THE PRETENSE PARTY IS OVER...IT BETTER BE

As I suggested in my previous post, the Church cannot feign shock or surprise especially with reference to the history of the sexual assault of seminarians by Cardinal McCarrick.

As has been documented in the secular press, any number of Church leaders were aware of the disgraced Cardinal’s deviant behavior.  The local dioceses where he served as Bishop were fully aware; the Papal Nuncio had been informed; even Pope BenedictXVI had been apprised of McCarrick’s perverse antics.

How is it then that McCarrick continued to rise through the ranks becoming both Archbishop of the nation’s capital and even a member of the College of Cardinals?

How is it that even now McCarrick has yet to be stripped of his title as Archbishop emeritus of Washington, DC?  Why is it that he remains a member of the College?


The Church cannot plead that it has been overwhelmed by what is an isolated incident.

The Church cannot pretend that it has not had to deal with similar reports involving other Bishops who crimes have been ignored for decades.

Others are now starting to come forward with their tales of McCarrick’s sordid past and we can expect that they will be worse than what we already know.  

Pope Francis must show his resolve to remove Bishops and other leaders in Church ministry who are responsible not only for any manner of sexual misconduct but who have been complicit by their silence and negligence in reporting such behavior to rightful authority, civil and ecclesiastical.

The proverbial ball is in the Pope’s court at this moment when the attention of the nation’s Catholic faithful is focused upon the shameful conduct of one of the Church’s leaders of note as well as those who were his abettors by their silence.

Certainly, Cardinal Wuerl as well as the Bishops of Metuchen and Newark, the Papal Nuncio and perhaps even Pope Saint John Paul II, who elevated McCarrick to the College of Cardinals (at least the history books about his Pontificate), have some serious explaining and answering to do.

I dare say, the country’s Catholics are watching and waiting.

Pope Francis must act decisively to forestall any further damage to the credibility and moral authority of the Church itself, fragile as they are.