Pope Francis and the current crisis of leadership

We need to know the extent of the rot, which may go all the way up, and all the way through.

Pope Francis celebrates Mass at Santakos Park in Kaunas, Lithuania, Sept. 23. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

The crisis of leadership in the Catholic Church is protracted, persistent, and global. It is already almost unbearably awful in its details, and has barely begun to be reported. What follows is neither reportage — except incidentally — nor analysis, strictly speaking — but commentary, and it is personal.

In January, I predicted that 2018 would be a make-or-break year for Pope Francis — a year in which he would have to decide whether to use his gifts to set his project of curial reform and Church renewal on track, or whether to continue his efforts to remake Rome into “Buenos Aires-on-Tiber”.

In March, on the fifth anniversary of Francis’ election, I considered that the year had got off to a rough start, but noted that we were still in the first quarter. Now the third quarter is rapidly approaching its end, and things have not improved for Francis, who, whatever the external pressures on him, just can’t seem to get out of his own way.

The election of Francis thrilled me, as it did many others, despite my concerns at having a Jesuit pope — concerns perhaps paradoxically rooted in my love for the Ignatian charism and my many personal spiritual debts to great Jesuits, living and dead — and I must say his early forays into pot-stirring and mess-making did not dissuade me from my hope that he was most, at any rate, of what he was cracked up to be.

His remark about gay priests — “Who am I to judge?” — read in context, was unexceptionable, and had enough of the wily Jesuit in it to make me think that his play was inspired. He brought faithful Catholics of every age and state of life in the Church out of the woodwork and into the public conversation to say what the Church really teaches — and people who otherwise wouldn’t have, perked up and listened.

It was more gambit than gamble — there was a downside — but I was game for it, even after I had read reports regarding the case of the specific figure, which gave rise to the question that elicited the now famous answer — Msgr. Battista Ricca — whom Francis apparently trusted, based on limited personal acquaintance and the absence of any official condemnation in Ricca’s jacket, even though the Apostolic Nuncio under whom Ricca had worked in Uruguay did not, owing to serial ambiguities in Ricca’s personal moral conduct. It is worth revisiting Pope Francis’ full response to the question from Brazilian journalist Ilze Scamparini:

About Monsignor Ricca: I did what canon law calls for, that is a preliminary investigation. And from this investigation, there was nothing of what had been alleged. We did not find anything of that. This is the response. But I wish to add something else: I see that many times in the Church, over and above this case, but including this case, people search for “sins from youth”, for example, and then publish them. They are not crimes, right? Crimes are something different: the abuse of minors is a crime. No, sins. But if a person, whether it be a lay person, a priest or a religious sister, commits a sin and then converts, the Lord forgives, and when the Lord forgives, the Lord forgets and this is very important for our lives. When we confess our sins and we truly say, “I have sinned in this”, the Lord forgets, and so we have no right not to forget, because otherwise we would run the risk of the Lord not forgetting our sins. That is a danger. This is important: a theology of sin. Many times I think of Saint Peter. He committed one of the worst sins, that is he denied Christ, and even with this sin they made him Pope. We have to think a great deal about that. But, returning to your question more concretely. In this case, I conducted the preliminary investigation and we didn’t find anything. This is the first question. Then, you spoke about the gay lobby. So much is written about the gay lobby. I still haven’t found anyone with an identity card in the Vatican with “gay” on it. They say there are some there. I believe that when you are dealing with such a person, you must distinguish between the fact of a person being gay and the fact of someone forming a lobby, because not all lobbies are good. This one is not good. If someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him? The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this in a beautiful way, saying … wait a moment, how does it say it … it says: “no one should marginalize these people for this, they must be integrated into society”. The problem is not having this tendency, no, we must be brothers and sisters to one another, and there is this one and there is that one. The problem is in making a lobby of this tendency: a lobby of misers, a lobby of politicians, a lobby of masons, so many lobbies. For me, this is the greater problem. Thank you so much for asking this question. Many thanks.

