Friday, July 6, 2018
Bishop of Würzburg Gives Out Communion to Protestants
Würzburg (kath.net) The Würzburg bishop Franz Jung pronounced a general invitation to the Eucharistic reception for Protestant spouses at the two pontifical masses for married couples. "But today, the anniversary of marriage, I would like to make the invitation to the Eucharist for interchurch marriages, in which the two partners have remained faithful to each other," said the recently consecrated bishop according to the press office of his diocese. There was no indication in the press release that even in the DBK orientation aid, which had not been approved by the pope, there was no generalized access to any Protestant married to a Catholic spouse without distinction. It was, according to Jung in his sermon, for a long time fought over intensively, what could be a spiritual path, at the end of a permission for Communion in individual cases for Protestant partners could look like. He would, ‘intensively discuss this recommendation of the German Bishops' Conference with the diocesan councils in the coming period.’ The German bishops, however, want to ‘pay special tribute to the ‘lived faithfulness of marriages in the domestic Church’ especially in confessional marriages,” he continued in his sermon.
The only admission requirement for a Protestant Christian married to a Catholic to the Catholic Eucharist, therefore, seems to be a suitably long marriage in these Mass celebrations with Bishop Jung. The admission of Protestant Christians "on an individual basis", which is so strongly emphasized in the discussion, seems to be obsolete here, but at least it does not appear in the press release. Bishop Jung could thus be the first Catholic bishop in Germany to publicly represent such a general invitation to the Protestant spouse and spread it through the diocesan media.
In the run-up to the Kiliani Pilgrimage Week 2018 couples are invited to these services in Kiliansdom, who have been married for 25, 50, 60 or 65 years.
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG
Wednesday, July 4, 2018
Paderborn Priest Circle Opposes Bishop’s Heretical Proposal for Protestant Communion
Tuesday, July 3, 2018
Priest Goes to Get Gaymarried in Canaries — Bishop: “He hasn’t asked to leave the priesthood”
Monday, July 2, 2018
Magister Says Women Deacons Are Coming
Edit: they already have the snake goddess religion enthroned in the Vatican, no?
Vatican City, Jul 2, 2018 / 02:08 pm (CNA).- While a veteran Vatican journalist has suggested that the 2019 Synod of Bishops from the Amazonian basin might open the door to the appointment of women as deacons, recent comments from the Vatican’s doctrinal chief imply that is not likely to be the case.
In a July 1 blog post, veteran Vatican journalist Sandro Magister argued that Pope Francis this year has made three major “u-turns” on key topics, noting that the pontiff has not been clear on whether the “reversals” are “definitive and sincere.”
Magister cited Francis' about-face on Chilean Bishop Juan Barros, who until recently led the Diocese of Osorno, but who resigned in June in wake of the country's massive clerical abuse scandal and accusations of cover-up.
AMDG
Sacrilegious Communions Publicly Encouraged by Archbishop of Paderborn
Communist Government in Spain Wants to Remove Franco’s Remains — Church’s Pathetic Response
The Archdiocese of Madrid has warned the Spanish government against plans to exhume the remains of the country’s late dictator, General Francisco Franco, without obtaining agreement from interested parties. “We want a solution which helps build a peaceful country,” said Rodrigo Pinedo Texidor, archdiocesan communications director, noting that the archdiocese is not for or against the removal of Franco’s remains
“We are against moves which don’t have his family’s consent and don’t consider what the Church has to say,” he told Catholic News Service after Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez confirmed plans to remove the remains from a state mausoleum at the Valley of the Fallen, near Madrid, by the end of July.
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2018/07/01/spanish-church-expresses-concern-at-plan-to-exhume-francos-remains/
AMDG
Priest Sent on Vacation After Desecrating his Church on Video
Of course, the priest will probabably be back on the job after a “recuperative” period.
An independent bishop, Pat Buckley, brought the video to the attention of the bishops, and he was told they turned it over to the Gardai.
Link to Irish Mirror...
Could it be Gabriel?
