Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney, Australia apologized for “unbeautiful and unwelcoming liturgies” that have
failed to inspire, for being denied the Church’s treasury of
reconciliation, adoration and other devotions, and for “poor preaching,
catechesis or spiritual direction that fails to convert.”
What does he mean by unbeautiful liturgies? Today you ask two
Catholics what a beautiful liturgy is, you'll get many different
answers. It's all subjective today.
Unbeautiful may be a good word, but more specifics are needed:
1. Sloppy
2. Casual
3. Busy, activity oriented
4. Function over prayer, worship, adoration and devotional contemplation
5. Popular devotions completely lacking for 95% of the 25% of Catholics who actually go to Mass
In other words instead of just unbeautiful, the Ordinary Mass is just ordinary but worse yet UNTRANSCENDENT!
The fix short of suppressing the Ordinary form:
1. Chant the propers
2. Get rid of the useless repetition of the Responsorial Pslam refrains and recover the Gradual and Tract
3. Ad orientem for the Liturgy of the Eucharist
4. Recovery of proper choreography of the priest and servers
5. Low voice canon
6. Kneeling for Holy Communion
Finally the type of hymns chosen for the Mass must be examined and the proper Catholic spirituality and devotional quality of what is sung must be named and recovered:
For example, the Protestant hymn, “How Great Thou Art” while beautiful, inspirational, robust and singable, is dripping with Protestant devotional piety and ethos. It is not Catholic in its spirituality and devotional aspects—it clearly drips with Protestant sentimentality.
Secular, piano bar, Broadway sounding or trendy, faddish music also makes the liturgy unbeautiful and untranscendent not to mention banal, no matter how much the melody gets the person’s emotional responses moving.
Archbishop Chaput: ‘LGBT’ Should Not Be Used in Church Docs
In his intervention at the youth synod today, the Archbishop of Philadelphia said the Church should instead be explaining why Catholic teaching about human sexuality is true, ennobling and merciful.
SYNOD INTERVENTION
Chapter IV, paragraphs 51-63
+Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
Archbishop of Philadelphia
10.4.18
Brothers,
I was elected to the synod’s permanent council three years ago. At the time, I was asked, along with other members, to suggest themes for this synod. My counsel then was to focus on Psalm 8. We all know the text:
“When I look at thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast established; what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him?”
Who we are as creatures, what it means to be human, why we should imagine we have any special dignity at all — these are the chronic questions behind all our anxieties and conflicts. And the answer to all of them will not be found in ideologies or the social sciences, but only in the person of Jesus Christ, redeemer of man. Which of course means we need to understand, at the deepest level, why we need to be redeemed in the first place.
If we lack the confidence to preach Jesus Christ without hesitation or excuses to every generation, especially to the young, then the Church is just another purveyor of ethical pieties the world doesn’t need.
In this light, I read Chapter IV of the instrumentum, grafs 51-63, with keen interest. The chapter does a good job of describing the anthropological and cultural challenges facing our young people. In fact, describing today’s problems, and noting the need to accompany young people as they face those problems, are strengths of the instrumentum overall. But I believe graf 51 is misleading when it speaks of young people as the “watchmen and seismographs of every age.” This is false flattery, and it masks a loss of adult trust in the continuing beauty and power of the beliefs we have received.
In reality, young people are too often products of the age, shaped in part by the words, the love, the confidence, and the witness of their parents and teachers, but more profoundly today by a culture that is both deeply appealing and essentially atheist.
The elders of the faith community have the task of passing the truth of the Gospel from age to age, undamaged by compromise or deformation. Yet too often my generation of leaders, in our families and in the Church, has abdicated that responsibility out of a combination of ignorance, cowardice and laziness in forming young people to carry the faith into the future. Shaping young lives is hard work in the face of a hostile culture. The clergy sexual abuse crisis is precisely a result of the self-indulgence and confusion introduced into the Church in my lifetime, even among those tasked with teaching and leading. And minors — our young people — have paid the price for it.
