By CHRISTOPHER MANION
On June 1, President Donald Trump and Mrs. Trump visited the Knights of Columbus Shrine of St. John Paul II in Washington. There they honored the revered champion of religious freedom and laid a wreath at the foot of the statue of the great saint.
To commemorate the visit, President Trump returned to the White House and signed the “Executive Order on Advancing International Religious Freedom,” affirming America’s defense of religious liberty that is imperiled here at home and throughout the world.
“Religious freedom, America’s first freedom, is a moral and national security imperative,” the document reads. “Religious freedom for all people worldwide is a foreign policy priority of the United States, and the United States will respect and vigorously promote this freedom.”
The Executive Order will undoubtedly rankle many in Washington’s Deep State. The text specifically requires the secretary of state to instruct the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the “foreign aid” agency, “to develop a plan to prioritize international religious freedom in the planning and implementation of United States foreign policy and in the foreign assistance programs of the Department of State and USAID.”
This directive will undoubtedly offend many career bureaucrats at AID, which has long been Washington’s premier pillar of secularism, consistently supporting abortion and population control regardless of what party occupies the White House.
Parading Pomposities Pout For The Press
The president’s visit to a religious shrine stoked the feigned ire of the usual suspects. Ignoring the religious freedom of the Trump family as well as that of the Knights of Columbus, they mounted their shopworn hobby horse of unctuous disdain. The gaggle of grumblers included pro-abortion Catholic Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden, who together have successfully driven from the party millions of voters. Moreover, as of this year, this doddering duo has successfully vaporized every single pro-life Democrat from the ranks of senators and representatives on Capitol Hill.
Another critic of the invitation by the Knights of Columbus was Lexington Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv., whose sole escape from obscurity rests in his strong support of “gay rights.” Joining him was San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, a vocal opponent of President Trump. The Mexican-born prelate opposes federal immigration laws and champions illegal aliens. He seldom adds that his opposition might be due to President Trump’s significant reduction in the amount of taxpayer funding received by the bishops’ NGOs. These “charities” celebrate illegal aliens, house many who are successful in entering the United States.
One can understand the concern of any bishop at the prospect of losing such a once-dependable source of revenue (under Obama, those funds amounted to billions of dollars), given the desperate financial situation of so many sees.
Trump’s Hometown Petulant Prelate Preens
Another critic, Washington’s otherwise irrelevant local archbishop, was so miffed at the visit of the president and his wife that he directly attacked the Knights of Columbus — one of the most productive providers of voluntary charity in the entire archdiocese. The Knights were “egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles,” he prated on the day of the visit.
His objections, however, must be seen in context. In February 2002 the prelate, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at the time, promised an incensed Pope John Paul II that the U.S. bishops could handle the explosive abuse and coverup scandals that had erupted in America. He and his cohorts then returned home and proceeded diligently to cover up their own insidious roles in the scandals for years.
In April 2002, the prelate had candidly put his finger on the source of the abuse scandals, noting that “there does exist within American seminaries a homosexual atmosphere or dynamic that makes heterosexuals think twice” about entering the priesthood. He added that “it is an ongoing struggle to make sure the Catholic priesthood is not dominated by homosexual men.”
All too true — so he never mentioned it again. Instead of following up on this crucial insight, he has been championing “gay rights” ever since.
Undaunted by the outrage of Pope John Paul II, the prelate then set to work to bury the truth. With “Uncle Ted” McCarrick at his side, he commandeered the USCCB’s adoption of the “Charter for the Protection of Guilty Coverup Bishops” in 2002. There were well over a hundred guilty bishops at the time. Not one quit.
The prelate has idolized Barack Obama for years. After the 2008 presidential election, he welcomed Obama’s victory as “a great step forward for humanity and a sign that in the United States the problem of racial discrimination has been overcome.” Curiously, this outspoken opponent of “racism” never criticized the radical pro-abortion records of Obama and his Catholic vice president, Joe Biden, although abortion is by far the most racist killer in the United States.
Enthralled by the most pro-abortion president in history, the prelate joined his brother bishops to cheer nationalized medicine and Obamacare, only to discover too late that their beloved president had lied to them. Nonetheless, they still needed money, so in 2010, he and his colleagues were pleased to have Catholic Charities USA pay almost half a million dollars to the most radical homosexual PR firm in Washington. The assignment? To shill at the federal trough for taxpayer dollars for their NGOs (it worked: over the course of the Obama administration, they were rewarded with billions in federal grants).
In 2019, the 72-year-old prelate was moved to Washington to become an ineffective but pompous placeholder to succeed his two disgraced predecessors. Rather than address the disastrous diocesan disarray he inherited, he lost no time in attacking President Trump the moment he came to town. To flaunt his true colors, when pro-abortion elitist Cokie Roberts died last September, the archbishop insisted her funeral be moved from her home parish in Maryland to St. Matthew’s Cathedral, where he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi presided over the liturgy.
When the Wuhan Virus erupted, he fervently embraced the D.C. government’s Sacred Social-Distancing Doctrine (SSDD). He then blocked the faithful from attending Mass for three months (and counting). Meanwhile, he warmly praises the demonstrators who have vandalized churches and wrought destruction all over the archdiocese. In a most distressing lapse, he has failed to condemn adequately their flagrant disregard of the SSDD guidelines which he cherishes so profoundly.
Needless to say, the irreverent, irrelevant archbishop has never publicly demanded the immediate release of the uncensored McCarrick report. Why should he? It undoubtedly contains an entire chapter devoted to him.
On June 3, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò released a statement to LifeSiteNews directed to Washington’s bewildered, abandoned faithful.
“Unfortunately,” he writes, “the Catholic Church is led by many false pastors. Over the past twenty years, your [Archdiocese] of Washington, in particular and now for the third time, has been and continues to be deeply afflicted and wounded by false shepherds whose way of life is full of lies, deceits, lust, and corruption. Wherever they have been, they were a cause of serious scandal for various local Churches, for your entire country, and for the whole Church.
“Do not follow them, as they lead you to perdition. They are mercenaries. They teach and practice falsehoods and corruption!
“Follow with perseverance the teachings and examples of the holy pastors and priests who are among you.
“Mary, Mother of the Church, Mother of Mercy, pray and intercede for us with your Son Jesus Christ, so that He may have mercy on all us sinners.
“I bless you with all my heart.”
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
June 3, 2020
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