Cardinal Wuerl's New Strategy: Crocodile Tears and Painting Criticism as a Plot to Get the Pope

Darn! I should have brought a handkerchief
with some onions so I could produce some tears!

The rot is out in the open. What happens next will determine whether the outcome is a serious purification or a new cover-up.

Circling the wagons and waiting out the crisis has worked in the past. Can it work again?

Not likely.

So the new strategy is crocodile tears, promises of change, and painting the angry reactions to sex abuse and the cover ups as a plot to get the pope!

Cardinal Wuerl sent out a letter to his priests yesterday which seems to me to be implementing the new strategy. He wants, he says to "be close" to his priests, an expression that made me snort in view of what the crisis is all about. It immediately brought to mind McCarrick asking seminarians to share his bed. Now that's getting "close!"

Bishop Athanasius Schneider on the Vigano Letter

Graphic for the bishops' November
meeting in Baltimore -- Good thing it's next
to the harbor -- plenty of water!

As the U.S. bishops prepare for their upcoming meeting in November I hope they will consider, pray, and prepare to defend the faith. There are likely to be plenty of fireworks, if the good and faithful bishops do their duty and demand a change to the circle-the-wagons, hide-the-truth manner of doing business so typical of the past. 

God forbid that it's a business as usual, ho-hum, nothing-to-see-here-move-along strategy. That is, of course, what Cupich, Farrell, Wuerl, Joseph Tobin, et al will be going for. "Hey, all you right wing, rigid bishops, you've got to stop your clericalism and be pastoral like us. We love our flock, especially the altar boys. 

Truth in the Church These Days is Stranger Than Fiction! The Vigano Adventure....

God bless and protect Archbishop Vigano!

Read the blurb on the novel's dust cover:

"A tale of corruption set in Rome and the United States where Vatican figures conspire with American cardinals jostling for positions of power and influence. Lust and greed thrive in Vatican corridors as men in Roman collars victimize the innocent. Can a few honest men save the Church? Will the courageous archbishop speak out in time to halt the scandal and prevent more innocent victims from abuse?...."

Well, you get the idea. My head is spinning and I wonder more and more if all the tales in Malachi Martin's Windswept House were absolutely true including the satanic ritual in the basement with "Agnes" who was raped by the Cardinal Bernardin character thinly disguised.

Fr. Haley Questios the "Fatal Inconsistencies" in the Way Church Leaders Deal with Homosexuality in the Priesthood!

Ever since he was booted from the Diocese of Arlington for asking Bishop Loverde to clean up the homosexual perversion in our rectories, Fr. James Haley has continued to raise the relevant moral issues and ask for answers. 

For years, I'm sure he felt like he was talking to himself. Maybe now, as the lid is coming off the putrid sewage tank, people will hear him. 

In an email the other day, he offered a list of issues that relate to the problem of homosexual priests. There are so many in the scandal and he listed several:

• precepts of Canon Law (which for example strongly encourages priests to associate and live together) -- i.e. the living arrangements of seminaries, rectories, religious communities, priest retreats, vacations...

• the basic fundamentals of morality (such as avoiding the near occasion of sin -- part of the act of contrition for a worthy confession)

• the clear double standard between heterosexual (OSA) and homosexual (SSA) priests The Real Story of Celibacy

Gay Retreats Are Not a Good Sign in a Diocese! Can a Bishop Really Do Nothing?

Fr. Brayan Massingale is a flaming
pro-gay propagandist

Controversial Priest to Lead Retreat for Gay Priests, Brothers, and Deacons

Fr. Bryan Massingale is scheduled to give a retreat for gay clergy and consecrated religious in the Diocese of Milwaukee in October. Sad to say, Bishop Jerome Listecki does not appear to be taking much action to prevent the scandalous event.

In the interests of full disclosure let me make it clear that Bishop Listecki put out a message that he objects to the retreat, but that he has no power to stop it. That baffles me! A priest can only say Mass in a bishop's diocese with his permission. A religious order can only operate in a bishop's diocese with his permission. It's true that the bishop has no police force, so he can't send in the Church guard to remove these folks, but he can make it darn unpleasant for them.