Finally, what the Church holds to be true about human sexuality is not a stumbling block. It is the only real path to joy and wholeness. There is no such thing as an “LGBTQ Catholic” or a “transgender Catholic” or a “heterosexual Catholic,” as if our sexual appetites defined who we are; as if these designations described discrete communities of differing but equal integrity within the real ecclesial community, the body of Jesus Christ. This has never been true in the life of the Church, and is not true now. It follows that “LGBTQ” and similar language should not be used in Church documents, because using it suggests that these are real, autonomous groups, and the Church simply doesn’t categorize people that way.
Explaining why Catholic teaching about human sexuality is true, and why it’s ennobling and merciful, seems crucial to any discussion of anthropological issues. Yet it’s regrettably missing from this chapter and this document. I hope revisions by the Synod Fathers can address that.
[The Holy Father] also warned that rejecting all that has been “handed down across the ages” brings only a “dangerous disorientation” and urged the synod fathers not to listen to “prophets of doom” but to keep their “gaze fixed on the good that ‘often makes no sound; it is neither a topic for blogs, nor front page news.”
October 3, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Cardinal Gerhard Müller has confirmed that the Vatican investigation into sexual abuse by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor was not completed, but instead was stopped for lack of the Pope’s approval.
The cardinal spoke with LifeSiteNews yesterday in Washington, D.C. while there to speak at the Napa Institute’s Conference on Authentic Catholic Reform.
LifeSiteNews asked Cardinal Müller if Pope Francis had indeed halted the investigation into Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor, who passed away in 2017. Müller was until recently the Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), the Vatican body tasked with investigating sex abuse cases. Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor was accused of abusing a girl when she was 13 or 14 during the 1960s.
Cardinal Müller told LifeSiteNews he was “bound by Pontifical Secret,” but said that “the Pope’s approval is required for investigations” of a Cardinal. LifeSiteNews informed Müller that some news reports were suggesting he had completed the investigation, rather than the investigation having been interrupted and prevented from continuing.
LifeSiteNews asked the cardinal if he would at least go on the record to indicate that the investigation was stopped, rather than completed, and he agreed, “yes.”
By age 9 or 10, she had her first doubts about the faith, and not long after, she felt confident telling her parents: The Catholic Church, Agata Leoniddi said, seemed “outdated and backwards.”
The language at Mass was archaic. The teaching was rigid and unwelcoming. And some of the issues most important to her — including gender equality — were not discussed in church, where the leaders were entirely male. Leoniddi had spent her childhood within the church, but more and more, she was reaching the conclusion of so many young people in the developed world who’ve abandoned organized religion and, in particular, the scandal-riddled Catholic faith.
“I don’t think the church understands my generation,” said Leoniddi, now 12, who lives in a village among rolling hills 50 miles outside of Rome. “We are not like our grandfathers.”
The failure to attract and retain young people has become a central focus this month as the Vatican holds a major summit on the topic of youths within the faith. Among the pressing questions is whether an institution often criticized as out of touch can regain relevance for a younger generation — and whether the church’s power brokers are willing to listen to what those people have to say.
I began our every Tuesday Low Mass in the Ancient Form yesterday at St. Anne Church. It's at 6 PM. I gave a brief homily on the difference between the two forms of the one Latin Rite.
I encouraged the congregation to take part in the spoken parts of the Mass that the altar boy (in our case altar man) says. And they did very well. But I emphasized that the actual participation in the EF Mass is more contemplative, much like Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
Each person brings his or her own prayer to Mass, their own needs and the needs of their loved ones and acquaintances as well as the needs of the local, national and worldwide communities and Church.
Therefore in the EF Mass, silence is not something added to the Mass when nothing else is being said, but there is silence in the midst of the Church most public prayer, especially at the offering of the Roman Canon.
The priest offers the Canon in a low voice and we join his silence to our own in wonder and awe.
And since only the Roman Canon is used in this form of the Mass, everyone should know what it his without hearing it. They should pray it apart from Mass and thus will not need a worship aid such as a hand missal to follow the priest.
