I can't imagine them not doing it. If they just "punish" him by telling him to live out the rest of his life in prayer next to a grade school in Kansas then the whole February meeting will look like a sham. They have to come down hard or they will lose what little credibility they have left. Not that laicization is coming down too hard in any case. The Vatican does have a prison you know...
The cynic in me says they won't come down too hard on him, in order not to set a precedent for the others among them who might face the same fate. And, of course, because of, you know, 'compassion'...
Opus Dei paid $977,000 to settle sexual misconduct claim against prominent Catholic priest By Michelle Boorstein January 7 at 8:22 PM The global Catholic community Opus Dei in 2005 paid $977,000 to settle a sexual misconduct suit against the Rev. C. John McCloskey, a priest well-known for preparing for conversion big-name conservatives — Newt Gingrich, Larry Kudlow and Sam Brownback, among others. The woman who filed the complaint is a D.C.-area Catholic who was among the many who received spiritual direction from McCloskey through the Catholic Information Center, a K Street hub of Catholic life in downtown Washington. She told The Washington Post that McCloskey groped her several times while she was going to pastoral counseling with him to discuss marital troubles and serious depression. The guilt and shame over the interactions sent her into a tailspin and, combined with her existing depression, made it impossible for her to work in her high-level job, she said. She spoke to him about her “misperceived guilt over the interaction” in confession and he absolved her, she said. “I love Opus Dei but I was caught up in this coverup — I went to confession, thinking I did something to tempt this holy man to cross boundaries,” she said. The Post does not name victims of sexual assault without their consent. The disclosure of the complaint and settlement were not made public by Opus Dei until Monday but behind the scenes, the ministry of the well-known priest had been sharply curtailed. Many Washington-area Catholics have wondered for years what happened to McCloskey, who was the closest thing to a celebrity the Catholic Church had in the region. One other woman told Opus Dei that “she was made uncomfortable by how he was hugging her,” Brian Finnerty, an Opus Dei spokesman said Monday night. He said Opus Dei is also investigating a third claim — so far unsubstantiated — that he called potentially “serious.” He declined to provide details but said the woman “may have also suffered from misconduct by Father McCloskey” at the D.C. center, which is a bookstore, chapel and gathering place for conservative Catholics in particular. In a statement, Opus Dei Vicar Monsignor Thomas Bohlin said McCloskey’s actions at the center were “deeply painful for the woman” who made the initial complaint “and we are very sorry for all she suffered.” Bohlin’s statement, which came after the woman requested Opus Dei go public in an effort to reach other potential victims, said McCloskey was removed from his job at the center a year after the complaint, when it was found to be credible. “All harassment and abuse are abhorrent,” Bohlin wrote. “I am painfully aware of all that the Church is suffering, and I am very sorry that we in Opus Dei have added to it. Let us ask God to show mercy on all of us in the Church at this difficult time.” After leaving Washington after the complaints, McCloskey was sent to England, and then Chicago and California for assignments with Opus Dei. The woman in the settlement said she was told by church officials in Chicago when he was sent there that McCloskey would not be allowed to “get faculties” — or permission to fully function as a priest — and would be put on a very tight leash. She became worried last year when she came into contact with someone else who knew about McCloskey and heard he may have been working as a priest in California. In the statement Monday, Opus Dei said that after the settlement, McCloskey was told to only give spiritual direction to women in the confessional — meaning separated physically from them. In Opus Dei, a traditional community of Catholics, that is the norm for priests working with those they are counseling. McCloskey had an unusually public, free role at the Information Center. In interviews in 2014, McCloskey was identified as working in “spiritual direction and pastoral ministry.” In a 2014 piece for the Jesuit magazine America, he said he was a “spiritual consultant.” As a result, the woman in the settlement said, a lack of clarity about McCloskey’s role all these years haunted her, and she wants to be sure any other women potentially harmed by the priest know they aren’t alone and can get help. McCloskey, who is now in his 60s, recently moved back to the D.C. region, where he has family. Opus Dei said Monday that he “suffers from advanced Alzheimer’s. He is largely incapacitated and needs assistance for routine daily tasks. He has not had any pastoral assignments for a number of years and is no longer able to celebrate Mass, even privately.” The woman, who remains close to Opus Dei and participates in some of their spiritual activities, said Monday she was grateful to them for going public. She is now in her mid-50s, and was 40 when the incidents with McCloskey occurred. “I’m very happy with how it’s being handled right now. They listened,” she said. When she first reported McCloskey’s actions in the early 2000s, she said, she did so in a confessional with an Opus Dei priest in Virginia. The priest told her not to tell anyone else, including any other priests, “so he could fix it,” she said. Later, an Opus Dei priest tried to help her, she said, encouraging her to seek medical and legal assistance. Finnerty said the settlement for McCloskey is the only sexual misconduct settlement Opus Dei has ever paid out in the United States. The group received a special contribution specifically for it, he said. He would not name the donor. Before becoming a priest, McCloskey worked for Citibank and Merrill Lynch on Wall Street, according to media reports. He was ordained a priest of Opus Dei in the early 1980s. He went on to become a successful author and religious commentator on television and radio, including the Catholic station EWTN. In a 2011 piece by the Catholic News Agency celebrating 30 years as a priest, McCloskey said God had used him “as an instrument in spite of myself to bring dozens of vocations to the priesthood, religious life and to the new ecclesial movements, and all this with my evident faults and human failings.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/reli...inent-catholic-priest/?utm_term=.5dd1a6460802
