When the world demands acceptance, celebration...and the Eucharist

The recent refusal of a South Carolina priest to give Communion to former vice president Joe Biden has brought back into the mainstream the debate about how to handle loud, public heretics. While discussing this issue, one such case-study emerged on the Drew Mariani radio show yesterday. Listen here for the full backstory: Former VP Joe Biden Denied Communion.

During the show, a caller named “Francis” rang in to tell his own story about how hurtful it is when one is denied Communion. Francis, it seems, is a trans-person who was denied Communion by a particularly cruel priest. Not only did he deny Francis Communion, but this horrible priest had Francis removed from the church by force. Francis told Drew that he is a very devout person, a member of that particular parish for over 40 years, celibate for eight years, and serves in a variety of local Catholic groups. Drew and his guest, a canon lawyer, sympathized with Francis’s situation, and advised him to contact his bishop. Francis assured Drew that he has already told the bishop and that the bishop apologized to him. Furthermore, the police told him that he didn’t do anything wrong.

Francis’s story came across as heartfelt and sincere, and no doubt many of Drew’s listeners sympathized with Francis in the same way that Drew and his guest did.

There’s only one problem. Francis only told one side of the story. For you see, this particular incident happened in my parish and the situation with Francis has been an ongoing and quite public scandal.

In the interest of fairness, I present to you the other side of the story.

Francis was being honest when he said that he had been a member of the parish for over 40 years. During most of that time, he presented as a man. Then suddenly, quite recently, he began showing up for Mass dressed as a woman. Not surprisingly, this caused a scandal, particularly when Francis presented himself for Communion in this guise despite the Church’s clear teachings on transgender behaviors, which even Pope Francis has condemned in no uncertain terms.

The incident Francis described in his call to the Drew Mariani Show did, in fact, happen. But Francis left out a few highly relevant details. First, he was removed from the church after causing a loud and continuous disturbance during Mass when he was not given Communion. Worse, this incident took place during a Mass for the school children when the entire school was gathered together, and included Francis shouting that he is trying to show the children that it’s ok to be transgender. As a result of this incident, adults aside from school teachers are no longer allowed to attend school Masses at our parish. As you might imagine, this change in policy due to one person’s unreasonable demands to be served generated considerable irritation.

Since then, Francis has caused other disturbances during Mass. He has also occasionally appeared in the sacristy dressed as a woman. For those of us with young boys who serve at the altar and who are often in the sacristy preparing for Mass, this is absolutely unacceptable.

I do not claim to know Francis’s motivations, nor am I able to make a good assessment of his mental state. Several of my fellow parishioners have speculated that his purpose is to force the parish to accept his behaviors (which includes using the ladies room at the church while young girls are in it) and, if not, to create problems for our good and holy priest with our bishop and local law enforcement. His actions to date seem to bear out that hypothesis.

And yes, I should point out that our pastor is an outstanding, hard-working, holy priest of many years who wants nothing more than to defend his people from the depravity of the world. The idea that he is somehow awful, rigid, or unsympathetic is, frankly, ludicrous. Again, I can not say with certainty what Francis is truly attempting to accomplish, but I can observe that his actions at the parish do not seem to be those of the devout, innocent, humble follower of Jesus Christ that he portrayed on the Drew Mariani Show.

The ongoing scandal with Francis has been instructive to me as a case-example of what happens when local parishes knuckle under to the urgent demands of the world. For every surrender, new demands will emerge. For every inch of ground that’s ceded, miles more will be required. And for every Francis whose bizarre behaviors are welcomed via the front door no questions asked, a dozen regular Catholic families will exit via the side-door if for no other reason than to protect their children.

I would ask those who carry crosses like the one carried by Francis to put their own wants and needs last in favor of the wants and needs of their fellow Catholics. After all, that's what true love is—willing the good of the other before your own good. Do not cause scandal during Mass, especially in the presence of children. Give serious consideration to the words of Our Lord when he said: "And whosoever shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me; it were better for him that a millstone were hanged around his neck, and he were cast into the sea." [Matthew 18:6]

As for the rest of us, we should be very wary of the sympathy-inducing confessional literature that is presented to us by those attempting to inject the novel teachings of the corrupt world into the Holy Catholic Church. Very often, their tales only tell half the story.

The Useless USCCB

I wrote the following message on Facebook a few months ago, but given the miserable failure that the USCCB meeting in Baltimore is proving to be, it seems even more appropriate now.

To the USCCB ~

You fellows had your chance to clean things out in 2002. The fact that one of the leaders of this effort back then, Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, has now been revealed as an abuser himself and a harasser of seminarians has demonstrated that the whole process was a sham. 