They should gaze upon the altar as the priest offers the canon in the Person of Christ, Head of the Church. Allow the sign language of the priest, his arm motions, bows, genuflection, kisses of the altar, the bells be a powerful "spoken" Word to their hearts as the Canon is prayed.
This quiet can be disconcerting if our only experience is the business and noises of the Ordinary Form with words and more words and more words shouted at us rather than offered exclusively to God.
Yes, the world needs more silence. It's too noisey and to quote Pope Francis, via the Second Vatican Council:
"Refuse to give free course to the instincts of violence and hatred
which beget wars and all their train of miseries. Be generous, pure,
respectful and sincere, and build in enthusiasm a better world than your
elders had."
I might add, make silence a form of your own spirituality with you contemplatively and thus actually participation in the holy of holies as though behind an iconostasis.
By the way, could you just imagine if the silent Roman Canon were added to the OF Mass with no other changes, how much more prayerful it would be for the holy people of God?
Pope Francis likes to switch his papal staff out for a concoction of other ones. I wonder if the youth made the one he used this morning and if this is the idea of liturgical beauty that the youth of today have for papalware? If so, maybe we need artists to accompany them and the pope too?
You can read the entire NCR article by pressing the title. How do you interpret the pope’s remarks????? I never know what his words mean—Confused in Richmond Hill!
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis opened a month-long worldwide meeting of Catholic bishops Oct. 3 by exhorting the hundreds of prelates taking part to guard against "falling into moralistic or elitist postures" as they discuss the needs of young people today.
During his homily for the opening Mass of the Synod of Bishops, which will continue through Oct. 28, the pontiff also asked the prelates to listen to one another "sincerely and prayerfully, as free as possible from prejudice and conditioning."
Francis said the bishops should seek "to enter into communion with the diverse situations that the People of God experience." Such a venture, he said, "protects us from the lure of abstract ideologies that never touch the realities of our people."
"Hope challenges us, moves us and shatters that conformism which says, 'it's always been done like this,'" said the pope. "Hope asks us to get up and look directly into the eyes of young people and see their situations."
By a two-to-one margin, American Catholics now give Francis negative marks for his handling of the sex abuse scandal
(Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images)
As allegations and investigations
of sex abuse in the Catholic Church become more widespread, a new Pew
Research Center survey finds that confidence in the way Pope Francis is
handling the crisis has plummeted among U.S. Catholics. Just
three-in-ten Catholic adults say Francis is doing an “excellent” or a
“good” job addressing the issue, which is down 24 points since 2015 and
14 points from when Pew Research Center last asked the question in
January of this year.
While seven-in-ten American Catholics say their overall opinion of
Pope Francis is favorable, six-in-ten now say he is doing an “only fair”
or “poor” job handling the sex abuse scandal, including 36% who say his
efforts on this front have been poor. This is nearly double the share
who said he was doing a poor job at the beginning of this year, and
triple the share who said this in 2015.
The declining confidence in Francis’ handling of the sex abuse crisis
is broad-based, occurring across a wide variety of subgroups of U.S.
Catholics. Since 2015, for instance, the share who give the pope
“excellent” or “good” ratings for his handling of the issue declined by
24 points among Catholic men and 23 points among Catholic women.
Similarly, both younger and older Catholics have grown increasingly
critical of the pontiff’s handling of the situation.
Even among Catholics who say they attend Mass weekly, the share who
give Francis positive marks for his handling of the sex abuse crisis has
been cut in half since 2015; 34% in this group now give Francis
“excellent” or “good” ratings for his handling of the issue, whereas 67%
gave him a positive evaluation in 2015. When
asked about their overall opinion of Pope Francis, roughly seven-in-ten
U.S. Catholics now say they have a favorable opinion of the pontiff,
down 12 points since the beginning of the year. The decline is
especially evident in the share of American Catholics who say they have a
very favorable opinion of the pope, which now stands at 30%.
By comparison, previous Pew Research Center surveys have generally found
that four-in-ten or more Catholics (and as many as 62% in October 2015)
hold Francis in the highest regard.
