The Wuerlwind

I have refrained from writing the past few weeks so I could refocus my thoughts regarding the current crisis. Let me briefly recap.

A few major items have been front and center. Some are more important than others. Firstly, the McCarrick affair. This is widely known. Secondly, the announcement of an internal investigation of several US Seminaries: Saint John in Boston and Saint Charles in Philadelphia principally. Thirdly, we have had the PA Grand Jury report, which if I may be so bold, in terms of what actually touches the Church presently, is practically a nothingburger. Most of the Priests in the report are dead or the cases are so old they are unprosecutable. Many good and influential commentators on the case, from Ben Shapiro to Bill Donohue, have remarked about the serious problems with the report.

My main concern is that pedophilia and the clerical abuse of yesteryear (a problem which I would argue is more of a past than present problem, and also a misnomer) will distract us from the primary problem, which I mentioned in my article The Clerical #MeToo Movement: the massive, even criminal, malfeasance of Bishops, who remained unscathed after the 2002 abuse crisis.

And now, lamentabile dictu, this crisis now reaches the utmost heights: Pope Francis. Archbishop Viganò’s testimony, dated 22 August, implicates a large number of Church leadership among those who have promoted, by commission or omission, persons and programs directly inimical to the moral teachings of Christ and his Church. The PA Grand Jury report, painful as it may be, is a distraction from major, and ongoing abuses among the episcopacy.

The Wuerlwind Follows

I am very careful, out of motives of justice and charity, not to throw out accusations. Yet I would coin what is going on right now “The Wuerlwind”: that is, the destructive, morally radioactive debris surrounding the detonation of the McCarrick affair. The matter touches almost every conceivable corner of the Church’s activity, from her nunciatures to Bishop’s conferences and chanceries. The main problem is what I called the “nepotism of vice”. That is, Bishops promoting their own morally compromised confreres among the clergy, whether that vice be narcissism, unchastity, ambition, or what have you. The problem is the same. I would call the spinoff “The Wuerlwind” after Cardinal Wuerl, who along with other bishops is now reaping the harvest of what was sown in 2002. Only before 2002, we did not speak of “zero tolerance” and other terms taken from the corporate/legal world. We should have spoken instead of the problem of sin, of canonical crime, and of the realities of conversion, mercy, and justice. What has resulted now is that we have a surfeit of all three, as our hierarchs endeavor, with far more energy than they expended to defend their Priests, to defend themselves. The measure they measured out to others is now measured out to them, and I fear what may yet come, as much as I hope in Our Lord to revive and restore us.

What will come?

There are two parallel, occasionally intersecting layers of problems here. First, there is the issue of the morals of the clergy, and then the problem of elevating those whom would lower the standard even further. I really don’t care as much what the sin du jour is. Certain protagonists in the Catholic blogosphere and media want to pin it on clericalism, homosexuality, or other issues. As I said before, their analyses do not lack in depth, but in breadth. Clergy, like laity, have experienced ups and downs in their moral quality. Hopefully everyone goes to Confession and reforms themselves, availing themselves of Christ’s healing power. Some may need canonical and civil penalties. Yet what has precipitated the current crisis in my mind is not sin qua sin, but the approval, normalization and promotion of sin. It is where all Christians have winked at immorality in themselves and each other, and then promoted those who would approve of the same. The Church has long endured the immorality of the clergy, from Saint Peter on. Our Lord can heal and restore most of those. What makes for true corruption is when there is no repentance whatsoever, and that these vices become ‘caked in’ the system, for lack of a better term.

Recently I spoke with a Canon Lawyer in Europe, and we both lamented the present situation. He asked, exasperated at the example of the Bishops: “Do these men believe in God? Do they fear God?” This man, who also works as a pastor in a few parishes (such is the lack of Priests), did not find it to be an insurmountable issue that clergy sin. But in the words of Our Lord, those who both break the commandments and teach that, even implicitly, that they should be broken, will be “least in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19), if they even make it to heaven at all. Those that dilute the faith and morals of the Church are far more dangerous to the body of Christ than those who are ‘simply sinners’.

I do not know what will come to pass in the coming days. But I do know that if we do not place personal holiness and fidelity to Christ’s teachings first among our criteria for all people, both lay and clergy, we will continue to inherit the ‘wuerlwind’. That is, we can continue to manage this crisis as if we were pagans, marching to the tune of hostile media with wildly different moral presuppositions than our own, or we can finally face this as honest Christians.

Saint Peter tells us that “judgment begins with the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17). Considering the wickedness of the days in which we live, many of us have hungered for God’s action in purifying the world. Yet we must never forget that, Biblically speaking, God’s first priority, so to speak, is to his own, meaning those who are his Sons and Daughters. God will not purify the world without first purifying us. His hand will fall hardest, and most lovingly, upon us who belong to him. We are living in a time of visitation. As it was true for the Jews at the First Coming of Christ, so it must be true for us who await his Second Coming, that “he will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering of righteousness.” (Malachi 3:3)

But who can endure the day of his coming?

In preaching and teaching recently, some have come to me, highly distressed at the falls of the clergy. I share their pain. Yet, as the Body of Christ, we know that when one sins, we are all connected to such a fall. When one member is sanctified, we all benefit. When one sins, we all suffer. As all saints know, like Saint John Vianney, who did penance for his penitents, and as Eastern Saints, who prostrated themselves before those who sinned, bewailing their own offenses, that just as the work of sin has involved all, so must the work of sanctification also involve us all.

My last comment here may be the most controversial. The media attention falls principally right now upon the clergy, and their vices. This is part of God’s providence, and his love of predilection for us, as well as our tremendous responsibility. Yet we cannot forget right now the predominant portion of the Church upon whom such a gaze will not fall: the laity. May I humbly ask, how many of you are slaves to sin? How many act out of human respect? Especially if you work in the Church, are you also guilty of vices which would make you blush before the judgment seat of Christ?

You are right to lament a Church, largely languishing because of her clergy. Yet the world largely languishes because of you, and your actions and inactions.

May all of us commit ourselves to prayer and penance for each other, because we all fall in various ways, and “we wrestle not against flesh and blood but powers and principalities, the rulers of darkness of this age” (Ephesians 6:12). How desperately we need each other’s support, prayers and love in order to face what is to come. As Scripture tells us, a rope of three cords is not easily broken. With laity, clergy and Christ working together, neither will we be broken.