By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
The bishops of the United States came together for their annual fall meeting (November 12-14) in Baltimore divided. As if to remind us of that fact, their discussions were overshadowed by two conflicting messages.
The patriarch in Rome, Pope Francis, basically ordered them to hold back from planned action to vote on new measures meant to stamp out abuses of sex and power, causing further anger among the lay faithful. The prophet, Archbishop Carlo Viganò, sent a contrary missive, calling them to act, not as “frightened sheep,” but as “courageous shepherds.”
That division was evident in the visible frustration of Daniel Cardinal DiNardo as he announced the last-minute order from the Pope to stand down.
Even before he could finish his delivery of news of the change of course for the planned votes on measures involving a code of conduct and a review board incorporating the laity, Blase Cardinal Cupich of Chicago took the floor.
His evident preparation in the face of the changed procedures made it appear as if he was one of the few in the room not surprised by the late development, made known to some only late the day before.
Cupich took the line of reassuring everyone of the Pope’s seriousness in the face of the abuse crisis, despite the new delay made necessary at his urging.
The immediate effect was a crestfallen episcopate. It then regrouped as its members resolved to continue discussing plans to prepare DiNardo to represent them at the Pope’s planned meeting on sexual abuse for the presidents of the world’s episcopal conferences in Rome in February, followed by a possible second meeting for the USCCB in March to process and implement measures taken in Rome.
The meeting this year was unusual also for the large numbers of laity present to protest and to seek opportunities to speak with the bishops. I interviewed some of the protesters standing with signs outside the hotel where the bishops were meeting.
“I’m not here to have my name known. I’m here to pray and I’m here with a message for the bishops: clean house,” said a woman from Rochester, N.Y., who did not want to give her name. “I’d like to know why the shepherds are afraid of the sheep.”
When I asked her why she said this, she replied that it’s “because they have so much security between them and us. They’ll never be able to smell like the sheep.”
She told me none of the bishops have come out to talk to her.
A group of women from Chesapeake and Suffolk, Va., also spoke with me. They were praying and witnessing for several hours prior to the Silence Stops Now rally, organized by Church Militant/Saint Michael’s Media which took place in a pavilion across a canal adjacent to the hotel.
Adam from Michigan wanted to ask a question of the bishops: “Have they considered canon 277, paragraph three, in which each diocesan priest has the competency or authority to establish norms and regulations regarding these issues of the non-use of the sexual faculty?”
He said he believed the bishops could easily parlay this into the sex abuse issue in the end and then therefore they don’t need a universal charter. Each bishop could therefore just implement his own.
Some of the bishops did seek out opportunities to hear the voices of the many who came out of love for the Church. Bishop Martin Holley, the controversial former bishop of Memphis, came out on Tuesday afternoon and spoke to some of the faithful from Chesapeake and Suffolk.
He was ordered to step down and “become the bishop emeritus” without a canonical procedure after an investigation by two other bishops. I encountered him in the hotel on a break between sessions and thanked him for his interview with Raymond Arroyo on The World Over. He seemed in good spirits.
As the bishops met in the hotel on Tuesday, the lay faithful assembled at the MECU pavilion next to the hotel. I encountered Bishop Joseph Strickland from Tyler, Texas, standing outside the venue and chatting with the faithful. I introduced a young man who flew from Nebraska to him, whom he immediately invited to join the seminary.
The rally attracted over 2,600 attendees from states as far away as Hawaii and California. A priest opened with prayer followed by Michael Voris, who kicked the program off by leading the praying of the rosary. The speakers included young writer and blogger Matt Walsh and the 18-year victim of McCarrick, James Grein, who revealed his full name for the first time in public that day.
I reacted with tears and a sense of shame for the Church as I heard him witness to his dark experience of sexual violation at the hands of a man who had no business being entrusted with priesthood, let alone being named a bishop and a one-time cardinal.
I asked James how something this evil could be repaired and he said it cannot. We discussed the necessity for all of us to take each day in faith and walk with the Lord for hope.
Child-rights attorney Elizabeth Yore and Catholic evangelist Jesse Romero excoriated the bishops for lack of leadership and continued inaction. Romero scored the bishops for failing to “root out the wolves among them.”
I met with Elizabeth that evening. We discussed the effect of the scandal on priests, who are often caught in the middle between bishops who fail to act against predators and irate lay faithful demanding action.
She counseled that priest whistleblowers should speak first to the grand juries, so that if the bishop retaliates it will be considered witness tampering.
Yes, things have come to such a dire pass. But justice must be done or the Church will be largely finished in this country for a long time to come. A remnant will always survive as long as need be until the bishops come back to the faith. It’s happened before.
Division remains among the bishops on how to face the crisis of leadership integrity. In the Tuesday afternoon deliberations, Bishop Daniel Conlon of Joliet, Il., stood to share his chagrin at being asked to approve an episcopal sexual code of conduct when he already stood before the People of God on the occasions of his Ordinations to both the diaconate and the priesthood and solemnly promised celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom.
Here is a measure of the division among the bishops, as reported by The Washington Post:
“And then in the final hours on Wednesday, the bishops representing 196 American archdioceses and dioceses took a vote on a measure to simply ‘encourage’ the Vatican to share documents related to its investigation of McCarrick.
“It was shot down, 137 to 83.”
The bishops also discussed racism and the sainthood cause of Sr. Thea Bowman. Noncontroversial measures with which no one disagrees are always on the USCCB agenda and must bring a sense of relief to the besieged shepherds. Passing measures which simply duplicate what we should know and do already through our Catholic faith are an obvious distraction from the ever-growing pink elephant in the room: the predations of the homosexual network.
Thank you for reading and praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever. @MCITLFrAphorism
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress