Not since the so-called “insurrection” of four years ago, on January 6, has Washington experienced something like this kind of breaking news:
Washington, D.C., will now be home to 5 cardinals and one ex- cardinal, Cardinals Donald Wuerl, Wilton Gregory, ex-Theodore McCarrick, the three emeriti, Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio, and now McElroy. Cardinal Sean O'Malley, the retired archbishop of Boston, has indicated he intends to spend about half his time at the Capuchin College in D.C.,
36 comments:
Just when you think things can't get any worse....
New York should be coming up soon too. My money is on Card. Tobin…
Why has not Cupich been replaced? He turned 75 in March. I guess he has more damage to do before he goes!
The photo of McElroy confirms what I think of which team he plays for!
Maybe McKnight to Chicago…
And the clown show continues
The tone deafness of Rome concerning this appointment while disappointing is not surprising. Two years before the McCarrick scandal came to light, McElory was informed by Richard Sipe of the criminal behavior of McCarrick and did nothing with the information. He is now a successor to McCarrick in Washington. The whole thing stinks to high heaven.
The gift that will keep on giving for years to come.
We have a lot of evil men running things now, but they will be gone soon, and will receive their "reward."
McElroy, one of McCarrick's buddies, to ADW just means it will continue to be driven into the ground in the most corrupt, scandalizing ways possible.
Nick
This isn't a bit suprising. One can only hope that as this erudite leftist ideologe prances to the D.C. Archbishop's chair, it will be part of the last gasp of the self-hating Catholicism that has been a train-wreck/dumpster fire since 1964. (My apologies to the train wrecks and dumpster fires of the world--metaphors increasingly fail me).
Once Francis goes to his “reward” I expect the Church will revive some. His appointments have escalated institutional collapse
I will be interested to see who replaces Archbishop Schnurr of Cincinnati.
I appreciated the remarks that Cardinal McElroy issued during yesterday's press conference in Washington, D.C. He highlighted that we are rooted in Jesus Christ. We are called to conversion and holiness.
Cardinal McElroy also highlighted our need to protect the unborn.
Cardinal McElroy made clear his determination to promote the Holy Gospel/Culture of Life. I pray for Cardinal McElroy's holy success.
May the Blessed Virgin Mary, dear Saint Joseph, as well as all the Angels and Saints, please pray that Cardinal McElroy will achieve holy success.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
With Father McDonald's permission:
Excerpts from yesterday's remarks that Cardinal McElroy had offered:
"The “The process of synodality upon which our Church has embarked...consists of a journey, rooted overwhelmingly in a single event – the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
‘Every new step in the life of the Church is a return to this source. It is a renewed experience of the disciples’ encounter with the Risen One in the Upper Room on Easter evening.’
"In that journey we are called to build up a Church centered in the Eucharist and devoted to the Word of God and the sacraments that sustain us.
"Synodality calls us to create disciples who, in the light of baptism, are co-responsible with every believer for the task of evangelizing the Church, the culture, and the world in which we live...called to conversion and change in our lives, and to reconciliation with God and one another.
“Synodality...seeks the participation of every disciple in the Church’s journey in this earthly pilgrimage, and is oriented toward the building of unity in society rooted in God’s justice, which cares especially for the unborn..."
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Hey Mark Thomas, you never told us how the priest saying a Novus Ordo "Mass" in the water on a raft in his bathing suit is holy, sane and sacred. What gives?
One priest commentator here wrote that the appointment of McElroy just shows how out of touch and “tone deaf” Pope Francis is to the needs of the Washington, DC Archdioces given the grave scandals associated with McCarrick and Wuerl and those who covered up the sex abuse crimes of McCarrick or knew about them and did nothing. Among those is McElroy.
Crux has a commentary on McElroy, his strengths and weaknesses, but it also calls him out:
“Yet McElroy’s appointment also points to the other issue facing Francis’s final years: The never-ending abuse crisis in the Church.
The cardinal is accused of not properly addressing accusations given to him from clerical sex abuse expert Richard Sipe in 2016. (Sipe died in 2018.)
