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Bishop Joseph E. Strickland - "Strickland breaks silence on McCarrick" Bishop Joseph E. Strickland of Tyler, Texas, wouldn’t label himself as “bold.” [snip] “Honestly, I guess I’m bold enough to just say what I think,” he said. Even “if it gets me in trouble — sometimes it does — I’m going to be true to what I believe. It really saddens me to be considered bold for simply reading the Catechism out loud.” “When I was ordained a bishop almost seven years ago, I said I’d guard the deposit of Faith entire and incorrupt,” Bishop Strickland said. “That’s what...

[Catholic Caucus] McCarrick created 'culture of fear and intimidation,' Seton Hall review finds Disgraced former cardinal Theodore McCarrick created a “culture of fear and intimidation” at the Seton Hall University seminary, according to a report released by the university on Aug. 27. “McCarrick used his position of power as then-Archbishop of Newark to sexually harass seminarians. No minors or other University students were determined to have been affected by McCarrick,” said the statement. Seton Hall is sponsored by the Archdiocese of Newark, which McCarrick led from 1988-2000. The Archbishop of Newark serves as president of the university’s board of trustees.It is one...

[Catholic Caucus] McCarrick breaks his silence: ‘I’m not as bad as they paint me’ VICTORIA, Kansas, September 3, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) ― Ted McCarrick has broken his year-long silence.  Disgraced former cardinal Theodore McCarrick has granted an interview to a reporter and denied the accusations that have been made against him.  Several men have complained that McCarrick made unwelcome sexual advances to them when they were seminarians, and there have been two “credible allegations” that McCarrick also sexually assaulted two minors, a 16-year-old altar server and an 11-year-old family friend named James Grein. Grein alleges that the cardinal abused him...

[Catholic Caucus] A Day of Reckoning for the Church James Grein files multimillion-dollar lawsuit against New York and Vatican for McCarrick abuse James Grein, the primary victim of laicized rapist Theodore McCarrick (formerly the cardinal and archbishop of Washington, D.C.), revealed for the first time on Wednesday that he disclosed to Pope John Paul II himself the abuse he suffered at the hands of McCarrick. "Yes, this is the first time I've said that," Grein told Church Militant on the steps of St. Patrick's Cathedral, where he and his lawyer, Mitchell Garebedian, held a press conference on the first day the state of New York is...

[Catholic Caucus] Newly Published McCarrick Letters: Inside the Mind of a Clerical Predator James Grein explains classic abuser strategies VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) - The Associated Press (AP) published an article Tuesday featuring disgraced former cardinal Theodore McCarrick's letters to three of his victims that reveal the classic moves of a predator.  Church Militant spoke with James Grein, the first of McCarrick's victims to come forward in July 2018 after the archdiocese of New York announced there was a credible allegation against McCarrick.  "This article defines the predator so that all vulnerable men and women across the world can read, learn and recognize...

In his own words: Ex-Cardinal's letters to abuse victims VATICAN CITY — At first glance, the handwritten postcards and letters look innocuous, even warm, sometimes signed off by "Uncle T." or "Your uncle, Father Ted."But taken in context, the correspondence penned by disgraced ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick to the young men he is accused of sexually abusing or harassing is a window into the way a predator grooms his prey, according to two abuse prevention experts who reviewed it for The Associated Press.Full of flattery, familiarity and boasts about his own power, the letters provide visceral evidence of how a globe-trotting...

[Catholic Caucus] Like McCarrick, Cupich OKs Holy Communion to Pro-Abortion Politicians  Cupich: 'Counterproductive to impose sanctions' Cardinal Blase Cupich is defending giving Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians. In response to Bp. Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, who recently barred pro-abortion legislators from receiving the Eucharist, the Chicago cardinal is taking the opposite position. "I think it would be counterproductive to impose sanctions, simply because they don't change anybody's minds," said Cupich in comments published by Catholic News Agency on June 14, ignoring the clear mandate of canon 915. Some have called Cupich's position "apostasy." In a decree dated June 2, Paprocki declared:  In accord with canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law ... Illinois...

[Catholic Caucus] Viganò: Complaints of Homosexual Abuse Filed Against Msgr. Walter Rossi Says rector of Washington, D.C. basilica is 'without a doubt a member of the gay mafia' WASHINGTON (ChurchMilitant.com) - Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò is confirming that, as papal nuncio, he received complaints of homosexual predation and harassment by Msgr. Walter Rossi, rector of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. "Monsignor Rossi is, without a doubt, a member of the 'gay mafia,'" Viganò said in remarks to Italian journalist Marco Tosatti on Saturday.  Handpicked by Cdl. Theodore McCarrick Msgr. Walter Rossi The former papal...

[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop Viganò clarifies points arising from new interview ROME, June 14, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — In the wake of two recent pieces in the Washington Post relating to Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, an article and an extended interview (the first the archbishop has granted since his initial allegations concerning Pope Francis), renewed insinuations and smears have been directed at the former diplomat of the Holy See.  In his June 10 interview, the archbishop claims that the actions so far taken against McCarrick are chiefly inspired by a desire to prevent a trial of the former cardinal, which might expose...

[Catholic Caucus] De Mattei: An Exceptional Document - Monsignor Vigano’s Interview to The Washington Post Roberto de Mattei Corrispondenza Romana June 12, 2019 "The bottom line is this: Pope Francis is deliberately concealing the McCarrick evidence." The extensive interview that Archbishop Maria Viganò gave to Chico Harlan and Stefano Pitrelli in the Washington Post of June 10th is of exceptional importance for several reasons. The first and most important reason is that this interview indicates the utter failure of the Vatican’s  strategy of ‘silence’, faced with the detailed accusations of the former Nuncio to the United States. Those in...

