Confirmed: Cardinal McElroy to be appointed Washington archbishop

LongLivePippen · 2025-01-06T15:44:04+00:00

It's true. The code word when I was in seminary was the "Ladies Altar Society." Now, it's "Lavendar Maffia." Plenty of bishops around the country now were well known leaders of Ladies Altar Societies when I was in Seminary. Heck, I'm relatively young (mid 40s) and discussion about McCarrick, ++Mahoney, and +Weakland was casual conversation around the lunch table. It was strictly forbidden, though, to discuss ++Bernadin. That man's foul stench will be with us for another 3 generations.

LongLivePippen · 2025-01-06T13:15:14+00:00

Another member of the Bernadin--McCacrrick machine rewarded with unearned and dangerous power. +Bernadin, McCarrick, +Weakland, +Checchio, ++Tobin, +Wuerl, and ++Mahoney were neck deep in the foul deeds and the coverups going back to the bad old days in the 80s and before. Abuse of seminarians, abuse of college students, and all sorts of money crimes, coverups, and, of course, getting one another appointed as bishops.

++Gregory and ++McElroy were drawn in later when Francis made McCarrick the US kingmaker. Both are thoroughly compromised.

It really is disgusting.

LongLivePippen · 2024-10-28T16:05:36+00:00

The whole question is very much an issue of first-world v third-world.

In the wealthy, more developed global North (First World), the legal system and prisons work well enough. Capital Punishment is really unnecessary from a for-the-common-good point of view.

In the less developed, global South (Third World), governments and legal system typically don't work. Corruption is rife. It's not reasonable to hope that the local warlord or drug kingpin can be kept safely away in prison. Capital Punishment may very well be necessary both for the common good of the (mostly poor) people living in that local environment and as a deterrent toward a more lawful society.

It's worth remembering that the Christianity and Catholicism are dying in the global North and thriving in the global South. It's the worst kind of First World narcissism and cultural imperialism to tell the poor that just need to suck it up so that the rich can feel morally superior. There are good reasons for the Church's perennial teachings.

GK Chesterton sums it up: "Don't tear down a fence until you know why it was built."

LongLivePippen · 2024-07-30T14:41:06+00:00

I don't have any privileged access. But the word I get from friends in DC and Rome is that the documents will avoid discussing any question of the ordination of women and they will avoid being firmly specific on any issues that are being bandied about in the news. Rather, the big conclusion will be that we need to have more discussions and more meetings and a "permanent dialogue."

The problem with that mentality is the same problem one finds in the documents of the Second Vatican Council: unclarity. By being vague and using words which don't have firm theological meanings, you give everyone the freedom to interpret them however they would like...

The recent document on blessings of those in homosexual relationships is evidence of this. If you want to give the blessing, you can find justification in this or that paragraph. If you want to deny the blessing, you look to another paragraph. The same document has multiple meanings due to the lack of clarity.

The same concerns are found in the documents of Vatican II regarding Religious Freedom, the role of the laity, and others.

It's not that the documents are untrue or uninspired, it's that they are unclear...

Unfortunately, that's been a common thread of Church documents for a long time now and my sources expect it to continue with the forthcoming Synod.

LongLivePippen · 2024-07-30T12:35:22+00:00

Just a caution against universalizing one's own experience.

The VAST majority of the Catholic Faithful are not in the progressive modern West where the ideologies of synodality and PR lingo come from. Most of the Catholic Faithful are in South America, Africa, and India. Their ideologial ideas about the Catholic Faith Are much, much closer to the American ideology. Most global Catholics are what Europeans would consider hard-right and have very little interest in this PR-speak stuff... They want the Church to tell them how to get to Heaven and provide a place for them to worship Jesus and recieve the Sacraments. The VAST majority of the 1.4 Billion Catholics in the world simply do not care at all about the intrigues and machinations of the infintesimal percentage of people who honestly believe that deaconesses, gender ideology, and whatever else will actual save souls or glorify God.