The pope himself has long been dogged by accusations he tends to believe the protests of innocence from clergy over the accusations made from the victims.
Francis took the word of Chilean Bishop Juan Barros, Argentinian Gustavo Óscar Zanchetta, and Theodore McCarrick over the objections of their victims, before reversing course after public outrage.
Since the 1950s, conservative politicians in the West have generally been respectful towards the Vatican, often fearful of losing Catholic votes. The new populist leaders – who often have strong support from Mass-going Catholics – are less likely to fear offending the Church leadership by bringing up the Vatican’s own skeletons when they feel attacked by the pope.
The next few years might be interesting.”
As an aside, Richard Sipe quoted in the Crux article taught me several pastoral courses at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore in the late 70’s. He was an eccentric character, a laicized Dominican married to a exclaustrated nun but within the Church. Despite his ecentric personality, he was very honest.
I have learned that the best way to get Mark Thomas to clam up is to ask him a direct question about his ludicrous assertions!
Fr McDonald, I have read a couple of Sipes’s books and they have been eye-opening.He called out Holy, Holy McCarrick years before the Vatican did anything. Under many State’s “duty to report laws” “men” like McElroy would be in jail.
Father McDonald,
Here is an interesting article by Alan Dershowitz where he goes after Pope Francis for bearing false witness against Israel. Although I am not a fan of non-Catholics commenting on any Pope, this article is worth a read. One factual point he fails to make is Pope Pius XII was praised by Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog as a "righteous gentile." Pius XII being a tool of Hitler was started by a Communist smear merchant, Rolf Hochhuth, when he wrote a play called "The Deputy."
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21295/pope-francis-bearing-false-witness
It is apparent that whosoever is responsible for this appointment is giving a greater importance to the abuser than to the abused
Fr. David Evans,
What a shocking surprise, after the positions and/or protections extended to Rupnik, Grossi, Zanchetta, and on and on, literally ad nauseam.
Nick
If I were attempting to destroy the unity of the Catholic Church, I would elect a man like Pope Francis
There is not a chance that the so-called "skeletons" in the Vatican's "closet" would prevent Pope Francis, and/or Cardinal McElroy, from proposing Church teaching to the Trump Administration.
The "Popes/Cardinals/bishops-have-covered-for-perverted-priests" card has been played for years by folks who desired to silence Holy Mother Church.
Even within the Church, years prior to Pope Francis' Pontificate, the likes of Richard Sipe denounced, for example, Popes for having, in Mister Sipes' (R.I.P.) opinion, covered for sexually abusive priests.
Nevertheless, said Popes did not back down in the face of such accusations.
For example, in 2010 A.D., Richard Sipe denounced Pope Benedict XVI's handling of sexual abuse cases related to priests. Among his negative assessments of said Pope, Richard Sipe declared:
"...bishops not only knew what priests were doing to minors, but they were covering up what they knew and participating in the abuse by transferring the abusers from one parish or locale to another without informing or warning anyone of the previous assaults. They blamed psychiatrists and lawyers for giving them bad advice. "
"Pope Benedict XVI recently still used this excuse."
"There is no doubt that abuse of minors is a societal problem. Church authorities, including the Pope, continue to use this fact to try and justify the problem in the ranks of the clergy."
Richard Sipe, as well as others, lodged additional accusations against Pope Benedict XVI. However, Pope Benedict XVI did not cower to his accusers.
In turn, Pope Francis has not cowered to his accusers. Cardinal McElroy has not cowered to his accusers.
In regard to sexually abusive priests: Attacks against Rome/The Church are decades old. Said attacks will continue. Nevertheless, holy Pope Francis, as well as Cardinal McElroy, will not hesitate to proclaim the Gospel.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Mark Thomas, to maintain your credibility here you really need to respond to the sanctity, sanity and sacredness of the Novus Ordo "Mass" celebrated by the priest on a raft in a bathing suit. Since it took place in Italy why hasn't Pope Francis delt with it?
