Jesus knew about Cardinal McCarrick

Fr. James Martin and many at America Magazine also knew about McCarrick's beach house (i.e., Predator factory). To this day, they refuse to give voice to the victims and interview them, instead focusing on giving space to Cardinal Farrell to lie through his teeth about knowing about Cardinal McCarrick's abuse of seminarians. Fr. Martin's first reaction was to paint a picture of McCarrick as a "complicated man" with lots of good qualities, completely ignoring the public information about McCarrick abusing underage adolescents whom he had power over when a young preist before graduating to young adult seminarians when he climbed the hierarchy and gained power over them.

Jesus, when faced with hypocrisy called the religious leaders whitewashed tombs. John the Baptist called out King Herod publicly for his adultery. America Magazine honors those who sexually abuse others and considered Uncle Ted "a close friend of the magazine." Of course, Jesus and John the Baptist were losers who died for their outspoken engagement with the religious leaders of their day. America Magazine is a respectable publication with offices on the Avenue of the America's in Midtown Manhattan. Folks at publications like the NYT like them for their progressive views on things Jesus condemned. Unlike John and Jesus, Fr. Martin is a worldly success.

"You will only find this God in the Holy Roman Rotten Catholic Church, where the depraved teach young men how to confect God."

It is not The Faithful who are responsible for the heinous sexual abuse crisis. The Faithful of Christ's One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, recognize that The Catholic Church's teaching on sexual morality, reflective of The Word Of God, as Revealed through Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and The Teaching of The Magisterium, is grounded in respect for the inherent personal and relational Dignity of the human person as a beloved son or daughter.
It is not possible for a counterfeit church to subsist within Christ's One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church because " it is not possible to have Sacramental Communion without Ecclesial Communion", due to The Unity of The Holy Ghost (Filioque), for it Is , "Through, With, and In Christ, In The Unity Of The Holy Ghost", that Holy Mother Church exists.

It is not Loving or Merciful to desire that we remain in our sins or not overcome our disordered inclination towards sin and become transformed through Salvational Love, God's Gift of Grace and Mercy. If it were true that it is Loving and Merciful to desire we or our beloved remain in our sin, and not overcome our disorder inclinations, so that we are then led into temptation, and are not transformed through Salvational Love, God's Gift of Grace and Mercy, we would not need Our Savior, Jesus The Christ.
"But when the Son of Man comes, will He find Faith on the Earth."
Those who deny The Christ, and thus The Way, The Truth, and The Life (Light) of Love will not be counted among The Faithful if they do not repent and accept Salvational Love, God's Gift of Grace and Mercy.
"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves", but if we deny that sin is sin, we deny Salvational Love, God's Gift of Grace and Mercy.
"Know you not, that you are The Temple of God, and that The Spirit of God dwelleth in you."
Our Call to Holiness, has always been a call to be chaste in our thoughts, in our words, and in our deeds
Pray that all those Priests that desire Holiness will not flee!

Keep giving to the church. The Los Angeles Archdiocese paid $720 million for Cousin Roger Mahony's actions, and inactions. Uncle Ted and Cousin Roger, and dozens of other bishops. They are just as guilty as the perpetrators of child rape, Uncle Ted doubly so. I say make it a truly poor church and strip the Red Hats of every dime. Then they can be like Jesus.

Nothing - NOTHING - will change until we see women in positions of true authority in the Catholic Church.

It is not rocket science Simcha! We are getting to some degree what we have earned.

We treat women with absolute disdain and as though their bodies would somehow dirty up the Eucharist if we let them be the priests God calls them to be. Yet since women do not abuse at half the rate married men and single men abuse children sexually, we would see less abuse from the mere numbers alone if we ordained women. However, I don't see you fighting or defending your sisters one bit.

Sexism has long been directly connected to child abuse (this was true in our church's abuse situation too) yet where is the outcry to stop this ridiculous bias that Christ taught against when he commanded we treat all the same as we wish to be treated and therefore must treat all people the same - oppressing no one based on flesh.

I can't help but say to this writer, if you want to know where our problems come from, you might want to take a look in the mirror. We get the treatment: sexist, abusive, clerical, arrogant, etc. that we allow for from our leaders. We get what we put up with basically. Righteousness has never been automatic for Christians or anyone else. You have to stand up for righteousness.

Jesus corrects negative behavior thru the actions of the people who love him, and his church and through their demanding recompense and change. This means change of behavior and change of all contributing laws to the oppression and abuse.

If we must be a sexist church then we will also always be an abusive church, abusive to women, children and probably also with seminarians. The two evils walk hand in hand and they always have.

Studiously crafty, lacking in passion, theologically weak, spiritually naïve. A mother who wishes to tutor her child in avoiding pedophiles in seminaries, hoping to send him as a lamb to the slaughter, instead of helping him to seek mission and service as a non-ordained priest, prophet and king. One wonders at the editor who thought this was worth publishing.