That was then. This is now. The pope’s basic instinct may well be sound — he’s not wrong to say, “If someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him?” There are many men in priestly ministry who experience same-sex attraction and struggle to live chastely. Sometimes they fail. They are not to be lumped in automatically with the evil men who sought Holy Orders for the target-rich environment and protection a collar affords, while never intending even to attempt a life of chastity.

The real lavender mafiosi groom boys for membership in their ranks, but that is not all they do — they work their work across the board, and may exploit a straight priest’s dalliance just as easily as they might a gay one’s. Exploiting the confusion and naiveté of an adolescent struggling to understand his identity is worse, on the whole, but exploiting the foibles of a grown man is still very bad. The more disorderly men there are in the clergy, the more powerful the lavender mafia will be, regardless of their marks’ status as members or affiliates of the syndicate.

We need to know the extent of the rot, which may — as I have noted elsewhere — go all the way up, and all the way through.

Nearly a month has passed now, since the former papal nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, published his 11-page “testimony”, and while pundits and professional Catholics continue debate whether the Francis pontificate will survive the scandal, the pope himself keeps silence. Sort of.

Two weeks ago, Pope Francis devoted his morning reflections — billed as homilies, though they aren’t really homilies, but brief moral exhortations based loosely on the Readings of the Day — or fervorini to use the Italian word for the genre, to the Great Accuser, saying he attacks bishops especially, trying to expose their sins and scandalize the faithful, whose default disposition is to love their bishops.

Last week, he returned to the theme and enlarged upon it, saying that it was the people who cried out for Jesus’ crucifixion, and it was Jesus, who kept compassionate silence because “the people were deceived by the powerful.” Francis went on to say the true shepherd chooses silence when the Great Accuser attacks him “through so many people.” On Thursday, Pope Francis offered:

[T]he Church, when she journeys through history, is persecuted by hypocrites: hypocrites,within and without. The devil has nothing to do with repentant sinners, because they look upon God and say, “Lord, I am a sinner, help me!” and the Devil is impotent; but he is strong with hypocrites. He is strong, and he uses them to destroy, to destroy the people, to destroy society, to destroy the Church. Hypocrisy is the Devil’s workhorse, for he is a liar. He makes himself out to be a prince, powerful and beautiful, though from behind he is an assassin.

On a good day, comparison of the bishop — who stands among his flock in Christ’s stead, as their pastor — to Our Lord, ought to be aspirational. In the midst of worldwide outcry for accountability from bishops, who have sinfully miscarried in their duty of care and used their power to coverup terrible wrongdoing — their own, and that of others in their charge — and coupled with juxtaposition of the faithful thus alarmed with the people who sought Christ’s blood, such comparison is so far beyond the bounds of reasonable discourse, that one is embarrassed for all those who saw the remarks published on their watch.

If Pope Francis did not have the current crisis of leadership in mind when he uttered those words, then it is fair to say he ought to have been more careful in his choice of them. That he did not, frankly beggars credulity. In any case, he cannot have it both ways: silence is silence, and talk is talk.

The US bishops seem to have begun to grasp the nature of the crisis, and its gravity. They announced new oversight measures this week. However well intentioned, those measures will likely prove toothless without precisely that support from Rome, in the absence of which they announced them.

Last Friday, Pope Francis did accept the resignations of two more bishops in Chile — where he faces a terrible dilemma — but his piecemeal response to that theater of the global crisis has done little to convince the faithful — there or elsewhere — that he even understands how bad things are, let alone that he is serious about addressing the crisis. The bishops he removed on Friday are both credibly accused of abusing minors, yet it took him four months to accept their resignations, even though both had been accused of abuse years ago.

The removals have done little to reassure Catholics in the United States of Francis’ commitment, especially in light of his apparent refusal to support the US bishops in their efforts. Even Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York — who last week announced the appointment of an independent investigator in his archdiocese — has voiced his impatience with the Pope.

Cardinal Dolan’s impatience is eminently understandable: Theodore Edgar “Uncle Ted” McCarrick was a priest of the archdiocese of which Dolan now has charge. McCarrick— who did not rise in the ranks alone —ordained hundreds of priests, and oversaw the formation of hundreds more. For every one that has come forward with allegations of untoward behavior suffered at McCarrick’s hands, there could be dozens who have not. Whether their silence is due to complicity, or to fear of repercussion, the situation is appalling and untenable.

