JESUS CALMING THE TEMPEST, Gustav Dore (1832-1883)
The following is the contribution sent by Archbishop Carlo Viganò to a symposium sponsored by the National Catholic Register to be held in Rome
next week. The former Nuncio to Washington was invited to be one of the speakers but he continues to be in hiding for security reasons.
'I continue to have hope, because
the Lord will never abandon his Church'
by Archbishop Carlo Viganò
I thank you for inviting me to take part in this symposium on “Abuse and the Way to Healing” in anticipation of the upcoming bishops’ summit at the Vatican. My contribution will draw on my personal experience of 51 years of priesthood.
It is evident to all that a primary cause of the present terrible crisis of sexual abuse committed by ordained clergy, including bishops, is the lack of proper spiritual formation of candidates to the priesthood. That lack, in turn, is largely explained by the doctrinal and moral corruption of many seminary formators, corruption that increased exponentially beginning in the 1960s.
I entered a pontifical seminary in Rome and began my studies at the Gregorian University when I was 25 years old. It was 1965, just months before the end of Vatican II. I couldn’t help but notice, not only in my own college but also in many others in Rome, that some seminarians were very immature and that these houses of formation were marked by a general and very serious lack of discipline.
A few examples will suffice. Seminarians sometimes spent the night outside my seminary, as the supervision was woefully inadequate. Our spiritual director was in favor of priestly ordination
ad tempus — the idea that ordained priesthood could be a merely temporary status.
At the Gregorian, one of the professors of moral theology favored situation ethics. And some classmates confided to me that their spiritual directors had no objection to their presenting themselves for priestly ordination despite their unresolved and continual grave sins against chastity.
Certainly, those who suffer from deep-seated same-sex attraction should never be admitted to seminary. Moreover,
before any seminarian is accepted for ordination, he must not only strive for chastity but actually achieve it. He must already be living chaste celibacy peacefully and for a prolonged period of time, for if this is lacking, the seminarian and his formators cannot have the requisite confidence that he is called to the celibate life.
Bishops have the paramount responsibility for the formation of their candidates to the priesthood. Any bishop who has covered up abuse or seduction of minors, vulnerable adults or adults under a priest’s pastoral care, including seminarians, is not fit for that responsibility or for any episcopal ministry and should be removed from his office.
I am praying intensely for the success of the February summit. Although I would rejoice greatly if the summit were successful, the following questions reveal that there is no sign of a genuine willingness to attend to the real causes of the present situation:
-
Why will the meeting focus exclusively on the abuse of minors? These crimes are indeed the most horrific, but the crises in the United States and Chile that have largely precipitated the upcoming summit have to do with abuses committed against young adults, including seminarians, not only against minors. Almost nothing has been said about sexual misconduct with adults, which is itself a grave abuse of pastoral authority, whether or not the relationship was “consensual.”
-
Why does the word “homosexuality” never appear in recent official documents of the Holy See? This is by no means to suggest that most of those with a homosexual inclination are abusers, but the fact remains that the overwhelming majority of abuse has been inflicted on post-pubescent boys by homosexual clerics.
It is mere hypocrisy to condemn the abuse and claim to sympathize with the victims without facing up to this fact honestly. A spiritual revitalization of the clergy is necessary, but it will be ultimately ineffectual if it does not address this problem.
-
Why does Pope Francis keep and even call as his close collaborators people who are notorious homosexuals? Why has he refused to answer legitimate and sincere questions about these appointments? In doing so he has lost credibility on his real will to reform the Curia and fight the corruption.
In my third testimony, I begged the Holy Father to face up to the commitments he himself made in assuming his office as Successor of Peter.
- I pointed out that he took upon himself the mission of confirming his brothers and guiding all souls in following Christ along the way of the cross.
- I urged him then, and I now urge him again, to tell the truth, repent, show his willingness to follow the mandate given to Peter and, once converted, to confirm his brothers
(Luke 22:32).
I pray that the bishops gathered in Rome will remember the Holy Spirit, whom they received with the imposition of hands, and carry out their responsibility to represent their particular Churches by firmly asking for, and insisting on, an answer to the above questions during the summit.
Indeed, I pray that they will not return to their countries without proper answers to these questions, for to fail in this regard would mean abandoning their own flocks to the wolves and allowing the entire Church to suffer dreadful consequences.
Despite the problems I have described, I continue to have hope, because the Lord will never abandon his Church.
The full program of the NCReg symposium:
Two early reactions to the McCarrick news:
In his blog Stilum Curiae, besides pointing out that Mons. Vigano's questions remain unanswered, Marco Tosatti writes:
'McCarrick may have been beheaded', but McCarrickism continues...' and directs his readers to an article he wrote for
La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana today to the effect that
'McCarrick may be gone, but his dauphin's career is rising', meaning former McCarrick vicar-general and roomie in Washington, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, just named Camerlengo by the pope in a completely insensitive move.
Surely Jorge Bergoglio must have been raised by his grandmother conscious of the importance of delicadeza, that innate sense of propriety good people ought to have.
And from New Catholic in Rorate caeli:
"Faithful mocked: McCarrick laicized - while his closest friend and confidante will run next Conclave setting... He will run the show when Francis is gone. That is his prize for being the ultimate McCarrick Man."
From Father Zuhlsdorf:
...While I take little pleasure in any of this, I find it grimly pleasing. I had long held McCarrick as one of the most loathsome people at large in the Church, based on what I had heard of him decades ago, and on his blatant lying about Ratzinger’s letter to US bishops and about what Arinze said in a presser when I was present.
Good riddance. The barque is a little less grimy today.
What remains to be determined is to what extent McCarrick was involved with Francis and Team Francis before and after the 2003 conclave.
That will come out. [You think???] After all, the Devil makes good frying pans, but he doesn’t make covers for them. Eventually, things come out.
Fr Kirk wields his trademark sarcasm in this brief post:
One down, one up
February 16, 2019
Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has finally got his comeuppance. This morning the Holy See announced his laicization. His notorious career of flagrant ‘clericalism’ is at an end.
But according to ancient laws of ecclesiastical polity, what goes down must come up. Almost simultaneously the Vatican has announced that Cardinal Kevin Farrell has been nominated Cardinal Camerlengo by Pope Francis.
The Camerlengo – who takes charge of the See during an interregnum, organises the papal funeral and arranges the ensuing conclave –
obviously needs to be a man of the utmost integrity, untainted by scandal. Which is why the lot fell on Farrell.
Francis clearly wanted someone unconnected with the disgraced McCarrick. And who better than one who, despite living at close quarters with McCarrick for some years, has so repeatedly and vociferously denied all knowledge of his patron’s proclivities? Would a prince of the Church prevaricate?
Thus it comes about that we have a clean pair of hands to supervise the inauguration of a new era!
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 17/02/2019 05:05]