Olivia Ingrassia
Fordham University student
This past August, former papal nuncio
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò released
a revelatory letter that detailed how Pope Francis was well aware of
ex-Cardinal McCarrick’s heinous clerical abuse. This scathing letter divulged
that Pope Francis not only lifted sanctions placed on the sexual predator by
Pope Benedict XVI, but also covered for him, even making McCarrick his “trusted
counsellor.” While many have discredited the 11-page
epistle merely as a far-right tactic to oppose the Jesuit Pope, this
report is undoubtedly concerning, especially since the Vatican has remained
silent and neither denied nor addressed these claims. This has left many
demanding further responses from the pontiff, who has instead deferred
to “silence and prayer” during these most tumultuous times.
However, despite the potential danger, many
prelates have courageously defended Viganò’s claims. For example, Cardinal
Raymond Burke said
that, “the declarations made by a prelate of the authority of Archbishop Carlo
Maria Viganò must be totally taken to heart by those responsible in the
Church.” Burke continued in speaking to the validity of calls for the Pope’s
resignation if these allegations are proven true. Similarly, Monsignor
Jean-Francois Lantheaume and also spoke
to the veracity of these claims and questioned Francis’ taciturnity in the wake
of these searing allegations, equating his silence to cover-up. In addition,
Viganò recently broke his silence and doubled
down on his original letter, stating that his testimony was
published “during a crescendo of continual news of terrible events, with
thousands of innocent victims destroyed and the vocations and lives of young
priests and religious disturbed," and asserts before God that it is true.
Viganò, who has reportedly
activated the death switch, pointed to the fact that neither the Pope nor any
Cardinal in Rome denied his testimony, and accused Pope Francis of slander and
hypocrisy.
Others, like Cardinal Blaise Cupich of
Chicago, rejected the letter and came to the defense of the Holy Father. In an
interview in September, Cupich egregiously
suggested that the Church should not go down a “rabbit hole” on the
issue of sexual harassment, and ought to instead focus on ostensibly more
important issues such as the “environment” and “protecting migrants”. The
disgraced Cardinal, a known advocate for the heterodox pro-LGBT agenda, is
currently in the midst of a crisis of his own, as he recently removed a priest
from his archdiocese who burned
a 'pride' flag (let us not forget that Pride is the deadliest sin).
This priest, Father Kalchik, was the victim of clerical abuse when he was a
teenager, and has since been forced into hiding “out of fear that Cardinal
Cupich would take him away by force,” which
is what he told the independent Catholic news agency Church Militant
in a recent interview. Cupich echoed the Pope’s sentiments that this crisis has
little to do with homosexuality and is instead the product of “clericalism,”
and was also named in Viganò’s letter
as one who is directly involved in the despicable cover-up of the Catholic
Church’s homosexual corruption.
(I’d be neglectful if I failed to mention that
while Abp. Viganò and Father Kalchik are living in a state of fear for the
wrath of the Vatican for bringing to light possible heresy within the hierarchy
of the Church, disgraced ex-Cardinal McCarrick was sentenced to a rather
peaceful life of prayer and penance in a Kansas friary, not too distant from an
elementary school.)
Similarly, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the
Archbishop of Washington DC, has repeatedly denied that he had any knowledge of
the years of sexual misconduct complaints involving McCarrick, his predecessor.
However, new
revelations from the Washington Post have emerged that may dispute
his claim, as Wuerl was among those named in a 2005 abuse settlement agreement
that included allegations of McCarrick’s harassment. Father Patrick Ciolek was
one of the many seminarians abused by McCarrick and stated that it is
“inconceivable” that the diocese would have failed to notify Wuerl, who at the
time was the Bishop of Pittsburgh, where Ciolek was located. In his original
letter, Viganò denied Wuerl’s
ignorance, and said that as McCarrick’s successor, he would have been “the
first to have been informed” of the harassment. Now, calls for Wuerl’s
resignation are stronger than ever, as the episcopate swamped in controversy
has been to the Vatican since the allegations surfaced.
