By DEXTER DUGGAN
Amid the riots, looting, arson, assaults, and other crimes committed across the United States supposedly in the interest of social and racial justice as May ended and continuing into June, the fierce June 2 statement by Washington, D.C., Archbishop Wilton Gregory against President Trump helped to illustrate how far the social disorder had spread.
The national leadership of the pro-disorders Democratic Party has been able to continue its aggressive march farther left — now flirting with anarchy — because it generally received no pushback from its fans in dominant “news” media or the Catholic Church bureaucracies that formerly were regarded as representing the Catholic faithful.
One example would be the indulgence granted by leading Catholic Church spokesmen to left-wing, “socially liberal” national Democrats like presumptive 2020 presidential nominee Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, of California.
The lead story on page one in last week’s hardcopy issue of The Wanderer recalled that the media-relations office of the Washington Archdiocese had declined to comment twice when this newspaper specifically asked about self-described “practicing Catholic” Joe Biden’s firm support for moral evils explicitly condemned for violating foundational Catholic principles.
During this time, politically correct Donald Cardinal Wuerl headed the D.C. Archdiocese.
Not only did Biden while vice president say he backed “same-sex marriage.” He also took credit for persuading President Barack Obama to support it. Not only that, but Biden personally officiated at a “same-sex marriage” ceremony at his residence between two male White House staffers.
Among Biden’s other serious violations of foundational Catholic teaching, he long has supported massive permissive abortion and embryonic stem-cell research. As national Democratic leaders lunged further left on abortion last year, Biden approved mandatory taxpayer funding of it and committing it throughout pregnancy.
On the other hand, Archbishop Gregory was quick fiercely to denounce Republican Trump for allegedly manipulating and misusing “our religious principles” by visiting the St. John Paul II National Shrine in the nation’s capital on June 2. (The Wanderer dated for June 11, 2020: “Silence for Years on Pro-Abort Dems — But See Fumes from D.C. Archbishop When GOP’s Trump Angers Him.”)
Left-wing media gleefully reported Gregory’s attack on non-Catholic Trump.
Nor was this the politically liberal Gregory’s first assault on Trump since arriving in the nation’s capital from Atlanta in 2019 to succeed Wuerl, who had resigned after being accused of covering up sex-abuse scandals while bishop of Pittsburgh.
In August 2019 Gregory mirrored coordinated, false left-wing attacks on Trump over the president supposedly “‘diminishing our national life’ with his attacks on congressional lawmakers of color,” The Hill political news site reported on August 2, 2019.
“‘I have stressed that I am a pastor and fellow disciple of Jesus, not a political leader,’ Gregory said in remarks released by the Catholic Standard (archdiocesan newspaper). ‘There are, however, sometimes, when a pastor and a disciple of Jesus is called to speak out to defend the dignity of all God’s children’,” The Hill wrote.
The news site added that Gregory “said recent comments from Trump targeting lawmakers of color ‘have deepened divisions and diminished our national life’.”
As rioting hit Washington, D.C., Trump walked over from the White House on June 1 to show his support for the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church, opened in 1816, which terrorists had just tried to burn down.
On June 2 the Washington Archdiocese issued a two-page news release that began by quoting Gregory about Trump’s visit to the St. John Paul II National Shrine:
“I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which call us to defend the rights of all people even those with whom we might disagree.
“St. Pope John Paul II was an ardent defender of the rights and dignity of human beings,” Gregory continued. “His legacy bears vivid witness to that truth. He certainly would not condone the use of tear gas and other deterrents to silence, scatter, or intimidate them for a photo opportunity in front of a place of worship and peace.”
In a June 8 article, Catholic News Agency reported that the archbishop had been invited to attend the event with Trump to celebrate international religious freedom a few days before it occurred, but Gregory declined because of “other commitments.”
CNA wrote: “The White House said Sunday (June 7) that Washington’s archbishop was invited to attend an event with President Donald Trump several days before it took place, amid media reports that the archbishop did not learn of the event until it was announced publicly the night before it took place.”
Correspondence between the White House and Gregory’s office confirmed that the archbishop wasn’t invited only on the evening prior to June 2, CNA reported.
The news service said the correspondence “stated that the archbishop had ‘a prior commitment on his schedule at Catholic University and unfortunately must decline,’ and added that Gregory had personally conveyed his regrets at being unable to attend when he spoke to a member of the White House staff directly on the evening of Friday, May 29.”
The Wanderer asked some of its sources for their reactions to Gregory’s denunciation.
Ann Howard, a retired Tucson, Ariz., attorney, said that as a lifelong Catholic she “was appalled at Archbishop Gregory’s snarky remarks about Trump’s involvement at the two religious sites, St. John’s Episcopal Church and the St. John Paul II shrine.”
Trump’s reason to visit the shrine, Howard said, “was to honor JP II’s witness to religious freedom and to celebrate an executive order signed by Trump shortly after that visit establishing further guarantees of religious freedom. But not a word from Gregory about this important executive order.
“Gregory commented about the alleged use of tear gas to open a walkway for Trump when he went to St. John’s on Monday, June 1, declaring that JP II would not have used tear gas and other force to disperse a crowd for a photo opportunity,” she said. ”Problem is, that use of force happened when Trump walked to St. John’s to show solidarity with that neighboring church, in sympathy and solidarity against damage by violent rioters the night before.