AMDG
Sunday, July 1, 2018
Pope Francis Meets Pope for Peace Prayer in Bari on July 7
Saturday, June 30, 2018
Another Papal Coverup?
Nonetheless, his full article had been transcribed by another Italian website – Acta Apostolicae Sedis. The reader can find a snapshot here; the second part of the posting is Tossati’s article. The Brazilian blog Fratres in Unummade the piece accessible in Portuguese, where I found it, with its various Spanish and Italian links. I thank the blog for this important public service. I am translating the data into English and passing the information on to my readers.
The case history & cover-up
In May 2013, the Appeals Tribunal of Quilmes, Buenos Aires, Argentina, confirmed a sentence by the City Court condemning the Diocese to pay US $27,000 (115,600 pesetas) to a victim of pedophilia to compensate for his psychological treatment and the moral damage he suffered.
Bishop Athanasius Schneider Warns Against Mass Immigration
(Rome) Behind the mass immigration to Europe is a plan to exchange European peoples. This is what Mgr. Athanasius Schneider, one of the most distinguished bishops of the Catholic Church, said in an interview with the Italian daily Il Giornale on Wednesday. It is also about a "directed" attempt to challenge Christianity in Europe.
Bishop Schneider is a Russo-German. He still knows the Soviet Union and communist totalitarianism from his own experience. This distinguishes him from other German bishops and probably also explains that he speaks a different language in terms of content.
Bishop Schneider is Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Astana in Kazakhstan. In neighboring Kyrgyzstan, he was born in 1961 as the son of Black Sea German parents, who had been deported to Central Asia by the Soviets. In 1973, the family arrived in Baden-Württemberg as a Russo-German resettlers. After his studies and his ordination, he received his doctorate in Rome in Patristics. In 2001 he went to Kazakhstan for his order, the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross. In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him to be the auxiliary bishop of the diocese of Karaganda, 2011 to the auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of Astana. Bishop Schneider speaks fluent English, Russian, Italian and Portuguese in addition to his German mother tongue and speaks Latin and Greek.
"European Union is a kind of new Soviet Union"
Il Giornale: There is a big discussion on immigration. Has Italy abandoned the European Union? The Church is constantly admonishing our country for the "idea of humanity".
Bishop Schneider: The phenomenon of so-called "immigration" is a plan that has long been prepared by international powers to change the Christian and national identity of European peoples. These powers use the enormous moral potential of the Church and its structures to more effectively achieve its anti-Christian and anti-European goals. For this purpose, the true understanding of humanity and even the Christian commandment of charity are misused.
Il Giornale: What do you think of Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini?
Bishop Schneider: I do not know and do not closely observe the political situation in Italy, so I am not in a position to comment on it. But this is true: if the government of a European country tries to emphasize its own sovereignty and its own historical, cultural and Christian identity against the totalitarianism of a kind of new Soviet Union that today calls itself the European Union and has an unmistakably Masonic ideology, then that is certainly commendable.
Text: Andreas Becker
Image: Il Giornale (screenshot)
Friday, June 29, 2018
Cardinal Burke Ordains Four New Priests in France
Thursday, June 28, 2018
Evil Jesuit School: “It is Normal and Okay to Have an Abortion”
The club also sponsored a pro-homosexual "Pride Prom 2018" on campus.
Priest Paying €1000 to Stop Abortions
Italy | Padua - 28.06.2018
A pastor in Italy has caused a sensation with an unusual initiative for the protection of life: Don Marco Sacattolon gave women, who originally wanted to abort their child, but then decided against it, 1,000 euros. According to Italian media reports, a total of six women have received this financial support, who had previously sought help from the priest from nearby Padua and then carried out such a change of heart.
There was praise for this initiative from the Vatican. "Their behavior is a shining example of the immense value of human life and its support and says more than 1,000 sermons and teachings," says a letter from the papal ambassador in Italy to the clergyman, Archbishop Emil Paul Tscherrig. In it, he conveyed in the name of the Pope "sincere appreciation" for the Italian clergyman.
