are directly implicated.  If I was one of the investigators, I'd see to it that Wuerl's and McCarrick's passports were immediately revoked.  By the way - in addition to being alarmingly close to schools, McCarrick's penitential hideaway is also close to an airport?  Don't the hierarchical wolves think of everything?

Let the investigations commence.  Keep your prayers coming, but stop the dollar flow.

Catholic Standard Goes Into Damage Control Mode

Just a little reminder.  Many years ago, the Standard had a "letters to the editor" section; a fair number of mine were printed.  However, as soon as ex-cardinal McCarrick announced his intentions to hold Canon 915 in disregard, that section disappeared from the paper and remains gone today.  Inside contacts indicate that the Standard was flooded with letters decrying McCarrick's nose-thumbing at the Blessed Sacrament and received orders from "on high" not to publish one of them.  That silence was a key motivation behind my start of the website and this blog.

Therefore it is no surprise that the Standard is in full "damage control" mode in the wake of the PA report.  As you read the Standard piece, notice a few things:

• Pennsylvania released the report today.  The Standard article is dated today.  So are we to believe that the Standard staff had time to study the report, write the article and upload it to their site on the same day that the report was released?  Or was this sorry excuse of a rebuttal crafted ahead of the report's release?
• I fail to detect any specific examples of inaccuracies regarding Wuerl that are allegedly in the report.  We see just a bunch of blather about "standards" etc.

In this same Standard issue is a letter that the Cardinal sent to his priests - again, the same smoke and mirrors.

Such speed!  Such alacrity!  The Standard is most prompt with its damage control, even if it's rather inept.  However, they cannot be faulted, for no one can defend the indefensible and still claim to have an ounce of intelligence and integrity.

I wonder if the Standard will bring back its "letters to the editor" feature.  Just kidding!

Rosica And Papolatry

Almost two weeks ago, Zenit published a piece by Father Thomas Rosica entitled "The Ignatian Qualities Of The Petrine Ministry Of Pope Francis".  For all his many faults, and they do abound in excess, he certainly seems to be accurate in stating the underpinnings of Pope Francis' thinking.  Of course he enthuses about the pope's progressivism, but they do seem to be peas of the same pod.

This most revelatory gem occurred towards the end: "Pope Francis breaks Catholic traditions whenever he wants, because he is free from disordered attachments. Our Church has indeed entered a new phase: with the advent of this first Jesuit pope, it is openly ruled by an individual rather than by the authority of Scripture alone or even its own dictates of tradition plus Scripture."

"Whenever he wants"?  That is a mark of a tin horn dictator, not the "Servant of the Servants of God".   Then he says that the Church is ruled by an individual rather than the authority of Scripture and Tradition.  Well, so much for all that "collegiality" talk!  Sure sounds like papolatry to me!

Rosica also agrees that the pope doesn't care one whit about defending and promulgating Church teaching and Tradition.  In fact, Tradition stems from God Himself, so does that mean that the pope might actually be setting himself before God?  For an excellent treatment of this problem, we are grateful for Pope St Pius X and his encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis.  The current pontiff would do well to read it - if he hasn't already done so and scoffed.

Rosica's piece was published before he and Cdl Wuerl engaged in their mutual-admiration gabfest.  I've no reason to doubt that the Cardinal saw it and had not one objection.

A History Of Bishops Bending Over For The Gays

In this Vortex, Michael Voris rightly excoriates Cardinals Cupich, O'Malley, Wuerl, J Tobin, Bishop Bootkoski for their parts in "running interference" for their champion pervert, McCarrick.  The one thing I'll add at this time is more information on these prelates who disgrace their miters.

Cardinal Dolan is Archbishop of New York.  I've written tons on him; you might recall that he marched at the head of the St Patrick's Day Parade after it admitted gays to profane the name of St. Patrick.  Jay Malsky is a flaming gay and in charge of the "gay straight katholyc alliance" at St. Francis de Sales Church in New York City.  He performs in drag and actually put on his wig in front of the Tabernacle, thus committing sacrilege.  Will he be thrown out?  Don't hold your breath.  But Father Justin Wylie was when he dared to petition for priests to offer the Traditional Latin Mass.

New York is not the only diocese to have a pervert at the helm of one of its "gay ministries".  Chicago, under Cardinal Cupich, has one too.  He is at St. Patrick's Church.  Within the next two months, he and his accomplice in sodomy will mock and profane the Sacrament of Matrimony.  At least the debacle is not happening in a Catholic church, nor is the reception.  Again, how long will he be allowed to use the Church to justify his mortal sin?

If Cupich hasn't been faced with sacrilege against matrimony yet, Cardinal Tobin did when he was archbishop of Madison, Indiana.  A Knight of Columbus council rented its hall to two lesbians for their so-called "wedding reception".  We petitioned Tobin to no avail.  At first I thought he merely caved to the lesbians.  Now I wonder if the Council caved to the lesbians under the orders of Tobin.

And then there's my home diocese of Washington.  The maltreatment of Father Marcel Guarnizo, during Lent of 2012, happened in my home parish.  That happened with full knowledge, if not initiative, of Cardinal Wuerl.  Bishop Knestout behaved as the good little hatchet man, and was eventually rewarded by being appointed Bishop of Richmond.

Bishop Bootkoski is another who tossed a faithful Catholic under the bus.  Three years ago, a Catholic high school teacher posted a tweet in support of the Church's marriage teachings.  For her fidelity she was fired.  Fortunately, we caused enough uproar to bring about her reinstatement but she should never have been put through that angst in the first place.

