Everyone in the Church in America is calling for “transparency.” Who knew what and when about the abuse of children and young men? Everyone is calling the Church to be at least as accountable as a secular corporation, which dismisses those who committed or abetted crimes, and hands criminals over to the justice system. In particular, who knew what when in the McCarrick case? Well, the former “nuncio” (Vatican ambassador) to the United States, Carlo Vigano, gave us what we’ve all been asking for: dates and names and documentary evidence of who knew what and when in the McCarrick scandal. The Pope has called for open and free speech, and now he’s got it.
 
Predictably, Vigano’s evidence—his “open and free speech”—has been reduced to political infighting. The “liberals” say the testimony is false, and the “conservatives” say it is true. But his testimony is still evidence, and evidence must be examined. So let the evidence be examined. In Vigano’s own words:
 
“Pope Francis has repeatedly asked for total transparency in the Church and for bishops and faithful to act with parrhesia [candid or free speech]. The faithful throughout the world also demand this of him in an exemplary manner.  He must honestly state when he first learned about the crimes committed by McCarrick, who abused his authority with seminarians and priests.”
 
Who can deny Vigano this request for transparency? Who can fault him for speaking freely, which the Pope has always championed? Let the evidence be examined, and let the guilty be made accountable.
 
I share my own archbishop’s fine letter, released today, along these lines: 

We've probably all been reading a bit too much about the current crisis in the Church, and some of us have been writing a bit too much. My last two blog drafts were vetoed by my editor and never saw the light of day, which is a good thing, both for you and for me. I thought I would take a break from this subject until Saturday night, when a good friend, a Dominican priest, flashed his phone at me as he was leaving my Installation Dinner. "Are you preaching tomorrow?" he asked me. "You'd better read this." I glanced at his phone, which said something like "Papal Nuncio calls for Pope's resignation."

But let's indeed take a break from the bad and think a bit on the good.

Last Saturday Bishop Robert Christian, OP, installed me as pastor of Star of the Sea parish, on behalf of the Archbishop of San Francisco. Many thanks to all who could attend, and a thousand thanks to those who prepared and served the meal following Mass. I've never tasted better salmon! Mariella Zevallos marshalled a small army of volunteers from every parish organization, who themselves donated the food they prepared and served. This lovely “installation dinner” raised about $45,000 towards the painting of our church. Thank you all!
 
An Installation Mass is akin to a wedding, and curiously the second reading last Sunday just happened to be on Christian marriage. “Submit to each other out of reverence for Christ” we heard from Ephesians 5. In his homily, Bishop Christian explained that since the pastor is the visible head of the parish, it goes well when parishioners support his decisions on matters from Mass schedules to wall coverings to staffing changes. But the pastor himself submits to parishioners out of reverence for Christ, respecting their wisdom even when he would have done things differently. He submits by making patient allowances for their weaknesses and annoying mannerisms, and above all he submits to his dear people by meeting their needs even when inconvenient. The discipline and asceticism of acting against one’s own will in deference to the beloved—always out of ultimate reverence for Christ—sanctifies everyone in a parish. After four years as merely “administrator,” the good Lord has seen fit to make an honest man of me by espousing me to the parish. I don’t say that I will be a perfect pastor, or meet every one of your needs, but here we are. Let’s enjoy our time together!

A "Massive, massive" problem?

I’ve got to say something no one in this church wants to hear, but better to hear it from your pastors than from people with little love for the Church. The grand jury report from Pennsylvania, exposing the criminal practices of our bishops over seventy years, was very bad, but it will pale in comparison to what grand juries will uncover in places like New York and California. My good sister-in-law, who converted to Catholicism 20 years ago, a dedicated and active Catholic, tells me she feels at the edge of leaving the Church. But in fact most Catholics in our country have “left the Church” years ago. Although they still check the “Catholic” box on census forms, most Catholics don’t do the one thing necessary to be Catholic, which is to receive the Holy Eucharist at Mass every Sunday. Practical atheism is the real scandal, and the essential crisis, of our Church. If Catholics had actually been practicing our faith in greater numbers, we would not have permitted such widespread criminality within our clergy.
 
