St. Theobald Society

I started this tiny blog a couple weeks ago, in the wake of the revelations about now-no-longer-cardinal McCarrick's sex abuse scandal.  But right now I'm on vacation with extended family at the beach. So I will keep up with all the news, but I'm going to be dedicating my time to things like: Walking on the beach Staring out over the waves to watch for pelicans flying or dolphins swimming Swimming, chatting, hanging out Eating lots of seafood Playing board games with grandparents, in laws and children and maybe some corn hole and kite flying too. Reading Napping Praying I will get back to work on this issue in a week.  God bless! (I tried to post a photo of the beach but the internet is a little wobbly and doesn't seem to be cooperating.)

Here the video of Father John Hallowell's homily on the McCarrick scandal.   It's not too long and it is worth watching. Here is Elizabeth Scalia of Word on Fire's column entitled McCarrick, Mary, and Mystery:  Seeking the Truth in the Moment. It is easy to fall into despair.  It is easy to want to flee.  But I prefer to stay and fight.  I prefer to offer myself as a janitor to the Lord.  I will stay and do my part, however, humble and small, to cleanse the Church.  To fight for reform, for transparency, for a new way of distributing power that is at once faithful to the Church's teachings but also helps to prevent corruption in her ranks.

Think of all the turmoil and strife the little country Honduras has been suffering through.  The rule of gangs that have created such a violent society that people are fleeing north to the border.  It is one of the most dangerous places to live in the western hemisphere. And this is what Church gives it:  homosexual predation in the seminary.  This is what the seminarians are begging to be saved from.  The Church hierarchy has failed so badly, so very badly.  It has betrayed us all.  I believe Pope Francis has some good things to teach us.  But it will all come to very little because of the deep corruption and vile abuse of power that is demented and demonic.  What good are your words, Holy Father, if no one can trust you to act justly in the face of glaring evil?  You must exorcise your Church!  What good does it do to preach about the environment, migrants, economics, family, if you turn a blind eye to such filth and oppression?  Such a violation of every principle the Church is s

Today is the feast of the Sts. Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus.  I chose St. Anne as my confirmation saint, because I too had a grandmother named Anne.  In fact, we never even called her grandmother or grandma.  We always called her Anne because when she first became a grandmother she really thought she was too young to be one!  Anyway, when I realized that I had a grandmother with the same name as Jesus had, I decided that was the name for my confirmation. In spite of my disillusionment with the clergy of the Church, I still draw strength from the saints, from prayer, from Scripture, from the ordinary Catholics I know who are busy helping the homeless, rescuing babies from abortion, trying to implement Laudato Si' in parish life and in their own daily lives, working with children on the border in Texas.  I know many good Catholics who live their faith.  They are the true Church.  And the power-hungry, conniving predators who make up her hierarchy shall not prevai

A round up of articles I've noticed today suggesting how the Church could reform to prevent scandals like McCarrick's. A suggestion by woman canon/civil lawyer at The Christian Review. Bishop Sean O'Malley has issued a statement.   Here it is covered by the National Catholic Register. Father Berg at First Things. Ethika Politika's commentary   Crux Now's suggestions for reform My own (probably quite ignorant) thoughts: I think, and this idea was prompted by a comment somewhere, that the more married priests and more married deacons in the Church the better.  I think they will bring a different dynamic.  I am not against celibacy.  I don't think it is the root of this.  I think the structure and those who controlled the seminaries are at fault. But I do think it is proven one can be married and be a good shepherd to the flock.  So let's not exclude those possible shepherds because they are married.  I think the inclusion of Melkite priests under

