Not only stories, but photographs. I’ve seen the planned cover of Sunday’s DMN. The picture they’re going to run is a jaw-dropper.

The (homo)sexual corruption within the Church (and not just in the US) runs wide and deep.  It has not nearly been completely addressed.  Parents will not trust priests with their sons until something real and true is done.

Oh, that’s just great.  Ugh.  Well, thanks for the heads up, anyway.

Heavens to Betsy! We’re going to be in Canada until Tuesday ... I don’t know if I’m going to be able to stand waiting. However, I think this is what it is going to take to make the bishops be honest (a la the Prodigal Son ... you’ve got to hit rock bottom sometimes before you actually take notice and change.).

I hate to tell you this, but the bishops already know. They have known. They hoped you and I wouldn’t find out. That’s part of the story.

Check dallasnews.com starting Sunday, and throughout next week. There’ll be a new story every day through Thursday. Also, our people are now talking to national media about this. Starting Friday night, you might be seeing stuff about this. I’ll let Dom and others know if any early media appearances are scheduled.

You know, it’s so sad and disgusting what they’ve allowed happen to the Church…  I have, out of love for the Church, prayed fervently that ALL the truth, or at least most of it, come out.  The only way to cure the patient is to first excise the putrid cancerous rot - and the only way, sadly, for that to happen is for the press to shine light on that rot (for the bishops clearly are unwilling to face the task, and in many instances, are infected with the rot themselves).  I’m with Julie - we need to hit real rock bottom - and then we can get on with curing the patient - even if that patient be enfeebled and torn apart and wracked with pain for some time to come.

Well, duh, I figured the bishops knew what was going on. But obviously they’ve got to be forced to the wall where there is nowhere to turn before they face reality ... most of them have lost sight of the reason they became priests in the first place. It takes something like this to knock them in the head and back to reality. ALSO, if this is as huge as you say, it may be what it takes for the Vatican to finally move in and make things change.

That’s assuming that the Vatican doesn’t already know what’s going on. I wouldn’t assume that. Seriously.

The ones who need to read these kinds of stories and understand are not the bishops and the Vatican. They know already. The ones who need this information are laypeople.

It takes something like this to knock them in the head and back to reality.

Something like what?

“Something like what? “

Something, I would think, like pure and unadulterated shame - a shame so intense that they either run away, or they put on sackcloth and smear on ashes, and get down on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and from the laypeople, and then, knowing that they have lost credibility, do the honorable thing and resign, and then spend the rest of their lives repenting of their sins…

“The ones who need to read these kinds of stories and understand are not the bishops and the Vatican. They know already.”

Ya know - if the Pope fired half of these bishops, and replaced them with holy and pure men, millions and millions of lay Catholics would cheer and have some faith…  The Pope himself, sadly, has lost a great deal of moral credibility with many, many Catholics I know.

Oy vay.
Sad to contemplate how many people will be tempted to lose their faith after reading whatever is to come.
It sort of makes me understand the temptation to cover up scandal.

Rod:

Can I ask this?  Is it worse than what we have already learned?  I just want to be prepared if the shock is going to be bigger than we have already experienced.

“Sad to contemplate how many people will be tempted to lose their faith after reading whatever is to come. “

Since the outbreak of the scandal, I have personally seen so many reject their Catholic faith.  And I always tell them - you may lose faith in those who lead our Church, but don’t lose faith in the Church or in He who leads it.  But still, it would all be so much easier if we could regain some faith in those who lead it.  One can have strong faith but be very demoralized at the same time.  I am one of those.

I can’t believe I am forced to listen to NPR!

Check out the NPR stations for your state here - but I don’t see a DMN reporter scheduled for Friday’s Morning Edition (yet?).

Well, if it’s true, let it all come out.

One wonders how the bishops will react to this, whatever it is.  Will it take three years to think and ponder?  I don’t even know how to brace myself for what is coming.  But since reporters ususally check with the subject of their stories for comment I can only imagine what’s being discussed in Denver right now.

I asked “something like what?” Sinner responded:

Something, I would think, like pure and unadulterated shame…

Nah, Sinner you didn’t read my question correctly. My question—and I guess most people’s question—is what is the “what?”

More, perhaps later. I don’t want to replicate Sinner’s replication…but I might feel it necessary. Or if not necessary, may just because I bleepin feel like it.

A remedy to restore one’s faith is to study The Theology of the Body and spread the Good News that this amazing work of Pope John Paul II offers. Next weekend,June 25-28, there is a retreat focusing on the Theology of the Body at the Notre Dame Spiritual Center run by the Brothers of Christian Instruction in Alfred, Maine. It is sponsored by Women Affirming Life.(202-962-0040-central office in Wash.D.C.). Perhaps some study groups or retreats can be started in the Boston Archdiocese as a positive approach to understanding God’s plan for human sexuality! Honestly, it is an amazing resource!!

Every time you think our leaders can’t get worse; they do.

Kelly Clark

I like your stuff!! BTW your website’s pretty funny.

Jaime

I’m sensing a deja vu between this ‘series of revelations’ and the abu gharib scandal? anyone to play compare and contrast?

I refuse to listen to NPR…the voice of the democratic left…...and I doubt anything could be worse than what we already know….what could be worse than the stream of victims, the homosexualization of the priesthood (and religious life…let’s be honest), the complete lost of episcopal credibility, the financial ruin brought upon dioceses, and the probable election of a fraudulant catholic as President of the US…..what could be worse??  Maybe now we can get about the business of real repentance and renewal…cause the culture’s just gonna get worse…

My guess is this is to do with the scandalous way that I’ve heard a lot of seminaries are run ... lavendar mafia anyone? If so, it is about time that these stories are splashed everywhere. No true change will happen without that being exposed and cleaned up.