Criticism came from politicians. The deputy leader of the Democratic Party in Padua, Michela Lorenzato, wrote in an open letter, the only correct position in such a situation, is to inform pregnant women about it and then let them decide for themselves. One has to learn to respect the decisions of women. (Well)
Cardinal Turkson Warns Against Immigration from Africa
Cardinal Müller Contradicts the Evil Cardinal Marx
Müller stated that Marx and his accomplices want to change the doctrines of the Faith which contradict the “mainstream”.
To reach their goals they are willing to accept division among bishops and to push Catholic faithful out of the Church, “We are dealing with a blatant process of Protestantizing”, Müller added.
He confirmed that Protestants may only receive Holy Communion when in danger of death, “No bishop has the authority to administer Holy Communion to Christians who are not in full communion with the Catholic Church.”
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
And Now! Surfing, Bikini Mass!
Edit: did Brian Wilson compose the Credo?
Neo-Cardinal Ladaria on His Achievements and Honor: "Covering Up Tends to Favor Abuse"
"The facts of each case are to be deliberated, tried, and duly punished for those who have committed these crimes. We are also interested in this because of prevention, and thus we see that we have an awareness of the problem and cover nothing."The future cardinal acknowledged that it was "once different when one tended to cover up." However, this attitude must be eradicated, "because it favors that this abuse continues."
He sees the cardinal dignity he is about to receive as a "responsibility" but also as a "sign of trust" that the Pope offers him.
"I suppose the Pope will have thought that my work in nine years as secretary of the Congregation was not so bad, and has appointed me prefect."His work will thereby "not change in substance," but it will be done in a different way, "with greater responsibility." The duties and responsibilities of the Prefect of a Congregation, however, were not directly related to the cardinal dignity.
Only recently had Ladaria made it clear that the decision of Pope John Paul II of 1994 that the priesthood for women is definitely impossible. He disagreed with Church voices, who wanted to see only a provisional decision. But the Church is "so rich" and diverse that the question of the role of women in the Church should not be "reduced" to the sacrament of Holy Orders. That would be a "impoverishment."
For example, in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith there are three women who work as consultors . There are six women in the International Theological Commission and three in the Bible Commission , according to the prefect of faith.
As of next week, Ladaria will be one of 125 cardinals who could attend a conclave and elect the Pope.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Revista Ecclesia (screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Masonic Grandmaster Says Pope is “Prototype of Enlightened Despot of the World”
(Rome) What does a Grand Master of Freemasonry say about Pope Francis? A few days ago, the official website of the Grand Lodge of Italy (GLRI) published some Thoughts by Grandmaster Fabio Venzi. Even more enlightening seem to be words of his predecessor in the office of grandmaster.
The main concern of Grand Master Venzi is to correct on 28 pages "enormous inaccuracies, contradictions and misstatements" in the recent report of the Anti-Mafia Committee of Inquiry of the Italian Parliament. The Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry had submitted it on 21 December 2017.
Rosy Bindi as Chairwoman of the Anti-Mafia Committee of Inquiry of the Italian Parliament
Rosy Bindi as Chairwoman of the Anti-Mafia Committee of Inquiry of the Italian Parliament
The committee, which was in office until the parliamentary elections last March, was chaired by former Christian Democrat politician and Minister of Health, Rosy Bindi.
In the Bindi report, among other things, is the revelation of the infiltration of some Masonic organizations by the mafia. On page 155 there is a brief paragraph on the incompatibility of the Catholic Church and Freemasonry, without giving the reasons for this incompatibility. It wasn’t the allegations of infiltration by the mafia, but this paragraph of eleven lines, that was addressed by Grand Master Vanzi. "This is undoubtedly the most troubling part" of the report (page 2).
In his reply, the Grand Master claims a perfect compatibility between Church and lodge. Freemasonry is not plotting, the anti-masonry critics are absurd and slanderous in their statements (p.2ff) and probably suffer from a "dysphoria of personality" (p.26).
Grandmaster Creates Confusion
Grandmaster Fabio Venzi
Venzi, a sociologist, tries to confuse the average reader himself in apparent trivialities. So he writes:
"As I have already suggested, we know that hostility to Masonry was born before Freemasonry" (p. 25f).