St. James was the first apostle martyred for our Lord.  He was full of fervor and zeal.  St. James, you mean so much to me.  The church where I received my Baptism, my First Confession, my first Holy Communion, my Confirmation were all in the parish of St. James.  I lived across the street all through my childhood.  I attended the grade school.  My first job was answering phones in the rectory on Saturday mornings.  Your beautiful old church building was ever present to me.  One of my own sons was baptized there as well, and my oldest daughter got married there.  My sister later taught at the school for 10 years.  She was so shocked and grieved when Monsignor Reinecke shot himself on the grounds of Holy Cross Abbey after being accused of abusing two minors 25 years before.  See the story in the Washington Post here.   This is my own prayer to St. James: St. James, you were full of zeal for Christ.  Inspire your apostolic children today to regain that zeal.  You had courage f

I am just piggybacking off of The American Conservative's running reports and commentary on the bishop scandal.  Rod Dreher the author of all these, links to these three news outlets in his latest column. The Week:  The Catholic Church is a Cesspool National Review:  There Is No "Biological Solution" to the Catholic Church's Spiritual Crisis. Catholic World Report:  An Open Letter to Bishop Tobin I frankly would like to see some good old fashion public penance done by the bishops.  Henry II had to walk to Canterbury in sackcloth and ashes and be flogged by monks there for the murder of St. Thomas a Becket.  I'm thinking something comparable would be suitable for the whole USCCB. Addendum Here's a long analysis of the whole fiasco and how so many bishops are implicated in this network of complicity.

I would like the St. Theobald Society to be a sort of think tank that would provide a platform where solid thinking people, both lay and clergy, could meet to discuss rational ways to reform the Church's power structure so we can avoid sin and the near occasion of sin as much as possible.  I would like to archive all such suggestions for reform.  However, this may be redundant, as Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) already exists .  Here's a link to their page on providing support to priests.   As much as I grieve and want justice for those who have been violated by clergy, I feel there are other organizations out there already doing that kind of work, like VOTF and SNAP.  What I am interested in is saving the Church from destruction within.  The Church is in a weaker and weaker position in the world, yet she is called to be a force of good, to evangelize all nations.  I am more interested in the priests who are true to their calling and therefore soldiers in the field, so to spea

I am just picking up things from the internet and posting them here.  I just learned this from a facebook post.  St. Basil the Great recommended this punishment for clerical sexual abusers. “Any cleric or monk who seduces young men or boys, or who is apprehended in kissing or in any shameful situation, shall be publically flogged and shall lose his clerical tonsure. Thus shorn, he shall be disgraced by spitting into his face, bound in iron chains, wasted by six months of close confinement, and for three days each week put on barley bread given him toward evening. Following this period, he shall spend a further six months living in a small segregated courtyard in the custody of a spiritual elder, kept busy with manual labor and prayer, subjugated to vigils and prayers, forced to walk at all times in the company of two spiritual brothers, never again allowed to associate with young men for purposes of improper conversation or advice,” Here's an old article from 2007 that talks

Yesterday's first reading at Mass was so on spot for this moment in time when we are reeling from the Cardinal McCarrick scandal.  Jeremiah 23: 1-6.  My pastor wrote a commentary on it for our bulletin.  I assume it is ok for me to retype it here.  I mean he made it public to the world.  If I am violating some copy write or ethical issue, I apologize.  I guess I should ask him, but I feel rather shy about it all, ironically. Here it is: WOE TO THE SHEPHERDS WHO MISLEAD MY FLOCK.  Today's passage from the prophet Jeremiah highlights a truth which can be as present in our lives today as in Jeremiah's day:  those appointed to lead and protect a people can misuse their power and take advantage of that people.  We see it in the world's dictators.  We've seen it in faculty members and sports coaches.  And, sadly, we have seen it in the revelations concerning sexual abuse committed by some Catholic priests, bishops and even cardinals, over the last few decades.  The v

Well, it looks like priests can't catch a break anywhere.  Now the charitable organization that legally represents priests who can't rely on the church administration to help them, may not want to turn to Opus Bono either.  It's under criminal investigation in Michigan.  The founders are accused of using charitable funds for their own purposes.  Here's a link to the article. I was afraid the idea for the St. Theobald Society would be redundant since there already existed an organization that offered legal help.  But maybe it would be nice to have another outlet after all. Honestly, I was just thinking of having a list of lawyers who may be willing to take on cases for priests.  We wouldn't be an actual legal aid society of sorts.