Nah, Sinner you didn’t read my question correctly. My question—and I guess most people’s question—is what is the “what?”

Hi Kelly Clark - Yeah, I misread.  Well, we know it’s a largely uncovered aspect of the scandal.  Aspects which have not been greatly covered, but which pretty much have to be there include:

- rampant homosexual activity among priests and between priests and non-priests (heck, here in New Jersey, we have a fair number of priests who cruise the gay bars on the weekends);

- the involvement of higher ups - perhaps including cardinals, or Vatican officials;

- blackmail.

But we also know it involves pictures.  My guess would be the first, with hints or evidence of the second and third.

I hope I’m wrong.  But if I’m not, I would much, much rather expose the whole stinkin’ mass of rot to the light and get it all over with.

Best,

Sinner

Folks, I read things in claims files 10+ years ago that have yet to come to light. I would bet that while what they have to show is bad, it still aint the worst…

Thanks for this post, Dom.  I’m sure we’ll ALL be talking about it!

Most importantly, let’s have our arguments ready to defend the faith - but the bishops… well, they may have to defend themselves.

Sinner—I agree that it’s best (if horrible) to get it all out.  And especially if it’s shown to be a homosexual scandal—not primarily pedophilia, which even Fox News still calls it.

This is the time for all Catholics to fast and to pray for our beloved Church.  That is all I can think of to do when we are so powerless and overwhelmed by evil, evil that has existed for decades without our knowledge.

If it is this (#1 in Sinners post)

- rampant homosexual activity among priests and between priests and non-priests (heck, here in New Jersey, we have a fair number of priests who cruise the gay bars on the weekends);

then it will be largely ignored as a “problem” by the media. The story won’t have legs. We live in the “not that there is anything wrong with it” culture. Since most people in this country wouldn’t have a problem with it, especially in the big media outlets on the coasts, why would this be considered news? That is why I doubt it is #1, for the most part ....

Now, if it can be spun as a “Catholic” problem apart from a “homosexuality” problem it will be on the front page of every paper in the Western world. I tend to think it will fall into a category like this. 

Alena writes: Sinner—I agree that it’s best (if horrible) to get it all out.  And especially if it’s shown to be a homosexual scandal—not primarily pedophilia, which even Fox News still calls it.

The stories don’t focus on that aspect of the scandal, but your comment did bring to mind something a Fox News staffer told me at the Dallas bishops’ meeting two years ago. I told this person that Fox should find and interview Michael S. Rose, whose “Goodbye Good Men” had just come out, and who could illuminate a key aspect of the scandal that most media wouldn’t touch. The staffer told me that they had orders from the very top of the network not to touch homosexuality in their reporting from Dallas.

It’s very disappointing to hear that about Fox.  It was, of course, to be expected that the Boston Globe could bring out its Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the scandal in book form without ever using the word “homosexual” (except maybe to deny that it was a homosexual scandal).  But somehow I expected better of Fox.

But this reminds me that even Howie Carr (talk radio in Boston), who originally mentioned the homosexual aspect a lot and even had Michael Rose on as a guest for about an hour, has gone back to referring to it as pedophilia.

Rod, did the staffer say *why* reporters were told not to report certain facts?

“The staffer told me that they had orders from the very top of the network not to touch homosexuality in their reporting from Dallas.”

It’s almost enough to make me take a second look at all of those Mason conspiricy stories!

Oh boy.  So not the seminaries.

So we have got photos, cover up,  knowledge of something by heirarchy and an aspect of the scandal not yet covered by the media…..

Well, the only thing that springs into my mind is what Andrew Greeley claims he has evidence of and that St. Sebastian’s thing because my understanding of that is that it was international.  I don’t know anything, I’m just speculating, but I will say this:  if a cover up is proven to still be going on and we get stoney silence from the bishops and vatican, I think it will really be hard on the faithful and the ‘we get the bishops we want’ argument will finally be laid to rest.

Well, in my part of New Jersey, we had two priests (one of whom was the former head of a major Catholic university), arrested for soliciting sex from 14 yr.-old boy prostitutes in Toronto…

But that’s old news. 

Fox Top Brass to Cub Reporter: What our society needs is not a news culture which values accuracy and courage but rather weakness and alliteration.

Cub Reporter: Roger, Rupert!

Media?  <snort>  Media for what? 

Seriously, it could have to do with the rampant (homo) sexual abuse at Catholic boys’ schools in many countries - something about which very little has been reported here in the US.  The Church in Ireland, as an example, has been devastated by such.  I’ve seen stories involving boys’ schools in Poland, Austria, Canada, France, New Zealand and Germany.  No sane Catholic would ever think of sending their boy to a priest-run boarding school anymore.  And of course, there are hardly many such schools left.  What a shame.

if it’s coming out first on NPR, you can bet it won’t be about homosexuality.  if it involves pictures, it will probably be about abortion and/or a double standard re: heterosexual involvement by priests and bishops.  am i close, Rod?

But Father, NPR would still consider pederasty OK to report on - since, of course, it has nothing, nothing to do with homosexuality…

And the picture…  Here’s a stab in the dark (and I mean that)...

A priest in bed with three of his male ‘students’ at a boarding school in Ireland…

Rod?