Likewise, other prelates in the United
States were also mentioned by Viganò,
including Cardinal O’Malley of Boston and Cardinal Tobin of Newark, which is
the impetus behind many calls by theologians and lay leaders alike for the U.S.
bishops to follow their Chilean brethren and resign en masse. It is necessary
for the Church to be purged of its clergy here in the United States, and as one
letter stated,
"Only then might the wrenching work of healing begin.” For the Catholic
Church to rise from the ashes of its worst scandal in modern times, a mass
resignation must occur immediately. And only then should Pope Francis follow
suit. The Pope’s approval rating is plummeting, and the longer he remains
silent, the more the world continues to wonder and is driven to believe the
validity of the brave testimony by Viganò. Yes,
this would be unprecedented, but so are these accusations, and the only true
way for us to feel at peace with the leadership of the Holy See is if everyone
involved in these crimes are exorcized.
Moving forward, the crux of the aforementioned
issue is clear, and all involved directly or in the cover up need to be purged at
once. Namely, the powerful homosexual subculture within the Church must be
drained, and as affirmed
by Father Dominic Legge, “the main, persistent problem is with homosexually
active priests.” Dr. Alice von Hildebrand--the wife of former Fordham professor
Dietrich von Hildebrand--who has close ties with Fordham University herself
where she was both a student and a professor, told
Church Militant in a 2016 interview, “Stalin, soon after he came to
power, ordered his cronies to invade Catholic seminaries ... with young men
that had neither faith nor morals. Now ... the ideal cases: homosexual.”
Bella Dodd, an agent with the American Communist Party from 1927-1949, who was
a close friend of the von Hildebrands after she converted to Catholicism under
the direction of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, recounted how she recruited some
1,200 young men to infiltrate the Church under Stalin’s orders. Others, such as
Father David Marsden, have also noted this deeply concerning presence, calling
the seminary a “cesspool
of liberal theology and heterodoxy.”
In order to combat this issue, we must not
be complicit. Laymen are encouraged to withhold any donations to the USCCB
until the Bishops take responsibility for their misdoings, lest we continue to
allow them to lead souls to Hell. In addition, at the USCCB’s annual
meeting--which will be held from November 12-15 in Baltimore,
Maryland--demonstrators will be organizing the Silence Stops Now
campaign to demand the end of this deafening silence, the resignation of those
involved in the cover up in any way, as well as an investigation and a
prosecution of any criminal activity.
Finally, and most importantly, for my
fellow students at a Jesuit institution, we must be knowledgeable of these
grave accusations, and mustn’t simply dismiss these claims because we are led
to believe they are false by those in positions of authority. The von
Hildebrands, who have spoken to the corruption, and many mentioned in the
letter have close ties with Fordham University in particular, including
McCarrick himself who was one of the most revered alumni of this institution. Further,
Carlo Maria Viganò spoke in 2014 at an event promoting Catholic education, at which Fordham
leadership was present. Lastly, Father Martin, arguably the most outspoken
ringleader of normalizing homosexuality within the Catholic Church, and who many
believe is leading souls to Hell yet is a frequent guest at Jesuit student
gatherings, is not carrying the torch of St. Ignatius, and instead, as Viganò
said it best, “chooses to corrupt the youth [and] is
nothing but a sad recent example of that deviated wing of the Society of
Jesus.”
Pope Francis is not immune to sin merely
because of the nature of his position, or because he is a Jesuit. There should
be zero tolerance for substantiated evidence of this magnitude, and though He
is the ultimate judge, Viganò is correct: “Pope Francis must be the first to set a good example for
cardinals and bishops who covered up McCarrick's abuses and resign along with
all of them.”
In these trying times within the only
Church that traces itself back to Jesus Christ, and the oldest institution in
the history of the world, we must be vigilant, and not succumb to the hypocrisy
of those in power. We thank Viganò for his
bravery in releasing these truths and pray for his safety and for the healing
of the Only Holy and Apostolic Church. Still, we remain faithful and optimistic
because, in the prescient words of Hilaire Belloc, "The Catholic Church is
an institution I am bound to hold divine — but for unbelievers a proof of its
divinity might be found in the fact that no merely human institution conducted
with such knavish imbecility would have lasted a fortnight."