I am going to pick apart Patti Armstrong's column found here:   8 Victims of Sex Scandals in the Church. I'm not saying I don't agree with some of what she has to say, but there is some victim blaming and there's a bit of dismissiveness that is not indicative of a true grasp on the horror of the situation.  It's a very defensive article. “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Matthew 18:6) “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” (1 Corinthians 12:22-26) She begins with the above quotes from scripture which is great. For faithful Catholics, our esteem for priests as  in persona Christi  pains us to hear of anyone betraying their sacred vows. But for the detractors, there is glee and cynicism over scandals that are then used as ammunition aga

St. Lawrence of Brindisi, holy priest, pray for us! The first thing I would like the St. Theobald Society to focus on is prayer.  I would eventually like to see a website of some sort where a community of believers commit to prayer.  We can pray in general that the Church be cleansed of corruption and be born anew to holiness. We could also pray for specific prayer requests from priests, sisters, and others who know of a situation that needs it.  I'd like us to be able to pray 24/7 by having different people in different parts of the world commit to praying an hour a week.  I'd like it to be that people can request prayer anonymously but also by name if they so choose.  To be able to pray 24/7 we need only 168 people to commit to dedicating one hour a week to pray for the Church.  That's not much. Will you pray? Yesterday, I went to daily Mass and dedicated it to praying for all priests, seminarians and church workers who are despairing over the hypocrisy and moral fa

If you scroll down to the bottom of this shocking article, you can see an update where Ross Douthat and Terry Teachout vent their despair and their cynicism via Twitter. Satan wants us to despair.  He wants us to abandon our faith in God.  He wants us to think it must all be a lie.  I too am fighting a profound sense of betrayal.  I too am fighting rage and disgust.  I too feel powerless. But then I remember that rage, depression, grief, shock always cloud judgment and narrow one's scope.  The horizon shrinks down to just the grave injustice.  But this is unjust itself.  It does not reflect reality.  Because there are good priests out there.  I am sure of it.  We can not abandon them. I am like Abraham pleading for Sodom. (see Genesis 18: 16-33).  If there are any righteous priests, we must support them.  We must cultivate the good and encourage the faithful.  We must help to reform the organization so that there is transparency and accountability.  We must be as cunning as

How could the sex scandals in the Church happen?  And how could such a culture of secrecy and deep complicity exist among men who have supposedly devoted their lives to Christ and His Church?  I am currently reading a book entitled Hold On To Your Kids .  This book is about the dangers of peer-orientation over healthy attachment between children and their parents.  Healthy attachment is the way we humans are meant to develop.  Attachment grounds the child in a secure, unconditional love that allows maturation and personal flourishing.  Unhealthy attachment to peers destabilizes a child's development, stunts the child's emotional and psychological growth, and we see the repercussions every day in the increase of suicides, bullying, cutting and many other more subtle dysfunctions.  I see a parallel in the Church hierarchy's cover up of scandal, the silence about and protection of corrupt bishops.  I fear that the clergy have an unhealthy, spiritually stunting attachment t

The treachery of Cardinal McCarrick , Archbishop of Washington DC for so many years, is heart sickening.  We, the faithful, are still working through the depravity and horror of the pedophilia scandal.  But now we find we have not uncovered enough.  The Church that Jesus Christ founded seems vile and filthy to the core with sin.  With grave, mortal sin, and many of her priests are guilty. What can we, the laity do?  We feel powerless.  How can the Church we trusted and believed in betray us so? Does the Church not believe in what she teaches? Does she have no fear of God? How can the same people who preach chastity, holiness, virtue behave in this despicable, unconscionable way? And who can we trust?  Who is complicit?  How deep does it go? Supporting Those Who Are Faithful This site is dedicated to those priests who are trying to be faithful servants of Christ.  Those priests who dare to speak out and even those who are afraid and ashamed of their fear.  Those priests wh