St. Theobald Society

Here at the National Review

From America Magazine today.

I have been so busy lately, I've not really had a chance to keep up with the news from the Vatican.  Apparently, Pope Francis has both agreed to meet with the head of the USCCBf, DiNardo, who had a request into him since July.  The Vatican moves very slowly.  But also, Pope Francis has called a worldwide meeting with bishops in February 2019 to discuss the abuse of minors. I went to a Care for Our Common Home ministry at my Church.  They all love Pope Francis (and I do too) but they are so busy being environmentalists (which is good!) they haven't focused on the sex abuse crisis.  But, honestly, the Pope who decries clericalism, seems to me to be very much caught up in clericalism himself.  So the bishops are going to meet.  The bishops, WHO HAVE BEEN THE PROBLEM!  The bishops are the ones complicit in the cover up.  The bishops, some of them, have actually abused not only minors but seminarians; they have practiced wanton unchastity in their roles as shepherds and as moral a

Go here to read Bishop Egan's suggestions for an Extraordinary Synod on the Life and Ministry of the Clergy. 

Father Boniface Ramsey who was the whistle blower that tried to alert the local Church authorities about  McCarrick 20 years ago, is interviewed here.  One quibble I have is his characterization of a priest 'falling' once in a while in terms of celibacy.  I get that we are all sinners and such things can happen.  However, there is also a spectrum between occasionally 'falling' and being a predator.  It seems like an awful lot of priests like to hang out in gay bars and deliberately hide behind celibacy to cover for their activity.  The atmosphere in seminaries and in the priesthood (there seems to be plenty of drinking and social time going on) seems to often be occasions or near occasions of sin I agree that the crisis isn't just about homosexuality.  This actually really angers me when people say that it is.  Obviously that is a complicating factor here.  But what about the 20 percent of abuse victims who weren't boys/men?  Let's not throw them under

There's a good article by Jennifer Morse at the National Catholic Register.  Here's the opening paragraph: I know you are upset. I’m upset. The revelations of perverted men using the priesthood for their own purposes has shaken everything we thought we could count on. Most proposals for reform require cooperation from the very same people who have already failed us. These ideas still leave us, the ordinary Catholic in the pew, at the mercies of men we no longer trust. This is the frustration.  All the mechanisms to reform the Church are ultimately in the bishops' hands.  We lay people have very little power.  You can't tell me that isn't deliberate.  These are power-loving company men.  I appreciate this author's response.  The only seminarian I know seems to be entirely in the Fr. James Martin camp.  He is more upset about the 'witch hunt' for gay priests, which as far as I can tell, is not happening anywhere?  If it is, I haven't seen any ne

Here's an analysis by a priest who was in my diocese, who kept speaking out about active homosexual behavior, pornography, financial misdealings and adulterous affairs among his fellow priests.  For his efforts he got ex-communicated.  The website that published this (which is a little reactionary, but hey, maybe those reactionary types are right about this issue!) has been shut down since 2010 I believe.  What Father Haley writes is completely applicable today.  Now maybe Father Haley was seen as a nosy tattletale?  He certainly seems to have alienated Bishop Loverde who dealt with him harshly.  The funny thing is all the priests that Haley 'tattled' on actually did eventually get convicted or punished.  One of the more ironic things is that Father Haley was moved from my parish at St. Mark and replaced by a Father Brooks, who actually was arrested years later for buying child porn over the internet.  He was terrible priest.  Grouchy, unkind, impatient. And I can't fig