While many of us who were raised in the Catholic church might like to think priest sex abuse is limited to a few bad apples, the fact that at least 44 Catholic bishops and Cardinal McCarrick have been credibly accused of child sex abuse makes it more likely that the entire tree blooms with rotten fruit. How does a systemic child sex abuse problem not mean the entire tree is rotten at the root?
A Systemic Problem Revealed
No priest becomes a bishop without a thorough background check. No priest becomes a bishop without the approval of the pope himself. In the hierarchy sold and practiced by the church, bishops are to priests like unequal pieces on a chess board. (When the Catholic “faith” prevailed during the Spanish Inquisition, real people were used to play the chess pieces on a giant game board.) Today’s priests are still akin to pawns in the Catholic church game, limited by their lowly position, but allowed to move slowly forward. Bishops, by contrast, are able to move in several directions on the big board run from the Vatican in Rome.
Vatican hides Evil in Plain Sight
The word Vatican means “divining serpent.” The architecture of the Jesuit–controlled and Jesuit-tainted institution itself is laid out like one big snake, which, in the King James Bible, represents satan. Look at these pictures of the Vatican and try not to see the pope backed by a reptilian serpent at the head of the altar. The pictures show that it is sadly, demonstrably clear that something very dark is going in the Vatican, and all of it hides in plain sight:
Continuing in the perverse tradition of pretending to stand for one thing while actually representing its opposite, Vatican archbishop Vincent Paglia commissioned a pornographic, homoerotic mural on “his”cathedral wall. The archbishop, handpicked by Pope Francis, defends the pornography as an “evangelizing” tool.
And this man Paglia is a top church leader.
The Case of Cardinal McCarrick
Of all the bishops and other “higher priests” accused of sexually abusing children, none is perhaps more troubling or more telling than the story of Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick. In the church hierarchy, a Cardinal outranks even a Bishop by a wide margin.
Cardinal McCarrick has an insanely checkered past that was covered up by the church for at least 50 years.
BishopAccountability.org tells us, “In the early 2000s, scholar Richard Sipe and others wrote publicly about McCarrick’s sexual misconduct with adult seminarians and priests.” That story, however, was not reported in the mainstream press. That’s the kind of power the church has, or used to have. Some recent clergy abuse lawsuits show kinks in the institution’s ancient armor.
McCarrick was also accused of abusing a minor in an allegation made through the IRCP process and announced by Cardinal Dolan in June 2018.
McCarrick denies Allegations while Paying Restitutioin
While McCarrick denied that allegation, the Metuchen diocese and the Newark archdiocese publicly acknowledged three settlements, with two former seminarians, in 2005 and 2007.
In July 2018, Pope Francis removed McCarrick from the College of Cardinals, and ordered him to live a life of prayer and penance while an investigation proceeded that was some 50 years to late for many of McCarrick’s victims.
One of McCarrick’s adult victims also chose to come forward, and those allegations broke in the media. Then another man abused as a minor came forward.
The Systemic Problem Revealed
In August 2018, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò released his “testimony” which alleged that a network in the hierarchy, including Pope Francis, knew of McCarrick’s abuse of seminarians but did nothing. Archbishop Viganò also claimed that Pope Benedict had also previously ordered McCarrick to live a life of prayer and penance, but that Pope Francis reinstated McCarrick.
McCarrick abused Boy during Confession
On December 27, 2018, James Grein testified in a new Vatican investigation that McCarrick had abused him as a boy during confession.
In January 2019, a third victim alleged child sex abuse at the hands of McCarrick in the New York archdiocese.
Abuse of Power charges stick to McCarrick Forever
On January 11, 2019, CDF Congresso issued a laicization decree that found McCarrick guilty of “solicitation in the Sacrament of Confession, and sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power.”
McCarrick appealed, but the Ordinary Session of the CDF confirmed the decree on February 13, 2019. Sentence was rendered res iudicata – it cannot be appealed.
Former McCarrick Aid Blows Whistle
Then in May 2019, a former McCarrick aide published excerpts from the ex-cardinal’s personal correspondence. It showed that way back in 2008, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, then prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, imposed restrictions on McCarrick. He was to have no public appearances without Re’s permission, and could not travel to Rome.
McCarrick abused Children since 1970
Within a year, however, McCarrick ignored the restrictions. In a lawsuit filed in New York in August 2019, McCarrick victim James Grein said that he had reported his abuse in person to Pope John Paul II in 1988. McCarrick denied abusing Grein in the confessional in an interview published in September 2019.
That denial spurred a public essay by another McCarrick victim in October 2019, which revealed a group of accusers who called themselves “The Nathans.” All allege abuse by McCarrick between 1970 and 1990. Nearly almost all were 12 to 16 years old when McCarrick abused them. We can, and will, add the word allegedly, but because so many McCarrick accusers have stepped forward, and because his own superiors disciplined him, is it fair to call all of his accusers “alleged victims”?
At least seven men make up The Nathans, according to the Washington Post. Many of them knew each other as boys. The Vatican saw their allegations in January 2019, along with reports of McCarrick’s sexual abuse of six more current or former seminarians.
In December 2019, two lawsuits filed in New Jersey alleged abuses by McCarrick. One was by James Grein, accusing the Metuchen diocese and Newark archdiocese of gross negligence. The other came from a man citing sexual assault at age 14 in Hackensack when McCarrick was a-Newark archbishop who visited the boy’s unlucky parish.
McCarrick Payoffs
A Washington Post story on December 26, 2019 revealed that McCarrick gave more than $600,000 cash to fellow clerics. Those McCarrick “gifted” included two popes who allegedly knew of his sexual offenses: John Paul II received $90,000. Benedict XVI got $291,000 from McCarrick.
Where did McCarrick come up with that kind of money? Why was he allowed to abuse children in his charge for nearly 50 years? How many others were abused by McCarrick and the popes who knew of his sexual perversions and abuse of power and yet let him run wild to sexually abuse children and seminarians again and again?
How is such an organization, if not an outright den of snakes, one not run by a den of snakes?
Catholic Church hierarchy, up to and including Pope Francis, stand accused of aiding and abettting child sex abuse. There isn’t enough money in the world to give back what those men of God have taken from those who trusted them.
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by Matthews & Associates
