Four years have passed since Theodore McCarrick resigned from the College of Cardinals. We are still coping with the aftershocks of the scandal he caused. Moreover—the reason I write about this subject today—we are still coping with the clerical system that allowed that scandal to fester unchecked for so many years.
A few months after his resignation, the Vatican announced that McCarrick had been stripped of his clerical status. A canonical trial had found him guilty—not only of sexual abuse, but of soliciting in the confessional and abusing his episcopal authority as well.
Since that time, Pope Francis has named five bishops from the US to the College of Cardinals. Barring a dramatic last-minute change, Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego will soon join Cardinals Cupich, Tobin, Farrell, and Gregory. All five have had close connections with McCarrick.
Go here to read the rest. No matter how cynical you are about the gang currently running the Vatican, you are not cynical enough.
My son’s were church going Catholics til the second year of diocesan high school. I believe one of the reasons they left was the scandals you outlined about molestion and the presence of homosexuality in the clergy.
The Sicilian mafia could learn a thing or two from the Lavender mafia about omerta. And, the silence isn’t just enforced among their own ranks. Very few faithful priests and bishops will ever say a word about this ongoing scandal. Why are these 5 allowed to be princes in Christ’s one, true Church? Why aren’t the faithful allowed to know these prelates’ role in perpetuating McCarrick? What did they know, and when did they know it? The wound will continue to fester until there is full accountability.
Personnel is policy. Pope Francis promotes and surrounds himself with these sort because they are on the same page as he is.
And keep in mind the good men in Rome that Francis sacked, sidelined, or simply ignores. Cardinals Burke, Canizares-Llovera (aka “Little Ratzinger”), Zen, Muller, etc.
It looks like Francis is fine with anything in his appointees— sex scandals, dodgy finances, heterodoxy and incompetence— but he will not abide the presence of honest Catholic men.
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