As former governor Frank Keating said recently: "Judas Iscariot is walking the earth, and is among the council of bishops." For those who don't remember, Gov. Keating was the leader of the ill-fated National Review Board charged with investigating the scandal in 2002. He quit when he realized that you weren't serious. Hear more from Gov. Keating here: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/frank-keating-on-the-catholic-bishops-today/ 

Now, the trust is gone. Many of you need to resign, and soon, for the good of the Church.    

See this website for more information about bishops who should have done something about Cardinal McCarrick but failed: http://complicitclergy.com/

Needless to say, there have been no resignations from this group. Only stonewalling, excuse-making, and pitiful attempts to apologize. There need to be consequences, however.

Whatever moral authority our Catholic bishops once had, it's quickly slipping away and this is a disaster for the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I pray that God will cleanse His Church and send us saintly men to be our shepherds. The current group seems to be capable of nothing but sowing confusion, frustration and discord.

Thank God for Archbishop Viganò who wrote the following brief letter to the USCCB. He is perhaps the only man in this whole sordid affair who actually speaks like a believing Catholic:

I am writing to remind you of the sacred mandate you were given on the day of your episcopal ordination: to lead the flock to Christ. Meditate on Proverbs 9:10: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom! 

Do not behave like frightened sheep, but as courageous shepherds. Do not be afraid of standing up and doing the right thing for the victims, for the faithful and for your own salvation. The Lord will render to every one of us according to our actions and omissions.

I am fasting and praying for you,

"The world stands by reason of the intercession of Christians" ~ The Apology of Saint Aristides

A modern Orthodox icon of St. Aristides.

Today is the feast of Saint Aristides of Athens. I’m going to guess, dear reader, that you have never heard of him. If that’s the case, then you are in good company, for I had never heard of him either until today. Aristides was a martyr of the 2nd Century AD. What little is known of his life may best be summarized in this passage from Saint Jerome’s On Illustrious Men:

Aristides, a most eloquent Athenian philosopher, and a disciple of Christ while yet retaining his philosopher's garb, presented a work to Hadrian at the same time that Quadratus presented his. The work contained a systematic statement of our doctrine, that is, an Apology for the Christians, which is still extant and is regarded by philologians as a monument to his genius.

The Eastern Orthodox proclaim Aristides as a martyr, saying that he was hung in Athens on September 13 of AD 134 (or 120), but there doesn’t seem to be any near contemporary documentation supporting this. His Apology was known in antiquity and the early Middle Ages, but was thought lost for a thousand years until it was rediscovered in Armenian and Syriac translations in the 19th century.

Emperor Hadrian.

The Apology of Aristides retains relevance to our own times and is well worth reading in full. In it, the saint offers a comparison of Christianity to the religious beliefs of the barbarians, Greeks, Jews and Egyptians. In the excerpt that follows, Aristides blasts the perverse tales of the Greek pantheon as the source of great wickedness, hinting at the early Christian belief that the pagan gods existed but weren’t actually deities at all, but demons. If the martyrdom accounts of the Orthodox are trustworthy, then it's probably not surprising that Hadrian and his courtiers had an extremely negative reaction to this polemical attack on pagan beliefs and the perverse sexual practices that often accompanied them:

“Because of these stories, O king, much evil has befallen the race of men who are at this present day, since they imitate their gods, and commit adultery, and are defiled with their mothers and sisters, and in sleeping with males: and some of them have dared to kill even their fathers. For if he, who is said to be the head and king of their gods, has done these things, how much more shall his worshipers imitate him! And great is the madness which the Greeks have introduced into their history concerning him: for it is not possible that a god should commit adultery or fornication, or should approach to sleep with males, or that he should be a parricide; otherwise he is much worse than a destructive demon.” 

In contrast, here is how Saint Aristides describes the belief of the Christians:

“…They know and believe in God, the Maker of heaven and earth, in whom are all things and from whom are all things…they do not commit adultery nor fornication, they do not bear false witness, they do not deny a deposit, nor covet what is not theirs: they honor father and mother; they do good to those who are their neighbors, and when they are judges they judge uprightly; and they do not worship idols in the form of man; and whatever they do not wish that others should do to them, they do not practice towards any one, and they do not eat of the meats of idol sacrifices, for they are undefiled: and those who grieve them they comfort, and make them their friends; and they do good to their enemies: and their wives, O king, are pure as virgins, and their daughters modest: and their men abstain from all unlawful wedlock and from all impurity, in the hope of the recompense that is to come in another world…For truly great and wonderful is their teaching to him that is willing to examine and understand it….And I have no doubt that the world stands by reason of the intercession of Christians.” 