Francis did not cause the crisis, but he is pope now. If his recent predecessors’ records of leadership must be given the most careful scrutiny, that the People of God may judge them candidly — and there must be such a reckoning — Francis sits on Peter’s throne, and is the only one with power to dispose of our circumstances.

In an open letter I wrote to Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence in July, I said, “I believe I speak for many of our brothers and sisters in Christ, when I say that we will not fail to support any shepherd who proves his willingness to toil and to suffer in this cause for our sake and Our Lord’s.”

I said to a friend recently that I still believe the sentiments I expressed to Bishop Tobin to be true, and pray God that Francis of Rome, His vicar on earth, will be that shepherd. If Francis will not be that shepherd, I pray God send us another. What follows is the rest of my response, with minor cosmetic editions:

God will act in His time, not ours, and by means inscrutable to us. In the mean, I am the Pope’s man, God help me, to the last gasp and — quod Deus avertat — the last drop. Finally, there is no other stance for any Catholic to take.

If Francis or anyone else thinks that I or any other member of Christ’s Body as such owes him anything other than this promise and the parrhesia — the manly frankness — for which he himself has called, then he is mistaken. It is because Francis is the Pope, that we must speak our minds to him. It is because Christ is Lord, that we must speak our minds to one another.

There will be hard words in the days and weeks and months to come.

Let us remember that this too, shall pass: that we share one Faith and one Baptism; that nothing we say or do should jeopardize the place of any one of us at the heavenly feast, which is our common hope.

To this, I would add something else I’ve been saying lately — to myself and to others — in essence that, as all this continues to unfold, we must remember that God is good.

His mercy — the response of self-subsistent Charity to sinful creatures — is severe: stern as death, and not less terrible than His wrath. His Church is true: She is His bride, and she must be spotless; He will not have her any other way. There is one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism: one Church founded by Christ on St. Peter for the forgiveness of sin, the redemption of flesh, and the salvation of the world.


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About Christopher R. Altieri 236 Articles
Christopher R. Altieri is a journalist, editor and author of three books, including Reading the News Without Losing Your Faith (Catholic Truth Society, 2021). He is contributing editor to Catholic World Report.

38 Comments

  1. I have two comments:
    1. This fine article begins ‘We need to know the extent of the rot’, and especially after reading the paragraph beginning ‘The real lavender mafiosi groom boys…’, I would urge that, yes, someone needs to write, fast, a thorough detailed exposure of this mafia (naming names, whatever the risk), which clearly has such power in Rome, not to talk of the US, Chile, etc. And who better equipped to write it than Christopher Altieri, who I see lives in Rome? Perhaps, Mr Altieri, you are already working on it.
    2. I would nevertheless – for this task – urge Mr Altieri to do something about his style. In the sentence of about 86 words that runs from ‘It was more gambit… moral conduct’ I have counted at least 6 subordinate clauses, as well as at least 2 parentheses. ‘Who am I to judge?’ A professor of English somewhere in the world, who spend much of my time correcting students’ written work, trying to make it flow better.

  2. “If someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him?”

    “And why even of yourselves, do you not judge that which is just?” Jesus Christ, Luke 12:57

    There are many men in priestly ministry, who experience same-sex attraction and struggle to live chastely.

    All of whom were ordained in violation of Church teaching. While said ordinations may be valid, none of them are licit. They all must be dismissed from the clerical state, plain and simple.

    • D’accord. No normal father of sons, if he is in his right mind, wants his sons around a “chaste gay priest.” “Chaste gays” do not have a vocation to the priesthood. Period. If they did, the Church would have been soliciting them and advocating such a practice, the same as it does for normal men, for centuries.

      • DJR, I am not Gay, but I take issue with your broad definition of “same as it does for normal men, for centuries”. For centuries the church has had Gay clerics. If God made every individual in his own image and likeness, including Gay men, how do you explain “normal”?