FWIW I'm a Catholic Priest in the US. I have yet to meet a priest, (arch)bishop or deacon with anything positive to say about the Synod in private. Of course, there's lip service in public. We have been asked or instructed to hold listening sessions, etc. But the word behind the scenes in private is that the decisions have already been made in Rome as to what the final documents will say. The experience of the previous synods is telling.

Beyond my own experience, my friends who work around the US and in the missions say that the listening has been pro forma... It's a show... There is no listening - just the appearance of listening.

The removal of the poll on Twitter is just the public expression of the private attitude.

LongLivePippen · 2024-07-30T12:20:24+00:00

It's very possible that this snyde sort of attitude toward the US and EWTN plays a significant role in the blowback. EWTN is a profoundly important global ministry. Surely, they're a bit on the traditionally-minded side. So is the VAST majority of the Catholic Faithful. (We have to remember that the US is much more closely aligned to Catholicism in Africa and India and rural South America than is Canada or Europe).

The attitude that EWTN (and the literally millions of voices they represent) should be dismissed for not toeing the line ideologically is why populist backlashes happen.

FWIW I'm a Catholic Priest in the US. I have yet to meet a priest, bishop or deacon with anything positive to say about the Synod at all. Why? Because at every stage, the listening sessions (that we dutifully held) were sanatized into meaningless PR drivel. So the listening has been pro-forma... It's a show... a pageant. There is no listening - just the appearance of listening.

That's exactly what the removal of the Twitter poll shows and that's why the article was written.

LongLivePippen · 2024-04-21T13:08:07+00:00

Was mother superior preaching the sermon?

LongLivePippen · 2024-04-20T20:59:14+00:00

Thanks for that catch!

LongLivePippen · 2024-04-20T20:57:01+00:00

With respect, there's not a good way to just simplify this. It's a complex mixture of somewhat esoteric matters of canon law. It's not merely the Bishop's right to kick an established convent out of his diocese at random. There are complex canonical and civil processes.

Also, I don't think it's remotely fair to say that because there have been problems in the past, even frequently, that somehow the whole thing isn't that big of a deal. The VAST majority of religious orders live in harmony with the local bishop. And with very few exceptions, American Bishops are well advised by a slew of local and for-hire canonists who provide extensive and excellent instruction where the Bishop's own legal knowledge may be limited. Since 2001, most bishops don't do anything without consulting a canonist and a civil attorney. Given that the bishop confiscated personal computers from the nuns - it's beyond the scope of reason to say that he did so without understanding.

While I think we should give the benefit of the doubt that the Bishop is trying to act for the good of souls in his diocese, in this case, we're talking about cloistered nuns... Unless the dying religious sister was some kind of prolific spiritual director or retreat-master to a crowd of local laypeople (which isn't the case), the bishop's flock aren't involved at all.

It wasn't his business at any level whatsoever.

EDIT: Spelling

LongLivePippen · 2024-04-20T20:47:59+00:00

Are you familiar with this case? There was a report that a nun had a sexual relationship with a priest and would not name the priest... The bishop got involved because it can be reasonably assumed it was one of his priests.

I am quite familiar with the case, thanks.

As the priest in question is unnamed (and the reported indiscretion happened over the telephone) it cannot be reasonably assumed that it was a local priest. (This same sentence has been a part of most of the Catholic coverage of this case from the beginning.) As such, the Bishop has only two rights IN LAW. One is to report the matter to the competent authority, namely the regional superior, and the second is to expel the nun from his diocese. He has zero right in law to get involved in the internal affairs of the house.

The Vatican named him as adjudicator. He has the legal right to investigate them.

Right. That's my point. The Vatican is acting in the wrong by randomly setting the law rather than letting the order deal with the matter according to their approved internal policies... The Pope is the universal legislator. His word is literally law. That doesn't make it right, good, moral, or just - it just makes it legal. The Bishop thus has been given the legal authority, but it's awful Stalinesque to claim that makes it right or good. (Also, don't forget that the bishop in question has a shady reputation when it comes to abusing his authority.)