Reading the above, one can not help but be struck by how Aristides's words apply to our own time. Prof. Benjamin Wiker recently made the case that the scandals rocking the Catholic Church regarding the sexual abuse of boys and the softening of teachings on matters of sexual immorality more generally by Church leaders represent nothing short of the repaganization of West. To use Prof. Wiker’s own words in his article, From a Moral-Historical Perspective, This Crisis is Worse Than You Realize:

“The very men most authoritatively charged with the evangelization of all the nations are full-steam ahead bringing about the devangelization of the nations. In doing so, these priests, bishops, and cardinals at the very heart of the Catholic Church are acting as willing agents of repaganization, undoing 2,000 years of Church History.” 

When considered in the light of Saint Aristides’s words above, some 21st century bishops certainly seem to behave more like courtiers of Hadrian than colleagues of the ancient martyrs, and are indeed more enamored with the “great madness” of the Greeks than the “truly great and wonderful” teaching of the Christians. The prayer of Aristides which closes his Apology is also quite relevant to the travails of our time:

“Let the tongues of those now be silenced who talk vanity, and who oppress the Christians, and let them now speak the truth….Let them, therefore, anticipate the dread judgment which is to come by Jesus the Messiah upon the whole race of men.”

To read the whole Apology of Saint Aristides, click here.

Click for more info.

It is thought by some scholars that Saint Aristides is also the author of the ancient Christian work known as the Letter to Diognetus. This is another 2nd Century apologetical work which is otherwise anonymous but which bears certain textual similarities to the Aristides’s Apology.

The Letter to Diognetus is included in the brand new book, I Am A Christian: Authentic Accounts of Christian Martyrdom and Persecution from the Ancient Sources which will soon be available from Arx Publishing. Check it out!

Why the Viganò Letter is Credible

Cardinal Gottfried Danneels (second from right) appears on the Loggia with
the newly elected Pope Francis in 2013. Danneels had retired under a cloud
for his audio-recorded badgering of a sex abuse victim.

The testimony written by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has set off shockwaves. Not only does Archbishop Viganò name names of bishops and Cardinals who have covered up the sex abuse scandal, he directly implicates Pope Francis and calls on him—and his inner circle of Cardinals—to resign. To quote Archbishop Viganò’s letter directly:

“Pope Francis has repeatedly asked for total transparency in the Church and for bishops and faithful to act with parrhesia [that is, candor and the courage to speak the truth to power -ed.]. The faithful throughout the world also demand this of him in an exemplary manner. He must honestly state when he first learned about the crimes committed by McCarrick, who abused his authority with seminarians and priests."

Archbishop Viganò then provides the answer:

"In any case, the Pope learned about it from me on June 23, 2013 and continued to cover for him [ie, Cardinal McCarrick -ed.]. He did not take into account the sanctions that Pope Benedict had imposed on him and made him his trusted counselor along with [Cardinal -ed.] Maradiaga." 

These are deeply disturbing allegations and while we don’t yet know for sure whether they are completely true, we do know that they are credible. A very troubling pattern has emerged over the past few years which show that Pope Francis, at the very least, has put his personal imprimatur upon several prelates, including McCarrick, who have been disgraced over their handling of sex abuse cases or who have actively taken the side of the predators over the victims. These include the following:

1. During the infamous 2015 Synod on the Family, Pope Francis personally appointed retired Belgian Cardinal Gottfried Danneels as one of the Synod fathers. At the time, he was advised to reconsider this appointment because, among other reasons, Cardinal Danneels had tried to cover up a sex abuse and was caught doing so in an audio recording. Also, to say that Danneels was an ineffective teacher of Catholic moral teaching would be a grotesque understatement [warning, the content at the preceding link is utterly vile.] Pope Francis ignored the advice and proceeded to appoint Cardinal Danneels anyway. Danneels also bragged that he had been a leader of the so-called “Saint Gallen’s Mafia”—a group of dissident prelates which had worked to undermine Pope Benedict.


2. Earlier this year, Pope Francis defended the infamous Bishop Barros of Chile and attacked the bishop’s accusers. He insisted there was “no evidence” against Barros and said, “The day they bring me proof against Bishop Barros, then I will speak. There is not a single piece of proof against him. Everything is calumny. Is that clear?” However, it later emerged that Pope Francis had been advised by Chilean bishops not to appoint Barros in the first place because of credible accusations, but he had ignored this advice and proceeded to appoint Barros anyway. Francis only backed down afterwards when a firestorm erupted in Chile. He accepted Barros’s resignation in June of 2018.