    • This perspective articulated by Mr. Lockhart is not merely deficient by common sense, but according to depth theology. It makes no difference that the previous pontiff with impressive academic credentials articulated the same – it is simply mindless. A quick-fix one size fits all solution. Such is employed nine times out of ten in a Church where the primacy of deep prayer is jettisoned for any form of social currency.
      Shame and silence have brought us to this moment. Homosexual males will always apply for admission to the priesthood if for no other reason because only Jesus Christ determines who He desires to follow Him in priestly service and a life of asceticism. Jesus Christ — not some human resources geek posing as a vocation director and who only has the “corporate” culture as the primary concern. These men are defined by an orientation toward Jesus Christ and their lives are governed by discretion and prudence.
      Our concern is not whether a candidate is heterosexual or homosexual but – on the practical level – but whether the man a sexual compulsive. Uncontrolled sexual compulsions are at the heart of this scandal, coupled with the abandonment of asceticism as a value for ALL CATHOLICS, let alone those called to the holy priesthood, the religious and monastic life.
      A Church that is on the cusp of abandoning the practice of priestly celibacy for those in the Amazon jungle is not in a frame of mind to make any decisions about any manner of adaptation to any cultural impulse. All we are doing these days are yapping about sodomy and every other manner of concupiscence. Let’s crawl out of this perpetually self-referential hole and answer the big question – “…but who do you say I AM?” and get on with our vocation, to proclaim HIM to all the nations.

      • I am quite concerned with homosexual men, celibate or otherwise, being ordained. Homosexuality is a disorder and it’s pervasive in this culture. Look at the progression: Obergefell>>bi-sexualism>>transgenderism….what’s next?

        One also needs to examine what the culture was like when Christ came into the World. The culture at the time featured unfaithful priests, rampant (in the pagan world) sexual perversion, child sacrifice and several other mortally sinful activities.

        Who do I say Christ is: the Truth. The Word Made Flesh. Am I to believe that Christ would have been endorsing this sin? Look around you, James: this is annihilating the Christian culture. They are indoctrinating our children. The final battle is over marriage and the family.

        • You basket all men shouldering this into one basket. Christ calls individuals.
          Christ’s grace is able to achieve the miraculous in the lives of men receptive to it. Is this man being called by Christ and is he receptive to His grace? That is the question. This can only be determined by conscientious vocation directors and superiors. [Do they exist is another reasonable question]. Should a sincere virtuous candidate shouldering this cross be denied the opportunity to respond to Christ’s call because we are unwilling to do the depth discernment required of ALL candidates? The Lord who raised Lazarus from the dead, who gave sight to the man born blind, can and will without doubt support and sustain the candidate shouldering same-sex attraction who clings to Him and is prudently directed by holy priests.
          Jesus Christ calls individual men. Each man need be met as the gift he is. The discernment process need be applied with a lens which discerns the virtue being lived out in the candidate and his capacity to grow in all the virtues. Secrecy will encourage deception, and those inadequate to the task will get through and we are back to square one. For all our talk of gay networks in the Church there has never been a neon sign saying “gays only need apply.” It’s happened over time within an élan of secrecy, shame, fear, the wink and the nod – and most importantly grossly deficient attention given theological realities and inadequate practice of the asceticism required priestly existence.

          • Sept. 25th. I understand your merciful response but remember that we are not to place ourselves or others in situations of temptation. We would not send an alcoholic or a recovering alcoholic to work in a bar. A man sexually attracted to other men would be relentlessly tempted by living and bathing and being with other men 24/7 – yes God can work miracles but He also asks for common sense and good judgement – we just need to keep praying that all will be carried out under the grace and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

        • Sept. 25th: A qualification for a call to the Priesthood is that the man would make a good father and a good husband. Not a same sex wife but a female wife. Another qualification is spiritual and emotional maturity and it seems that many emotionally immature young men were accepted into the seminary and were therefore vulnerable to solicitation by sexually deviant predators. The discerning process for entrance into a seminary needs to be more rigorous and certainly not carried out by those who themselves are sexual deviants.