In his latest book "The Last Heresy" (L'ultima eresia) he says:
"Hostility to Freemasonry goes with Freemasonry" (p. 11).
At his hearing before the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry on 24 January 2017, he stated (see Stenographic Minutes of the Committee of Inquiry):
"Freemasonry was created in 1717. The first anti-Masonite document dates from 1652."
And further:
Not "Satanic", just a Luciferian component
"The problems of free masonry are problems that arise along with Freemasonry.”
"Lucifer" by Franz von Stuck (1890)
So what !? There is considerable confusion in the statements of the Grand Master. When was the hostility to Freemasonry really born? Even he doesn't seem to be able to believe that it could have existed even before the founding of the Masons. The statements of the Grand Master, however, help to better understand the incompatibility between Church and lodge. In his remarks, the Grand Master clearly shows that Freemasonry is a "mystery school" with an "initiation rite", "one of the many esoteric movements" (p. 4).
The Grand master, however, resolutely defends himself against the assertion of a "'Satanic' component of Freemasonry" (p. 5). On the other hand, he does not reject an initiatory, esoteric, gnostic and Luciferian component. The title page of his already mentioned, most recent book "The Last Heresy" is at least adorned with the picture of the painting "Lucifer" by the German painter Franz von Stuck (1890).
Conspiracy against the church? "Ridiculous…"
Freemasonry has conspired against the Church?
Impossible, ridiculous, absurd, says Grand Master Venzi. He also describes it as "ridiculous" that he is supposed to have "important, clerical allies" and "contacts with high-ranking representatives in the Vatican" (page 3f). In the book "Masonic Vatican. Lodges, money and occult power: The secret side of the Church of Pope Francis" (Vaticano Massone), published by the Vaticanist Giacomo Galeazzi in 2013 with his colleague Ferruccio Pinotti, sounds quite different. The two journalists also spoke with Grand Master Venzi.
Masonic Vatican (2013)
He "revealed to us that in his obedience, the only one recognized by the Grand Lodge of England, there are many priests. Venzi is in a sober and discreet way to begin a dialogue with representatives of the Vatican "(p. 54).
Galeazzi and Pinotti wrote:
"It is suggested by many that behind the recent and revolutionary events in the Vatican, especially the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, is the hand of the lodges. In the corridors of the Sacri Palazzi it is whispered that even the election of the new Pope is their work. After a pontificate of closure like that of Ratzinger, it is probable that many among the lodge brothers hope, with the help of the Jesuit Bergoglio, to re-establish the old sympathies between the Society of Jesus and the Freemasons "(see also The Jesuit on the Pope's throne)."Do you know the 'Santa'?"
Venzi denies in his "Thoughts" that the Masonic rituals are secret because "they are easy to find on numerous websites" (p. 13). However, he does not name such a website that could serve as a reliable source. If the rituals of Freemasonry, its obedience or any other obedience are not secret, then why not publish them on the official site of the Grand Lodge?
"The Last Heresy" by Grandmaster Fabio Venzi (2017)
Rather, the Grand Master blames the chairman of the parliamentary committee of inquiry Bindi for asking him a "provocative" question at the hearing (p. 23). In fact, the question to the Grand Master was directly related to the mission of the Anti-Mafia Committee:
"Do you know the 'Santa', the leader of the` Ndrangheta, who smuggle their men into the Masonic lodges? "1)
"Freemasonry can survive in the underground"
Grand Master Venzi is astonished that the Bindi report mentions a possible "dissolution of the societies" (p. 25) by the state.
Cryptically, the Grand Master indicates that the Masons are capable of working in the underground in such a case.
He says:
"Even if Italy forbade Freemasonry, it would still exist abroad, which could infiltrate it and rebuild it in Italy" (p. 25).In other words, the Grand Master indicates that a state ban can not shake a secret society with so much experience.