Here is an article laying out Pope Francis' crimes regarding the sexual scandals in the clergy, take a look but you do need to answer why didn't Pope Francis deal with the cocaine, homosexual orgy at the Vatican by clerics there? Holy, holy, I guess in your mind.
https://onepeterfive.com/call-for-the-resignation-of-pope-francis/
Mark Thomas,
"People accusing high-ranking churchmen of covering up for sexually abusive priests are just trying to silence the Church" is an unusually horrific and out-of-touch take, given the mountain of evidence for high-ranking churchmen, from popes on down, doing exactly that for the last few (several?) decades.
Nick
Nick, the "take" in question is not "unusually horrific and out-of-touch." Attempts to silence/defame Holy Mother Church are alive and well. We hear such things as...
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How dare the Catholic Church "lecture" the world in regard to sexual morality. The Catholic Church, via Her priesthood, exists as a good 'ol boys club designed to rape and molest minors.
How dare the Catholic Church lecture Israel in regard to the horrific destruction unleashed upon Palestinians. After all, the Catholic Church is antisemitic to Her core. For centuries, the Church fomented hatred of Jews.
In turn, the Catholic Church is responsible for the Holocaust. Pope Venerable Pius XII served as "Hitler's Pope."
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The above "cards," as well as additional "cards," have been played repeatedly to attempt to cower the True Church into silence. Many critics of Pope Francis are livid in regard to his having assigned Cardinal McElroy to Washington, D.C.
As a result of that appointment, said critics of Pope Francis have insisted that the "Popes/Cardinals/bishops-have-covered-for-perverted-priests" card will be played repeatedly against the Church.
Attempts to silence/defame the True Church are alive and well. But the True Church will not cower in silence. — in Washington, D.C., as well as beyond.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Nick, that is MT’s stock and trade: holy, holy, etc
I invite all interested parties--at least those interested in reading something beyond their limited comfort zones of "truth"--to read the letters in the link I pasted below. How anyone can stomach this craven, brazen, demonic and downright shameless hypocrisy in the Church and look away is beyond me.
https://www.gomulka.net/Open.pdf
Mark Thomas,
Simply put, "Nuts!" Defamation requires the statements to be false. It is an unbelievable level of delusion to assert that high-ranking members of the hierarchy haven't engaged in sex abuse cover-ups. They've engaged in sex abuse themselves! How much more evidence does anyone need to accept that statement as true? How many more victims need to be silenced, mocked, ignored, left to "cower in silence" by the "HOLY HOLY HOLY" popes, cardinals, and bishops? Why do you dismiss any sort of justice to them, and prevention of future sins and crimes, as just "cards" to be played? (I would say don't answer that, but I know you won't anyway.)
It beggars belief to assert that the Church cleansing Herself of abusive priests and bishops, and the coverups of their abuse, rather than promoting and protecting those involved, is "cowering in silence."
None of this is to say that the Church can't teach on morality--of course not. The Truth does not change, even if those entrusted to Its care and spread are derelict. And of course, you bring up demonstrably false red herrings (Pius XII being "Hitler's Pope," etc.) as if they had anything to do with what is true.
And for some reason, you act as if Catholics who admit that the cover-ups happened do so out of hatred for or some strange motivation to defame the Church. This is absurd. Those who want to see the Church cleansed of such horrible conduct love the Church and want to see Her thrive here on Earth. It does no good to simply "hear no evil, see no evil, speak HOLY HOLY HOLY" when it is completely divorced from the facts.
This kind of blind institutionalist jingoism was understandable in the 1950s, or maybe, maybe even the 1970s or '80s, but now? After the evidence of decades of sexual abuse and yes, coverups thereof? That nonsense has no place even crossing the mind of Catholics, especially in the hierarchy, except as an attitude to be carefully guarded against.
