When I wrote Closing the Windows on July 3 in this blog, well before the McCarrick story broke in the press, and certainly before the publication last night of Archbishop Vigano’s letter implicating many cardinals, bishops and the pope in a vast homosexual network and coverup in the Church, some of my subscribers withdrew. This post may have a similar effect, but here goes.
The sickening and longstanding homosexual misdeeds of then-Cardinal McCarrick of the Archdiocese of Washington have repulsed many in the Church, even on the Left. That a Cardinal of the Church would use his position to prey upon young priests and seminarians for homosexual trysts, reportedly at his beach house near Washington, and then conduct sacrilegious “masses” immediately thereafter, shocks the conscience and scandalizes the world. That it was known by many and covered up by Cardinals, bishops and Vatican diplomats for over a decade, allowing McCarrick to continue to abuse innocent victims unchecked, is reprehensible. And that Pope Francis purposefully lifted the sanctions on McCarrick, imposed by Pope Benedict, allowing McCarrick once again back into the mainstream to find new victims is inexcusable and cries out for Pope Francis to resign immediately. But that is just the beginning.
It is time for the Holy Office of the Pope (a new pope) to conduct a long overdue inquisition into the presence of the Lavender Mafia within the Church and bring about a purging of homosexuals from the ranks of her clergy. The Spanish Inquisition comes to mind when one says “inquisition,” and that investigation has an undeserved bad name because Protestants controlled the narrative that made its way into US history texts and pagan men like Voltaire successfully satirized religious faith and the preservation of it with cunning humor. But the Spanish Inquisition had a legitimate goal in preserving the faith from dilution through half-believers and non-believers, and the Church should pay no heed to the predictable outraged cries of ignorant pagans that will follow the formal establishment of another public inquisition. The Church must return to her duty to preserve the deposit of Faith entrusted to her, and that includes inquiring into the presence of half-believers and non-believers masquerading as socially conscious priests and bishops, but who in reality are so affected by the scourge of Modernism they explain away the Church’s clear teachings and commit egregious homosexual misdeeds without compunction.
Although a new inquisition could (and likely should) focus specifically on purging Modernism from the Church (the Holy Office is tasked with addressing heresy), the “low-hanging fruit” in combatting Modernism is most readily found in practicing homosexuals that have infiltrated the Church, spread within and protected their network of lies, heinous practices and coverups. Only Modernism could explain how they reconcile such vile activities with a professed adherence to Church doctrine. So start by finding the practicing homosexuals and continue through the sympathizers and those other Modernists that look the other way because they can’t reconcile their half-belief with condemning homosexual practices. And once the offending, recalcitrant Modernists are identified, laicize them and turn them over to civil authorities to be prosecuted for their predations where appropriate.
I feel that at last the real springtime is coming for the Church. Let’s throw open the windows and shed some light on the clerical perverts hiding in the shadows under the Church’s beautiful mantle. That can only be done effectively with a formal inquisition focused, at least initially, on rooting out practicing homosexuals and their sympathizers and enablers within the Church’s hierarchy.