Why didn’t HE tell somebody before this sin was allowed to spread and injure innocent people?

"And Christ knew about Uncle Ted. And he wept and bled and died knowing."

But it doesn't make any difference, does it? There's your theodicy problem.

Thank you for your beautiful, insightful reflections. God bless you.

Bishop Scharfenberger of Albany wrote a letter, some laud, Friday Pm, and only hours later, at Saturday vigil Mass a priest in his diocese gave a homily telling how nice the Cardinal was when he was a seminarian with the Cardinal in Washington DC at Cathedral of Immaculate Conception.
The abused Is a priest at a parish about 30 minutes away. How cold and insensitive to a brother priest. Ignore the bishop’s letter?
The bishop seems to ignore other abuse and bullying of elderly. His focus seems to be on a eucharistic Congress at a shrine which one might characterize as a private club.

Simcha, when you write to the bishop what will you ask? I am wondering why bishops have a virtual life time appointment. Why not rotate leadership every six years, like most religious orders do. Also why is the bishop the sole owner of all church property? why not create a non profit board of directors to whom the local ordinary reports on personnel and financial matters. This would introduce some of the transparency you suggest we need. Also, you make reference to Jesus in your post. I consider that Jesus could been part of the temple leadership if he wanted, instead he worked to reform Judiasm as a lay person. I have serious doubts that the hierarchy will be able to reform itself without a lot of help from people who are not infected with clerical culture. I would love to see some steps toward turning local churches into diverse communities for moral discernment.

The summary in the last paragraph is stuff and nonsense. Find another way to support the social services which is your reason for continuing to contribute. What makes you think that your son who holds the cross as an altar boy is destined to be a priest? With ten children, it seems to me that you have drunk "the kool aid". Stand up and think for yourself. And I haven't read your book," Sinners Guide to Natural Family Planning" but the title annoys me. Who are the sinners? There was a joke floating around when the pill became available in the 1960's that said, "What do you call people who practice NFP? Answer: Parents. It seems to me that the joke is on you.

I agree with the article. This is exactly the point. The problem is that the church is made up of human beings. This is what human beings do. This is why Jesus had to come. Otherwise, evolving from other animals would have created humans who don't hurt each other, but how would that happen? It is heart-breaking to see, but that is the way humans are.

I must say, this article is banal and melodramatic rubbish. Neither Ms Fisher nor anyone else knows what Jesus "knew"; and that goes for his own divinity. The interpretation of the death of Christ as sacrifice is one among many. NT texts themselves do not allow this interpretation to be absolutized (as it has been in the history of the faith within the Latin church). Cardinal McCarrick, a frail human being, is capable of receiving absolution and forgiveness for his sins, like the rest of us... so please spare us your histrionic descriptions of Jesus' wounds. The Church is not rotten. There are some rotten hypocrites in positions of leadership within the Church. It is with faith in the Church's long tradition of self-criticism and renovation that this leadership will be changed and improved.

I can't believe I'm reading this drivel in a Jesuit magazine.

Dorothy Day said "the Church is a whore but it is my whore." Jesus did say that those who know more will be judged more harshly. And indeed, the good thing about our times is that the bishops are being called on their actions and not glossed over as untouchable icons. There is just no excuse for what McCarrick did. Betrayal of those who trust and depend on us is the highest betrayal. Yet we are all sinners and depend on the mercy of God. The mercies of the Lord endure forever.

A very fine article, indeed. One of the most poignant and earthy integrations I have seen of Jesus and a very human Church.

There is reason for hope, however. Yes, Jesus foresaw these depredations. But he also saw what is to come as we journey toward union with a loving God, so long as we fix our gaze upon the heart that is the Spirit of the living Christ. The heart of Christ is not only the object of individual discernment but the discernment of the institution we call the Church.

Jesus knows that we can do something about the bad that we see. He sees that we were mistaken to think of the Church as a "Societas Perfecta", and that we would come to see what a mistake that was. Seeing that mistake, it now becomes clear that Catholic Social Teaching -- that the structures and practices of society are human creations and can be reformed by humans -- applies to the Church as well.

So we need to be about the work of reforming the structures and practices of our beloved Church, so that it is less vulnerable to abuses that arise for no better reason than that the power to abuse was available.

Rules and safeguards will undoubtedly be helpful. Lay involvement will be most helpful. But most helpful of all will be a different kind of teaching style in our Church, a teaching authority that focuses not so much on rules and norms -- however necessary these are -- but on discernment of the heart of Jesus, to do what is loving and right whether or not there is a rule. If we look more to what is loving and right, and less to lines drawn by rules and norms, then it is more likely that the Church will be able to turn away when the power to abuse presents itself.