Just found your site and you can guess the DMN info interests me.  I would imagine it is something about the mess Malachi Martin wrote about in Windswept House, an international homo-satanic ring of clerics and laymen.  Here in NH we not only have one of Bernie of Boston’s lieutenants for our bishop, we have an auxilliary bishop who refused to talk to our AG without a grant of immunity, and rumors of Roman collared sodomite activity just about everywhere you look.  One priest who actually paid for a six year ‘relationship’ with a young man was declared by our ordinary to be “a priest in good standing in the Diocese of Manchester (NH).” In the Granite State, the chancery only goes after the really good priests who won’t shut up about the mess.  Go figure.  (Btw, I think many of those who post here have entirely too much faith in Right-wing radio and TV in America.  Remember, one of the Right’s great stars, Limbaugh, is deep into serial marriage and drugs, regardless of how he cares to spin it.  That crowd is not one bit better than the Left—and most of the lefties can speak better English.)

The return of the Latin Church to its ancient Liturgy and Tradition is the *only* way to repair the damage done; but, Christ is not afraid to chase away the money changers.  He, our beloved Lord, is not content to leave the Temple in such a state.  Christ is Head of the Church.  We must never forget that simple Truth of the Catholic Faith.  The Pope being Vicar can err and is erring.  As Catholics we are citizens of this glorious Kingdom with all the rights and benefits.  And as citizens we cannot allow this present evil wind blowing through the Church to overcome our sense of courage in the face of the Enemy.  It does not seem illogical that the true Faithful will be reduced to only a small few who hold to Tradition.  With the loss of parishes and Church property we will have to go back to square one; but Catholics, empowered by Tradition, can always rebuild after the fire.  Christ will remove these apostate hierarchs and presbyters!  He will remove religious who are tools of heresy and the devil!  Christ who is the Liturgist par excellence will restore Tradition and its glorious Liturgy.  The anti-Church created during Vatican II will fade into history as a movement of the devil.  As new priests are drawn to Tradition, in rejection of the heretical sophisms of their professors and the presbyters of the liberal revolution, we will see a resurgence of mystical and aescetical theology and praxis which will draw out the poison of the New Church and the New Liturgy.  We have already won! Christus Vincit! Christus Regnat! Christus Imperate!

I think maybe the saddest thing is that none of the things speculated about by me and others here would surprise me one bit.  Now that’s sad.

Prayer to Jesus living in Mary:

O Jesu vivens in Maria
veni et vive in famulis tuis
in spiritu sanctitatis tuae,
in plenitudine virtutis tuae,
in perfectione viarum tuarum,
in veritate virtutum tuarum,
in communione mysteriorum tuorum;
dominare omni adversae potestati,
in Spiritu tuo ad gloriam Patris. Amen.

O Jesus living in Mary,
come and live in Thy Servants,
in the spirit of Thy holiness,
in the fulness of Thy power,
in the perfection of Thy ways,
in the truth of Thy virtues,
in the fellowship of Thy mysteries,
rule Thou over every adverse power,
in Thy Spirit, for the glory of the Father.
Amen.

From Father Adolphe Tanqueray’s

The Spiritual Life

pp. 746

(THE best pre-VII manuel on the Spiritual Life there is!)

Don’t lose heart, Kathleen.  The chaff is burning, and will burn, all around Christ’s faithful, even in the midst of the temple.  It is quite a spectacle, isn’t it?  It makes me fear God.

Rod—Any possibility the DMN is protecting John Kerry by running this negative piece now?  Did they sit on this?  It will seem like quite the diversion from the Politician/Communion debate if it’s what I think it is…

“Don’t lose heart, Kathleen.  The chaff is burning, and will burn, all around Christ’s faithful, even in the midst of the temple.  It is quite a spectacle, isn’t it?”

Indeed, A!  This is, of course, the wages of sin flaming bright from down under in some horrific conflagration of evil.  And let’s make no mistake - all of this scandal is part of the inevitable consequence of the sexual revolution (predicted in part by Pope Paul) - where the sexual act, marriage and life itself are losing in society (and in segments of the Church) all meaning, sanctity, holiness and Godliness.  We have truly reaped what we have sown.  Now it’s time to sow anew.  We will all have to be sowers for a while, while we wait for a new and vigorous and glorious crop to grow.

Rod—Any possibility the DMN is protecting John Kerry by running this negative piece now?  Did they sit on this?  It will seem like quite the diversion from the Politician/Communion debate if it’s what I think it is…

Oh, gosh no. That has nothing to do with it. This story is enormously complex, and required an incredibly long period of time, and much detail work and traveling, to nail down. The reporters, some of whom have been on this project for well over a year, have been anxious to publish their findings for some time, but the editors have (wisely) wanted to make sure we’ve covered all the bases.

Gang, I know that my lack of specifics only makes Malachi Martin-like speculation possible, and likely. Let me say that this is not about Andy Greeley’s thing, nor is it directly about homosexuality. It’s about a breath and depth of cover-up that has not yet been reported on as completely as our team is about to. I’ve seen the front page for Sunday, with the photo, and read the stories that will lead the series, and it’s absolutely sick-making.

I’m hearing from the newsroom that one of the reporters on the series just taped his “Morning Edition” interview, so you can get the basics of the story in the morning on NPR. They’re still trying to decide whether or not to start rolling out the first story on the website on Friday or Saturday, ahead of Sunday publication. There’s also a possibility that one or more of our reporters will be on “Newsnight with Aaron Brown” on CNN tomorrow night, to offer more details—and possibly show that iconic photograph we’re going to publish on Sunday.