"Multilateral System"???? So will that lead to a "multilateral church"? As long as you belong to an imagined globalist benevolent "system" then individual sin is already absolved. It would appear that someone is imbibing in more and more of that "Kool-Aid" every day and has become addicted. More muddled thinking on a grand scale. Prayers! VERY worrying. It almost seems that today there may be a new answer to that age old "question"...."is the Pope Catholic?" Because the UN has evolved to becoming the answer for the world's turmoils....yeah, right! Much simpler if he had just outlined the obvious....that all "systems" of Atheistic/Materialistic Communism (now under whatever more progressive title is more acceptable) have subjugated the individual and his/her God given dignity and mystery to the "greater good", which of course, boiling it down, means in reality that "only those at the top get the dachas"!! And here we have today a declaration by the Russian Orthodox Church leader that control coming from certain single points alone is a sign of the AC. Think that "unity" is coming soon? Pope Warns Populism Is ‘Weakening the Multilateral System’ Pope Francis compared today’s emergence of populist and nationalist movements to the days of Nazi Germany in an address to a group of diplomats accredited to the Holy See Monday. The upcoming year will mark the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the League of Nations, the pope said in his annual address, which represented “the beginning of modern multilateral diplomacy, by which states try to remove mutual relations from the logic of oppression that leads to war.” Difficulties with the League of Nations led exactly twenty years after its birth to “a new and more lacerating conflict, which was the Second World War.” “The indispensable premise of the success of multilateral diplomacy is the good will and good faith of the interlocutors, the willingness to a fair and sincere confrontation and the willingness to accept the inevitable compromises that arise from the confrontation between the parties,” he said. “Where even one of these elements fails, the search for unilateral solutions prevails and, ultimately, the overwhelming of the weaker by the stronger,” he said, and unfortunately, “we note that the same attitudes are still undermining the stability of the main international organizations.” The pope went on to put forward his belief that globalist organizations are key to the maintenance of peace and international stability. I consider it important that “even in the present time the will of a peaceful and constructive confrontation between the States does not fail,” he said, “even though it is evident that relations within the international community, and the multilateral system as a whole, are going through difficult times, with the re-emergence of nationalistic tendencies.” These tendencies “undermine the vocation of international organizations to be a space for dialogue and meeting for all countries,” he said. The rise of populism, the pope suggested, is partly due to the inability of the multilateral system to offer effective solutions to unresolved situations, and in part it “is the result of the evolution of national policies, more and more frequently determined by the search for an immediate and sectarian consensus, rather than by the patient pursuit of the common good.” It is also partly due to an attempt on the part of multinational organizations to “impose their visions and ideas, triggering new forms of ideological colonization, not infrequently disrespectful of the identity, dignity, and sensitivity of peoples,” he said. During the period between the two world wars, he said, “populist and nationalistic propensities prevailed over the action of the League of Nations. The reappearance of such impulses today is progressively weakening the multilateral system, with the result of a general lack of confidence, a crisis of credibility of international politics and a progressive marginalization of the most vulnerable members of the family of nations.” In his address, the pope lamented the “re-emergence of tendencies to pursue and prioritize individual national interests without resorting to those instruments that international law provides to resolve disputes and ensure respect for justice, including through international courts.” This rise in nationalism is in cases the result of a “heightened malaise” that is experienced by the citizens of many countries, who perceive the dynamics that govern the international community as “ultimately far from their actual needs,” he said. Curiously, nowhere in his 5,600-word speech did the pope mention “subsidiarity,” the central principle of Catholic social thought that protects the freedom of individuals, families, and communities from the interference of state and international bodies. The Catholic Church has consistently reaffirmed the vital principle of subsidiarity, which determines that “a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its functions, but rather should support it in case of need and help to co-ordinate its activity with the activities of the rest of society, always with a view to the common good.” As a result, Catholics believe that international bodies should never be all-encompassing or invasive regarding the internal life of nations but should limited their activity to areas of life that cannot practically and effectively be governed by the nations themselves. The sovereignty of nations should never be compromised by overly aggressive international legal or political structures. Importantly, according to Catholic thought, subsidiarity is a fundamental component of the common good and not a counterbalance to it, and where it is disrespected, the common good suffers. Although subsidiarity is fundamentally a limiting principle on the interference of a society of a higher order in the life of a society of a lower order, it furthers the common good by defending essential freedoms and the autonomy of societies of a lower order, including that of individual nations. https://www.breitbart.com/politics/...opulism-is-weakening-the-multilateral-system/
