Church Crisis Sparks Return of ‘Roman Catholic Faithful’

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PETERSBURG, Ill. (ChurchMilitant.com) - After nearly a decade of dormancy, Church watchdog Roman Catholic Faithful (RCF) is returning to battle.

Launched in 1996, the Illinois-based activist group fought to expose abuses (sexual and liturgical) among the clergy for nearly a decade and a half before disbanding in 2009. As founder Stephen Brady recounted in a Sept. 8 press release announcing RCF's return, "We closed our doors after we became convinced that clerical corruption could not be fought simply on a piecemeal basis on a local level; rather, it became clear that the greater part of the post-conciliar Church had lost the Faith."

Recently, Church Militant spoke with Brady about his return to the fray. The decision to revive RCF, he said, was spurred by recent disclosures of sexual immorality and corruption among the hierarchy — especially the Aug. 25 release of former papal nuncio Abp. Carlo Maria Viganò's letter exposing corruption at the highest levels of the Vatican.

"When the papal nuncio puts his life on the line and is willing to step forward, that shows you the mood has changed," Brady told Church Militant. "I'm seeing a change in attitude. The very people who thought I was off my rocker in '96 are now telling me 'You were dead-on!' It's a whole change in attitude. It seems people are ready. And the papal nuncio did it for me."

In its earlier incarnation, RCF fought to illuminate sexual immorality in the Church, as well as heterodox teaching and liturgical abuses in dioceses across the United States. But Brady is reincorporating RCF with a singular mission: "to expose the network of sexual immorality among the Catholic clergy in the United States, and most importantly to expose the bishops and cardinals who have enabled their crimes."

"We used to fight liturgical abuse and everything else, but what's guiding all that? It's the homosexual underworld," he told Church Militant. "The first thing homosexual clergy have to do to justify their own beliefs — they've got to do away with Church demands on birth control and sex outside of marriage."

"If you can take care of this homosexual underworld that seems to have a death grip on the Church hierarchy, I am positive that so many abuses out there will take care of themselves," he said.

"There's one really big problem with the bishops right now," he continued, highlighting the lack of integrity among the American hierarchy. "All they're doing is talking about the future — they're going to do this, they're going to do that — but they're not willing to accept responsibility for the past."

He slammed enabler U.S. bishops as "evil" for facilitating sexual abuse "by their silence and inaction."

"These bishops and cardinals and the Pope — they ought to be on their knees begging for forgiveness from the laity," he declared, adding that "the devil is behind them."

In announcing RCF's return, Brady put U.S. prelates on notice:

[A] word to the bishops and cardinals in the United States: We are going to put the dioceses and episcopal sees of each of you under a microscope. We are willing to crawl into the darkest dens of depravity where children are molested and expose this entire network and enterprise to the public. To those of you bishops and cardinals willing to assist us and cooperate, we thank you in advance. For those of you who will oppose our crusade, let me make this clear — we are going to name names and take whatever remedial action we find necessary, including picketing, urging boycotts of financial contributions by parishioners and ... well, let's just say we have a few other ideas as well.

Once fully operational again, Roman Catholic Faithful will be active nationwide. But, Brady told Church Militant, the group is eyeing the archdiocese of Chicago as a key battleground.

"We're going to move into Chicago because so much of the homosexual underworld has come out of there," he said. "We're going to resurrect the information about Chicago we've obtained in the past and we're going to find out much more. ... It's time to clean house, and that's why we're going to pick Chicago first."

The crisis in the Church, he noted, is a product of homosexual clergy. "Even if they're not abusing, homosexual clerics, through my experience — they cover for one another," he said.

"The key issue," Brady observed, is that "they can't believe in the Catholic faith. [Chicago Cdl. Blase] Cupich can't."

"Here's the proof that almost none of these cardinals have any faith left," he said. "In spite of all that they're saying about [former Cdl. Theodore] McCarrick, not one cardinal, not the Pope, has asked for prayers for this predatory homosexual soul, even though he's on a path that leads straight to Hell!"

"Now, if they really believed in God, believed in the Faith, believed in Heaven and Hell and believed that homosexuality cries to Heaven to vengeance, the first thing they would do is ask for prayers for the soul of this predatory homosexual because he's on a path to Hell," Brady noted. "But none of them seem to care. That, front and center, tells me everything."

When asked what he would say to Catholics who are discouraged by the gravity of the crisis confronting the Church, Brady was upbeat, urging the faithful to increase their devotion to Our Lady and the Rosary, while never forgetting that "God has a plan."

"If Catholics feel down, then they need to get in the middle of the fight!" he urged. "Nothing makes you feel more alive than fighting for the truth and fighting for what's right."

"What we have to keep in mind is the devil isn't going to attack some little church in the middle of nowhere that can't affect anything," he continued. "The Communists, the homosexuals, if they want to spread their immorality across the country — across the world — they've got to destroy the Catholic Church."

"The Church [is] being attacked because it's true and it's right. And that's where we as Catholics have to stand up!" Brady exclaimed. "Father Paul Marx [founder of pro-life group Human Life International] once told me something: ''It's a great time to be alive, because there's plenty to fight for,'" he recalled. "And it's true. It invigorates your faith."

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