The Bindi report also mentions Pope Francis, who in 2017 refused accreditation to the Holy See for a designated ambassador because of his membership in the lodge. Apparently, the Grand Master is concerned that the Italian State could follow suit and remove the Freemasons from its diplomatic service among its ambassadors. But this danger does not seem to exist, for Bindi emphasized in her report that the Anti-Mafia Committee of Inquiry had "nothing to do with the phenomenon of Freemasonry itself", not even with Italian Freemasonry as a whole, but only with four obediences including the Grand Lodge (p. 91f).
The Grand Master does not have to worry. The Italian state will not ban Freemasonry because every government would fear a massive national and international reaction from Freemasonry. In view of the Grandmaster's suggestion of contacts with high-ranking Church representatives, it would not be excluded that even there someone could tune into the choir in defense of the lodge brothers.
Ex-grandmaster Di Bernardo
Ex-grandmaster Di Bernardo
Venzi also criticizes his predecessor, Grand Master Giuliano Di Bernardo (p. 24). Di Bernardo was Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy (1990-1993). As the Italian party system of the post-war period imploded under corruption charges (Christian Democracy, Socialist Party) and the collapse of the Eastern Bloc (Communist Party), and the Great Orient and its networking came into the spotlight, Di Bernardo sought safety, resigned and founded the Grand Lodge of Italy, whose grandmaster he became. The Grand Lodge was, in contrast to the Great Orient, recognized by the Grand Lodge of England. It was Di Bernardo who in 1999 brought the Mason Venzi into the Grand Lodge and presented him as his successor. Since 2001 Venzi is Grandmaster.
In a radio interview for Border Nights, Di Bernardo said last April:
Di Bernardo added:
"The Grand Lodge of Italy, according to the report of the anti-mafia commission on the Great Orient, is most contaminated by infiltrations of the mafia and the 'Ndrangheta" (Min. 31: 50-32: 13) .2).
"The Grand Lodge of Italy, which was the showpiece of Italian and English Freemasonry, was reduced to rubble by Fabio Venzi. I wonder how the Grand Lodge of England can continue to recognize her as the only Masonic obedience on Italian soil. Why does not Venzi come back? If Venzi leaves, perhaps someone else could return a minimum of dignity to what I call my Masonic creation "(Min 33: 23-34: 20).
An "enlightened despot" is supposed to rule the world
Far more interesting than these internal-lodge animosities is another statement by Di Bernardo, who was, after all, the grand master of Italy's two biggest obediences and internationally well-connected. Di Bernardo is convinced that "global society" can not be governed democratically, but only through "a community of wise men who embody the One, the enlightened tyrant" (Min. 40: 00-40: 47).
But was it not Freemasonry, which in the 18th.-- 20th Centuries fought with particular determination against the ancien regime and against the monarchies (except the English) and for democracy? Did democracy serve only as an intermediate step to get rid of the old order?
In an interview with the daily Libero on 22 February 2016, the former Grand Master praised Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, the Vatican diplomat whom Pope Francis sent to the Vatican Secretariat of State in the Summer of 2013. Parolin attended an annnual convention of the Bilderbergers at the beginning of June as the first Secretary of State with the consent of Pope Francis.
And what does a Grand Master praise a Cardinal Secretary of State for? Because Parolin, according to Di Bernardo, has "no negative and hostile attitude towards the freemasonry and the esoteric." This then resulted in the following question and answer in the Libero interview:
Libero: What is your prototype of an enlightened tyrant?
Di Bernardo: If I really should name one, I would say: Pope Francis.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Corrispondenza Romana / MiL / Wikicommons / IxR (screenshots
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
1. | ↑ | `Ndrangheta is called the Calabrian mafia, which consists of different clans (` Ndrine), which territorially divide Calabria, Italy and the foreign countries. The structure of ` Ndrangheta is very similar to Freemasonry. The membership is acquired through an initiation rite. At the top stands the 'Santa ', in which the memberships are again only possible under certain, already passed stages and according to hierarchical regulations. Similarly, there are degrees and special lodges in the lodges. The ' Santisti ', members of the ' Santa ', ritually call three "patron saints": Giuseppe Garibaldi, Giuseppe Mazzini and Alfonso La Marmora. All three were high-grade freemasons, Garibaldi even Grand Master of the Great Orient of Italy. |
Second | ↑ | Abroad, every form of organized crime is often mistakenly called a mafia . In reality, only the Sicilian is called that. That of Naples and Campania is the Camorra , that of Calabria the ' Ndrangheta , that of Apulia the Sacra Corona Unita |
Sunday, June 24, 2018
Saint John Cantius Priest Exonerated But Won’t Return
Yesterday I posted that Fr. Frank Phillips who founded the Canons of St. John Cantius in Chicago, who had been accused of immoral behavior and suspended pended an investigation by a board, had been exonerated of all charges.The board issued a letter.
