Tales of the Forgotten: Reading for Sharing and Understanding (Hopefully)
Dear Readers:
Happy Super Bowl Sunday to my American Readers. If you like Football, I hope ‘your team’ wins. If you don’t, I hope you at least enjoy the commercials. If you can’t be bothered either way, I hope you enjoy wings and pizza!
I ended my last article with an appeal to contact, and one thing I heard almost universally is that many of you had never heard some of the stories I mentioned. Please indulge me for a second, and I will try to be short and to the point. In 2018 during my Canonical Retreat, before the icon of the Mother of God of Perpetual Help, I felt a call ‘out of left field’ to start a blog, which I strongly resisted, both because of time constraints, money constraints, and also the accompanying call to write about subjects which could possibly invite retribution. I also eschew ‘celebrity Priesthood’ and jealously guard private life. I like long walks and the intellectual life. I hate crowds and attention.
Funny enough, I felt I had lapsed in my obedience to the Mother of God to write, and so I committed myself late last year to be more active. Therefore, some new readers may not know where and when I may have said one thing or another. In summary, my blog ‘took off’ with the McCarrick case in July 2018 and although it went a bit dormant last year, we’re spinning up again. Please God, it is for his glory.
So I want to provide the ‘essentials’ to newcomers who want the stories of Priests that you may not have heard which form the core of my own advocacy. This is not the only thing I write about, but it certainly touches a nerve when I do. I don’t write these articles for ‘clickbait’ or for web traffic. It does console and inspire me when I hear, though, that Priests are inspired and strengthened by them. The same goes for the lay faithful.
July 26, 2018: The Emergent Clerical #MeToo Movement
August 6, 2018: The Ecclesiastical Deep State (Point of order: I penned this phrase before Vigano did)
September 20, 2018: The Voices of Misery (this one resonated greatly among Priests)
November 23, 2019: The Ongoing Clerical Abuse Crisis (This one was read, I am told, by Cardinals and even in Rome. To me, it is the most important summary of the problem.)
November 27, 2019: Extortion, Lies, and Intimidation
August 10, 2020: Moral Injury: The Mortal Wound of the Modern Priesthood
February 3, 2021: The Fatherless Fathers
January 10, 2024: Thus Far, No Farther
February 9, 2024: Into Exile We Go
There are other pieces which I think are critically important when we consider topics like this. I write frequently on avoiding bitterness, the chief sin of keyboard warriors and journalists. I emphasize the importance of a sense of the Mystical Body of Christ and the recapitulation of creation in him, because as we reflect on how bad the worldly institution of the Church is, we can easily lose our faith. Also, I lament often how Catholics have a regrettable attitude both to be resigned to suffering while at the same time excusing themselves from alleviating suffering in the world around them. It is a learned helplessness.
I also want to introduce readers to Opus Bono Sacerdotii (Work for the Good of the Priesthood) which is a praiseworthy and important lay-run initiative in the United States for the spiritual and moral support of Priests who are downtrodden. Some of you who are familiar with the sad case of Fr. Gordon J. McRae may also be aware of this. I would also refer you to a 2017 article in Homiletic and Pastoral Review by Joseph Maher, former President of Opus Bono, who wrote an excellent article called When the Church Defames Her Priests. It is extremely important. Men of Melchizedeck is also a ministry in the United States which helps Catholic Priests, but their ministry is more oriented to those in immediate trouble, to those who need legal (civil or canonical) advocacy or are in desperate financial/medical situations.
Opus Bono and “MoM” ran into some trouble with the very anti-Catholic Attorney General of the State of Michigan some years ago, mostly because of technicalities with their non-profit tax status and how their Boards of Directors were constituted. Some good Catholic lawyers helped them sort that out, and now they are able to operate properly. When these organizations began, they started on a shoestring budget by good lay people who mainly wanted to help Priests, and then they grew into something larger, and so needed to get their paperwork and tax status in order. I mention this because this is the age of Google, and the media hates these organizations because they hate Priests, and every Priest to them is a pedophile and a pervert. Decide for yourself if you wish to support these organizations. I personally believe they are worthy and I know Priests who have benefitted from their advocacy.
The history that is yet to be written of the 2010s and beyond is the story of the abuse of Catholic Clergy in much of the Western World. The degradation of even the most basic of human and legal rights, let alone canonical rights, is in process. Because Priests are largely despised by the secular press, and do not speak up for themselves for fear of reprisal, there are very few means by which this news gets out. Also, many Priests do not want to burden lay people with ‘inside baseball’. No one wants to damage or endanger people’s faith. But here’s the thing: we hear every day that we have no Priests. We ‘import’ them, as if they were iPhones or cheap socks, from abroad, and yet via a combination of natural death and ‘ecclesial euthanasia’, we are running out of clergy. In some dioceses, there is something resembling a reign of terror. Anyone, at anytime, can simply disappear. You are only paranoid, until it is you.
Please read. Not for my sake, and not for my blog’s sake. Read for my brothers, and to inform yourself. The first rule of advocacy is to break the silence. The second is to give courage to the powerless. God Bless.