Rod,

In your opinion, will this be enough to force the Church to get rid of the cover-uppers?

I give wide latitude for comments on this blog. But there are two things I won’t tolerate: abusiveness toward others and advocacy for heresy or schism. I’ve deleted one post for the latter.

Heaven knows I can be critical of bishops and even of the Pope, but I draw the line at saying that the John Paul is not the valid pope or that the SSPX is the true Church. Not going to happen here.

Stay on topic people. I’m going to be a little more tight-fisted on this thread because of its potential to go astray.

It is a sad commentary that we’re all willing to accept the wildest scenarios we can imagine.  Prayer is a better way to spend our time—Jesus says each day has worries enough without blindly speculating about the worries of tomorrow. 

For what it’s worth—my guess is that it involves international religious orders.  The previous scandal focused mainly on dioceses, with the religious orders being largely unscathed.  But in other countries it was the religious orders and their work with youth that were hardest hit (eg Ireland, Canada). 

I guess we should expect that the kind of perversion that has been revealed to date is only the tip of the iceberg.  The evil one has only begun revealing himself, and the stronghold that he has on individuals of power and status within our holy mother Church.  Our only hope is that the Holy Spirit will guide us through this, and that people like us are beginning to stand up and note that these problems appear to have escalated since VII.  As for losing the faith, noone who has the faith can lose it because weak men have become priests and desecrated the holy sacraments.  Our faith should be strenghtened, not weakened, by the fact that the evil will be rooted out, and Christ’s sacrifice will have uncovered the sickness of the imposters.

A few years ago, I read something about the papal nuncio and a locked safe in his diplomatic office in Washington DC.  At least one bishop was quoted as suggesting that all material on “trouble” priests be sent there, to keep it away from subpoena power.  I wonder if this is the expose.  It would, of course, be devastating to know that a representative of the Holy See tacitly approved of this kind of cover-up.

Brief note about NPR and finding a station on the website - it is heavily biased and rather inaccurate.  For example, if you entered the zip code for Concord NH (03301) you will be directed not to NH Public Radio (out of Concord NH) but to a Boston NPR affiliate - nearly 80 miles away. 
Also folks, NPR is not a monolith.  Each station has autonomy to decide what to pay for and what to air.  If you don’t like something your local station is or isn’t doing - LET THEM KNOW! 

Kudos to you Mr. Bettinelli.  I appreciate the fact that you are reigning in the commentary. 

If what you say is coming…. Man its tough to defend Catholicism nowadays.

Jaime

Ya know - One of the fundamental questions that has always faced the Catholic Church, and has never, I believe, been adequately answered, is how do you keep parts of the hierarchy from being corrupted - whether by sex, power, greed, notoriety, pride, etc. etc.  It just seems there should be a way to put a more or less automatic brake on such depravities when they first start to manifest themselves.  This whole thing started decades ago, like a car that shimmies on the racetrack at the Indy 500.  But instead of a slight course correction to set things right, we now have a multi-car collision, with spiritual violence ripping into the bodies of the drivers and the bystanders and those watching on TV.  There must be a better way.

I just hope that it will all come out this time.  All the poison needs to drain out so that real healing can begin.  I can’t but think that as the bishops are gathered in Denver now, word of the impending release of this story has already reached them and I pray to the Holy Spirit and to St. Joseph that they will find the courage and faith and integrity to face what they have done and do the right thing.  Doesn’t our faith teach us that where there is life, there is hope?  They can, if they will to, make this the turning point towards the light for the Church in this country.

I think the problem is fundamentally this:  the overwhelming majority of (western) Catholics think that “faith” is essentially belief that Jesus Christ lived, died and was raised.  There is little, if any, reference in US Catholic culture to the final things, to consequences of actions and decisions.

Without putting too fine a point on it, those who bemoan the dearth of brimstone in homiletics are on the right track.  Nobody understands the concept of servanthood, of subsidiarity, of fealty and the responsibilities incumbent upon the saved servant.  Thus, nobody understands the consequences of infidelity.

Bishops and priests are part and parcel of the small-c catholic culture.  With very few exceptions, they are no more full of faith than Joe Average.  I think it was Athanasius that said, “The floors of hell are paved with the skulls of bishops.”

Not to sound like a fanatic, but the Fatima visions of souls falling into hell like autumn leaves is, I fear, accurate.  A lot of the hierarchy’s in dire straits.

Amen Father!

I agree with you, Father.  The fact that the faith is understood this way, from the humblest layperson to many of the highest persons in the church is why there is this startling hollowness to so much that goes on in Catholic life.

We don’t know what we’re doing as a group half the time, just stumbling along towards what?  We don’t have a goal in sight because we’ve never seen much in the way of holiness.  We have programs, committees and more committees, so I guess we imagine something like that is what the goal is, maybe.  I don’t know.

Some laypeople jostle to get a volunteer liturgical “ministry” because they think that is what constitutes christian life. 

Some have the notion that holiness consists solely of an emotional disposition that condemns nothing and is completely blind to good and evil.  That is NOT what God wants!

Some try to “be nice” or “be good” without much understanding of what good is and what it ISN’T.

We have documents, tons and reams and piles of new documents.  If you break wind, someone will quote the Documents of Vatican 2 at you.  But what good do they do us?  I’m serious.

What we need are examples of holiness.  And that’s what’s wrong with our bishops.  They aren’t.

I can think of a few things that it could be—that are probably going on.  But it pains me to guess.  It’ll be interesting if I’ve guessed it.