Nick
Jerome,
Channeling Mark Thomas:
Those women are just playing cards to try to defame and cow the Church into silence! They're obviously just trying to smear the HOLY HOLY HOLY Cardinals of the Church! Do they deserve a hearing? No. Do they deserve justice? Definitely not. All is well! The Church is holy, and perfect, and none of Her earthly hierarchy have ever done anything like covering for rape and sexual abuse! Why do you hate the Church?
Bloody outrageous.
Nick
Nick, anyone with an ounce of intelligence and integrity already knows that all that "Hitler's Pope" garbage is pure bullsh_t. It's been debunked several times and has ZERO credibility. Not worth even responding to. It's about as legit as the allegations that Trump told people to inject bleach or praised racists at a protest. The best way to deal with stupidity is to give it the attention it deserves--none. Don't dignify it.
Nick, hello.
Nick, I have not claimed that "that high-ranking members of the hierarchy haven't engaged in sex abuse cover-ups."
I recognize that from the dawn of Catholicism to date, "filth " (then-Cardinal Ratzinger's description) has existed within Holy Mother Church. I have, via my countless sins, and to my shame, contributed to said "filth."
My point is that there are folks who have attempted to attack/silence the Church by playing the "cards" which I have referenced in this thread.
There are folks here, and in the news article that Father McDonald linked, who fear that attempts will be made to discredit/diminish Cardinal McElroy, and, in turn, the Church/Pope Francis. Said attempts will feature the "let's play the skeletons within the Vatican's closet" card.
Is there, and has there always been, "filth" among the Church's clergy, religious, as well as laity? Yes.
Are there folks who try to defame Church teachings/silence the Church by playing the..."there are skeletons in the Church's/Vatican's closet" card? Yes.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Nick and Jerome,
Since Mark Thomas NEVER responds when he is confronted about his myriad of falsehoods, I suggest we ignore him. He's a troll and not a serious poster.
Mark Thomas,
"Is there, and has there always been, "filth" among the Church's clergy, religious, as well as laity? Yes."
Very well. At least we've established that.
But that being the case, why do you think the protection and/or promotion by the Church of those who have engaged in such "filth" is such an important part of the Church's mission?
Is Cardinal McElroy the only possible pick for ADW who could "propose Church teaching to the Trump Administration"? Or has the McCarrick stain pervaded the entire American episcopate?
Is there so much filth that there is no one who isn't implicated in sex abuse and/or its coverups who could have been selected?
Are we simply to accept that the holy holy holy bishops are just so guilty as a whole that there is simply no other choice?
It's not "cowering" to put your best, most credible foot forward. Instead, what we have here is a Cupich pick, a political pick, another promotion for another cleric involved in sex abuse coverups after how many over the last decades.
If you're so concerned about the Church "cowering" from preaching the Truth, the better option than blithe Pollyanna-ing is to ensure She has the strongest moral credibility to do so--which isn't achieved by hand-waving "rah-rahs" celebrating the willingness of the Church to so braaavely promote and protect those who should benefit from neither treatment.
Nick
Nick said..."And of course, you bring up demonstrably false red herrings (Pius XII being "Hitler's Pope," etc.) as if they had anything to do with what is true."
Nick, the defamation of Pope Venerable Pius XII is pertinent to this thread. The "Pope Venerable Pius XII served as Hitler's Pope" card has been played by certain folks to defame Pope Francis' concern for Palestinians.
Pope Francis has been attacked via..."the Catholic Church is antisemitic to Her core...Her Popes have long been antisemites...Pope Venerable Pius XII served as 'Hitler's Pope"...now, it's Pope Francis' turn" card.
It is part of the "let's attempt to defame/diminish" the Catholic Church by rattling the so-called 'skeletons' within Her closet" game.
That "card" has been played against our holy Popes. That "card" has been played already against Cardinal McElroy.
Again, the defamation of Pope Venerable Pius XII pertains to this discussion.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
TJM,
I suppose you're probably right. Whatever the cause, all of the off-the-wall grasping-at-straws MT keeps pulling out ("this is just like when Pius XII was accused of helping the Nazis!!!" Seriously?) is indicative of unusually strong willful-blindness or unusually motivated trolling.
Nick
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