          • With Christ’s call comes the charisms – among those the chastity of heart required for priestly celibacy. If celibacy is found by any candidate an undue burden they don’t have a vocation to the priesthood.
            Do not conflate my reasoning with the confections finding pride of place on the papal airplane which transposes moral license with supernatural mercy.
            Admittedly in a culture subsumed by mass media, grooming the human person from birth for sexual acting out, we find ourselves facing a real challenge. Our obsession with sexual activity, demonstrated even in this thread, supplants our awareness of the action of grace always available to us. The upcoming mitigation of the requirement of priestly celibacy for the Amazon is merely an acquiescence to indigenous pagan culture contemplated for extension to our “first world” pagan culture. This “policy” alteration is a betrayal of our faith. Christian life is about the abandonment of vice and the acquisition of virtue in order that we might be united to Christ Jesus in both time and eternity. This is possible for every human being who exists. It is our vocation by virtue of the sacrament of Baptism to make this actualized in each human life. We do not exclude anyone. We do not set perimeters on the action of Christ in anyone’s life. When we do that we deny Him.

      • Pope John XXIII promulgated the same policy in February of 1961 and he was not the first.

        “Advancement to religious vows and ordination should be barred to those who are afflicted with evil tendencies to homosexuality or pederasty, since for them the common life and the priestly ministry would constitute serious dangers.”

        You lack the necessary acumen to discern whether or not Christ has called any unchaste homosexual to seek ordination. Anyone who thinks that Christ called agenda driven James Martin LGBTSJ et al to be a Priest is delusional.

        Your concern – not our concern – and its accompanying psychobabble BS is irrelevant to the topic at hand. We are witnessing firsthand the byproduct of foolishly thinking that intrinsically disordered sexual deviants are fit to serve as Priests. They are not.

        • The action of Jesus Christ in the life of any man is not BS psychobabble. The very problem we are dealing with here is in all actuality the abandonment of the faith. The core of the very problem we are dealing with is a lack of faith in Jesus Christ and His saving action in our lives. It is eminently manifested in the perceptions articulated here.

          • You also do not consider that there is a serious dimension of fatherhood involved with priestly men. Men who answer the call forgo the embrace of a wife and the possibility of children to be fathers to their parishioners. It goes without saying that homosexual men, unless treated, do no feel called to be fathers to biological children of their own. In several cases–most often in fact–they had no father figure of their own to show them what it even means to be a father.

            Unfortunately the Church has utterly failed to reinforce the paternal aspect of the priesthood unless they think children get new fathers every six years. I would propose that one of the first steps in rooting out this disaster is permanent assignments.

  3. Sadly, our hierarchy, clergy (and yes laity) have “focused” on the Gospels making them their playthings. whatever they want them to mean. We have left behind St. Paul though it was he, St. Ambrose and yes, Plotinus who brought him with God’s Grace to conversion. Let’s not forget St. Monica’s tears and prayers.

    The shocking part really is that he applies “who am I to judge” to the Gospels themselves, to all the Church teachings…that there is really not any one judgement.

    Has it become now “Who are you to say?”

  4. It is alleged by George Neumayr that the rot in the AD of Washington is very deep.

    He reports that the current rector, Msgr. Walter Rossi, owns a house in Fort Lauderdale, FL with another priest from Scranton, PA. He reports that the names of both men can be found in property records in Fort Lauderdale, and that the primary address given for the owners is the mansion in Maryland where Msgr. Rossi resides in the AD of Washington. It is alleged that the two priests are “lovers.”

    In connection, Rossi’s predecessor as rector, Bishop Bransfield, has resigned because of accusations of sexual abuse and/or sexual offenses, again with males.

    Meanwhile, the AD of Washington refuses to answer most any questions, and agressively attacks reporters (both left and right) who try to find out the truth.

    If the story of rector Msgr. Rossi is a fact, and the rebuttal assumption now is that it is, then the meaning is clear: the entire superstructure of the AD of Washington, including most or all of the Auxiliary Bishops and the clergy and laity employed in the chancery of the AD of Washington, are aware of and condone this mortally sinful behavior, and are intent to pretend that they are not being deceitful.

