Posted on 09/03/2018 9:36:20 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
August 30, 2018
His Holiness, Pope Francis
Vatican City
Your Holiness:
You have said that you seek “a more incisive female presence in the Church,” and that “women are capable of seeing things with a different angle from [men], with a different eye. Women are able to pose questions that we men are not able to understand.”
We write to you, Holy Father, to pose questions that need answers.
We are Catholic women deeply committed to our faith and profoundly grateful for Church teachings, the Sacraments, and the many good bishops and priests who have blessed our lives.
Our hearts are broken, our faith tested, by the escalating crisis engulfing our beloved Church. We are angry, betrayed and disillusioned. The pain and suffering of the victims never ends, as each news cycle brings more horrific revelations of sexual abuse, sexual misconduct, cover-ups, and deceit—even at the Church’s highest levels.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s recent statement impels us to reach out to you directly for answers. His testimony accuses you, Holy Father, and highly placed cardinals of turning a blind eye to former Cardinal McCarrick’s egregious behavior, and promoting this predator as a global spokesman and spiritual leader. Is this true?
These are devastating allegations. As USCCB President Cardinal Daniel D. DiNardo recently stated, “The questions raised deserve answers that are conclusive and based on evidence.” We agree.
Several crucial questions raised by Archbishop Viganò’s statement, however, require neither lengthy investigations nor physical evidence. They require only your direct response, Holy Father. When reporters questioned you recently about Archbishop Viganò’s charges, you replied, “I will not say a single word on this.” You told reporters to “read the statement carefully and make your own judgment.”
To your hurting flock, Pope Francis, your words are inadequate. They sting, reminiscent of the clericalism you so recently condemned. We need leadership, truth, and transparency. We, your flock, deserve your answers now.
Specifically, we humbly implore you to answer the following questions, as the answers are surely known to you. Archbishop Viganò says that in June 2013 he conveyed to you this message (in essence) about then-Cardinal McCarrick:
“He corrupted generations of seminarians and priests and Pope Benedict ordered him to withdraw to a life of prayer and penance.”
Holy Father, in your letter to the People of God on the scandals, you wrote: “An awareness of sin helps us to acknowledge the errors, the crimes and the wounds caused in the past and allows us, in the present, to be more open and committed along a journey of renewed conversion.” That’s why we expect you, our Holy Father, to be honest with us.
Please do not turn from us. You’ve committed yourself to changing clerical ways in the Church. That a cardinal would prey on seminarians is abhorrent. We need to know we can trust you to be honest with us about what happened. The victims who have suffered so greatly need to know they can trust you. Families, who will be the source of the Church’s renewal, need to know we can trust you, and thus trust the Church.
Please do not keep us at arm’s length on these questions. We are faithful daughters of the Church who need the truth so we can help rebuild. We are not second-class Catholics to be brushed off while bishops and cardinals handle matters privately. We have a right to know. We have a right to your answers.
We are wives, mothers, single women, consecrated women, and religious sisters.
We are the mothers and sisters of your priests, seminarians, future priests and religious. We are the Church’s lay leaders, and the mothers of the next generation.
We are professors in your seminaries, and leaders in Catholic chanceries and institutions.
We are theologians, evangelists, missionaries and founders of Catholic apostolates.
We are the people who sacrifice to fund the Church’s good work.
We are the backbone of Catholic parishes, schools, and dioceses.
We are the hands, the feet, and the heart of the Church.
In short, we are the Church, every bit as much as the cardinals and bishops around you.
Holy Father, we are the “incisive presence” the Church needs, and we need your answers.
With love for Christ and the Church,
Mary Rice Hasson, JD
Kate O'Beirne
Fellow in Catholic Studies
Director, Catholic Women’s Forum
Ethics and Public Policy Center
Sarah Bartel
Consultant for Marriage and Family Life
Archdiocese of Seattle
Author, Speaker, Radio Show Host
Kari Beckman
Executive Director and Founder,
Regina Caeli K-12 Programs
Executive Director and Founder,
Veritatis Splendor Consortiums
... and (as of Sept 3)
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...but I won't blow the whistle on non-Catholics if you want to constructively discuss how to get more Catholic women's signatures on this Open Letter to the Pope.