I'm sure you see the common theme.  In each case, the prelate in question was doing the bidding of the gay cartel.  They even stabbed faithful Catholics in the back for so doing.  Enough is enough.  Bishop McCarrick has turned in his red hat.  Many more red and purple hats (and maybe a white one) likewise need to be surrendered.  The prelates discussed at the top should lead that foray.

Open Letter to Cathedral of St Matthew and the Archdiocese of Washington

Rev Msgr W. Ronald Jameson
Cathedral of St Matthew the Apostle
1725 Rhode Island Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036

Dear Msgr Jameson,

The prophet Jeremiah states, in chapter 34:1-10, “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not the shepherds take care of the flock?” Msgr, this is the kind of “shepherding” that was on display at the Red Mass on Sunday, October 4th. You and all the ordained clergy have a solemn responsibility, as those who stand as “alter Christi”, to preach the Gospel of repentance and to bestow the Sacraments upon the people in your care, in accordance with the will of God as manifest in the teaching Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church. That did not happen at the Red Mass.

By now you are aware of the shameful treatment meted out to a regular Mass attendee, Ms. Joan McKee, simply because she was wearing a pro-life shirt, as is her custom when she attends Mass at the Cathedral. We’ve gone into detail about that episode in the blog http://restore-dc-catholicism.blogspot.com/2009/10/double-shame-on-washington-archdiocese.html. Please read it, and please pay close attention to the video of the unconscionable treatment that Ms. McKee suffered simply because she wanted to attend Mass. It’s obvious that she did not receive the shepherding that she deserved as a member of your flock.

What may not be so obvious is the neglect that other sheep of the fold suffered at the hands of the clergy at the Red Mass. we speak of all the dignitaries who espouse the pro-abortion position. At that Mass, they received all sorts of adulation, compliments, etc. However, what their immortal souls really needed was to hear the unabashed truth and even rebukes, so that they would be moved to repentance and salvation. Anyone who supports baby-killing is in grave danger of hell. Were they told that? Only those outside, on the other side of the police tape, seemed to have the courage to tell them that. Monsignor, the pro-abortion dignitaries needed to hear from you the medicinal rebukes and exhortations to conversion and the Sacrament of Confession. Instead, what they received was the putrid poison of flattery.

Not only were they lulled into deadly complacence, but they even committed yet another mortal sin, that of receiving Holy Communion in a sacrilegious manner. You know full well that’s what happens when one receives Holy Communion unworthily. That is why we were crying out on the bullhorns. We were not hollering condemnation. Quite the contrary – we were trying to prevent yet another cause for condemnation.

Because the bishops and clergy at that Mass were complicit with such sacrilege, you all share the guilt of those mortal sins. We shudder to think that some of you might actually have handed the Eucharist to one of them. It takes no moral theologian to realize that this constitutes material and formal cooperation with mortal sin.

It also takes no great amount of genius to realize why false accolades are heaped upon these individuals who promote baby-killing. They do wield much political and cultural influence and many of them are wealthy (in the worldly sense). Churchmen have often succumbed to the temptation to curry the favor of the wealthy and powerful for mere temporal gain – to the spiritual detriment of all concerned. However, when you do so (as was done at the Red Mass), you betray your own sacerdotal commission. At the Red Mass, every Catholic, be it Ms. McKee or any of the pro-abortion attendees, was thrown to the wolves to obtain some (perceived) worldly advantage for the clergy. Shame!

At the very least, simple decency demands that Ms. McKee be held harmless for her attempt to attend Mass. Any charges filed against her should be immediately dropped. She in fact deserves profuse apologies from St. Matthew’s and the entire archdiocese.

Canon 915 binds upon all clergy. Adherence to that canon by the clergy is not an option; it is a most solemn obligation. Archbishop Raymond Burke made that quite clear several months ago. When all the clergy starts taking that seriously, perhaps more Catholics will take their faith and morals seriously. Only then can the prayers uttered at the Red Mass have any hope of being answered.

By way of copy to the Archbishop of Washington, we address these words to him and to the entire archdiocese as well. Please be advised that this letter is posted on the blog cited in the footer of this letter. Any reply, or lack thereof, will likewise be posted.

You are in our prayers and we ask the same of you. Thank you.

Hats Off to Father Landry!

Father Roger Landry is editor of The Anchor, the official publication of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts. This was the home diocese of the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Most thinking Catholics were aghast at the sorry spectacle of Cardinals honoring a man who spent much of his life and influence to participate in the murder of countless babies.

During this profanation of the funeral liturgy, various Kennedy relatives engaged in Democratic infomercials, thinly disguised as "Prayers of the Faithful". One of those prayers was for the acceptance of the gay lifestyle.

Enter Father Landry, who wrote a series of columns that shed the light of the Magisterium upon the debacle that occurred in the diocese. In one of those columns, he wrote that "all that was necessary was to adhere to the letter and spirit of the Catholic funeral rite." How can it be stated more simply and plainly?

Furthermore, he wrote that "Kennedy's example was so injurious because the pastors of the Church, for the most part, made the imprudent call to do little or nothing about it beyond general teaching statements that they hoped offending politicians would apply to themselves." Father is right. The fact is that naughty little children simply will not police themselves.

In reading this last statement, we cannot help but be reminded of the sad example provided by Archbishop Wuerl. When asked if he would enforce Canon 915 during an interview, alleging a preference for a "teaching approach." By the clear unwillingness to take action, it's clear what is really being taught to pro-abortion proponents.

Pray that 1) Father Landry suffer no unjust treatment from the USCCB hierarchy (like Bishop Martino?) for his courageous stance, 2) that his words be heeded and 3) for the repentance and conversion of all pro-abortion "Catholic" politicians.