Pope Francis took note of this contrast when he spoke to the Chilean Jesuits last January. He said that "what the Church most needs is growth in discernment." And then he gave an example of just the opposite of discernment: adherence to a comprehensive book of rules for Jesuits called the "Epitome".

The power to abuse is remarkably adept at sidestepping the lines drawn by rules and norms, ignoring them entirely if the leveraging of power makes that possible. This is particularly a problem where hierarchical authority is added to the mix. But if the joy of love's possibilities -- the heart of Jesus -- is at the center of what the Church teaches, such power will have no place to hide or grow for its lack of love can be exposed by anyone, high or low, who is empowered primarily by love's possibilities and only secondarily by rules and hierarchy whose burdens can be stifling.

This sophomoric article is an insult to survivors and to those who actually work with them clinically. It replicates the sadomasochistic interpretation of the Crucifixion as atonement, a view many contemporary theologians reject fully. It is a disgrace and an embarrassment - this naive young woman should be ashamed of herself and should go talk to some real people who as real boys and girls and as real adolescents and as real women and men were defiled by ostensible men of God. She has a lot to learn and this romantic tripe should be beneath the standards of America.

This sophomoric article is an insult to survivors and to those who actually work with them clinically. It replicates the sadomasochistic interpretation of the Crucifixion as atonement, a view many contemporary theologians reject fully. It is a disgrace and an embarrassment - this naive young woman should be ashamed of herself and should go talk to some real people who as real boys and girls and as real adolescents and as real women and men were defiled by ostensible men of God. She has a lot to learn and this romantic tripe should be beneath the standards of America.

The author of this article is incredibly (almost tear-stirringly) naive. And THIS is the most depressing thing of all... that despite the apparently never-ending flow of Roman Catholic priest-paedophile/ephebophile sexual scandals, authors like this one will continue to spout such morally reprehensible nonsense in defence of these Christ betrayers.

Jesus most definitely knew. And He speaks. What do we hear? You as a mother? Me, thinking back to my twenties when I, too, was harassed by a priest? What does Francis hear? More importantly, what are we going to do with what we hear? I, for one, have begun to speak the truth and hope for a Reformation by Integrity.

As a Clergy Abuse Survivor, I want to know what, exactly, your point is. This helps and/or heals no one. You have no right, in my opinion, to express such thoughts unless you... YOU, are a Survivor. This really angers me

Thank you for publishing this very real contemplative meditation on evil in today’s world and how it is integrated into the timeless redemptive act of Jesus. My mother (one of the holiest and most practical Catholics I have ever known) could have written it. It speaks to me, another everyday Catholic who has a permanent lump in her throat hearing of yet another Church scandal. It is not beneath America.

Romans Chapter one is pretty clear in what the world is accepting as truth today, and verses 26 and 32 of this chapter say it all: 26: For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. 32: Who, having known the justice of God, did not understand that they who do such things, are worthy of death; and not only they that do them, but they also that consent to them that do them.

Romans chapter one explains the times at hand, and yes, Jesus knows what all of us are doing, but which side do you want to be on when He comes back? Personally, I will not go against His biblical scripture of Romans chapter one. The world is exactly what that scripture reads, so I suggest to all, please read it; for salvation is all that matters!

Jesus, I trust in You

While being honest in our feedback we may need to be aware of participating in tribal behavior (conservatives or liberals are always right). We are a church of sinners and Jesus gave his message to the simple and unlearned of this world. Too many of us who write articles and inhabit these pages have no idea what practicing Catholics are feeling and thinking.

You gotta love the big Elephant tears from all the lefties and their cocktail party Jesuits.

Everyone at the Arch,everyone in Metuchen, everyone in Newark and Washington knew that the Cardinal was an active and aggressive gay man.who used his power to his own interests. They knew because they all paid his accusers.

Everyone closed their eyes because it was the politically correct thing to do. Now they are all self righteously jumping on the powerless corpse of this former darling of the Catholic and governmental Left to assuage their guilt.
The truth is that the Seminarys and the Chanceries and the Halls of Jesuit learning institutions are full of Uncle Teds. This is why it is difficult for Holy Mother Church to attract and keep good holy and yes Catholic Priests.

He may have "groaned the groan of a tortured seminarian" but he didn't appear to have done anything about it. Way to go.