These are among the key findings of a new national survey by Pew
Research Center, conducted Sept. 18 to 24 among 1,754 adults, including
336 Catholics. Among the U.S. public as a whole (including both
Catholics and non-Catholics), roughly half say they have a favorable
view of Pope Francis, which is the lowest rating he has received in nine
Pew Research Center surveys that have asked about Pope Francis since
the beginning of his pontificate in 2013.
Until now, Francis has generally earned higher favorability ratings
from the U.S. public than did Pope Benedict XVI. In the new survey,
however, Francis’ favorability rating is on par with the ratings
typically earned by his predecessor, and significantly below the rating
Benedict garnered immediately following his visit to the U.S. in April
2008 (61%).
In surveys conducted between 1987 and 1996, John Paul II was viewed
positively by a larger share of Americans than have ever viewed either
Benedict XVI or Francis positively. However, Pew Research Center polling
did not include questions about John Paul II after news of sex abuse in
the church made national headlines in 2002.
In addition to asking about the pope’s handling of the sex abuse
scandal, the survey also asked Catholics to rate the way Pope Francis is
handling his job in three other areas: appointing new bishops and
cardinals, spreading the Catholic faith, and standing up for traditional
moral values. On all three issues, evaluations of the pope have grown
sharply more negative this year.
For instance, U.S. Catholics are now evenly divided between those who
give Francis positive ratings for the job he has done appointing new
bishops and cardinals and those who give him negative marks in this
area. In January, by contrast, the balance of opinion on this question
tilted heavily in the pope’s favor.
And while the pontiff is still rated more positively than negatively
for the job he has done spreading the Catholic faith and standing up for
traditional moral values, the share of Catholics who say Francis is
doing an excellent or a good job on these fronts also has declined
sharply in recent months. It
is possible that respondents could link any of these areas to the sex
abuse scandal. For example, Francis recently admitted that rather than
spreading the Catholic faith, the scandal is driving Catholics away from the faith. In addition, the church has been criticized for elevating bishops and cardinals despite warnings that they were alleged abusers.
The new study also shows that U.S. Catholics’ views of Pope Francis
are increasingly polarized along political lines. For instance, in 2014,
there was virtually no difference in views of Pope Francis between
Catholic Democrats and those who lean toward the Democratic Party (87%
of whom expressed a favorable view of the Pope) and Catholic Republicans
and those who lean toward the GOP (90% favorable). By January 2018,
however, favorable views of Pope Francis were 10 points higher among
Catholic Democrats than among Catholic Republicans (89% vs. 79%). And
today, the share of Catholics who have a favorable view of the pontiff
is 22 points higher among Democrats than among Republicans (83% vs.
61%).
And while Catholic Democrats and Republicans have both expressed
growing doubts in recent years about Francis’ handling of the sex abuse
scandal, Catholic Democrats are now 13 points more likely than Catholic
Republicans to give him excellent or good ratings in this area (37% vs.
24%).
Declining shares of Catholics and non-Catholics view Francis in a positive light
While most Catholics (and majorities within every Catholic subgroup
analyzed in the survey) rate Pope Francis at least “mostly” favorably,
the share who hold him in the highest esteem is shrinking. Just
three-in-ten U.S. Catholics now say they have a “very favorable” opinion
of Francis, which is down from 45% who said the same earlier this year
and merely half as large as the share who had a “very favorable” view of
the pope in the immediate wake of his visit to the U.S. in October 2015
(62%).
These cooler feelings toward Francis are evident across many Catholic
subgroups. Among Catholic men, for example, the share who say they have
a “very” favorable view of Pope Francis has dropped 20 points in the
past nine months. Even among Catholics who attend Mass at least once a
week, just a third (34%) now say they have a very favorable opinion of
the pontiff, down from 56% in January. And Catholic Democrats, who still
broadly see Francis favorably, also are less likely now to say their
opinion is “very” favorable than they were earlier this year (34% vs.
49% in January 2018).
