Father Paul Kalchik and the Spirit of Disobedience and Rebellion

The current crisis du jour in the Catholic blogosphere is the saga of Fr. Paul Kalchik of Chicago. Father Kalchik was pastor at Resurrection Catholic Church in the Chicago archdiocese.  On September 21, Fr. Kalchik was removed by his bishop, Cardinal Cupich, as pastor of the church for disobeying a direct order.

The Catholic blogosphere led by Michael Voris (who else?) is, not surprisingly, rushing to the defense of Fr. Kalchik and demonizing Cardinal Cupich.

So who is right?

Father George Rutler Mocks Pope Francis

I once held Father George Rutler in very high regard. When I came back to the Church after 38 years, I made a deliberate decision to make my confession to him. He also convalidated my marriage. I use to attend Our Savior's Church in Manhattan from time to time just to hear him talk.

I attended Rutler's Good Friday services for several years. Each year he speaks from 12:00 to 3:00 on the seven last words, and it is always standing room only.

When I attended, his talks often contained discussions of politics, and he did not hesitate to take jabs at liberal politicians, However, although it was always done in a very subtle way, Rutler also mocked Church hierarchy with whom he disagreed.

This was back in my days as a radical traditionalist, and I never had a problem with any of Rutler's positions until one year when his sarcasm just did not sit right with me. I felt he was way too political and right wing and far too dismissive of his ecclesiastical superiors. I have not returned to Rutler's parish since then.

Rutler has never tried to hide his allegiance to the right wing traditionalists or his disdain for Pope Francis.

Fr Z: But This Kind Does Not Go Out Except by P̶r̶a̶y̶e̶r̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶F̶a̶s̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ Money

Father John Zuhlsdorf

From the blog of John Zuhlsdorf, Catholic priest [emphasis Zuhlsdorf]:

As I have commented before, a great deal of the clean up of The Present Crisis will be (must be) driven by lay people, who have, above all, numbers, and who have, ultimately, the money.

This will be a two-edged sword.

The sword, I think, has been drawn.

Yes, believe it or not, Father John Zuhlsdorf thinks the answer to the crisis in the Church is numbers, i,e., power, and money. Specifically, Zuhlsdorf is suggesting that the laity use their power to withhold money from the Church until the hierarchy does what they, the laity, want, and of course, Zuhlsdorf's readership wants only what he, Zuhlsdorf, tells them they want.

There is another name for this: blackmail.

Daily Adoration and Weekly Confession: The Key to Holy Priests and Bishops

We are in the midst of one of the most horrific crises in Catholic Church history.  The sexual abuse crisis is tearing the Church apart internally and destroying her credibility in the eyes of the world.  Sexual abuse and sexual immorality is like an epidemic tearing through the Church's clergy.  Every day we hear of it somewhere in the world.

As I write this today, September 17, Crux has two more reports of sexual abuse and cover up in the Church.  One report is from the Netherlands: "Over half of Dutch bishops shielded priest-abusers, according to report:

A sensational new report on sexual abuse in the Netherlands claims over half of the bishops in the country from 1945-2010 were involved in either covering up abuse or abusing children themselves.

. . .

The NRC Handelsblad report claims 20 of 39 bishops during the period are implicated in at least covering up abuse, with four auxiliary bishops suspected of abusing minors themselves.

Crux also reports "Chilean hero expelled from priesthood over sex abuse charges."  This is on top of the abuse scandal among the Chilean bishops.

A priest [Father Cristián Precht Bañado] who was once a national hero in Chile, and who now finds himself another casualty of that country’s massive clerical sexual abuse crisis, has been expelled from the priesthood by Pope Francis after being found guilty of abusing minors and vulnerable adults.

Precht is an extremely high profile priest with an impressive resume.  It turns out he has been an abuser for years, even abusing teenagers in confession.

Something has gone seriously wrong with the priesthood in the Catholic Church. We cannot go on with business as usual.  We need to take a long hard look at priests and bishops to try to understand why they have so flagrantly violated the vows and promises they made before man and God.  Why did/do they feel so empowered to sin against the laity and ultimately, against the Holy Spirit?

It is Time To Close All the Seminaries - Part 2

Jesus Christ spent over three years with his apostles teaching them what it means to truly love and serve God and His people.  He taught them how to be evangelizers in the fullest sense of the word, not being afraid to get down in the dirt with people in order to lift them up.

Our Lord did this by walking and living among the people, going into their homes, going out among the outcasts, the lepers, the rejects of society.  He laughed with the people and He cried with them. He healed them and even brought them back from the dead.  Finally, He died for them.