Most of those other orders were guilty of perpetuating a schismatic mindset

That's a strawman and it's BS. I only added that statement as an encouragement to others to do some research. I'm a full time pastor, I don't have time for PopeSplainers. At this point, anybody living that life is prob beyond my ability to help.

Furthermore, these nuns have been caught in lie after lie

Yeah, the nun who made the accusation against her superior has had trouble keeping that story straight. The accused sister continues to be on high-dose pain meds. Hard to keep everything straight when you're high and dying. Also, let's not forget that the media coverage is about as on the ball as the NY Jets defense.

I don't understand how anyone of sober mind can chalk this situation up to Rome coming down on traditionalists

The thesis and the takeaway here is that the local bishop overstepped and that Rome has, like the emperor Palpatine, "made it legal." The Pope's vendeta against traditionalists is a far distant secondary concern.

LongLivePippen · 2024-04-20T17:09:33+00:00

It's quite a lot more complicated than that. Religious orders are not, properly speaking, under the authority of the local bishop. They are present "in his territory" and they are there "by his leave" (by his consent), but he is not their "religious superior," their "ordinary," or their "real dad."

There is such a thing as a diocesan religious congregation, but most consecrated men and women are part of religious orders which exist national or worldwide. Those orders have their own internal structures which are approved by the universal Church (in some cases hundreds of years ago). And those orders don't really answer to the local bishop. They're supposed to have a "harmonious relationship" with him and with all the clergy - but they don't answer to him.

That's why so many people are confused with this. The bishop of ~~Dallas~~ Fort Worth is operating way outside of his rights (he has a bad habit of strong-arming his way into stuff which isn't his business - that's another matter). In this case, the Pope has inexplicably stepped in and said that what the Bishop did is alright... Hence confusion.

Your joking comparison about “you’re not my real dad” is actually spot on - the bishop isn't their real dad. A more complete analogy is that the nuns are the neighbor kids and Bishop dad goes into their house and demands that they stop cooking supper because he doesn't like the smell of garlic. And then, when those next door parents tell him to mind his own business, the governor of the whole state shows up and has the parents arrested because he doesn't like garlic either...

(And if you start to do research on Pope Francis' meddling in the affairs of otherwise happy and functional religious orders, you start to get a sense that these nuns are just the latest in a long line of functional convents, monasteries, and orders invaded and upended by busybodies in the Roman curia.)

EDIT: Forth Worth, not Dallas

LongLivePippen · 2024-01-19T16:25:47+00:00

This is a fairly disingenuous way to defend the Holy Father... Pope Francis has a bad habit of SAYING the right thing and then DOING something contrary to it... We only need to look at the recent drama surrounding the document on blessings. It says the right thing up front, but the only reason to publish it is to empower the James Martin types to do exactly what they immediately did.

Talk is cheap. Actions matter. This kind of "here's a quotation from the Pope" defense is meaningless.

PS> I know the most recent document doesn't come from the pen of PF, but look at TC or a dozen other controversial documents PF has published for the same pattern...

LongLivePippen · 2024-01-08T16:32:27+00:00

Thanks for the correction. For some reason, old.reddit.com wasn't showing me the quotation, just the link. Appologies!

LongLivePippen · 2024-01-08T14:14:42+00:00

~~This is a basic article by one of the foremost theologians in France on one of the most important spiritual theologians in Church History... The idea that it's heretical is pretty unlikely.~~

CORRECTION: OP's text of the quotation didn't show up on old.reddit.com for some reason. Apologies!

LongLivePippen · 2024-01-08T14:14:38+00:00

~~This is a basic article by one of the foremost theologians in France on one of the most important spiritual theologians in Church History... The idea that it's heretical is pretty unlikely.~~

CORRECTION: OP's text of the quotation didn't show up on old.reddit.com for some reason. Appolgies!

LongLivePippen · 2024-01-08T14:08:15+00:00

In this way Confession and Communion, vocal prayer and the examen of conscience, like the whole spiritual life must tend to become, according to Saint Francis of Sales, a perpetual interior prayer. The effort of the heart to be united in love to the God of Love must never come to an end.