The survey also shows that American Catholics are not alone in their
shifting opinion of Pope Francis. Just a third (32%) of white
evangelical Protestants hold a positive view of the pope, down from 52%
who said the same in January. And there has been a similar decline in
Francis’ popularity among white mainline Protestants: 67% viewed him
favorably in January, compared with 48% today. Among religiously
unaffiliated adults, roughly half view Francis favorably, relatively
unchanged from earlier this year – but down 18 points since January
2017.
Broad-based declines in U.S. Catholics’ views of how Pope Francis is handling sex abuse scandal, other issues
Generally, Catholics who attend Mass regularly have been more
supportive of the pontiff than have those who do not attend Mass
regularly. But ratings of Pope Francis have declined across the board.
And today, weekly Mass-attending Catholics are no more likely than
Catholics who attend less often to say that Francis is doing an adequate
job handling the sex abuse crisis or standing up for traditional moral
values. Similarly, declines in U.S. Catholics’ ratings of Pope Francis
when it comes to appointing bishops and cardinals or spreading the
Catholic faith have occurred across a variety of Catholic subgroups.
I hope that the synod fathers asked those religious orders that are swimming against the tide of post-Vatican II dumbing down of religious life, how it is they have so many young candidates.
I would recommend asking the young in these orders:
SOME THINK POPE FRANCIS WILL NAME THIS BISHOP THE CARDINAL ARCHBISHOP OF WASHINGTON, DC!
Bishop McElroy Grilled on Gay Clergy, Catholic Sex-Abuse Crisis
San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy speaks at the first of eight listening sessions on clergy sex abuse. He’ll attend four more this week alone. Photo by Chris StoneBy Ken Stone and Chris Stone
Bishop Robert McElroy may have thought he was bringing good news Monday to 330 Roman Catholics attending the first of a series of “listening sessions” on the pedophile priest issue.
McElroy outlined the careful way the San Diego diocese responds to sex-abuse reports. He said the “history of abuse is in the past” with no credible accusations against living priests since 2002.
Only one allegation against a San Diego priest has been made since his arrival in spring 2015, McElroy said, and it was “found not to be credible.” (Four “credible allegations” have been made against lay employees, though.)
And no parishioner money went to settle suits against the local diocese.
But in the parish hall of Our Mother of Confidence Catholic Church in University City, dozens demanded McElroy explain what his superiors — even Pope Francis — were doing to address the crisis of confidence in the church and clergy. (One even called for a “new leader” in the Vatican.)
“We’re in a terrible wrenching moment in the life of our church,” McElroy confessed at the outset, citing the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report that reignited the worldwide predator priest scandal.
The Viganò letter was “an attack on Pope Francis” and “ideologically charged,” McElroy said.
But the McCarrick scandal even touched McElroy.
Viganò wrote, in that late August letter, that McElroy “was also well aware of McCarrick’s abuses, as can be seen from a letter sent to him by Richard Sipe on July 28, 2016.”
However, McElroy told his audience: “It’s my conviction that nobody was aware of any allegation against Cardinal McCarrick about abuse of a minor until this past summer.”
“No, no,” murmured members of the crowd.
McElroy thus tried to fend off a conservative Catholic faction that brought up the work of Sipe, a La Jollan and ex-priest made famous by the movie “Spotlight.”
Sipe, who died Aug. 8 at 85, was the scholar of clergy sexuality who briefed Boston Globe reporters, leading to revelations of a vast Catholic clergy molestation crisis.
“How we respond to reports of sexual abuse” by San Diego Roman Catholic Diocese (PDF)In a July 2016 letter to McElroy, Sipe said it was “credibly established” that 30 percent of U.S. bishops “have a homosexual orientation” and that former San Diego Bishop Robert Bromwas guilty of misconduct that led to a $120,000 settlement.
McElroy told how he tried to engage him but ultimately was put off by Sipe’s lack of investigative rigor. Sipe cited “extremely unreliable” accounts of clergy abuse via “recovered memories” — including sex in a casket, McElroy said.
A handful of audience members grilled McElroy on gay clergy (one of Sipe’s top issues). They asked if the Vatican had a homosexual subculture and whether McElroy would allow gay priests.
