The McCarrick Legacy

Sadly, the stench of McCarrick hangs heavy over the Church in Rome and America. In 2004 McCarrick with his crony now-Cardinal Gregory gamed the bishops into a casual approach toward communion for pro-aborts by shamelessly lying about the crystal-clear letter from Cardinal Ratzinger obliging them to protect the Eucharist from public scandal by reception by those who obstinantly persist in advocacy of grave evil. Today, Gregory continues that practice as he inherits the role of chaplain to the liberal American elite. Meanwhile McCarrick protege Cardinals Cupich and Joseph Tobin fiercely resisted the clear letter of Archbishop Gomez to Biden on abortion. The testimony of Archbishop Vigano, notwithstanding that he has like many become unhinged by the violence of the Culture War, in itself sincere and credible, stands neither verified nor disproved like, a dark cloud over this pontificate. The Vatican Report on McCarrick opened on the first page with a casual dismissal of the possibility that money influenced his rise: that entirely discredited the document as self-serving and protective of the forces that advanced and protected him. (Other clouds include the unanswered Dubia, the surrender of the Chinese Church to the Communists, and the laundry list of erratic, inconsidered remarks on plane flights and elsewhere: It is a dark day for the Church!) Among the most distressing of McCarricks alleged violations was the use of the confessional for sexual predation. This is a double sacrilige: of the victim and of the holy rite: unthinkable for a Catholic! A similar sacrilege is being practiced: in casual communion for abortion warriors; in masses celebrated by groups dedicated to the moral legitimation of acts always considered immoral by the Church. That McCarrick rose to the pinacle of ecclessial power despite the widespread gossip of his pedestry indicates that the suspicions of an underground "lavender mafia" must be valid. In light of that catastrophy, the militant campaign of Fancis' lieutenants Cupich/Tobin to legitimize gay relations is scandalous. Yet, they along with Gregory may be the strongest American voices in this pontificate. McCarrick is best understood as an iconic Anti-Father. Richard Fitzgibbons suggested that the young Ted McCarrick was deprived of a father's love and went on to compensate. This makes sense. But it took a perverse turn as he used his position as spiritual father to seduce young men. He used his considerable talents to pursue status, power, and influence within the Church and the broader society, no doubt compensating for his interior void. (One puzzles: why would a man with no background in China who is in his 80s insert himself into that delicate diplomacy? Why would the Pope allow it since he had already been disciplined by Pope Benedict? What alternative universe have we entered Alice?) He was perfectly prepared to be the chaplain to Cultural Liberalism as that religion is itself best understood as Anti-Fatherhood. In this worldview patriarchy, authority, tradition, and masculinity in general become redefined as oppression, domination, violence, and misogyny. Femininst rage at the masculine finds its ultimate expression in the destruction of the little one in the womb. Foundational dogmas of cultural liberalism are: tearing of sexuality from fertility, paternity and maternity; and deconstruction of the sexed, binary person into a sterile, androgynous, sexless neuter. And so McCarrick is perfectly expressive of the anti-fatherhood that plagues elite culture and is corrupting our Church from within. Like the Israelites in Egypt or in Exile, our Church is in a dark time, a time of purification. A time for us to draw close to Christ and to encourage each other in the same!