At Mass on Saturday, Pope Francis asked again for daily prayers to protect the Catholic Church from what he says are "attacks by the devil," in his latest response to the Clerical sex abuse and cover-up scandal roiling his Papacy.
I hope His Holiness is asking that we join together to pray that the Church will be rid of the demonic infestation of homosexual predation that has so wounded the Church at every level of Priestly ministry from parish Pastors to the Vicar of Christ himself.
But I fear, in the context of Pope Francis' continuing silence in response to now the second letter of Archbishop Vigano, it may appear the Pope is insinuating some other motive for which he requests we pray.
This is the voice of the Vicar of Christ speaking to His Church!
Pope Francis must know that his words are powerful indeed. But they are unclear.
In fact, what he has said might be understood to be intimidating to anyone who would advocate for the finding of the truth regarding the most serious of accusations perhaps ever made against a Supreme Pontiff and the global hierarchy of the Church.
Thus, as I have joined my voice to those Bishops and people whom I have known all my life to be sincere members of the Church, am I now being put in the company of the “demons from hell” who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls and of the Body of Christ itself?
As the Pope made these remarks at Mass yesterday, the traditionally observed Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel, he should have reminded all of us that, within the arsenal of weapons with which Christ Jesus has armed the Church in the battle against the Powers of Darkness, is the Light of Truth!
The Light of Truth, Your Holiness.
Not silence, not obfuscation, not abdication of the duties of Office to secular journalists, but the announcement of the Truth which makes all things new and frees humanity from the shackles of deception and corruption.
Your Holiness asks the Church for prayers to combat “satanic attacks” and yet, even in your request, there is an indirectness that is deeply troubling: to perhaps use the vehicle of the pulpit to make glancing responses to the accusations which have been leveled against Your Holiness yourself and the members of the Catholic hierarchy.
You call upon us, the Catholic Faithful, to unite and pray the Rosary, but to what end?
Your Holiness alone has the Supreme Apostolic Authority to “protect the Church from the devil, who is looking to divide us from God and one another".
Use that Supreme Authority to combat what you have called "satanic attacks". You have the authority to get to the bottom of these accusations.
You have the power to release the documents Archbishop Vigano himself has said will establish the facts which, once revealed, can be the only means by which unity and harmony within the Church can be restored.
I shall offer the prayers you request, but for the purpose that the Truth be revealed and those accountable accept the burden of the responsibility for their actions and omissions.
If this places me in company of “demons”, then I have failed not only to understand and cherish what the Catholic Faith has asked of me all my life; but as a Son of the Church, as a Priest, I must have led others astray whenever I called them to confess the truth and accept responsibility as the only avenue of salvation and Divine Redemption.
I shall pray for Your Holiness and for the Church which, in this dark hour, appears to have lost not only its way but perhaps its very soul.
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