Red Hat Report: Wealthy American Catholics Attempt to Control The Papacy

The scariest people in the world are those who believe they know what is best for everyone else.  These are the people Our Lord warned about when he said, "They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God."  (John 16:2).

With the Internet, we now have daily cyber lynchings of Catholic priests, bishops, cardinals and even Pope Francis.  And the most amazing part of this is that it is Catholics who are the most vicious in their attacks against the Church.  Those doing the cyber lynchings literally believe they are more Catholic than the Pope and the majority of Church hierarchy.  They have convinced themselves, without the tiniest bit of self doubt, that they know what is best for the Church and that it is their God-given duty to destroy anyone and everyone who does not agree with them. 

And now we have a group of extremely wealthy and, might I add, arrogant group of American Catholics who seem to believe they have been given a directive from God Himself to choose our next Holy Father.  They call themselves "The Better Church Governance Group."

These people make the Pharisees plotting against Jesus look like bumbling amateurs.

As Crux reported:

As U.S. bishops work to formulate an official response to clerical sexual abuse and cover-up, a new watchdog group backed by wealthy Catholics is seeking to take matters into their own hands.

A new organization, which held an RSVP-only event on Sunday evening, plans to spend more than $1 million in the next year investigating every member of the College of Cardinals “to name those credibly accused in scandal, abuse, or cover-ups.”

“The Better Church Governance Group” held its launch on the campus of the Catholic University of America (CUA) with the stated intention of producing its “Red Hat Report” by April 2020.

It needs to be noted that this group of one percenters has no authority whatsoever from the Church to proceed with this project.  In fact, never in Church history have laity ever been given authority to judge and condemn Church hierarchy.  Our Lord specifically said He would build His Church on Peter.  However, these men seem to think they are the rock upon which the Church is built.

That is not to say that there have not been attempted coups in the Church.  Martin Luther, of course, is a prime example.  King Henry VIII is another example.  Need I say more?

So what is the purpose of "The Better Church Governance Group"?  Slate.com gives a great explanation in an article entitled, "Conservative Catholics Are Digging for Dirt on American Cardinals. "  The subtitle of this article is even more clarifying: "Will the selection of the next pope become a political campaign, complete with smear tactics and soft money?"

From Slate.com:

The goal of the new Better Church Governance group, as Crux’s story makes clear, is to influence the selection of the next pope, who will be chosen by a subset of current cardinals. “What if we would have had someone else in 2013 who would have been more proactive in protecting the innocent and the young?” the group’s operations director, Jacob Imam, asked attendees at the event.  In other words: What if we could have prevented the selection of Pope Francis?

In fact, according to the Crux article:

“Had we had the Red Hat Report, we may not have had Pope Francis,” stated one of the slide presentations accompanying [Jacob Imam's] remarks.

Oh yes, this is a direct attack against the Papacy.  There is no question of that.  And these Americans think they can accomplish their goal the same way they do in American politics:  by engaging in mud slinging and smearing their opponents.  They believe that just as their money gets them anything they want in American politics, their money can also be used to destroy all those they oppose in the Church, with the ultimate aim of taking out Pope Francis:

An independent investigation might sound like a straightforwardly encouraging development. What could be wrong with an attempt by outraged lay Catholics to shed sunlight on an ongoing scandal that the church hierarchy has utterly failed to confront? The trouble is that the church’s abuse scandals have become a proxy in a much larger ecclesiastical battle. The wealthy Americans behind Better Church Governance are crusading not just against Pope Francis’ leadership, but against cardinals with insufficient theological adherence to “traditional values”—and particularly against homosexuality in the church.

This is exactly what our Lord warned of in John 16:2.

As National Catholic Reporter states, The Better Church Governance Group seems to have already zeroed in on one cardinal in particular:

Although its publicly available literature casts the effort as non-political and one that is interested in gathering and collating information, an early memo associated with the effort drew severe conclusions about one of its targets, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state and a member of Pope Francis' Council of Cardinals.

The NCR article goes on to state that the memo's author "backtracked on his critique of Parolin as well as an inference that could be drawn from the memo that the group intended to influence the outcome of a consistory".  However, that line is very difficult to swallow when one of the major talking points in their meeting was that had this group been around in 2013, they believe they could have stopped the election of Pope Francis.

NCR reports that this group wants to become permanent and a key component in deciding Church hierarchy:

The group, in its printed literature, outlined its ambition to expand its research to the entire episcopacy, not just cardinals, and of becoming a permanent commission.

This group is, in effect, trying to become Pope.   Dwight Longenecker said that he wanted the Pope to become a symbol with no power, and it seems that this group of rich Americans is trying to make that a reality by replacing the Holy Father's authority with their own.

From NCR:

While the publicly distributed literature of the Better Church Governance group declares that its primary project, The Red Hat Report, "is not intended to be a political project — and will not endorse or attack any cardinal," the memo apparently circulated as part of a fundraising effort and sent to potential participants, strikes a distinctly different tone.

