Rorate Caeli

A Letter to Archbishop Viganò: TEMPUS ADEST -- The Time has Come

ARCHBISHOP VIGANÒ:  TEMPUS ADEST!  THE TIME HAS COME!


Dear Archbishop Viganò:

I, as a priest of the Roman Catholic Church. write this letter to you during the season of Advent, this time of waiting, of expectation, this time of violet that asks us to ponder the meaning of the coming of Jesus Christ into this world of sin and death, to ponder these things in the darkest part of the year when the darkness seems to overwhelm the light.  This is the liturgical season in which John the Baptist assumes so powerfully his role as the forerunner of Christ.  It is John the Baptist who prepares himself for this role by going into the silence and wilderness of the desert to prepare himself in that silence in which God dwells and then comes blazing out of the desert with his words demanding repentance and a return to the Lord and finally an identification of who this Lord is in the person of Jesus Christ.

I write this letter to you to ask you to end your self imposed exile and to come out of the desert of silence and speak directly to those who willfully ignore the reality of corruption in the Church and to expose their profane use of silence that cynically mimics Christ’s silence before Pontius Pilate.  The reaction of Rome has been to ignore your letters or to attack you personally and finally to adopt a response of silence. Their silence has been deafening, and their bluff of silence has succeeded in blocking all discussion of not only your three letters but also any discussion of the terrible malaise within the Church herself.  The emasculating order of silence imposed on the bishops of the United States at their recent meeting in Baltimore had the desired effect.  The bishops could not even agree on sending an innocuous request to the Pope to make available the material Rome has regarding the McCarrick scandal. Debolezza triste, mancanza di coraggio.

What can we hope for as the outcome of the February meeting in Rome called to discuss sexual abuse of children by priests and the cover-ups that ensued?  Perhaps they will offer McCarrick as the sacrificial lamb and hope that that will satisfy those who shout that something must be done about the perceived moral corruption in the Church. But as you have stated several times, the horrendous crimes of pedophilia by clergy are deeply linked to the homosexual subculture that not only enabled these crimes but also did its best to cover them up.  The secular press has led the charge against McCarrick and all that he stands for.  They have also led the charge against the pedophile priests and those who protected them.  And at least in the United States, it is the secular government that is initiating investigation of many diocese as to whether crimes were committed not only against children-- the overwhelming majority were boys-- but also by those who protected these priests, which is also a crime.  God used the enemies of Israel to chastise his Chosen People many times in the Old Testament.  Perhaps he is using the secular powers of this world that despise the Church in so many ways to chastise and purify the Bride of Christ whose very heart and soul is founded in the Blood of the Lamb.


But the secular press is not interested in homosexual orgies in Vatican apartments, or even bishops who sleep with seminarians.  Because they believe that there is nothing wrong with two consenting males having sex with each other.  So the secular world will never be an instrument in the exposure of and the elimination of the sexual corruption within the Church at all levels including Rome.  This is why you, Archbishop Viganò, must come out of your desert and confront those you accuse of covering up the poison that keeps the Church from fulfilling her sacred mission to the world of evangelizing all nations and people and letting them know about the love of God in Jesus Christ for all men and women and that he is the only hope for salvation and eternal life in God.  Be not afraid of your own imperfections.  They will not stand in the way of truth.  The stonewalling under the faccia tosta and impious silence of the Roman hierarchy must be broken. Whatever the truth may be, only you can further the process that you have begun in your letters by which the truth will come to light about the scandals and corruption in the Church that deny her God-given mission to the world.  Leave your self-imposed desert, and like St. John the Baptist come out to witness to the truth, that truth that is not an idea nor a concept, that Truth that is a person, whose name is Jesus Christ.

Father Richard Gennaro Cipolla