But since the time of the Reformation, the Church has decided that the best way to prepare men for the priesthood, for a life of serving God and His Church, is by shutting them away in buildings, regimenting their lives, and teaching them history and philosophy.  Seminarians may occasionally venture out among the people, but it is only on the rare occasion.

To use the words of Pope Francis, our seminarians never get the smell of the sheep on them.

It Is Time To Close All the Seminaries

We are at a crisis point in the Church that rivals anything in our 2000 year history.  Yet another sex abuse report came out today, this one from Germany.

A study commissioned by the German Bishops Conference examined 3,677 cases of abuse allegedly perpetrated by clergy nationwide, German magazine Der Spiegel reported on Wednesday. The universities of Giessen, Heidelberg and Mannheim were involved in the research, which implicated 1,670 priests in sexual abuse spanning from 1946 to 2014.

This is a worldwide scandal in the Church.  It seems to be happening everywhere and has been for decades.  Most likely it has been happening much longer than that, but was much more easily covered up in the days before mass communication.

The question is, why is this happening?  What is the common denominator in these scandals?  What do all priests in the Catholic Church have in common?

They all went to seminary.

Can the Laity Save The Church? Or Will The Laity Destroy The Church?

Everything would have been so much easier if Jesus Christ had not given the Church to sinful human beings. I mean, c'mon Jesus! Peter was one of your weakest followers, always acting big and important, but betraying you and slinking away like the coward he was when you needed him most.

And yet Peter is the one upon whom you built your Church!

Jesus, what were you thinking?!

Why didn't you pick your sinless Mother to lead the Church? She would never steer us wrong. Or you could have even chose John, who unlike the others, at least stayed with you and your Mother through your crucifixion.

But no, you have to choose the very weakest to be our earthly leader. And then you actually command us to submit to his authority. In fact, you said that unless we submit to Peter's authority, we cannot belong to your Church.

But now things are really messed up, Jesus. The bishops, the ones we trusted the most, have completely betrayed us. They allowed wicked priests to literally prey upon the weakest and most innocent among us. These priests and bishops used the authority you gave them as a weapon against us.

Instead of looking out and protecting their flocks as a good shepherd does, they protected each other and threw the flock to the wolves. We can't trust these bishops anymore.  How can you possibly expect us to submit to their authority?

Where Peter Is, There Is The Church

Thoughtful men, with hearts craving the truth, have come to seek in the Catholic Church the road which leads with surety to eternal life. They have understood that they could not cleave to Jesus Christ as the Head of the Church if they did not belong to the Body of Jesus Christ which is the Church. Nor could they ever hope to possess in all its purity the faith of Jesus Christ if they were to reject its legitimate teaching authority entrusted to Peter and his successors.

Pope Leo XIII

The Catholic Church in the midst of a terrific spiritual war. This is a war started by those who believe that it is their duty to wrest the Church away from Pope Francis, the Vicar of Christ, whom they believe is trying to destroy the Church.

Those who are engaging in this war against Pope Francis will be the first to tell you that they are actually the most loyal of Catholics. In fact, they believe that they are probably the only true Catholics on earth. They are certainly more Catholic than Pope Francis, whom many of these "most loyal of Catholics" label as a heretic.

But what these saviors of the Church don't seem to realize is that if they succeed, they will actually destroy the papacy and the Church which they claim to love.

Joseph Ratzinger: The Church Will Become Poor, Meek, More Spiritualized and Simplified

Father Joseph Ratzinger 

From the crisis of today the Church of tomorrow will emerge—a Church that has lost much. She will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning.

. . .

The Church will be a more spiritualized Church, not presuming upon a political mantle, flirting as little with the Left as with the Right. It will be hard going for the Church, for the process of crystallization and clarification will cost her much valuable energy. It will make her poor and cause her to become the Church of the meek. The process will be all the more arduous, for sectarian narrow-mindedness as well as pompous self-will will have to be shed. … But when the trial of this sifting is past, a great power will flow from a more spiritualized and simplified Church.

And so it seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrific upheavals. But I am equally certain about what will remain at the end: not the Church of the political cult, which is dead already, but the Church of faith. She may well no longer be the dominant social power to the extent that she was until recently; but she will enjoy a fresh blossoming and be seen as man’s home, where he will find life and hope beyond death.
Joseph Ratzinger, Faith and the Future (Ignatius Press, San Francisco: 2009).

Archbishop Vigano Defies The Holy Spirit

Most of the coverage concerning Archbishop Vigano's allegations against Pope Francis and his call for the Pope's resignation have centered around the veracity of the allegations themselves.  I have written several posts in which I seriously question Vigano's credibility.

But there is another issue that we, as Christians, need to consider that is actually far more serious with much graver consequences than the truth or lack thereof of Vigano's accusations.