The letter, over the signature of Philip Nielsen, executive director of the governance group and managing editor of the Red Hat Report, speaks of the group as "a non-profit watchdog" organization comprising "academics, Vatican reporters, and about thirty others" as well as anonymous contributors. NCR has received at least two copies of the letter.

The group says they are not looking to "endorse or attack any cardinal", but among those doing the investigating are 40 researchers and ten former FBI agents.  So if they are not looking to "endorse or attack", what is the purpose of all these investigators?

From NCR:

During his cocktail hour presentation, Imam explained that the group would begin investigations into the cardinals it considered likely papabile, or papal contenders, and work out through the rest of the cardinal electors, currently numbering 124.

In a recording of the presentation obtained by NCR, Imam can be heard listing a number of incidents in which he alleges Francis, as the then-cardinal archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, mishandled cases of sexual abuse by priests.

As can be plainly seen, this group is putting all of their efforts into targeting the College of Cardinals starting first of all with papal contenders.  The purpose of this is blatantly obvious, screaming in our face.  The Americans are going all out to ensure that the College of Cardinals consists only of those Cardinals with a stamp of approval from The Better Church Governance Group.

These rich Amerians, in effect, want to be the ones to elect the next Pope. They will be the real power behind the election of the next Pope.  The College of Cardinals will only be their stooges doing their bidding.

Each cardinal is being investigated by a team of about six people, according to the organization. "Currently we are constructing the dossiers of the American cardinals. We will soon begin forming groups in Italy to begin researching their cardinals," according to a flyer introducing the organization. Imam, it says, "is traveling around the world organizing regional teams to research their home cardinals." The group expects to grow "exponentially" throughout the year and sees "the potential for expanding our work to include the entire episcopacy and becoming a permanent Independent Commission."

. . .

According to an eight-point plan, the team will "audit" the cardinals "to name those credibly accused in scandal, abuse, or cover-ups; and to research who has responded strongly against corruption."

The group intends to "use this information to compose a dossier, assembled in the manner of political opposition research, on every cardinal elector, as well as on the influential or older cardinals connected with abuse or corruption."

In the final point of their plan, using Parolin as an example, the organizers outline their intention to use the information gathered "to edit the cardinals' English language Wikipedia pages. It is well known that at the last papal conclave many of the cardinals' secretaries used these pages to help the cardinals better know each other," writes Nielsen.

For example, he states, Parolin, "the very corrupt Vatican Secretary of State's Wikipedia page is currently very benign, with no links to scandal included despite the fact that he has repeatedly been linked with banking scandal's [sic] and was named in the Vigano letter." The latter statement is a reference to the controversial letter circulated by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, former nuncio to the United States, who accused Pope Francis of mishandling the case of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and further called for Francis to resign.

"We can change that," writes Nielsen, declaring that by the next conclave, Parolin "needs to be known, worldwide, as a disgrace to the church. Our plan would be to make sure that his Wikipedia page shows 'Church Watchdog The Better Governance Group, names Parolin, 'Extremely Guilty of Abuse' etc. with a link to the report. At the same time we would add all the pull-quotes from other sources that connect him to all the financial corruption, etc."

All of this cannot be viewed as anything less than trying to influence the election of the next pope.  However, in a case of "don't believe your eyes," Philip Nielsen tells us that this is not their goal at all, or at least it isn't now that they have been called out for their real motives:

In his response to questions sent by NCR in an email, Nielsen said that the "project team corrected a few of my early ideas" and changed the text of the memo.

"Most importantly," he wrote, "we have decided that our fundamental mission should have nothing to do with influencing any conclave. Many of our collaborators have emphasized this point to me since I wrote that memo. I accepted their correction and we have accordingly removed this goal from our project."

The same collaborators, he said, "pointed out to me that it was inappropriate for me to comment, either favorably or unfavorably, on the record of any cardinal."

The reference to Parolin, he said, "may indicate my personal bias at the time of writing," but, he added, in parentheses, "I have since gained a more rounded understanding of the cardinal."

Whew!  What is that smell?

This group is starting out with $1 million in funding, which is small change to these one percenters.  They have not yet released the names of those involved, which they say they will do later this month.  But you can be sure it includes Timothy Busch, Board Member of EWTN and Vigano supporter.

That puts EWTN and National Catholic Register and any other media group in reach of their tentacles directly in the pockets of this schismatic group.  And if they don't have Michael Voris on their payroll somewhere, they may as well have, because he will be supporting them in every way he can.  John Zuhlsdorf has already come out in support, and in fact printed a letter he received from Jacob Iman defending himself against the Crux article.

The Schism in the Church is in full swing.  Yes, these people are still technically a part of the Church, but in heart and mind they have completely separated.  And they know it!  But their defense is that they are the real Church and Pope Francis and all who support him are the great false church.  They might as well say, "Now we are all Michael Voris."

Who will you believe?  Do you believe in love and mercy as taught by Pope Francis, or do you believe in condemnation, rebellion, and acting against the Holy Spirit?

It's your choice.