TX Bishop Breaks Silence on McCarrick Bp. Joseph Strickland urges 'full reckoning' of McCarrick scandal, greater lay participation A Texas prelate is breaking the U.S. bishops' silence on Theodore McCarrick. During the Thursday morning session of the U.S. bishops' meeting in Baltimore, Bp. Joseph Strickland of the diocese of Tyler, Texas addressed his brother bishops, stressing his desire that "a full reckoning of the McCarrick scandal be offered." The topic of McCarrick had barely been raised in any of the official discussions of the week-long meeting, even though his serial homosexual predation — and the network of bishops complicit in covering for him — was...

[Catholic Caucus] Viganò Doubles Down on Pope Francis Lying <Abp. Viganò: 'Supreme Pontiff is now blatantly lying to the whole world' Vatican whistleblower Abp. Carlo Maria Viganò is reaffirming that Pope Francis presented a threefold lie in denying he had any knowledge of Theodore McCarrick's homosexual predation. In his full 8,000-word interview with The Washington Post published on Tuesday, Viganò identifies three lies Pope Francis seemingly perpetrated in telling a Mexican journalist last month that he "several times" had stated he "did not know anything" about McCarrick's objectionable past and in claiming, "I do not remember if he [Viganò] told me about this." "We are in a truly dark moment...

[Catholic Caucus] McCarrick Case. The Question Was There, But Francis Didn’t Want To Hear It In the new curia in the process of being reshaped, the biggest new development is perhaps the dicastery for communication, in terms of both how it is structured and how it now functions.Its structure centralizes within itself the control of all Vatican media, including “L’Osservatore Romano,” the radio and TV, which previously were subject in everything to the “supervision” of the Vatican secretariat of state, while now this has been left with only the bureaucratic task of “giving guidelines concerning official communications.”As for its functioning,...

[Catholic Caucus] Who Covered Up McCarrick’s Offenses. The Silences and Words of the Pope In recent days there has come back with a vengeance the case of Theodore E. McCarrick, the American cardinal first stripped of the scarlet and finally expelled from the clerical state last February, after having been found guilty by the congregation for the doctrine of the faith of “solicitation in the Sacrament of Confession, and sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power.”Reigniting attention over his case were two concomitant facts: a few statements by...

[Catholic Caucus] Another Vatican Cover-up Unravels: Tosatti Exposes Censored “I Don’t Remember” in Vatican Text of Papal Interview In my last column I discussed the problematic responses Pope Francis gave to journalist Valentina Alazraki, who had pressed him on his original refusal to comment on the accusation by Archbishop Viganò, last year, that he had told Francis all about the long history of sexual predation of seminarians by ex-Cardinal McCarrick.  I noted that during this interview Francis declared: “And when he [Viganò] says that he spoke to me on the day that he came – and I don’t remember if...

It is no small thing to call the pope a liar. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has done just that, in straightforward language. “What the Pope said about not knowing anything [about Theodore McCarrick’s misconduct] is a lie,” he told LifeSite News. On the other hand, it is no small thing to claim that an archbishop, a veteran member of the Vatican diplomatic corps, had lied about the pope as part of a political conspiracy to undermine his authority. Such charges have been leveled against Viganò by the pope’s most stalwart public defenders and perhaps—depending on how one interprets some unusually...

[Catholic Caucus] Contradictions in Pope Francis’s remarks on sex abuse are frustrating reporters May 30, 2019 (CatholicCulture.org) — In his latest interview Pope Francis says that he does not remember whether or not Archbishop Vigano told him about Theodore McCarrick's sexual misconduct. He also insists that he knew "nothing, obviously, nothing, nothing" about McCarrick's misconduct. Those two claims do not sit comfortably side by side. If you told me that you studied French in high school, I might not recall that fact five years later; it wouldn't stand out in my mind. But if you told me that you had wrestled...

[Catholic Caucus] The Vindication of Archbishop Viganò No fewer than 13 occasions on which Abp. Viganò has been vindicated When Abp. Carlo Maria Viganò originally released his 11-page testimony in August 2018, Pope Francis stated that he would not dignify it with a response. Yet on May 28, Francis finally broke his silence claiming that he "knew nothing" about McCarrick. This apparent contradiction has set off a firestorm of commentary in the Catholic media. With each passing revelation, Abp. Viganò has been vindicated time and time again. Complicit Clergy has been tracking news which appears to corroborate Viganò's original allegations. At last count, there are no fewer than 13 occasions in...

Archbishop Viganò’s Stunning New Accusation Pope Francis’ umpteenth interview with a member of the media has reenergized the hurricane at the eye of which was Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò and his accusation, last year, that Pope Francis knew about the sexual crimes of “defrocked” ex-Cardinal McCarrick and yet rehabilitated him and sent him on key missions for the Vatican, lifting the travel restrictions imposed upon him during the reign of Benedict XVI.As LifeSiteNews reports, in this latest interview, after nearly a year of silence in the face of Viganò’s public accusation, on which he had refused to comment: “‘Pope Francis...

EXCLUSIVE: Abp Viganò says Pope is lying in latest denial about McCarrick ROME, May 28, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — For what appears to be the first time, Pope Francis has openly denied that he knew anything of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s immoral activities, directly contradicting Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s account of their conversation on the subject.  “I didn’t know anything ... nothing, nothing,” Pope Francis said in a new interview on Vatican News. In response, the former apostolic nuncio to the United States has directly accused Pope Francis of lying. In comments to LifeSite following the release of the interview, Archbishop Viganò said: “What the Pope said...