3. Cardinal Maradiaga, who is called out specifically in the Viganò letter above, is to this day considered one of Pope Francis’s trusted advisers. He even spoke at the recently concluded World Meeting of Families in Dublin. But earlier this year, Maradiaga evinced the same dismissive attitude toward an unprecedented appeal from seminarians in his native Honduras. A letter, signed by 48 seminarians, claimed that they were being victimized by a predatory homosexual cabal in the seminary. In response, Cardinal Maradiaga attacked the seminarians, calling them “gossipers” who wished to portray their fellows in a bad light. He also apparently attempted to protect one of his underlings, Bishop Juan Jose Pineda, who had been implicated as an abuser. However, in July of 2018, Bishop Juan Jose Pineda was forced to resign after the allegations of the seminarians proved valid beyond any doubt. Despite this, and the fact that Maradiaga has also been implicated in misappropriation of Church funds, he continues to be part of Pope Francis’s inner circle.

So sadly, there is a disturbing pattern of behavior here, and it is against this backdrop that the accusations in the Viganò letter become credible. The Pope’s behavior may simply be caused by a tragic ineptitude, gross naivete or a blind desire to put loyalty to friends ahead of the truth—frankly, I prefer that one of the above be the case. Though these above would be great and possibly disqualifying failings, they at least point to the potential (however distant) for reform emanating from the Vatican. There are, however, alternative explanations that are too horrific to even consider at this point.

We will have to see how events play out. To this point, however, I remain impressed by the words of Archbishop Viganò, who said in his letter:

“My conscience requires me also to reveal facts that I have experienced personally, concerning Pope Francis, that have a dramatic significance, which as Bishop, sharing the collegial responsibility of all the bishops for the universal Church, do not allow me to remain silent, and that I state here, ready to reaffirm them under oath by calling on God as my witness.” 

He, of all the individuals involved in these sordid affairs, at least sounds like a Catholic.

May God Almighty thwart the efforts of the prince of this world to corrupt the Church.

May Jesus Christ, the Just Judge, bring down divine justice upon all of those who bring filth and scandal into the Church.

May the Holy Spirit inspire great saints to rise up and cleanse the Church.

May the Blessed Virgin Mary intercede for the faithful and encourage us during this tribulation.

Shepherds and millstones

"To execute is inadmissible!" 

The shepherds cry perched on corrupted thrones.

Their declaration's oddly risible

as angry flocks are searching for millstones.

Our Catholic bishops have had nearly 20 years to clean out the rats nests that have grown up in the chancery offices of the various American dioceses. They have failed, and failed miserably.

Indeed, to characterize the nonfeasance (and in some cases, blatant malfeasance) of the American bishops as merely failure seems an understatement. Sixteen years have now passed since the bishops' conference in Dallas during which the problem of homosexual abuse in the parishes, schools, and seminaries was directly addressed. But the bishops have fixed nothing. Instead, some of them have taken a somewhat different tack in recent years, mounting a public relations campaign to help normalize and welcome those who actively engage in homosexual practices which were, are, and always will be acts of "grave depravity" which can never be approved.

Worse, it is now revealed that a Prince of the Church, Theodore Cardinal McCarrick—a man who played a key role in drafting the weak and ineffective Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in Dallas in 2002—is himself an abuser of young men. In this light, it is perhaps not surprising that the bishops exempted themselves from the above guidelines.

Now that McCarrick is formally and publicly disgraced, his brothers in the episcopacy have piously disowned him, claiming that they didn't know of his taste for young men. For some of them, at least, this claim is simply not credible. It seems evident that some or even many of our shepherds may entertain tastes similar to "Uncle Ted." The laity can be forgiven for harboring such thoughts as our bishops have done little by their words and actions to dispel the idea.

Our Lord was very explicit about the fate that awaits those who lead young people to sin and destruction:

"It is impossible that scandals should not come: but woe to him through whom they come. It were better for him, that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should scandalize one of these little ones." [source: Luke 17:2]

I am certainly not the only one who sees irony in the fact that the Vatican saw fit to release with fanfare this very week an unprecedented change to the Catechism which declared the death penalty "inadmissible". That this change contradicts millennia of Church teaching is, depressingly, unsurprising. The motto of our present age seems to be: "Tota confunditur Jerusalem." [source: Acts 21:31]

As the corrupt bishops have shown little taste for reform, and no inclination to resign—even when clearly engaged in activities which are sinful and destructive of the Catholic faith—it falls to the laity to act. Will enough answer the call to do battle? The first step, I think, is prayer, lest our actions end up being more destructive than salubrious:

Let the devout cry out to God for justice. May our Lord Jesus Christ, the Just Judge, purge His Church of the abominable corruption that has infected it. May He lance the boil of perversion, heal the wounds of the injured, and drive out the legions of satan who have entrenched themselves in our sacristies. Save your flock, O Christ, from the wolves in shepherd's clothing.