The liberal press would not cover the homosexuality angle.  That is off topic and they’d see nothing wrong in that.  Satanism or cult-like killing would be something they might pursue, but that would be hard to prove.  Something like the RICO thing in Boston would do it and all here have failed to mention money. 

I would wager it has to do with a cover-up by chanceries of illegal/immoral activities/high living using funds from the folks in the pews (or even a major source of funding to the Church as a whole).  And, the ugliness of sodomized children thrown in with an underground racket of protection.  The lay press would seem to be interested in a story of duplicity or corruption and moral turpitude. 

I think the press hates the Catholic Church and so the problem will not focus on sinners but on duplicity or deceit.

May God protect our priests and bishops from the Evil one!
sartorius

I don’t think the liberal press would be interested in the homosexuality angle either.  But there are a couple of other real possibilities.  We’ll see.

Mediocre try, Mike.  Honey, this is way more complicated than you think.  Probably only Catholics really understand much of what’s going on at this point, and I’m not so sure we do.  Sit, watch and learn, ok?

I tried an earlier guess (sodomosatanic) that no one seemed to think terribly promising, so I’ll just wait and see what happens tomorrow. 

We learned here in NH this afternoon that a federal grand jury is looking into the past activities of our ordinary.  Normally that would alarm me, but over two years of spin, lies, and sheer trumpery out of our chancery have taught me it will take something tremendous to just convince the bishop to leave, that he is ruining the Church.  Of course, there are many who think he simply doesn’t care about anything but his position any more and that only an indictment will finally send him packing. 

(I would ask the Protestant fundamentalist Mike to mind his own website.  Mike, if you don’t have the Eucharist—and you don’t—we are simply not interested.  From our vantage point, you’re trying to sell us a car that has no motor under the hood.)

All:

Please do Dom and all of us a favor and ignore (yeah, I know I’m not practicing what I preach) all anti-Catholic posts. The blog owner can’t guard his stuff 24/7, but we can help immensely by disregarding the sh**.

Sorry to have pulled you all back here for this,

Kelly <——-shamlessly taking the opportunity to thank Jaime

PLEASE, someone out there, delve into tTheTtheology of the Body by Pope John Paul II. He has based his findings totally on Scripture, the Fathers of the Church, The Catechism of the Catholic Church, and insight that could only have come from infused knowledge from the Holy Spirit. In Witness to Hope ,George Weigel predicts that when The Theology of the Body is taken seriously a huge revolution will take place in the Church.“Few contemporary theologians have taken up the challenge implicit in this dramatic proposal. Fewer priests preach these themes.” “These 130 catechetical addresses, taken together,constitute a kind of theological time bomb set to go off with dramatic consequences, sometime in the third millenium of the Church.”( Witness To Hope,p.p.432-433).  PLEASE, instead of” rending our garments” and moaning and groaning, look to this magnificent work of John Paul II for the light that will bring us through these very dark days to a different dimension that will reveal a far deeper truth about the meaning of sexuality and God’s plan for human love.  So many answers to our present quagmire can be found through the study and sharing of the wisdom from The Theology of the Body. Any takers???

And while he has been writing this stuff, we have been putting up with Boston, Alice. 

Is the Pope supposed to be a practicing philosopher, or is he supposed to be a leader? 

Does the “theology of the body” have anything helpful to say to 13-14 year old kids who’ve been homosexually raped by their parish priest? 

Will it make them feel better and keep them from having messed up lives?

Will it tell me how to answer people who make jokes to my face about the Church?

Will it make evangelism easier?

Will it mend all the damage done in the last 30 years or so, while no one has been minding the farm?

Well, the DMN will have a LOT of new internet readers.  Hope their server has a lot of spare capacity.

and to Johnny C—I knew your bishop when he was “just” a priest in residence at St. Paul Church in Cambridge.  He used to start Mass, “In the name of the creator, and of the redeemer, and of the sanctifier.”  Yeah.

And, if you look closely at the Shanley papers, you’ll see that he took a vacation to Shanley & White’s gay nudist B&B in Palm Springs under the guise of speaking to Shanley about his salary.  And when Shanley wrote him to thank him for the visit, he apparently included some photos for McCormack to pass on to Fred Ryan, he of the teenaged boy naked photos.

You do the math.

jm, what are you doing? 

Do you think you’re on on Yahoo chat or something? 

Fr. Elijah,

Are you the same Fr. Elijah who has Fides et Ratio?

If so, I linked your blog on mine!  Nice job.

“Is the Pope supposed to be a practicing philosopher, or is he supposed to be a leader?”

Hey, mc, that’s a bit snide.  You’re not really asserting that the Pope is supposed to be a line supervisor to the exclusion of all else, are you?  Talk about yer diminished papacy…

And keep it up, Fr. Elijah. You are rockin’ and rollin’. 

“So many answers to our present quagmire can be found through the study and sharing of the wisdom from The Theology of the Body. Any takers??? “

Yes, Alice Slattery.  I’m a taker.  The Pope’s writings on human sexuality are completely consistent with Scripture and Catholic Tradition, and bring out in a new and more profound way the true deep love and complementarity that go with Godly sexual acts and the infusion of that love into the potential creation of new human life.  His writings turn to the sanctity of perhaps the most Godly act we are ever allowed to commit.  The Pope has, to his great credit, left all of Christianity with a great gift for all time to come. 

The saddest thing, of course, is that his writings on human sexuality are scorned and ignored by so many within the Church - and we reap to today the bitter rotten fruit of that scorn.  That will change, and I predict that it will change rapidly - as today’s youth flee from the sexual degradation the Church is mired in now.

