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Interesting updates by Dreher:

UPDATE: Robert Moynihan reports in his Letter #44:
And the Napa Institute, led by Timothy Busch — who was in touch with Vigano two weeks before the publication of his text — has announced that they will assemble a group of Catholic laymen in America to meet in Washington D.C. at Catholic University on October 1 and 2 to discuss all of these events, and to propose ways that laymen can perhaps “take over” some of the oversight functions of the US bishops in running the Church in the US (link).

I do not know whether we should call this a potentially revolutionary conference, or not… or whether we might call it a conference to “de–clericalize” or “re-clericalize” the Church. I will try to attend the meeting.

Because the battle that has been triggered by Vigano‘s text is a specific crystallization of a century-old battle between two concepts of reality, one “material” and one “spiritual” — a crystallization which is bringing the long battle to a climax. (Yes, the 100-year-old battle between “modernist” and “orthodox” Catholics believers.)
So the battle, seemingly, has finally in these days been joined, and the result, for better or worse, may determine the Church’s direction for decades to come.

It’s all becoming clearer, isn’t it?

If you are a Church progressive, you may see what’s happening as a coup attempt against Pope Francis and his liberalizing agenda, led by conservative Churchmen (Archbishop Vigano and powerful laymen).

If you are a Church conservative, you may see this an attempt by a fed-up laity (and a disgusted archbishop) to stop the chaos in the Church unleashed by Francis, and to sort out a corrupt hierarchy that is incapable of reforming itself because it is so sexually compromised and weakened by clericalism.

However you see it, the battle is joined. The one thing that nobody can deny is that corruption in the Church — specifically, the sexual abuse of boys and seminarians by priests and even cardinals — has rotted the Catholic institution.

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Pope Francis and the other curial cardinals named by Vigano have not defended themselves because they have no defense. They are guilty as charged. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, that dirty old moneygrubbing lecher, is a living symbol of their corruption.

Tonight I watched Akira Kurosawa’s great film Ran, which is Shakespeare’s King Lear as imagined in the world of samurai warriors. As the film reached its bloody climax, with brothers and their armies tearing each other apart, I thought: Benedict XVI is a Lear figure. He resigned thinking he could retire in peace, and let a stronger, younger man come in and do the reforms that we was too exhausted to carry out. But the forces unleashed by his act now have the Catholic Church in civil war. As Moynihan says, this battle has been building for a century, so it would have happened at some point. One can’t entirely blame Benedict. Had the cardinals elected a different successor, things might have been different today. But the die has been cast.

Oh, and one more thing: Busch had to cut Nienstedt loose after TAC called the Napa Foundation out on complaining about corruption in the Church while sheltering an Archbishop who resigned in disgrace over his handling of sex abuse. No way Team Busch could have carried this out with a compromised Archbishop on the payroll.
UPDATE.2: A couple more details.

Reuters reports:

Last March, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano dined on the outskirts of Rome at the home of a conservative Italian Catholic journalist. Over pasta, fish and white wine, the prelate poured out his concern for the future of the Roman Catholic Church.

It was the start of about five months of contacts and collaboration between Vigano and several conservative journalists and media outlets that would lead to one of the greatest crises for the Church in modern times.
The story about the Pope and Cardinal Wuerl’s attempted shakedown of the Papal Foundation broke in late February. The discussions between Vigano and unnamed conservative media began in March. Is there a connection? I honestly don’t know. I think it’s a question worth pursuing, though.
Second, one of the leaked Papal Foundation internal documents says that Pope Francis made the initial $25 million request in the summer of 2017, and was sent $8 million straightaway. When, precisely, was this request made, and when was the $8 million sent? I ask because Cardinal George Pell returned to his native Australia on July 10 to face charges of cover-up in a child sex abuse investigation.

What was Pell doing in Rome before he had to go back to Australia to answer charges? He was cleaning up financial corruption in the Vatican. What’s being done on that front in his absence? The Sydney Morning Herald reported this past May:

Before charges were laid and Pell left for Australia last year, he was one of the most powerful men in the Vatican.
He led the Secretariat, tasked with cleaning up the Vatican’s finances, rooting out corruption and embezzlement, and auditing the corners of the Holy See where money has been secreted with minimal accountability or transparency.

But that body is now on “autopilot”, Allen said.
Since Pell’s absence, it has been run by his second in command, who is not a cardinal. And it could be another 18 months before Pell is free to return, whether or not he is found guilty at trial.

“If you don’t have a cardinal in charge of something, nothing’s really happening,” Allen said.
“[Pope] Francis created [the Secretariat] to be the tip of the spear on financial reform but it’s on life support right now. If he wants to send a signal he’s serious about it, he would have to bring in new leadership.

“And George Pell is genuinely committed to financial reform in the Vatican, so I think he would be the first to acknowledge this.”

Another well-connected Vatican observer, the National Catholic Register’s Ed Pentin, said the “old guard” at the Vatican would be pleased with the committal.
“The longer Cardinal Pell is away from Rome the more likely it is that the financial misconduct of the ‘old guard’ will continue, and the finance reforms Pell was working on further stalled or reversed,” Pentin said.
Now, the legal process against Cardinal Pell was well underway in Australia before July 2017. It is, nevertheless, an interesting coincidence that Pell, an anti-corruption bulldog who was closing in on curial crookedness, was taken out around the same time that the Pope asked for this massive payment from the Papal Foundation. It might be a stretch, but if I were a Rome-based journalist, I would ask some questions about whether or not these events are connected.