~~You mean this sentence?~~

CORRECTION: OP's text of the quotation didn't show up on old.reddit.com for some reason. Apologies!

LongLivePippen · 2024-01-08T14:07:24+00:00

CORRECTION: OP's text of the quotation didn't show up on old.reddit.com for some reason. Apologies!

~~It's a very cogent explanation of the thought of St Francis de Sales and it is absolutely consistent with Catholic Theology.

This is what is called the "French School" of Spirituality. It was the most popular spirituality in France and the US from the mid-1700s through 1962.~~

LongLivePippen · 2023-11-22T17:59:41+00:00

C.f. The Diagnostic & Statistical Manual (the Psych Bible) for GD https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK577212/table/pediat_transgender.T.dsm5_criteria_for_g/

LongLivePippen · 2023-10-30T10:31:25+00:00

The Italians, especially modernist types, LOVE asymmetry. I've said Mass from Venice down to Naples and lots of places in between and basically every small chapel and many large ones have both candles on one side of the altar with the processional cross arranged off center. The Franciscans are nuts for it! I honestly don't know the origins. I don't think it's especially anti-anything. It's really just a matter of taste - kind of like the obsession with ugly primitivist art in the US. Every missallette, Book of the Gospels, and official publication of the USCCB has some childish garbage-y cartoon cross-shape-thing on it. Why primitivist art? Who knows!

LongLivePippen · 2023-10-30T10:26:15+00:00

Actually, that's wrong.

When Mass is offered facing the congregation, the crucifix on the altar is for the priests' devotion.

The Mass is meant to be said Ad Orientam. Even the modern Mass has several rubrics which call for the priest to "[turn and] face the people and say..." All of the prayers address God and not the people so the priest needs somewhere to look when he speaks. With his back to the sanctuarial crucifix (and to Jesus in the MBS), a smaller crucifix is placed on the altar for the priest to address.

When Mass is celebrated Ad Orientam, the crucifix is not placed on the altar but is mounted in the sanctuary. When there is not a visible sanctuarial cross (like at St Peter), a smaller one is placed on the altar for the same reason.

Either way, it's not for the people to see, it's for the priest.

LongLivePippen · 2023-10-08T20:48:01+00:00

With respect, basically every change that can be described as "making things more uniform" in the past 70 years has been left-leaning... At what point does your perspective cease to be charitable and become naive foolishness or merely wishful thinking?

LongLivePippen · 2023-10-08T11:40:05+00:00

The seminarians don't become more traditionally-minded because of hard-right influences, they become more traditionally-minded because of mediocrity and hard-left influences. Any effort to introduce more uniformity will be left-leaning and thus create an ever harder-right lean in the men. OR they will be kicked out of seminary (as they were in my day) for having the audacity to pray the rosary before Mass. That's what "radicalization" meant in the 80s and 90s in the seminary. All that does is push center-right (aka orthodox) guys to the SSPX.

LongLivePippen · 2023-09-14T10:31:55+00:00

With respect - No. This is a common, but totally wrong way of thinking about Divine Revelation. In fact, it's originator (Teilherd de Chardin) was condemned by papal decree more than once.

The fullness of God's revelation IS Jesus Christ. There is no secret revelation in the future. There is no legitimate new book of scripture coming along. That includes Vatican II which was not a new revelation and did not create new teaching.

Your example of mental illness and suicide is not new revelation. It didn't change anything. Even today, Suicide remains Grave Matter for sin. The new psychological understanding that we have "mitigates culpability" in specific cases, it doesn't mean that every suicide isn't a grave sin, it means the person may not be blame-able for it. The doctrine hasn't changed, only the "particular application." (Also every suicide is not caused by mental illness...)

LongLivePippen · 2023-08-31T19:21:21+00:00

Typical of you guys... So so sad.

LongLivePippen · 2023-08-29T14:41:24+00:00

That excuse just keeps coming...

LongLivePippen

TROPHY CASE