OP-ED - "The McCarrick Affair: The Pope knew. Here is why he must resign."

by Aldo Maria Valli

August 26, 2018

[Rorate note: journalist Aldo Maria Valli is probably the best-known Vaticanist in Italy, since for many years he commented on the papacy in the main Italian television network RAI1, and also for RAI 3.]

“Bishops and priests, abusing their authority, have committed horrendous crimes to the detriment of their faithful, minors, innocent victims, and young men eager to offer their lives to the Church, or by their silence have not prevented that such crimes continue to be perpetrated.”

Writing these words is an Archbishop, former Apostolic Nuncio of the United States from 2011 to 2016.   Now retired, he has decided to open his heart and tell all he came to know about the sequence of events regarding  sexual abuses in the Church. A testimony which concludes with a hard and peremptory ‘invitation’: Pope Francis should step down.  Because also he knew, but covered up. 

The Electors - Update: Cardinal O'Brien resigns and will miss the Conclave

Well, following years of being attacked by the media for defending the only possible concept of marriage, being the new sweetheart of the British press lasted for only a couple of days for Cardinal O'Brien, who resigned today following allegations of inappropriate behavior and is not going to the Conclave anymore.  (Bollettino publication)

Yes, Cardinal-Electors should not be submitted to undue "pressure", but perhaps they should keep their hip, "modern", opinions meant to shock ordinary Catholics to themselves, and other Cardinal-Electors might consider following the lead of Cardinal O'Brien if their presence in the conclave will shame the Holy Roman Church. And, no, once again the married priesthood, or anti-apostolic post-ordination marriage, would not have prevented this mess.

It seems unlikely that O'Brien would have resigned (or been asked to resign) so promptly - making the 2013 conclave the first one since 1958 without a representative from England, Wales, or Scotland - without concrete evidence against him in the allegations, forwarded by the Apostolic Nuncio to Rome in early February, before the papal renunciation announcemment.

[Update: as it can be seen in the Osservatore publication above, the Pope accepted the resignation on February 18, 2013. The British press reported that the accusations came to the knowledge of the Apostolic Nuncio in the United Kingdom before the renunciation of Pope Benedict XVI, which is also implied by the date above, merely one week after the papal declaration - therefore, the accusations cannot be construed as an attempt by the accusers to influence the conclave in any way.]

The Electors - the men who will choose the next Pope I - Cardinal O'Brien

Cardinal-Elector Keith O'Brien, Archbishop of Edinburgh, Scotland:

"For example the celibacy of the clergy, whether priests should marry - Jesus didn't say that. There was a time when priests got married, and of course we know at the present time in some branches of the church - in some branches of the Catholic church - priests can get married, so that is obviously not of divine of origin and it could get discussed again." (BBC, Feb. 22, 2013)

As is well known, priests can never get married in the Catholic Church, unless they are have been "laicized" (removed from ordained ministry). Married men may be ordained to the priesthood in Eastern Churches and, as an exception that is not to be perpetuated, in the Latin Church in the case of those who exercised a priestly-like ministry in some historic Western "ecclesial communities". After priestly ordination, as established from time immemorial, no priest can ever "get married". (Cf. Sacerdotalis caelibatus, 40) And, of course, Our Lord had something to say about this: "For there are eunuchs, who were born so from their mother's womb: and there are eunuchs, who were made so by men: and there are eunuchs, who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. He that can take, let him take it." (Cf. Mt. xix)