Twenty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 1, 2018 Column Father De Celles
Archbishop Vigano. By now most of you have heard about the astonishing accusations made by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano. In his 11 page “testimony,” he lays out many damning accusations surrounding ex-cardinal McCarrick, including naming high ranking Cardinals he says are involved in the “homosexual current” in the Church. Most devastating, though, is his testimony about Pope Francis. He maintains: 1) Pope Benedict XVI had put a non-publicized censure on then-cardinal McCarrick in 2009 or 2010, that forbad McCarrick from publicly exercising his priestly ministry and required him to live a life of penance; 2) Pope Francis effectively revoked that censure when he took office in 2013, and made McCarrick his “go-to” advisor for the United States; 3) Vigano personally told Pope Francis about McCarrick’s perversions in a private meeting on June 23, 2013, “Holy Father, I don’t know if you know Cardinal McCarrick, but if you ask the Congregation for Bishops there is a dossier this thick about him. He corrupted generations of seminarians and priests and Pope Benedict ordered him to withdraw to a life of prayer and penance.”
Vigano’s testimony is particularly important because he has been a high ranking official in the Church for decades, including oversight of all the papal nuncios (ambassadors) around the world, then as the Governor of the Vatican City State, and finally as the Papal Nuncio to the United States from 2011 to 2016. Moreover, he has always been known as a man of great integrity and personal holiness. Finally, in giving this written testimony he has broken his pledge not to reveal diplomatic and papal secrets, doing so only because his “conscience dictates.” As he writes:
“To restore the beauty of holiness to the face of the Bride of Christ, which is terribly disfigured by so many abominable crimes, and if we truly want to free the Church from the fetid swamp into which she has fallen, we must have the courage to tear down the culture of secrecy and publicly confess the truths we have kept hidden. We must tear down the conspiracy of silence with which bishops and priests have protected themselves at the expense of their faithful, a conspiracy of silence that in the eyes of the world risks making the Church look like a sect, a conspiracy of silence not so dissimilar from the one that prevails in the mafia. “Whatever you have said in the dark … shall be proclaimed from the housetops” (Lk. 12:3).”
Vigano’s testimony has met with mixed reaction. On the one hand, several highly regarded prelates have spoken up in support of Vigano’s personal integrity and the need to pursue investigation of his accusations. Among these are Cardinal DiNardo (president of the USCCB, and Archbishop of Houston), Cardinal Raymond Burke, Archbishop Chaput (Philadelphia), Archbishop Olmstead (Phoenix), Archbishop Vigneron (Detroit) and Bishop Morlino (Madison).
On the other side, many are trying to dismiss the charges as part of a wider “cabal” on the part of conservative prelates to undermine or even depose Pope Francis. They are painting Vigano as a bitter, “anti-gay,” disgruntled bureaucrat. Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago responded (he was named in the testimony), “The Pope has a bigger agenda. He’s got to get on with other things, of talking about the environment and protecting migrants and carrying on the work of the church. We’re not going to go down a rabbit hole on this.”
WHAT THE…? What crud. What happened to leaving no stone unturned to root out the abuse, unchastity and lying in the hierarchy?
The ONLY question is, are these CHARGES TRUE OR NOT?
If they are true, they demand immediate, vehement, dramatic and definitive action. And with all filial respect to His Holiness, as several bishops have pointed out, if the charges against him are true, and I pray devoutly they are not, the Pope has met his own criteria for removing other bishops/cardinals from office.
For myself, I have long prayed for a high-ranking bishop to come forward to tell the whole truth about the filth in the Church. Haven’t we all? And now one might be doing just that. Are we now to ignore him, or simply dismiss him as a kook? If so, we might as well stop asking God for help, if we reject the help He may be sending us.
Kavanaugh Hearings. This week the Senate will hold hearings on the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The radical left in our country has tried to find some reason to stop his confirmation, but so far they have come up with nothing, except that he’s probably going to overturn abortion on demand. And that is enough to convince almost all the democrat senators to oppose his nomination.
So, let’s pray that Brett, our fellow practicing Catholic, our brother in Christ, is filled with Christ’s peace and courage, receives a fair hearing, free of rancorous personal attacks, and that he be swiftly confirmed by the Senate. To this end, you will find in your pews today new Holy Cards of St. Raymond, the patron saint of lawyers. On one side is his picture, on the other our prayer to him. I ask that all of us, as a parish, pray this prayer every day this week for the above intentions. May God generously answer our prayers.
Lighting Project. Well, we’re done. And thanks be to God, it seems to have been a huge success. I hope you all agree. Thank you all for your patience, and thanks to those who made special donations to pay for the fix. And last but not least thanks to parish plant manager, Tom Browne, for supervising the whole project. Tom spent countless hours, including some all-nighters, to make sure everything went as perfectly as possible. Kudos and blessings on Tom.
Reparations. Many bishops, including our own Bishop Burbidge, have asked us to pray and do acts of penance in reparation for the terrible sins of abuse, lying and unchastity among priests and bishops. In response to that a catholic friend of mine, a doctor and mother of a large family, wrote me: “I can’t tolerate being asked to participate in reparations for the sins of priests and bishops. I won’t fast for them. I’ve already been paying for their diabolical behavior…What an insult…”
Actually, part of me had that exact same initial reaction. But another part of me recognizes that if something is going to be done, you and I have to do what we can help get it done, “if not you and I, who?” So we pray for God’s intervention, and we do penance, offering sacrifices in reparation for the sins of others, showing God that we are sorry for their sins and our love for and dedication to Him. In essence, we follow Jesus instruction about driving out the most pernicious demons, “This kind can come out only by prayer and fasting.”
Humanae Vitae & Fifty Years. Next Saturday, September 8, is our conference on the historic encyclical of Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae. Contact the parish office for more information. I hope to see you all there.
Oremus pro invicem. Fr. De Celles