Although subsidiarity is fundamentally a limiting principle on the interference of a society of a higher order in the life of a society of a lower order, it furthers the common good by defending essential freedoms and the autonomy of societies of a lower order, including that of individual nations. This is a great summary line to finish this opinion piece. The Pope always seems to try to exercise damage control within his speeches. Notice he does state: It is also partly due to an attempt on the part of multinational organizations to “impose their visions and ideas, triggering new forms of ideological colonization, not infrequently disrespectful of the identity, dignity, and sensitivity of peoples,” he said. I believe in the principle of subsidiarity, too. However, this temptation to look at the international order as the guarantor of peace has been a temptation of the Church for 60 years. Consider two paragraphs from Pope Paul VI's 1965 speech at the UN: Permit us to say that we have a message, and a happy one, to hand over to each one of you Our message is meant to be first of all a solemn moral ratification of this lofty Institution, and it comes from our experience of history. It is as an "expert on humanity" that we bring this Organization the support and approval of our recent predecessors, that of the Catholic hierarchy, and our own, convinced as we are that this Organization represents the obligatory path of modern civilization and world peace... Your Charter goes even farther, and our message moves ahead with it. You are in existence and you are working in order to unite nations, to associate States. Let us use the formula: to bring them together with each other. You are an association, a bridge between peoples, a network of relations between States. We are tempted to say that in a way this characteristic of yours reflects in the temporal order what our Catholic Church intends to be in the spiritual order: one and universal. Nothing loftier can be imagined on the natural level, as far as the ideological structure of mankind is concerned. Your vocation is to bring not just some peoples but all peoples together as brothers. A difficult undertaking? Without a doubt. But this is the nature of your very noble undertaking. Who can fail to see the need and importance of thus gradually coming to the establishment of a world authority capable of taking effective action on the juridical and political planes? This saddens me. It is the opposite to me of susidiarity. I can never view the UN as the "obligatory path." Only Christ the King ruling in human hearts will bring true and lasting peace. Safe in the Refuge of the Immaculate Heart!
Here is the entire document should anyone else wish to read it. I don't trust Breitbart. http://w2.vatican.va/content/france...apa-francesco_20190107_corpo-diplomatico.html
This sickens me. It is a grave danger to priest and people to be a "rock star"--it has happened over and over. God have mercy.
Well, they are at a fork in the road now and have to make hard choices. Either they come down hard on Archbishop McCarrick and maintain some minor credibility or they come down soft on him and people worldwide will see where they stand. It is up to them.
I don't believe a ringing endorsement from an association of Freemasons is praiseworthy. Rorate Caeli @RorateCaeli 5h5 hours ago Rorate Caeli Retweeted Gran Logia de España From the Grand Masonic Lodge of Spain: "All the Freemasons of the world join Pope Francis' wish [in his Christmas address] for 'fraternity between peoples of different religions'." Rorate Caeli added, Gran Logia de España @GranLogiaEspana Todos los #masones del mundo se unen a la petición del Papa Francisco por «la #fraternidad entre personas de diversas religiones».… 16 replies 30 retweets 47 likes
This Pope doesn't have a clue about many aspects of the Catholic Faith, but yet has the arrogance to regard himself as an authority on all matters of world affairs. Contrary to his claims, it was not nationalism that was responsible for the wars of the twentieth century. Such wars were caused by much larger conglomerates. In the First World War, the vast global empires of Britain, Germany and France; and the huge continental empires of Austria-Hungary, Russia and the Ottomans warred to utter destruction over nobody really knows what. In the second, a Germany and Japan in search of empires were the prime instigators. Italy was also trying to create an empire and what was the Soviet Union but another empire, one which expanded itself into Eastern Europe? The world would be better off with more and smaller nations. In a fallen world, there would always be wars, but those between smaller entities would be less destructive than conflagrations between multilateral ones. His friends in China won't be settling their perceived problems in international courts. That is hardly the intention of their huge military buildup and totalitarian suppression of their own people. He even admits the threat of 'ideological' colonisation by the globalists, but still backs them. So, it isn't mere misguided good intentions on his part. He is a schill for the totalitarian, marxist globalists. What an unmitigated disaster.