The Vigano Atomic Bomb and a Conversation with Fr. James Haley

Father Krysztof Olaf Charamsa worked for the
Vatican until 2015 when he "came out."  How many
others in the homo subculture still work there?

I had a long conversation with Fr. Jim Haley yesterday about the Vigano bombshell [Read the letter here.] We talked about the crisis in the Church and the necessity for all the cancer to be cut out.

How can the exposure of the corruption in the hierarchy not be a vindication of this brave priest?

Fr. Haley lost everything in an attempt to get his bishop, his spiritual father Paul Loverde to do something about the filthy corruption poisoning our Church?

How might things be different if 15 years ago someone in authority had listened to him beginning with Bishop Loverde. After his trial, Father Haley spoke to several bishops who told him nothing would be done about it. A few clergy said the important thing was to get him back into ministry, but he insisted the truth be told. "It will NEVER happen!" he was told.

Something happy for a change

Kirk watches herself win the 2017 Purina Pro Challenge 

Words, Words Words: Semantic Gymnastics and the Liars' Lexicon

Word, words, words! They can be used to tell the truth and they can be used to lie. How do you use
words? That's a good question for our bishops, don't you think?

Some make words mean whatever they say they mean - like Humpty Dumpty in Alice and Wonderland. So child rape and abuse become "horseplay," "boundary violations," and "inappropriate behavior." Their word manipulation reminds me of Screwtape advising his "nephew" Wormwood. I can just hear the bishop's conversation with the diocesan lawyer, safe-touch coordinator, and communications director.

Bishop: We need a strategy for shifting the conversation away from homosexuality.
Lawyer: Keep talking about all the procedures in place for protecting children and how successful they are. We have the volunteers signing agreements making them mandatory reporters. If there's an incident we can blame it on them.
Com. Director: I'll stress the problem of clericalism with the press and emphasize how heroic your response has been to the crisis.

Speaking with Forked Tongue: Fr. Peter Daly and Homosexual Propaganda!

Fr. Peter Daly, gay propagandist!

The homosexual propaganda machine is operating at full tilt these days as evidenced by many articles where semantic gymnastics are used to deceive. I read one today by Fr. Peter Daly, a retired priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. and a columnist for the not-really-Catholic Reporter, aka "the fishwrap." I include that bit of information because it tells you from the outset that Daly is not an orthodox priest. Orthodoxy is banned from the "fishwrap," especially orthodoxy about the disorder of homosexuality.

The article, Confrontation time: Cardinal McCarrick and me in 2002, sounds great. And how nobly it paints Fr. Daly, a priest who almost single-handedly had the courage to boldly confront McCarrick about the sex abuse crisis. (Drum roll and trumpet fanfare!) It happened, as he tells it, at a priests' meeting after McCarrick returned from Rome where the bishops were called to discuss the abuse crisis with Pope John Paul II. Here's Fr. Daly's description of the event:

A Letter to God -- "Help me, Lord, during these very dark days."

A priest friend sent me a letter to God this morning written by a self-described "lover of God begging for healing." That is something we certainly need so I want to share it. [See below.] I thought her comment about the "glitter and gold, the luxurious cars and mansions" points to a major problem in the episcopacy so I hotlinked to a CNN article about diocesan mansions. How many people in the pew, the sons and daughters of these spiritual "fathers," live like that?

The Bible tells us that "love of money is the root of all evils" and there is plenty of evidence in the episcopacy proving some bishops are "material" boys. I thought of that yesterday on the feast of Pope St. Pius X, the son of peasants, who once said he was born poor, lived poor, and would die poor. That is certainly not the lifestyle of many of our bishops, like Bishop Bransfield of Wheeling-Charleston. He could be described as one of our own "bishops of bling" here in the U.S. He scandalized many of the flock when he arrived in 2004 (including several of my husband's siblings who live in the diocese) with his "renovations" to the bishop's house. Here's what I wrote about him in 2012 when he was named in an abuse trial: