. . .a priest well-informed about episcopal matters writes to speculate about how the US bishops are going to spin to get out ahead of this burgeoning scandal. . .
. . .lots of people are really angry, indeed enraged. Horrid situations such as those caused by men like McCarrick are painful. We can make choices about how to view them. Anger is appropriate, but not to the point where we are merely giving voice to our spittle-flecked Ids. Sad situations like this must be taken as an opportunity for grace. When you see this filth in the Church, remember that Christ created His Church for sinners: you, me & McCarrick. If anger is the first impulse that we have when we see this awful stuff, the second impulse must be to say, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner!”, & then go to confession & do some penance. . .
. . .this week I have been swamped with messages from loyal Catholics who have been shaken & disgusted by the latest eruption of the continuing sex-abuse scandal in the Church. I wish I saw some sign that our bishops recognized the rising tide of anger—righteous anger—among the most active lay Catholics. . .
. . .less than two weeks before Padre Pio died, he sent a letter on Humanæ Vitæ to Blessed Pope Paul VI who is himself due to be canonized 14 October 2018. . .
. . .there is an interesting detail about St James which helps date the New Testament accurately. It appears in the work of Justin Martyr. Justin was one of the early Christian writers called the Apostolic Fathers. He lived from A.D. 100-160 only one hundred years after the death of Jesus. A convert to the church, he wrote various works defending the Christian faith, & is one of the most important of the early fathers of the church not only because of his early date, but also because he writes from the area of Samaria–geographically between Judea & Galilee. He was, therefore, close both in time & place to the early church. . .
. . .when I recently read about the new assault within the Church on Pope Blessed Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical on contraception, I was deeply disturbed. Humanae Vitae told the truth about contraception & all its negative impacts on people & society. It was precisely because we read Humanae Vitae that my wife, Margaret, I & became “reverts” to the Catholic Church after being away for almost 20 years. Margaret & I were both raised Catholic & attended Catholic grammar schools, high schools, & young people’s retreats. But by 1980, when we met in graduate school, we had essentially left the Church. . .
. . .here’s some world-class buck-passing in the form of a McCarrick column by Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley. The headline itself tells quite a story:
POLICY NEEDED TO ADDRESS BISHOPS’ VIOLATIONS OF THE VOWS OF CELIBACY
. . .policy needed! Well, there you go. More concise than Cardinal Joseph Tobin’s post-McCarrick view that the bishops must “articulate standards that will assure high standards,” certainly. . .