Why do I think this matters?
On the one hand, a miracle might happen and the Pope will take these concerns seriously.
May God's will be done. But even if Pope Francis is utterly unmoved by tens of thousands --- or hundreds of thousands or millions --- of women demanding answers from him, the organizers of this petition --- if they are as smart as I think they are --- will use their burgeoning e-mail list to organize further actions to press for honesty, atonement and purification.
And when necessary, criminal indictments.
It's up to us to use now the graces of our Baptism and Confirmation: to speak up clearly and pay up personally. Contact your bishops. Contact your priests and deacons and get THEM to contact your bishop.
Make it clear that we will not support the parish/diocesan structure with $$ unless they stop the silence and speak up for the whistle-blowers.
Only 10 bishops, to my knowledge, have spoken out for former Vatican Ambassador Vigano's "Testimony" about cover-ups at the top.
Here's a link to Vigano's 11-page Testimony. If you haven't read it yet, read it now (make sure you're sitting down) asnd then send the Vigano link AND the Catholic women's letter link to everybody you know.
If you are not a Catholic woman, send this to your favorite Catholic woman!
This is just one step, but it's a step.
Remind your Bishop that it is HIS duty to offer his fraternal support to whistle-blowers like Vigano by demanding an investigation of his charges, and demanding answers from Pope Francis, Cardinal Wuerl, and the rest.
Don't let them say the equivalent of "Not my job, boss." At this point it's everybody's job, and theirs above all.
Please respond and encourage others.
"He who is not angry, whereas he has cause to be, sins. For unreasonable patience is the hotbed of many vices, it fosters negligence, and incites not only the wicked but the good to do wrong."
-St. John Chrysostom, Bishop and Father of the Church.
"Anger is a praiseworthy thing and justifiable with a proper zeal. It becomes sinful when it is sought to wreak vengeance upon one who has not deserved it, or to a greater extent than it has been deserved." -
New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia
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Thanks for taking action and your prayers.
We need to pray, ask for forgiveness and do penance for the sins of the church.
Talk to your priests and seek their thoughts. I sense some are unwilling to speak out on the corruption in the church and do not want to offend Pope Francis.
God’s Peace be with you.
Can. 1404 The First See is judged by no one.
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P5A.HTM
Bttt.
5.56mm
If God wanted female apostles, he would have made it so.
I certainly agree, with reference to clergy as successors of the Twelve and Paul. But is this relevant to the thread in some way?
So women should also shut up?
What does that have to do with the thread?
Please ask the Admin Moderator to remove it.
Ok
There are thousands of children who have survived the church.
Pedos reign there.
We are used to being silenced.
Laugh all you want....but it is Roman Catholic Canon Law.
My objection is that you use obscene language, and that is not allowed in any Free Republic forum.
You could make an effort to remain decent and try again.
The pope and everyone involved with preying upon children and anyone within the church, or covering it up, needs to resign. It is destroying the church. Homosexuals, which are the source of much of this evil, need to be removed from the church without exception. Even my wife, who defends all things Catholic, now frets that Pope Francis and this evil is destroying the church. Me, I think they, starting with the pope and anyone involved on done to the parish priest, need to be convicted by the church and executed, else turn over all information for 100% transparency and let local authorities try, convict, and jail or execute them. Give no quarter to anyone that harms a kid or young adult.
You're out of your league when you start trying to tell Catholics what their own church law means.
But you are wrong. You are failing to distinguish between advising, admonishing, and "judging."
There is no provision in canon law for a valid pope to be judged by a canonical trial. However, there are other powers and indeed duties which we have with regard to correcting papal errors:
If something has happened many time historically, it is absurd for you to say it is impossible.
So that's why my advice to you is, as always: in matters Catholic, ASK us, do not TELL us, what we can and cannot do.
You so often make puerile pronunciamentos as if you knew a lot about the matter at hand, when, so frequently, you demonstrate that you do not.
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