Blizzard, Thank you for posting this. I honestly forgot to read it and have not still but I plan to. I was just emailed the following and I was reminded of your above post. Bishops, please speak out on the crisis under Pope Francis Please click the following link to sign the petition, https://lifepetitions.com/petition/...il&utm_term=0_12387f0e3e-a1635121e7-403714841 1,055 (signatures so far) 1 day ago “…the light of the world, a city set on a hill, a lamp set on a lampstand” (Matthew 5:13-16) The Church is suffering as never before. Confusion is rampant and division is rife. Many eminent and orthodox Catholic thinkers believe that a large part of the problem is the failure of many Bishops to forcefully speak the truth of Christ, in and out of season, without counting the cost. Now, the Lepanto Foundation is launching an appeal to all of the Bishops of the world, encouraging them to be Faithful Shepherds...faithful, first and foremost to the precepts of Christ, His Church and the traditions of our Holy Faith. LifeSiteNews and LifePetitions fully support and endorse the Lepanto Foundation’s appeal to our Bishops. But, we are UPPING the ante! Along with SIGNING the petition to the Bishops of the world, we are ALSO calling on faithful Catholics (e.g. YOU) to CONTACT their OWN Bishops, to encourage them to boldly speak-up when issues of faith and morals are at stake. After signing the petition, please read the ‘Tips’ section below to learn more about how to approach your own Bishop. So, this petition is really an urgent call-to-action - to all faithful Catholics. When you SIGN this petition, an email will be sent to the various Bishops’ Conferences around the world - using the very words of the appeal by our friends at the Lepanto Foundation.* Their appeal, which is called ‘Dare Monsignor!’ (in reference to the Bishops of the Church), asks Bishops to shun human respect and careerism in favor of boldly daring to proclaim the truths of the Catholic Faith. These days, it is easy to understand how many of the faithful are asking: “Where have the Faithful Shepherds gone?” The answer is: They haven’t physically disappeared; they have very simply grown silent. So, for those of us who love our Mother, the Church (Bishops, priests, and laity included), is it not time for POSITIVE action? Above all, we, faithful Catholics, need to encourage our Faithful Shepherds to speak the truth, about faith and morals, at all times. Thank you, in advance, for SIGNING this petition and, then, COMMITTING to contact your Bishop. TIPS FOR CONTACTING YOUR BISHOP: 1) Some of the most relevant points you can use to encourage your Bishop to remain faithful to the teachings of Christ and our Holy Mother, the Church...and, to speak up, without fear, are to be found attached to this LifeSiteNews article about the launch of the Lepanto Foundation’s appeal to the Bishops. 2) Below are some suggestions on ways to contact your Bishop: You can arrange a personal meeting; you can approach him after Mass, if you live in the Cathedral city; you can make a phone call to the Chancery Office; or you can write a personal letter. In making contact with your Shepherd, please be polite, civil and charitable, yet remain firm in your request. You can also visit Faithful Shepherds.com, LifeSite’s own website dedicated solely to encouraging U.S. Bishops to be faithful to Christ. On the site, you can search for your bishop and email him or send him a postcard asking him to uphold the perennial teachings of the Church. Click here to visit Faithful Shepherds. 3) Remember: there are still many, many good and holy Bishops - probably the vast majority - who believe in, and love, the precepts of the Faith. Our goal is not to browbeat or belittle them, but to encourage them in their love of Christ and His Church. * Please click on the LifeSiteNews article about Lepanto’s launch to read the full text of the Lepanto Foundation’s appeal to the Bishops of the world. Timeline 4 days ago Catholics launch appeal urging world’s bishops to break silence on crisis under Pope Francis Lay group urges clergy: Dare to face up to the scourge of homosexuality Read More Mon Jan 7, 2019 - 1:54 PM EST Petition Launched! The following is from the email that I received about the above, P.S. - When you SIGN this petition, an email will be sent to the various Bishops’ Conferences around the world - using the very words of the appeal* by our friends at the Lepanto Foundation, calling on the Bishops to shun human respect and careerism in favor of boldly daring to proclaim the truths of the Catholic Faith. P.P.S. - After you have SIGNED and SHARED the petition, please consider CONTACTING your own Bishop.