    • Well, who are we to judge, to coin a phrase. And anyway,, as Cardinal Cupich tells us, doesn’t the Church have a “bigger agenda,” such as saving the world from climate change and the migration problem? Jus t a question of proper perspective, eh?

      • Cupich did not speak of any “migration problem.” He mentioned “immigration.” Like Bergoglio and virtually all bishops, the only “problem” Cupich sees in connection with “immigration” is the existence of borders.

        Like many Catholics, I see Bergoglio and almost all bishops as virulent enemies of both my Church and my country.

    • Pro-aborts have been welcome to receive Communion in virtually every diocese, including Washington, ever since the first “Catholic” became publicly pro-abortion. McCarrick-Wuerl have been vociferous CHAMPIONS of scandalous sacrilegious Communion. Every such Communion they tolerate is another mortal sin for the bishop and for the pastor.

      The next archbishop of Washington will be called upon immediately to reveal to all Catholics whether or not he is content to live habitually in the state of mortal sin. Obviously, if no change on this front comes to Washington, all claims of “reform” will be fraudulent.

  5. The solution will require the naming of names of homosexual predators and the removal of said names from their positions and faculties. Hmmmm.
    Sodomy must again be preached as a mortal sin which cries to Heaven for vengeance. Hmmmm. If these actions happen all Hell will, indeed, break loose and the hammers of Hell will be unleashed upon Holy Mother Church.
    So be it.
    In the end, God wins. Or…
    We continue as the pope is deliberately doing. Zero. Cdn Burke suffers, Archbishop Viganò suffers, Fr Philips suffers, Fr Kalchik suffers, the faithful pewsitter suffers. So…
    The rot being so deep, the gay mafia being so connected and violent, nothing short of a Divine intercession will fix this.
    This enemy plays for keeps. This will be a long and bloody fight. Bet on it.

  6. What you neo-cons fail to understand is that when there is a great apostasy from the true faith as there has been since the Modernist’s took control of the institutional Church, many of them Communist and Masonic infiltrator’s, you should not be surprised at the continual and consistent filth, perversion, blasphemy, sacrilege and mockery of God that you see every day because that is all those who are anti-Christ can do. You can’t expect those whose minds, hearts and souls have been turned over to the demonic to act holy.

    Nothing will become good and holy again unless and until they return to or begin to believe in the one, true faith, repent and do acts of reparation and sincerely desire to amend their lives by turning away from serving Satan and become servants of Christ.

    They need the prayers of faithful Catholics more than ever.

  7. Another update on the situation is the interview with Cardinal O’Malley. https://cruxnow.com/encuentro/2018/09/24/omalley-pope-francis-is-anxious-to-help-church-in-the-u-s/ O’Malley attempts to reassure Catholics, especially in the U.S. But after he took part in the long meeting between DiNardo and Francis, the best he can provide is a rather tepid “I think” the Holy Father wants to help the Church in the U.S. investigate the McCarrick mess. I assume DiNardo did in fact raise this issue with Francis. This was the perfect opportunity Francis had to offer a clear statement of how seriously he takes this particular issue, which O’Malley and DiNardo would have been glad to have conveyed to the rest of us. Another lost opportunity.

  8. Time to stop playing ostrich. A heretical and defender of sex abuse is occupying the Chair of Peter. Soon sodomy will be approved, under the guise of magisterial synods. He needs removal but almost everyone is afraid to mention that the emperor has no clothes. Looks like a lamb but speaks like a dragon.

  9. A very painful time for the whole Church. How much knowledge of the of coverup of “McCarrick type” victimization and serial criminal abuse throughout the Church was widely reported by Catholic media but the stories never gained traction? Victims always knew! Now as with “Me, too” the clergy silence exploded — the voices of victims crying out for reform are finally being heard . But can the Pope alone can’t fix this?

