Fr. Tom Collins on the Serious Deficiencies in the USCCB Response to Child Sex Abuse

Editor's note: And remember....We are still waiting for the McCarrick report. Is anyone at the Vatican listening? They hope we have short memories! Fr. Tom doesn't and neither do we! My comments in red.

After solid proof finally came to light that, for close to two decades, the USCCB’s famous Dallas Charter allowed predators like Cardinal McCarrick to continue their predations, many Catholics have raised other questions about the transparency of the official USCCB’s narrative on the issue of child sexual abuse and exploitation. As Dan Bongino likes to put it, the USCCB bureaucracy seems to be giving us a story, but not the story. [The USCCB undermines the faith and financially supports intrinsic evils. Let's all urge our bishops to withdraw and stop their funding.] This suspicion is aggravated by the following questions.First, why have there been no clear and decisive condemnations of specific groups promoting aborticide and the grooming of children to be more open to sexual experimentation and exploitation. Among these groups are Planned Parenthood and the North America Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA). These groups are not only seeking to pervert the ability of our children to appreciate the virtues of modesty and chastity, they also degrade the integrity of natural and covenantal marriage as established by God. The USCCB’s refusal to condemn the agenda of organizations promoting perversion is manifest in the way mandatory VIRTUS training bulletins do not include information which pro-actively promotes modesty, chastity and integral covenantal marriage. They ignore the fact that in the spiritual life as well as in military operations, the best defense is a good offense. The positive promotion of virtue is essential for the healthy formation of all of us, and especially our children. Failure to do so is a serious sin of omission.

Secondly, if the sexual abuse of children by powerful predatory priests and prelates is a serious sin, why has the evil of sacrilegious desecration of the Eucharistic Christ by such predatory clergy been a non-issue for the USCCB? All these predators frequently offered Mass and received Holy Communion in a state of unrepented and unconfessed mortal sin. Yet it seems that the USCCB has overlooked the need to offer substantial acts of reparation to the Eucharistic Victim of their sacrileges. This failure has been giving two seriously dangerous impressions to the faithful – 1) that the Eucharistic Christ is not really sacred and thus not worth any serious consideration, and 2) that the real reason for developing and implementing the Dallas Charter was merely to avoid bad publicity and the loss of revenue from disaffected Catholics. [That's exactly what the Dallas Charter was about, as well as shifting responsibility for child sex abuse to pastors and the laity. VIRTUS is a CYA operation that preaches the lie that the crisis was not about homosexuality.]

Thirdly, for decades, a number of priests were penalized for opposing the prevalent narrative of their day, which asserted that “avoiding scandal” justified the implementation of immoral and illegal actions. Thus it was that abused children and their parents were bullied into silence and that these crimes against them not be reported to the police. In some cases, hush money was paid out to prevent adverse publicity. Yet priests who would not go along with this narrative were severely penalized. How many of these priests have been given a public apology and a full restoration of faculties? [None that I've seen. Faithful priests continue to be persecuted -- James Altman at present, while heretics like James Martin get important Vatican posts and speaking invitation from liberal bishops -- not to mention the evil Democrat Party.] While activist homosexual priests continue to be given favorable forums in Catholic churches, seminars and schools, priests, who have been “disciplined” for their diligent pastoral solicitude toward abused children continue to suffer for their fidelity to their flocks. Why is this so? [Because many of our bishops are false shepherds and hirelings.]

Fourthly, if the USCCB is really serious about protecting our children, why, for over three decades, has it not been decisive in opposing pornographic programs and movies, which target innocent children? The recent Netflix’s movie, Cuties, which is designed to give innocent children the impression that sexual promiscuity and perversion are both normal and normative is a case in point. Why has there been no episcopal outcry against “family life curricula”, which degrade our children’s appreciation of natural marriage and of the virtues of modesty and chastity? And why is the proposed California law, which would reduce certain forms of pedophilia from a felony to a misdemeanor, given little attention, much less opposition, in so much of the official Catholic press? The USCCB bureaucracy seems to have forgotten that the only thing needed for the metastatic spread of evil is for “good pastors” to do or say nothing in opposition to its destructive seductions. 

Fifthly, if our bishops are really serious about protecting our children rather than just protecting their assets, why are they not giving vigorous public support to the Trump Administration’s current campaigns 1) to decisively break up human trafficking cartels, 2) to stop child sexual abuse and exploitation, and 3) to prosecute those perpetrating those crimes? Such reluctance on the part of our bishops is increasingly giving credence to suspicions that powerful prelates may be among those enjoying the fruits of (and even profiting from) these “industries”. [We know of a number who did. McCarrick has plenty of company.] Likewise, the general, and at times vitriolic and slanderous, hostility of many of the members of our hierarchy toward Trump and his supporters is raising questions as to whether they may indeed be part of the child trafficking and abuse cartels, which he is working to expose and prosecute. After all, they themselves had to admit that they had helped to perpetuate the perversions of child sexual abuse – but only after they were exposed by the secular press and had to deal with litigation, which cost the Church billions of dollars. Is it any wonder, then, that some Catholics are asking, “Could the episcopal hostility toward Trump be motivated by a fear that his decisive campaign against human trafficking may soon expose facts - facts which would leave them and their dioceses liable to prosecution and penalties under Federal RICO laws?” [Send out the investigative teams and expose the filth!]

Thus it is that, in spite of the fanfare with which the Dallas Charter was unveiled, we are still left with many unanswered questions. And just as Pope Francis has declined to answer questions (dubia), which deal with issues critical for the salvation of souls, the USCCB bureaucracy does not seem to be inclined to go beyond the narrative it established in its Dallas Charter. 

Damage control and hubris may help to mitigate litigation, but only the truth can set us free. May the Holy Spirit infuse in all members of the Church a more humble and docile accountability to the whole truth of God, so that all humanity may be redeemed and regenerated anew in the image and likeness of God. [Amen!]

Fr. Thomas R. Collins