But also, and despite this great gift, I agree with michigancatholic that this Pope cannot escape major responsibility for what has happened.  I do not know whether he could never have imagined such evil, or whether he thought it would correct itself, or whether he just got afraid to take it on.  But the ultimate responsibility for the state of the Church is his - and in this regard, he has allowed great evil to flourish in Christ’s church.  I am saddened for him - and suspect he may get some strong parting shots in against this evil.  I pray that such be so.

“Parting shots” will not make up for all the years of waste, Sinner.  They’d better start doing better than that.  We’re going to have a ton of trouble, even if they really cracked down now, which I don’t think they’re going to do.

I hope I’m wrong.  But I don’t think so.

“I think the problem is fundamentally this:  the overwhelming majority of (western) Catholics think that “faith” is essentially belief that Jesus Christ lived, died and was raised.  There is little, if any, reference in US Catholic culture to the final things, to consequences of actions and decisions. “

Thanks for that answer, Father.  I’m with you. 

The goal of every true Catholic should be to try ones hardest to become as much like Christ as possible in this one wonderful life God provides for us to do so.  And Christ’s whole life was devoted to those final things of which you speak. 

It’s gotta be tough being a priest right now (though it was never supposed to be easy)!  Every day I pray for the good and holy priests who are trying to live their lives as Christ did.  (And I pray for the rotten ones too!)

Super best,

Sinner

“I hope I’m wrong.  But I don’t think so. “

I believe, sadly, michigancatholic, that you’re quite right.  I don’t think the Pope is going to even begin to vanquish this evil.  But I’d be happy to see him start to rise up to fight it in his remaining time on this earth.

And yeah, man, they need to crack down bigtime.  Would that they had the guts.

We will need a strong Christian soldier for our next Pope.

Sinner, like everyone else, I don’t know what the Vatican is going to do.  I wonder sometimes who’s calling the shots now and have a bit of a suspicion that things are subtley changing hands a bit and that’s why we’re seeing a bit of discipline coming out of Rome finally.

I am with you when I hope we get a big, gallant and brave pope who will stand up and be counted next time.

Even our ancient popes who knew they might live only a few days for it were not afraid to preach Christ Crucified to the Romans.

There are more important things than comfort. 

“I am with you when I hope we get a big, gallant and brave pope who will stand up and be counted next time. “

Yeah!!!

I’m not sure this pope hasn’t tried to do that.  I’m just not sure he has in a lot of ways. 

He has missed what has gone on with the postmodern world, since its beginnings in the 60s.  And now in the computer era, they’re just now catching on.

And there has sure been a lot of writing.  This has been a problem when we were suffering with abuses of the system and as we know now, literal crimes being perpetrated all over the Catholic landscape.

And there has been the perception that liberals could get away with anything.  Most of the time, that has been nothing more than an observation!!The only group excommunicated for its disagreement with the Vatican—the SSPX—was the group which was the least dangerous to the Vatican.  Odd.  Very strange.

You guys all know about the decay of Catholic identity and catechesis, so I won’t go there.

I think it’s been a hell of an era.  I think maybe he tried in his own way, but I’m not sure how well it worked.  He’s a brilliant man, and perhaps personally holy.  He’s not a manager or a leader.

And I think he kissed goodbye to his chances of being a doctor of the Church, or “PJP2 the Great” and maybe even a saint, the day he kissed the Koran where it could be photographed and put on the Net.

They’ll never get rid of that picture now.  That’s how the internet is.  And there are a few others out there—similar.  Buddha on the altar, etc.

All the other stuff that went on during his reign was bad enough…there are books of pix. 

But this one pic with the Koran no one can blame on anyone else. 

Too much spam for me. And also too much bull twanky.

When this blog becomes Catholic again, please do let me know.

See ya—and no, don’t let me know when anybody responds.

Kelly <——-unclicking notification box. sheesh.

bull twanky =) I’ve never heard that before.

So my posts here are just meant to say this:  Don’t be telling me that it’ll all be wonderful if I’ll just read “The Theology of the Body” which is yet one more long philosophical document.

Catholic moral theology, that we’ve had pretty much forever, deals with what we’ve seen in this scandal.  Why wasn’t it dealt with?  Why did it have to come to this? 

Why do we have to find out in the newspapers?

Fr. Elijah,

Are you the Fr. Elijah of “Fides et Ratio?”

People! DO NOT RESPOND TO TROLLS!

By responding to them, you are only giving them what they want. If an anti-Catholic or schismatic shows up, ignore them. Don’t reply to them!

I can’t sit in front of my computer 24/7 so if I don’t get to it right away, I will eventually. LET ME HANDLE IT!

jmgainor has been banned and won’t be responding, so don’t bother writing anything to him. (Plus, comments of derision aren’t all that helpful at changing people’s minds, but that’s just a suggestion.)

At least Kelly can ignore this stuff. I have to read all of it.

A few things I didn’t see in this thread:

This generation of bishops is reaping what a previous generation sowed.  There are (at least a few) good men in this generation who, like our good priests are taking lashes for the sins of others.

I agree with those who have said whatever DMN reports, it won’t be anything against homosexuality.  The hypocrisy of the press in its destroying bishops while protecting gays from bad exposure is amazing.  I wish more were done to this point out to the public - or at least Catholics in the pew.  (Maybe this is only something other laity could do?)