“The U.S. Park Police explained in a public statement that at about the same time Trump began his walk, they were clearing Lafayette Park because it was curfew time. However, the protesters began throwing bricks and frozen water bottles and other caustic substances at the park police,” Howard said.
“In defense, the police did not use tear gas, but rather smoke canisters and pepper balls,” she said. “Gregory would certainly not condemn that show of self-defense, would he?
“What angers me is the fact that he was in error and his remarks were not true. In addition to mouthing untruths, he failed to tell the whole truth about the events at issue,” Howard said. “We expect better from Church leaders. We expect accuracy, prudence, and a spirit of love for all people.
“My sense of archbishop was that he behaved more like a radical activist than a shepherd concerned with everyone. I got the message that he was biased and angry, not judicious and fair-minded,” she said.
“We need the truth that helps us to understand and be able to work for a true peace for all peoples. Gregory could have done that. He chose to make the situation worse with erroneous assumptions based on his acceptance of inadequate information,” Howard said. ”But he had access to accurate information. He just did not avail himself of it.”
Virginia’s Mary Ann Kreitzer, who runs the Les Femmes-The Truth blog, said: “Wilton Gregory called the JP II shrine’s allowing Trump’s visit ‘baffling and reprehensible,’ but it’s Gregory whose actions as a Catholic bishop are ‘reprehensible!’ Not so baffling, though, in view of his long history undermining Church teaching.
“As former head of the USCCB, he was instrumental along with (now-laicized Theodore Cardinal) McCarrick of exempting the bishops from the Dallas Charter on sex abuse,” Kreitzer said. “He’s notorious for LGBT activism and more than once provided a podium to Jesuit Fr. James Martin, who promotes sodomy. He let Nancy Pelosi, who champions the murder of babies in the womb, speak from the pulpit of St. Matthew’s Cathedral.
“His statements and actions during the coronavirus show little concern for the souls of the flock,” she said. “And he continually contributes to racial division, echoing the mainstream media’s message that whites (especially police) are racists, but says nothing about the racism in the nation’s abortion facilities that target minority babies. Sadly, he is not alone among our bishops.”
Wondering how many Catholics will leave the Church because of betrayals like Gregory’s, Kreitzer said such officials “gut our churches and abandon the flock while they urge us to sign up for electronic giving. Do they serve Almighty God or the almighty dollar? Catholics need to double down on prayer and fasting, begging God to replace our many hirelings with true shepherds.”
Northern California Catholic commentator Barbara Simpson told The Wanderer: “Poor Catholics. They’re being whiplashed by comments from the Pope and from varied archbishops and bishops in this country who have not only put their toes in the political swamp but in some cases jumped in entirely. The latest is the insulting criticism of President Trump by Washington Archbishop Wilton Gregory.
“He was all torn apart that the president and his Catholic wife responded to an invitation to visit the Washington shrine to John Paul II. It’s a perfect example of why so many Catholics are drifting from their church and cutting financial contributions. Catholics don’t want to know Gregory’s politics and he should, respectfully of course, keep his big mouth shut,” Simpson said.
Conservative Republican political consultant Constantin Querard said: “Going to a shrine or a church to amplify a point hardly seems objectionable. There is no requirement that a president must do everything from the White House.
“ ‘The Boys of Pointe du Hoc’ would have been a great D-Day speech had Reagan delivered it in the Rose Garden, but delivering it as he did, on the cliffs of Normandy, overlooking the English Channel, made it legendary,” Querard said.
“President Trump’s message regarding religious freedom ought to be welcomed by people of faith, no matter their denomination, so if you’re in a church that is critical of it, you know it’s just liberalism reacting to the mere mention of Donald Trump’s name,” he said.
Attacks By The Deep State
Catholic Rob Haney, a retired chairman of the Phoenix-based Maricopa County Republican Party, told The Wanderer that character counts.
“There’s no clearer example of the Catholic hierarchy sojourn to the dark side than Archbishop Wilton Gregory’s attack on President Trump’s visit to the shrine. During my adolescent years, my four older siblings and my parents frequently reminded me that your character will be defined by friends and allies that you nurture,” Haney said.
“The truthfulness of that basic precept has guided my opinion of people and events ever since.
Archbishop Gregory’s critique of President Trump can be readily examined from this point of view,” he said.
“Gregory’s friends and allies are easily identified as coming from the liberal homosexual-supporting agenda within the revisionist Catholic hierarchy. Prominent among these prelates are Cardinals (Joseph) Bernardin, McCarrick, Wuerl, (Blase) Cupich, and (Timothy) Dolan and the McCarrick-protecting Pope Francis, who appointed Gregory to Washington, D.C., fully knowing his similarly troubled background in Atlanta,” Haney said.
“Among those prelates and commentators speaking in favor of President Trump for his actions in support of religious freedom and life issues are Raymond Cardinal Burke, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, as well as Fr. Gerald Murray, JCD, Robert Royal, and Raymond Arroyo, all three from EWTN, and Michael Voris of Church Militant,” he said.
“. . . Archbishop Viganò, former Vatican nuncio to the United States, went into hiding almost 18 months ago for fear of his life because of his disclosure of the Vatican cover-up of the sexual-abuse scandals within the Church hierarchy,” Haney said. ”His recent letter gave a strong defense of President Trump and against Gregory’s lame criticism.
“Viganò points out in his defense of the president that Trump is being attacked by the Deep State, just as the Catholic Church is being attacked from the Deep Church within the Vatican hierarchy,” he said.
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