The former San Francisco auxiliary bishop said gay men could be ordained if they pledged to be “chaste,” or celibate.
“I want LGBT people to feel welcome in our churches,” McElroy declared, saying any discrimination against that community is unacceptable. But he also said he accepted “everything in the catechism” that opposes homosexuality or sex outside marriage between a man and a woman.
McElroy suggested that altar boys were the most vulnerable population because of “proximity” and not gay priests on the prowl. He said power and domination were bigger factors at work than homosexuality.
Another cause: “psychological underdevelopment.”
McElroy’s liberal views have become a lightning rod for conservative websites such as churchmilitant.com, which alleged that McElroy “quickly marginalized” the Rev. Richard Perozich, a former Old Town priest who published a bulletin making clear “Catholics could not vote in good conscience in line with the Democratic Party.”
After the two-hour event, Rancho Bernardo’s Steve Frost, a former IRS man, said homosexuality was the “elephant in the room.”
“I don’t think a homosexual should be allowed in the priesthood,” he said. “I differ night and day with this guy [McElroy].”
Frost said allowing gay priests around boys was inviting trouble, like “I wouldn’t take my alcoholic brother to a bar.”
Outside the parish hall, Frost added: “I think where the rubber meets the road is it’s all about politics, it’s all about money and power. And power brings in money. … Allegedly McCarrick brought in millions of dollars to the Catholic Church. And money talks.”
Inside the hall, McElroy was urged to demand that U.S. bishops, at a conference in November, take more aggressive steps to deal with the abuse issue.
“I have no confidence that the bishops will police themselves,” a woman said at one of 40 tables where six to eight people picked a representative to ask a question or two.
McElroy said bishops lack formal accountability. The diocesan system, which involves lay people sitting on allegation review boards, should be adopted at the bishop level, he said.
“Lay eyes and perspectives are incredibly vital,” he repeated, having said “we need to have lay people at the very center of teaching us how to move forward.”
But one bone of contention was whether the laity invited the molestation crisis by putting priests on pedestals.
“Clericalism is such a part of the blindness that let this happen,” McElroy said. “People have too high a view of priests and attribute to them a status that shouldn’t be.”
One woman said she loved her religion but came to demand truth and transparency, and a guarantee that it would not be “business as usual.”
Asked if he were satisfied with McElroy’s responses, a San Diego man who gave only his first name — Tomas — said he felt the bishop was dodging some questions. He wished McElroy had answered them more fully.
Joe Quiroz of San Diego said: “What I wanted was a spiritual father angry for his children, and I didn’t feel that he embodied that role.”
He said he thought McElroy had a “CEO or politician mind-set.”
Jamie, who also declined to give her last name, said the bishop didn’t give “tangible examples” of future actions to solve the problems.
He’ll have four more chances this week, though.
Listening sessions are set Wednesday at St. Joseph Cathedral auditorium downtown, Thursday at Our Lady of Grace parish center in El Cajon, Friday at St. Charles Catholic Church parish hall on Saturn Boulevard and Saturday at St. Mary Churchparish center in El Centro. (All times are 7 p.m. except El Centro at 9 a.m.)
The final three stops — with Maria Olivia Galvan (diocese chancellor) and the Rev. John Hurley as facilitators — are 7 p.m. Oct. 17 at Church of the Nativity parish hall in Rancho Santa Fe, 7 p.m. Oct. 18 atSt. Gabriel Churchin Poway and 10 a.m. Nov. 5 at the Joan B. Kroc Institute at the University of San Diego.
On Monday, TV cameras and still photographers were allowed to record McElroy’s opening remarks but were ordered shut when it came to the question-and-answer session.
The fear was cameras would inhibit survivors of clergy abuse from sharing their stories.
But no speaker mentioned having been a victim.
BISHOP MCELROY GRILLED ON GAY CLERGY, CATHOLIC SEX-ABUSE CRISIS was last modified: October 2nd, 2018 by Ken Stone
When we look backwards at the pre-Vatican II Church and religious life in such desperate need of reform and renewal we so longed for Vatican II that would bring a new springtime for the Church and religious life. In this pre-Vatican II photo we see the corruption of religious life in this 17th century Ursuline convent in Quebec:
Before Vatican II
But then, in the nick of time, Vatican II happened and the corrupt pre-Vatican II religious life of the Ursulines was updated and here is the wonderful result as we look forward to the new springtime, the Ursulines no longer have any sisters, so the youthful nuns that are left are leaving and will turn the lights off and lock the door. We can only imagine the horrors if Vatican II had not happened!
Ursuline Sister Cecile Dionne speaks to Sister Pauline Duchesne and Sister Celine Bergeron inside Quebec City's Ursuline monastery chapel June 1. (Credit: CNS photo/Philippe Vaillancourt.)
WHAT IF IN IGNORANCE AND BECAUSE OF A LACK OF BACKGROUND CHECKS, THE CARDINALS IN THE LAST CONCLAVE ELECTED THE ARCHBISHOP AND THEN CARDINAL MCCARRICK AS POPE?
WHAT IF HE HAD BECOME POPE THEODORE THE FIRST IN 2013?????
YES, LET'S SUPPORT THIS LAY INITIATIVE TO DO BACKGROUND CHECKS ON EACH AND EVERY CARDINAL WHO COULD BE ELECTED POPE, ESPECIALLY THE UNKNOWN BISHOPS FROM THE PERIPHERY POPE FRANCIS HAS MADE PRINCES OF THE CHURCH.
WHAT KIND OF BACKGROUND CHECK DID POPE FRANCIS INITIATE ON THESE UNKNOWN BISHOPS HE MADE CARDINALS AND WHAT DID THEY DO AS PRIESTS AND BISHOPS UNKNOWN TO US. DID THEY GET DRUNK IN HIGH SCHOOL AND PASS OUT OR FLIRT IN AN INORDINATE WAY WITH BOYS, TEENAGERS AND THE LIKE. WE NEED TO KNOW!
SINCE THE CARDINALS WHO ELECT THE NEXT POPE FROM THEIR OWN NUMBER, WOULDN'T IT BE EXTREMELY IMPORTANT THAT EACH AND EVERY CARDINAL SUBMIT TO A LAW ENFORCEMENT BACKGROUND CHECK SO THAT CARDINALS KNOW WHO THEY ARE ELECTING POPE?
Praise be Jesus Christ! There is a lay group of wealthy Catholics who plan to do background checks on each and every cardinal elector. THIS IS VERY GOOD NEWS INDEED!
I hope that everyone knows that anyone who works for the Church in parishes and in the diocese and especially those who work with children must submit themselves to background checks by investigators.
The Red Hat Report, dubbed as the group’s “flagship project,” is designed to audit all 124 current papal electors. Organizers say it will be conducted by a team of, to date, nearly 100 researchers, academics, investigators, and journalists, with the aim “to hold the hierarchy of the Catholic Church accountable for abuse and corruption, and to develop and support honesty, clarity, and fidelity in Church governance.”
In an audio recording obtained by Crux of the event’s launch, Better Church Governance’s Operations Director, Jacob Imam, said the organization was not meant as an attack on Pope Francis, though he asked the crowd of nearly forty attendees: “What if we would have had someone else in 2013 who would have been more proactive in protecting the innocent and the young?”
“Had we had the Red Hat Report, we may not have had Pope Francis,” stated one of the slide presentations accompanying his remarks.
Given the lack of knowledge many electors have about each other, Imam argued, it is an “extremely precarious situation…when the doors of the Sistine Chapel close.”
According to its prospectus, the Better Church Governance Group aims to produce its report before the next papal conclave. The estimated first-year expenditures are listed at $1,126,500.
In surveys conducted between 1987 and 1996, John Paul II was viewed
positively by a larger share of Americans than have ever viewed either
Benedict XVI or Francis positively. However, Pew Research Center polling
did not include questions about John Paul II after news of sex abuse in
the church made national headlines in 2002.