Different topic: why has psychology come away from the sex scandals unscathed?  Catholic clerics were publicly shredded, but psychologists and their field escaped all accountability for their horrific advice.  I don’t mean to say that our bishops aren’t responsible for their actions—merely that they (and we) have paid and will continue to.  Psychologists have meanwhile gotten a second chance at the same victims—as a result of the scandal becoming public.  To top it off, this bill, like the first, will be paid in full by the Church.  Isn’t something wrong with this??

On John Paul II, I think the Theology of the Body is solid Catholic teaching, and an important niche in today’s sex-crazed Western Culture.  We still need way broader Catechesis in the Church and apologetics/evangelization outside it.  The ultimate goal of the Christian is God in eternity, not a spouse in the here-and-now.

I’m upset with the apparent lack of ecclesial discipline in the Church for 50+ years.  I don’t think a Pope has perfect control over such things, but they certainly do (or certainly should!!) have significant influence.  I pray for an end of the “error is self-correcting” attitude at the top of the Church.  True with ideas, among fallen men it’s amounted to moral permissiveness and abuse of power:  “might makes right”.  (And that most damagingly in areas the press doesn’t care about:  heresy, liturgical abuse and Church discipline.)

  Starting with apparitions prior to Fatima in 1917, Our Lady said mankind was provoking God’s wrath with its sins.  I think it’s likely that much of what we’ve seen in the Church is a consequence of the sins of Catholics in particular and men in general.  Is it true that people get the priests they deserve?

  I agree with the post who said things may be changing in Rome, at least in regards to who is elevated to the mitre.  It’s the new bishops I see speaking out against abortion, homosexual “marriage” and pro-choice “Catholic” politicians receiving communion:  Bishops Burke in St Lious, Olmsted in Phoenix, Sheridan in CO Springs, Aquila in Fargo, ND, Chaput in Denver, and Wenski in Orlando.  There’s hope that things are turning around, but like the re-conquest of Spain, this is likely going to be a (long?) bloody fight.

Morning Edition interview:  Reporting pattern of transferring admitted and/or convicted abusive priests out of the country, “sometimes from country A to country B to country C to country D . . .”  Special emphasis on the Salesians, who have a particular ministry to children in third-world countries.  DMN was told that one priest (Klep - sp?) was now in a remote area with no access to children; on checking, found he had plenty of access to children, both in groups and alone (tutoring).  The priest feels he is no longer a threat to children (shades of Geoghan?).

to michigancatholic—yes, i’m that father elijah

Has anyone noted the coincidence that scandal concerning Roman Catholic “Fathers” is going to be released on Father’s Day?  (At least I assume it’s coincidence.)

Nightowl
And what about widespread suspicion that many of the bishops are themselves sodomites, thus the problem that never seems to get fixed?

Hey Johnny C -

Five bishops, by my count, have been removed for pederasty (4) or homosexual relationships (1).  It is a safe assumption that there are many more sodomite bishops.  This disgusting problem the Church is having will NEVER end until the priesthood is dequeerized. 

Michigan—you are not quite correct in your “who’s been excommunicated” remark.

Bishop Bruskewitz notified members of Call to Action and some Wimmin’s Ordination bunch that after X date they would be latae sententiae excommunicated.

He did the same for SSPX.

I think you are quite right, Sinner, but don’t hold your breath while awaiting the great sodomic expurgation.  The current chancellor of our diocese once allowed that that kind of épuration here in NH among the secular clergy could easily lose us a third of those men now serving.  But a former candidate for the priesthood who quit in disgust the last moment before ordination here,  someone therefore really familiar with the territory, says the figure would be much closer to sixty-five percent.  My penultimate confessor, a man I frequented for years and who gave me no cause for suspicion beyond an occasional whiff of whiskey on his breath, was arrested early this year for stealing from the collection at his newly assigned parish, and he has since been found guilty of the crime.  The reason for his larcenous behavior?  Why, to feed the many demands of a ‘long time partner’ who at least had the decency to show up and cry at his sentencing. And so the beat goes on here in the Diocese of Manchester.

As for the DMN story, it may enlarge the picture with details hitherto unknown, but the international aspect of this scandal was already in the news.  Here again our glorious bishop, John McCormack, back when he was working as a top lieutenant for the Law mob in Boston, played a role.  Paul Shanley, the Michael Jackson of the US sacerdotal sex scandals, was McC’s classmate at St. John Seminary in Boston in the infamous class of 1960, the one replete with heavy hitters in the sodomite molester league.  When Paul was in trouble he would often write his old pal John McC and whine about how unfair the world is, something men of his ilk are reportedly wont to do.  Once McC wrote back hinting it might be wise to start thinking about a safe house in Costa Rica.  Of course he didn’t call it that, but only the terminally credulous could read anything else into this exchange between John and Paul.  It’s all there in the long report written up by the Boston Globe if you can stomach the reading.  (Those who see some kind of plot behind everything reported in the ‘leftist’ press should remember that, absent the investigative reporting of those newspapers, Shanley and the rest of the army of Roman collared sodomite buggerers would still be plying their skills behind closed rectory doors.)

Bruce Egerton of the Dallas Morning News made a low-key presentation on NPR. He and another reporter have been pursuing this investigation for over a year, which involved a great deal of travel.

He finds that the fact that the Church is the most global of institutions has deep ramifications on the Situation. He found many instances where priests who had served in America and got into trouble—both American priests and externs serving here—suddenly disappeared from the scene, to turn up in other places. He instanced a case of a Salesian priest who had served in several South American countries, repeatedly getting in trouble, who arrived in Chicago with a letter from his superior attestig to his good character and was granted faculties. Another, a priest whom the Salesians said was in a rural area with no ministry and no access to children, was found in Samoa with a very active ministry, passing out candy on the church steps to kids, and tutoring them in his bedroom.