I wrote, in an update to that post, that people in the Chicago would not make a mistake to attend Sunday Masses this weekend.
AMDG
Saturday, June 23, 2018
Ferrara‘s Cathedral Ad Orientem Liturgy is Over
Mexican Bishops Respond to Dangers to their Clergy
Edit: as Mexican Bishops decry US policy aimed at criminals pouring across the border, they take steps to safeguard their own priests against rampant crime and disorder in their own back yard.
It’s a wonder how the Bishops of Mexico can’t have a little charity for the people of America, who also have to suffer from the murder and mayhem slopping over the border, since they too suffer from it.
[Catholic Standard] Mexico's bishops have published security protocols, hoping to keep priests and religious safe -- along with church property and shrines -- as crime and violence increasingly impacts churchmen and consumes previously peaceful corners of the country.
"The protocol is in response to what's happened the last two years, the increase in murders, not only of priests, (but) there's also a surge in this pain that is impacting our country," Auxiliary Bishop Alfonso Miranda Guardiola of Monterrey, the Mexican bishops' conference secretary-general, told reporters June 19.
"This protocol is meant to be a strong prevention tool."
Mexico suffered its most murderous year in memory in 2017, recording more than 29,000 homicides, as the country's crackdown on drug cartels and organized crime showed few signs of success. Crimes such as kidnap, extortion and robbery with violence have harmed ordinary Mexicans and, increasingly, priests.
AMDG
Thursday, June 21, 2018
Italy’s Bishops’ Conference Mouthpiece Libels Cardinal Burke
[Gloria.TV] In April, Avvenire, the daily of the Italian bishops, published a nasty piece against Cardinal Raymond Burke, written by Gianni Gennari, a former priest known for his attacks against Benedict XVI and John Paul II.
Without checking the facts, Gennari falsely accused the cardinal of having called Pope Francis an antichrist during a talk in Rome.
Only in June Avvenire published an abbreviated version of Burke’s reply in which he pointed out that Gennari’s claims where in no way related to what he had said during his talk. He asked Avvenire for a public rectification and excuse.
Marco Tarquinio, Avvenire’s editor-in-chief, commented Burke’s letter defending Gennari’s calumnies. He added more insults and lies by referring to other alleged statements of Burke for which he did not even indicate the source.
The Catholic outlet LaNuovaBQ.it commented on Tarquinio’s behaviour like this, “A newspaper set up on the model of the Pravda of Soviet memory, cannot but handle those it perceives as 'enemies of the revolution' in a Soviet way.”
AMDG
Wednesday, June 20, 2018
Cardinal McCarrick is an Evil Sexual Predator
I never wrote the story about McCarrick, because I could not get anybody to go on the record. That spring, I fielded more than a few calls from Catholic priests from the New Jersey area who had direct personal knowledge of McCarrick’s sexual derring-do with seminarians. They would phone me, tell me what they knew, and then beg me to “do something”! I would tell them that I could do nothing until and unless they provided documents, and/or were willing to put their name to public accusations.
Taking a look at Richard Sipe’s piece will show you just how slippery this McCormick is, but also how negligent McCarrick’s superiors were, since they were already well-informed about his sexual depravity before they appointed him to one of ththe Church’s most important Sees. Dreher says there was a well-known conservative priest had intervened to defend McCarrick. Wonder who that was?