Did Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano have the right and authority to publicly accuse Pope Francis of corruption and insist that he resign as Pope?

Honduran Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga said calling for the resignation of the Pope is a sin against the Holy Spirit. 

Is the Cardinal correct?

Ed Pentin Changes His Story AGAIN and Then Proves Vigano's Allegations are False

A few days ago I did a post about the ever-changing reporting of The National Catholic Register's Ed Pentin regarding the Vigano allegations against Pope Francis.  I showed how Pentin keeps changing and revising his story as Vigano's allegations are slowly debunked.

When Pentin first broke the story about the Vigano testimony, he stated that the Register had confirmed that Pope Benedict knew about McCarrick and that the Pope Emeritus had taken "measures" against McCarrick, but he couldn't remember what those measures were.  Pentin gave us no details at that time as to how he got this information or when.

When Pope Benedict's personal secretary flatly stated that Pope Benedict had never at any time confirmed Vigano's allegations and that this was "Fake News!"  Pentin responded by saying that he had never reported that Benedict had said this.

Pentin tried to get around his initial reporting by stating for the first time that he got this information from an inside source.

Of course, that made no sense because the inside source would have had to talk to Pope Benedict, contradicting Pope Benedict's statement that he never talked to anyone about Vigano's allegations. Either the "inside source" was lying or Benedict was lying.

I know who I believe.

Since then, Vigano's allegation of strict sanctions imposed by Benedict against McCarrick has been basically debunked through overwhelming evidence that McCarrick never curtailed his public life in any way whatsoever.

Why Pope Francis Does Not Answer His Enemies

With people lacking good will, with people who only seek scandal, who seek only division, who seek only destruction, even within the family: [the answer is] silence, prayer.  
Pope Francis, Homily, September 3, 2018

Father Dwight Longenecker, a bomb throwing traditionalist, wrote a column in which he said that Pope Francis' refusal to answer Vigano's accusations will most likely lead to a "lame duck papacy":

Pope Francis’ response to Archbishop Vigano’s testimony has, so far, been a sad silence which echoes his silence over the questions about marriage formally presented by some of his cardinals.

If this lack of leadership continues we may see the development of a lame duck papacy.

A "lame duck papacy " would, of course, mean that Pope Francis would be a completely powerless pope with no authority.  In effect, even though he would still physically occupy the office, Pope Francis would no longer, for all intents and purposes, be pope.

To believe this is even possible, Fr. Longenecker must believe the office of the papacy is comparable to that of an elected official. The huge problem with this is that an elected official, at least in a democracy, gets his power from the people who elected him.

But the Vicar of Christ is not elected by the people, nor does he derive his power from the people and how much they like or support him. The Vicar of Christ receives all of his power and authority from the Holy Spirit. The only One who can "depose" a Pope, or make him a "lame duck pope" (as if that is possible) is the One who made him Pope in the first place:  the Holy Spirit.

Fr. Longenecker has either forgotten this or never knew it.

And then there is this problem.  If you believe that the Pope has no power, that is the same as believing that no one occupies the Chair of Peter.  And what do we call those people? 

Sedevacantists. 

Oops.   

UPDATED: Why I Don't Believe Archbishop Vigano

I admit that I have been skeptical of Archbishop Vigano's accusations against Pope Francis from the first time I read them.  The list of reasons for my skepticism has grown with each day.  

Archbishop Vigano's main accusation is that Pope Francis knew that former Cardinal McCarrick was a sexual predator, and turned a blind eye, lifting the secret sanctions that were imposed upon McCarrick by Pope Benedict. Vigano goes even further in accusing Pope Francis of forming an alliance with McCarrick to push the "homosexual agenda" in the Church.

There are several problems with these allegations.  

My Unabashed Support for Pope Francis

Pope Francis is under siege now in a way we have never seen any papacy attacked in modern times. The enemies of Pope Francis want him out of the papacy and they will go to almost any lengths to do it. They use every kind of invective possible against him. They accuse him of being the devil himself.

One of John Zuhlsdorf's readers asked Zuhlsdorf if it was okay to pray for the pope's death. You would think a good priest would say that we need to pray that the pope be guided by the Holy Spirit and protected from all evil forces, given the courage and ability to fulfill the duties of his office.

Nope. Zuhlsdorf did not have the least problem with praying for the death of the pope. 

Pope Benedict XVI's Secretary: Pope Benedict Never Confirmed Vigano Report

The Deacon's Bench, a blog written by fellow Brooklynite Deacon Greg Kendra, gave us some very interesting articles today regarding the Vigano report.

The first is from a German newspaper in which Pope Benedict's secretary says that the claim that Pope Benedict confirmed the statements in the Vigano report are "fake news".  You can read the original article HERE.