This is only the first installment of a very extensive series. One of the things it will demonstrate is that the bishops’ assurances that the Scandal is “History” and that the cover-ups are a thing of the past is nonsense. Egerton said he found priest abusers from other countries who are actively ministering in the United States today.

I heard the story this morning on NPR, and I hope there’s more too it than was indicated this morning.

This morning the DMN reporter just described how the same phenomenon evident in US dioceses (Bishops erring on the side of avoiding scandal) extended to international religious orders as well.

Shocker.

Of course the cumulative point they’re trying to make is that this is some kind of systematic problem in the church worldwide. And since they refuse to address the real reason for the pervasiveness of the problem: THAT HOMOSEXUALS WERE ORDAINED IN VIOLATION OF CHURCH NORMS, AND HOMOSEXUALS TEND TO PROTECT EACH OTHER AND FORM NETWORKS OF DEVIANTS they try to extrapolate into somekind of pervasive church problem other than HOMOSEXUALITY like celibacy, hierarchy, clericalism or one of the usual suspects.

When I see an expose of Secularists and Degenerates in Hollywood, and their positive, concerted enabling of the homosexualist, degenerate agenda in “cinema” I might consider this something other than just a blatant, antiCatholic screed (sending reporters overseas to track individuals which we could probably guess were up to no good).

As it stands from the conclusions in the piece (dire warnings about the “dangers” a “truly international organization” like the Church poses for “law enforcement”), it seems simply an attempt to generate suspicion and antipathy, and perhaps public policy against the Church (removing its diplomatic priviledges, perhaps) because of objections to the Church’s teachings.

Fr. Wilson,
When I see the DMN dropping a chunk of change like they obviously did for this story following, say the malfeasance of Global Financiers like George Soros, and the effects of their diabolical malevolence, I’ll be more disposed to think there’s actual information here.

As it stands, its just more footnotes to the HOMOSEXUAL ORDINATION FIASCO, which those of us who read the Wanderer, NOR, and lately CWR have known about for years, no thanks to “Conservative Catholics” (Crisis, FT) who now seem so earnestly concerned.

While there may indeed be background animosity toward things Catholic at the DMN, it wasn’t evident during this morning’s NPR report.  The statement that the Church is the biggest international organization, period, was not a warning, but rather a statement of fact.

Look, the Church does have an enormous problem on its hands, one its own policies have helped create.  To deny this, or to see ulterior motives behind every report describing the mess, will only make things much worse.  To begin with, it will encourage our bishops to think they can count on the sheeple to once again endorse ineptness if not outright malfeasance.  The message we should be sending the episcopacy is this:  Guilty heads MUST roll, and we don’t really care that they may carry a miter.  Enough is enough!

Fr. Wilson and Fr. Elijah—

Today is the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  I went to Mass as usual and was stunned when the readings were not from the Lectionary (I have a USCCB version and the Magnificat I read each day) but from some green book with inclusive language that was bearly recognizable.  As you know, the 23rd Psalm was read today and it sounded as if someone made it up!

Here is the rub…  How much advance notice do you think those priests who are “leftist” and “rainbow types” have heard about this course of events now breaking? Father was away for almost two weeks on vacation.  Is it possible that some priests now feel that episcopal leadership is so compromised that they can freelance it? 

Johnny C.,
I disagree.

While I think some of the reporting on this issue has been necessary (unfortunately), I see nothing in “policy” to convict the Church.

The Church has a duty to avoid scandal if it can do so. Pseudoscience of Pseudojurisprudence (mandatory public disclosure of sex offenders) are not things that the Church’s need to avoid scandal can be held hostage to.

In fact Pseudoscience has been part and parcel of this crime, calling Sodomites, variously, pedophiliacs, ebebophiliacs, and of course running interference for the Homosexuals as they try to distinguish themselves from other deviants.

The “Guilty Heads” are the HOMOSEXUALS who run interference for obedience to the norms already on the books for dealing with the problem, because the cannot stand the rebuke it implies to they themselves.

That’s the only “policy” here which has in any coherent way contributed to the “Situation.” The rest is just the normal ineptitude and venality which we all must contend with, and which expresses itself in different ways.

The authentic reform which might address these questions no one wants, least of all the Dallas Morning News.

For pete’s sake, Deal Hudson himself said the observance of Canon 915 should begin and end with Kerry. Does anyone seriously think there’d be much support if the Church did a wholesale purge of its ranks of Deviants, and its pews (and Chanceries) of what Abp. Chaput rightly described as “Non-Catholics who happen to go to mass?”

I think the reaction would be closer to the one English Catholics got when Pius V rightly described the relationship of Catholic citizens to the Regime of Elizabeth I.

I think not.

I mean as far as the necessity of making this public, and explicit—what does modern western “society” have to offer the Church in terms of “accountability” to standards of basic human decency, while it protects as a basic right the wholesale murder of infants and even “conservatives” presented with this abomination cite things like “stare decisis” and “political process” to pretend that such laws can be upheld.

If there were some reservoir of decency out here, judges, police and citizens would simply walk out and close every abortuary tomorrow.

What does our society offer this crisis? The opportunity for clerical Sodomites and Catamites to be duly “licenced” and “civilly unioned” once the meet certain minimum, state “sanctioned” standards, like age of consent?