January is the month dedicated to the Name of Jesus. 'In 1274, great evils threatened the world. The Church was assailed by fierce enemies from WITHIN and without. Pope Gregory X called a council of Bishops in Lyons to determine the best means of saving society from the ruin that menaced it. Among the many means proposed, the Pope and bishops chose what they considered to be the easiest and most effective of all, viz, the FREQUENT REPETITION OF THE HOLY NAME OF JESUS by bishops, priests and people. Saint Bernadine of Siena and Saint Leonard of Port-Maurice were ardent apostles of the Holy Name and their efforts were crowned with great success so that the enemies of the Church were overthrown, the dangers threatening society disappeared and peace was restored.' (an extract from an article in 'Christian Order' Jan 2019.) We are in this situation NOW and not only can the power of repeated and pious use of the Name of Jesus heal, restore and repair, it also provides an indulgence for the Holy Souls of 30 days when said with head bowed. http://catholictradition.org/Litanies/litany1.htm
Signed Thank you We have no Bishop right now Cardinal Wuerl resigned and we are praying for a holy Bishop
The Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus is televised on EWTN in the afternoon after the rosary on Mondays at 3:48 pm EST Check listings Thank you, Steve D Do you remember the old days: the men joined The Holy Name Society?
Cardinal raises question: Is Pope Francis part of Church’s ‘final trial’? UTRECHT, Netherlands, May 7, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – A Dutch cardinal has said that Pope Francis’ failure to uphold the Church’s authentic faith makes him think of the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s prophecy of a “final trial” for the Church before the second coming of Christ. Cardinal Willem Eijk, 64, the Archbishop of Utrecht, made the startling comment in an article published today at the National Catholic Register. Eijk, who was created a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012, got his medical degree before ordination to the priesthood and went on to complete three PhDs in medicine, philosophy and theology. In the article, the Cardinal laments Pope Francis’ failure to bring clarity on the question of intercommunion with Protestants during last week’s meeting at the Vatican with German bishops. The Pope told the German bishops to obtain unanimous approval on the issue, but, says Cardinal Eijk, he should have simply reminded them of the Church’s clear doctrine and practice. “By failing to create clarity, great confusion is created among the faithful and the unity of the Church is endangered,” he said. “Observing that the bishops and, above all, the Successor of Peter fail to maintain and transmit faithfully and in unity the deposit of faith contained in Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, I cannot help but think of Article 675 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church,” he wrote. That article of the Catechism, which he quoted in full, warns of a trial that will “shake the faith of many believers.” It prophesies a persecution that will “unveil the ‘mystery of iniquity’ in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth.” Cardinal Eijk warned publicly last year that by failing to clarify Church teaching over divorce and remarriage, Pope Francis was “fracturing” the Church. He is not the first Cardinal to recognize the confusion in the Church caused by Pope Francis as a sign of the end times. At the Rome Life Forum last year, the late Cardinal Carlo Caffarra spoke of the confusion in the Church around marriage and the family as the fulfillment of a prophecy he received. In a letter Cardinal Caffarra received from Sr. Lucia, the Fatima visionary wrote that the “final battle between the Lord and the kingdom of Satan will be about marriage and the family. Do not be afraid, (she added), because anyone who works for the sanctity of marriage and the family will always be fought and opposed in every way, because this is the decisive issue.” That final battle, he said at the Rome Life Forum, “is being fulfilled today.” Cardinal Burke too has identified the confusion and error in the Catholic Church under Pope Francis with the end times. “One may have the feeling that the Church gives the appearance of being unwilling to obey the mandates of Our Lord,” Cardinal Burke said in an interview with the Catholic Herald in November. “Then perhaps we have arrived at the End Times.” https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/c...n-is-pope-francis-part-of-churchs-final-trial
I'm really happy to say that my Parish Priest now includes the St. Michael prayer at our Sunday Masses. I would bet that a lot of parishioners don't even know this prayer anymore. But our Priest has placed an insert in our song books in all the pews, so they have no excuse not to pray along!