  10. Drawn to the article not by the headline, but by the blurb that followed with the words “unbearably awful.” There, I thought, somebody is going to hit the nail on the head.
    That Mr. Altieri initially found the election of this man to the Chair of Saint Peter “thrilling” is mind-numbing. Jorge Mario Bergoglio pedigree was written all over him the moment he was announced – South American Jesuit.
    Honestly. What more to you need? Has the post-conciliar opioid anaesthetized all of us to simple reality? I am no prognosticator. I’m not especially learned. Any doubt about Jorge Mario Bergoglio were incinerated the moment he included Kasper in his Angelus blessing shortly after his consecration as Bishop of Rome.
    We are way beyond the moment to get real. I kept my keyboard at bay, and my lip buttoned for the first three years, but this pontificate is a train wreck. If it is serving any purpose it is to finally rouse those of us who gave the benefit of the doubt to the post-conciliar con job. Bergoglio was the inevitable consequence of the forty year coma – we avoided it only by the grace of God from 1978-2005. But now we got it in living color and it ain’t pretty. It really ain’t pretty.
    Pope Benedict’s resignation was at least irresponsible, perhaps morally. Given the outcome one could almost view it as complicit in sacrilege. If he did nothing else in the years remaining him as supreme pontiff he could have done this one thing. INSURE THE ADVANCEMENT OF GOOD PRIESTS TO THE EPISCOPATE AND THE CARDINATE. We could now be appreciating five years of responsible orthodox appointments rather than the atrocities which have been inflicted around upon the faithful the world by Bergoglio. That alone would have sufficed for any impediment he was experiencing impacting his performance. Believe me, I live in one of the first archdiocese burdened with a Bergoglian appointment.
    What do we have to look forward to now? The next conclave will be subsumed in delusional notions entirely simpatico with the Bergoglian mendacity. It will be decades for Roman Catholicism to rouse from this zeitgeist binge.

    • Totally agree!!Never before better said!! We are from South America and were terrified the day of Pope Francis ‘s election!! Things will become worse. Much more worse. Let us pray for a divine intervention. The sooner, the better. Lord, have mercy !!

  11. Mark you have nailed it, rightly. This will be a long and bloody fight. There are many prophecies from Our Lady of La Salette, France in 1846 that have warned of and predicted this sexual abuse crisis that we are now in. An example: “Priests, my Son’s ministers, priests, by their evil life, by their irreverence’s and their impiety in celebrating the holy mysteries, love of money, love of honor and pleasures, priests have become sewers of impurity. Yes, priests call forth vengeance, and vengeance is suspended over their heads. Woe to priests, and to persons consecrated to God, who by their infidelities and their evil life are crucifying my son anew! The sins of persons consecrated to God cry to heaven and call for vengeance, and now here is vengeance at their very doors, for no longer is anyone found to beg mercy and pardon for the people; there are no more generous souls, there is now no one worthy of offering the spotless Victim to the Eternal on the world’s behalf.”
    “The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish. God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign, in every society and in every family. Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other for more than thirty-five years. “
    Also, Our Lady of Good Success in the early 1600s, at Quito, Ecuador predicted many crises for the latter part of the 20th century and to the present. Pope John Paul II experienced visions of the future while he was convalescing in 1981. He saw, “Precisely at the end of the second millennium, there accumulates on the horizon of all mankind enormously threatening clouds, and darkness falls upon mankind.” The book and web site, “After The Warning To 2038” contains many more Catholic prophecies of future events that are going to unfold soon.

  12. Sept. 25th: Here’s what I don’t understand: You mention Cdl. Dolan’s impatience to begin the investigation. Why has he hired a friend who is pro-gay and pro-abortion to go through the files of the New York Archdiocese. Why would she report any findings that she disagrees with? Is it possible that, being a friend of Cardinal Dolan, she would go so far as to shred any documents that would expose the filth in the Archdiocese?

  13. Question: Do the folks in the Vatican that run things have to take a vow of silence of some sort?
    Also, I read an article written by Fr.George Rutler who said that when the Lord shines His light on sins that have been hidden in the dark (Satan’s preference) that is something we can be grateful for because it’s coming into God’s light! It is a good thing!

  14. Exactly for what is Cardinal Dolan “impatient?”

    Cardinal Dolan often appears to be impatient only for his next luxurious dinner with the rich and powerful who at all other times mock him – and us.

  15. If you are still in doubt please read LEVITICUS 18, THE SANCTITY OF SEX. And I quote,”18-22, YOU SHALL NOT LIE WITH A MALE AS WITH A WOMEN; SUCH A THING IS AN ABOMINATION.” What happen to the vows of chastity and obedience? I rest my case.

  16. As a Catholic psychiatrist who for many, many years screened seminary candidates for the Diocese of Wichita, I can attest that the problem of discovering same sex attraction in a person is almost impossible, unless of course it is volunteered. There are no psychological tests that reliably uncover this. Perceptive questioning can always be denied. Screening by inquiry of family, peers, etc. can be helpful.
    The only reliable solution is when the first evidence of homosexuality arises in the course of seminary events, the person should be kindly rejected for the priesthood. We should pray for the person who struggles with the affliction in that situation, but the compulsion for expression of the attraction can be so great that no expression of hopeful control is reliable.

  17. James has revealed to all of us in an articulate manner,that he knows the mind of God! I do not wish to dissuade him for i am merely a child of God, albeit a sinner with no eloquence, percieved or otherwise. But on the topics of charisms and uncontrolled sexual tendencies it has just recently been brought to my attention via EWTN Catholic radio, that it is a fact those suffering from homosexual tendencies are more prone to uncontrolled sexual compulsions then heterosexuals. Of course not having the mind of God myself, but merely the mind of a child of God, “My Father in Heaven, You would never intend to expose Your children innocently to the whims of a child predator in the form of a trusted Shepherd would you? His answer came in Matthew 18 vs 6 which mentions something about millstones i believe. But do not take my Word for it, but please take the Words word for it. And before i forget, since i have such a short attention span, i remember reading in Genesis about the 3 angels God sent to Sodom and Gomorrah via Abraham. If memory serves me correctly, God did no send them on a recruiting mission for priests, but for the purpose of total annihilation!!!

  18. For sure, i have come to the childlike conclusion that despite all orthodox reasoning, indeed Pope Francis is in God’s plan in keeping an unbroken succesion as Vicor of Christ. Remember now, Jesus says, and i will paraphrase for the sake of those who hate to hear God’s word coming from one with less sophistication than their own: Unless one comes as a child as this , he will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Holy Mother Church tried unsuccessfully in 2002 to remedy this unholy, barbaric, evil spirit that had enveloped the sanctity of her most treasured vehicle of salvation; Her Ministerial Priesthood. The method of ministry He chose to stay with us, His children, till His second coming. What better way to flush out from their dark sanctuary all those perverse, distortions of those who had chose to play the role of Judas instead. They have not only betrayed the sheep, but least we forget, Jesus Himself, our Lord and our God. Soon after Francis’ entrance, they (more than i have room and time to mention) came scampering from behind their darkened sanctuaries and exposed themselves to our orthodox eyes, feeling as though the time (Francis’ Pontificate) was right to effect their agenda. Our Papa first looked “mercifully” away? Then became ambiguous. Now he is silent. What can we expect? Only God knows for sure, and i am just His child. But with Faith, Hope, and Love, i look forward to seeing His Divine plan played out. Psalm 117: Praise God all you nations: extol Him all you peoples. For His love is strong: His faithfulness eternal.

  19. I hope you will be able to repeat the last paragraph after the Youth Synod is over. The faith will remain, but it may be obvious that it’s heart cannot be in the Vatican.

5 Trackbacks / Pingbacks

  1. Pope Francis and the current crisis of leadership -
  2. Canon212 Update: The Sacraments Must Be Wrecked Before Francis’ Totalitarian Church Can Go Wordwide – The Stumbling Block
  3. Sex Scandal & Cover-up: Tvesday Second Edition – Big Pulpit
  4. Pope Francis and the French clerical abuse/coverup report – Catholic World Report – The Old Roman
  5. The Abyssal Eyes Of Father Rupnik - The American Conservative

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