The Vortex—Best of: Accountable to No One

Too many of the clergy, especially the higher clergy, act as though they are unaccountable to anyone. They behave like the Church belongs to them. They show a disturbing lack of humility and present an air of superiority that is decidedly unChrist-like. Heck, let's face it — Brian Williams at NBC has far more accountability for far less wrongdoing than many of today’s bishops and senior clerics.

For example, the various bishops who supposedly oversee affairs at Catholic Relief Services have kept mum on the issue of an open homosexual in a sodomite marriage being one of the top dogs there. When asked by faithful Catholics what they were going to do about Vice President for Overseas Finance Rick Estridge being married to his sodomy partner, not a word in response to the evil situation — and it is evil.

Then there is the less-than-pathetic response from the archdiocese of Chicago when questioned about Archbishop Cupich’s negligence in allowing a sacrilege at the funeral Mass for Cardinal George in Holy Name Cathedral. Non-Catholic governor Bruce Rauner was administered Holy Communion at the funeral, as was shown on numerous television broadcasts. That is not in question. When Church Militant contacted the Chicago Archdiocese and asked the specific question "Did the archdiocese contact the governor’s office ahead of time, as would be expected when extending an invitation to the funeral, and advise that non-Catholics should not approach for Holy Communion so as to avoid sacrilege?" the answer we got back via email was a total non-response to the question.

You just saw the question. Here was the reply: “In response to your message received this morning, when any person presents himself or herself for Holy Communion, the Minister of Communion presumes that the person can receive Communion" — which has absolutely nothing to do with the question we asked. We asked if the governor had been informed ahead of time; the archdiocese talked about the minister distributing Holy Communion.  A total deflection.

Then there is of course the master of deflection, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, who completely sidestepped the very serious question posed to him by Church Militant at the St. Patrick’s Day parade about his leading a parade with active, open sodomites in it. He pulled his usual belly-chortling guffaw in giving his inane "C'mon in; love to have ya'" non-response before whispering to his communications guy who had us thrown out a minute later.

And there’s another story that Church Militant broke — the one involving the funeral Mass for a Planned Parenthood worker and open same-sex "marriage" advocate Lisa Benitez out of Cardinal Daniel DiNardo’s Galveston-Houston Cathedral at the end of last year. When Church Militant contacted them, we got first a promise to get back to us, and eventually nothing — stonewalling.

We highlight these four rather high-profile cases originally uncovered by Church Militant to show you the state of affairs in the Church these days. And all these have happened in a span of just three months essentially. 

Too many leaders feel beholden to absolutely no one or anything except their own career ambitions and ideologies. These are all public cases — very public cases. Their silence, stonewalling and deflecting have nothing to do with prudence or confessional matter or anything of the kind. These things are all well known and yet they continue to behave as though they have done nothing wrong and owe no one an explanation of anything. 

What bishops who act like this are doing is continuing to contribute to a general demoralizing of the Catholic faithful, a weakening of the faith of those with sensitive or weak faiths, and setting the stage for the next generation of bishops who follow behind them to not be able to recover from the damage they have inflicted on the Church.

The actions of these men — these successors of the Apostles — are doing great harm to the Church, and they need to come clean on their actions or resign. They need to stand up and admit their many and grievous errors and mistakes, ask for forgiveness for their sins against the Faith — for that is what we are talking about at the end of the day — and be willing to resign their offices.

They run the Church like it’s a business and they are the CEO. This has got to stop.  

When they speak in union with the Pope on matters of faith and morals in line with the Magisterium, then they need to be listened to. When they speak on any other matter unrelated to the Faith — illegal immigration, global warming non-sense, financial pleas to help prop up their tottering businesses and so forth — they speak with no other authority than the duplicitous double-speak they offer in the earlier examples, and should be challenged. 

Our Blessed Lord Himself demanded of His Apostles that they not lord their authority over the governed — yet many of these men have become just that: unaccountable, untouchable, non-humble masters and CEOs of failing corporations. The consequences of their actions and attitudes are already being felt, with more to come. In between various moments of deserting the sheep for worldly gain and political compromise, they are busy closing down parishes, schools, combining seminaries and staying mute on the reality of a Church in the West in full retreat on every front.

They are in many ways captains of the Titanic, and they shouldn’t spend much time looking for lifeboats. If they continue on their current paths, it's abundantly clear they will be going down with their ships. But the saddest reality is that many others will drown because of them.

This is why the internet — the faithful Catholic internet — is such a great blessing from the Sacred Heart of Our Lord. The faithful Catholic social media is the accountability software for the Church these days. So many of these leaders have become drunk and corrupted with power and their own self-importance that they have abandoned the innocent sheep.

Efforts like this one here as well as others need to be supported, vocally, continually, with all means possible to help keep the home fires of faith burning.

So in the words of His Eminence Cardinal Dolan, "C’mon in; love to have ya'." Make our all-new and improved website ChurchMilitant.com your homepage. Do it right this minute. We are the accountability software for the Church.

And for the souls of these men. Pray every day for them.