However much we might deplore Dreher’s apostasy, he certainly was aware of a lot of dirt in the hierarchy that no one, including Benedict XVI and “Saint” John Paul II., effectively addressed.
Here’s Sipe:
[TIA] Your Holiness, I, Richard Sipe, approach you reluctantly to speak about the problem of sexual abuse by priests and bishops in the United States, but I am encouraged and prompted by the directive of Vatican II, Lumen Gentium,Chapter IV, No. 37. “By reason of knowledge, competence…the laity are empowered—indeed sometimes obliged—to manifest their opinion on those things that pertain to the good of the Church.” And also moved by your heartfelt demonstration of concern for victims on your recent visit to the United States I bring to your attention a dimension of the crisis not yet addressed. It is closer to the systemic center of the problem and one most difficult for you to address.
This sexual aberration is not generated from the bottom up - that is only from unsuitable candidates - but from the top down - that is from the sexual behaviors of superiors, even bishops and cardinals.
The problem facing us in the American church is systemic. I will present Your Holiness with only a few examples:
Bishop Thomas Lyons, now deceased, who was an Auxiliary in the Archdiocese of Washington D.C. groomed, seduced, and sexually abused a boy from the time he was seven years old until he was 17. When that boy grew into manhood he in turn abused his own child and young relatives. When I asked him about his actions he said to me, “I thought it was natural. Father (Lyons) told me a priest showed him this when he was growing up.” A pattern was perpetuated for at least four generations.
Abbot John Eidenschink of St. John’s Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota sexually abused some of his young monks during confession and spiritual direction. He admitted this behavior in regard to two of the monks I interviewed. They described the behavior in disturbingly graphic detail. Older monks that I interviewed told me that they knew that John’s Novice Master was inappropriately affectionate with him during his two years as a novice. More than a dozen of the monks of this monastery have been credibly accused of abuse of minors while Abbot Eidenschink was promoted to President of his Monastic Congregation, the American Cassinese.
While I was Adjunct Professor at a Pontifical Seminary, St. Mary’s Baltimore (1972-1984) a number of seminarians came to me with concerns about the behavior of Theodore E. McCarrick, then bishop of Metuchen, New Jersey. It has been widely known for several decades that Bishop/Archbishop now Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick took seminarians and young priests to a shore home in New Jersey, sites in New York, and other places and slept with some of them. He established
a coterie of young seminarians and priests that he encouraged to call him “Uncle Ted.” I have his correspondence where he referred to these men as being “cousins” with each other.
Your Holiness, you must seek out and listen to these stories, as I have from many priests about their seduction by highly placed clerics, and the dire consequences in their lives that does end with personal distress.
I know the names of at least four priests who have had sexual encounters with Cardinal McCarrick. I have documents and letters that record the first hand testimony and eye witness accounts of McCarrick, then archbishop of Newark, New Jersey actually having sex with a priest, and at other times subjecting a priest to unwanted sexual advances.
Your Holiness, you must seek out and listen to the stories, as I have from many priests about their seduction by highly placed clerics, and the dire consequences in their lives that does end in their victimization alone.
Such behavior fosters confusion and makes celibacy problematic for seminarians and priests. This abuse paves the way for them to pass the tradition on — to have sex with each other and even with minors.
The pattern and practice of priests in positions of responsibility for the training of men for the priesthood — rectors, confessors, spiritual directors, novice masters, and other clergy — who have sexual relations with seminarians and other priests is rampant in the Catholic Church in the United States. I have reviewed hundreds of documents that record just such behavior and interviewed scores of priests who have suffered from this activity. Priests, sexually active in the above manner have frequently been appointed by the Vatican to be ordained bishops or even created cardinals.
I approach Your Holiness with due reverence, but with the same intensity that motivated Peter Damian to lay out before your predecessor, Pope Leo IX, a description of the condition of the clergy during his time. The problems he spoke of are similar and as great now in the United States as they were then in Rome. If Your Holiness requests I will submit to you personally documentation of that about which I have spoken.
Your Holiness, I submit this to you with urgent concern for our Church, especially for the young and our clergy.