Really, this author is partly why the church is so. "Dumbed down", barely above stupid. What terrible theology. Jesus died because of the blows by Roman soldiers, a lance that was thrust into his side (perhaps), suffocation hanging on a cross. His death had nothing to do with aberrant bishops or pedophile clergy, or even a Prsident like Trump. Get over it lady, the church is an institution, perhaps a grouping of communities, that somewhat propose to be following the teachings and the ethos of Jesus of Nazareth. First off, why would you push your son to be a priest. It is like asking someone from PETA to help out with Barnum and Bailey Circus. The church needs a deep rooted remake, not more priests who go through the same old seminary factory. Get him out of the altar boy gig unless there are altar girls and the whole thing is directed by a lay person who is trustworthy. At least acknowledging that the system is corrupt is a good start, but remember that the system was defended by the good "Saint" JP2, patron saint of the CIA for whom he was an active and paid agent. Ultimately the few people who still go to church have the power of the collection basket, they can require structural change or go elsewhere or better yet go nowhere. Climb a mountain or go to the lake, rescue animals and adopt a vegetarian life style out of communion with other living souls. Jesus did not know about Uncle Ted, nor JP2 or machines that could fly across the ocean.

A pretty naive commentary. Sure Jesus knew about all of us sinners. And sure prayer is a wonderful thing. So is cleaning out the closets in the spring. God helps him who helps himself. He really doesn't expect us to pray and forget the problem. He expects us to discern the appropriate solution and then apply it.

The most immediate way to address this grave issue is to join Voice of the Faithful and support SNAP.

What should we do when confronted with the badness of the church? Do something! Speak out, stop giving money, leave. The only reason the church continues to get away with all this corruption is because people just go on with their personal religious lives as if nothing bad was happening. Even worse is trying to make everything ok by saying Jesus knew all this was going to happen. I think one of the most repellent things about the church is how people use the idea of Jesus coming here to die for our sins as a way to excuse the continuation of the badness. Jesus came here to show us what God is really like, not to die. And there is no excuse, not even Jesus' death, for not fixing what's wrong.

Jesus also knew about Alexander VI and Julius II. Obviously, former Cardinal McCarrick should be put to death as his are the most horrific crimes in all of human history. But we could go further back in church history and apply 21 Century norms of behavior to actions of centuries past. There may well be yet-to-be discovered evidence that St. Peter did not enter into a marriage of equals with his wife, but used male dominance to ensure her subservience to him. Given these crimes from Biblical to current times, it might be better to simply outlaw Catholicism altogether. St. Peter's Basilica could be torn down and the stones used to build a new Coliseum. Indeed, it might be named Mrs. Peter's Coliseum in recognition of the horrors of patriarchal domination which she endured. But, since Jesus knew of this why then did he select this likely chauvinist to become the first Pope?

This article is heart-rending. How can a faithful Catholic live with these revelations, without losing her faith? The author is trying to find her way through that question, without once losing her clear eye on the appalling magnitude of the monstrous betrayals committed by those who should have been most to be trusted, against the most vulnerable of those in their care; and the massive betrayals, again, of those who knew, and covered it up, and made it possible for the predators to continue to prey on the innocent, over and over. I respect her vision and her pain.
These sins, she says, are among the many sins Jesus died to redeem. That evil exists has always been true, and we cannot allow our faith to falter every time we come in contact with it, because that's when our faith needs to be strongest - faith not in the Church but in its Founder. Though, as a faithful Catholic, her faith is in the Church too, and that is the hardest part of the pain she suffers now.
I am a Protestant, so I see the Catholic church as a human institution; based on faith, but like every other human institution, deeply flawed, because run by humans. Abusers are more likely to have been abused themselves in childhood than most. That is, of the priests who sexually abuse children, at least some were themselves abused as altar boys by the priest they should have been able to trust. The fact that reports of this behaviour are showing up everywhere the church has an outpost, all across the world, tells us that it is coterminous with the church; it has been going on for a very long time, and spread as the church spread, generation upon generation. The power structure of the church enabled, sheltered, hid and thereby maintained the practice.
And this is horrible.
I am reminded of a line in a book by a Protestant counsellor, M. Scott Peck; wherever there is spiritual power, evil will gather, not only because evil is attracted to power, but to muffle that power, and snuff it out. If I believed in Satan, and I'm pretty sure I don't, but if I did, I would say that the prevalence of the sexual abuse of children in the Catholic church could almost be used as proof of Satan's existence. If you wanted to destroy a powerful force for good in the world, silence its voice and its ability to do God's work on earth, how would you go about it? This looks like a very effective way. Make it impossible to trust the institution, and its power to do good is greatly diminished.
But this is not a reason to lose our faith. Here as everywhere, evil has always existed, and humans have always been weak. Here is where we must hold fast to our faith, and continue as ever to try to witness for God and do God's work here, where we live.

This attitude reminds me of the way Republicans are reacting to all the bad things Trump is doing. Instead of standing up to him and leaving the Republican party, they do nothing, say every political party has its problems, say no one is perfect, blah blah blah. People have to call evil out, they have to act, or nothing will ever change for the better. Perhaps it seems acting won't make a difference, but not acting does make a difference, if only in you and for the worse.