Last week Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, said that the crimes of his predecessor, archbishop Theodore McCarrick, are not a “massive, massive crisis.” Think about those words for moment. The archbishop of Washington , where less than a quarter of Catholics even come to Mass, where the archdiocese covered up the archbishop’s crimes against children, blithely says we don't have massive problem. His own words convict him. We may be seeing the end of the episcopacy in this country as we have known it, and the end of the Catholic Church in America as we have known it. And let us hope so; let us hope that deep conversion is finally coming to our Church.
 
God will use the government as a scourge to reform the institution, because neither the Vatican nor the bishops nor the laity have been able to make significant progress since the scandals of 2002. I was talking about these things to some good Catholic men yesterday: Knights of Columbus, who  attend Mass every Sunday, who serve the Church. They are graduates of Catholic education who have put all their kids through Catholic schools, and yet they are still either unaware or in denial of the current situation. How can we not be aware that Rome itself is exceedingly corrupt at this time? But the time of reckoning, of public and civil accounting, is coming. It has already come to Pennsylvania, and it will come to the Archdiocese of Washington. It will come to California, and I can only say: let it come. The filth and crimes that have lain hidden in our Church must be exposed.
 
Come and Eat

That’s pretty bad news, but the good news is that Jesus is forever Lord. He has not ceased to shepherd his Church, despite the grievous failure of our pastors. “Wisdom has built her house,” we hear from the Book of Proverbs today. This wisdom became incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ, who has indeed built his Church. “Come, eat of my food and drink the wine I have mixed. Forsake foolishness.” The Lord Christ offers his bread, “and the bread that I will give” he says in today’s gospel, “is my flesh.” The double lives of many clergy, the homosexual acts of many priests and bishops, the hypocrisy and infidelity to their vows, the vile crimes against children, the financial dishonesty to cover them up—all of this comes from refusing to eat the flesh of Christ in faith. Infidelity to the Mass and to the Eucharist has brought the Church to he knees, and she is kneeling to a false god. We have trivialized the Mass, reducing it to a kind of cheap birthday party with balloons and clapping; we have refused to confess our sins and do penance in preparation to receive Christ’s flesh. We have forgotten our essential identity as Catholics, which is the Sacrifice of the Mass. And every filthy and criminal thing has made its way into the Church because this fundamental infidelity. “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood,” our Divine Lord says in the Gospel today, “you have no life within you.” The good news is that we can return to the Holy Eucharist at any time, and many are choosing to return. 

Prayer and Fasting

Our Archbishop wrote a letter last week addressing these issues, which he asks to be promulgated in the parishes. I will read a part of it:
 
“My Dear People of the Archdiocese of San Francisco,

“The recent reports of episcopal negligence and malfeasance in the face of clerical sexual abuse, coupled with some reports of bishops themselves guilty of sexual predation, have reopened old wounds and inflicted new ones on victims, their families, the Catholic faithful at large, and indeed, the larger society…. While attending to policies and procedures is necessary, by itself it is really superficial.  What is called for at this time is penance in reparation for sins against faith and morals.…

“Last year, in response to a request from some of the faithful of our Archdiocese, I consecrated the Archdiocese to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  This was on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of our Lady at Fatima.  At that time, I asked our people to live this consecration by observing what our Blessed Mother asked of us there.  I now ask our priests and people to engage in prayer, penance and adoration as an act of reparation for sins against chastity and the reverence due to the Blessed Sacrament, in accordance with our Lady’s wishes.

"I repeat here what I asked of you then, and implore you even more earnestly to join me in: 1) Praying the rosary daily – and for families, to pray the rosary as a family at least once a week; 2) Practicing Friday penance by abstaining from eating meat and one other additional act of fasting (e.g., another form of food or drink, or skipping a meal); 3) Spending one hour of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament at least once a week….

“While I pledge to attend to policies and their observance, we all must be engaged at this time on the spiritual level.  Without prayer, penance and adoration in reparation for the horrendous sins rampant in our Church for very many years now, any efforts of the temporal order will be meaningless.”
 
Not a Public Relations Problem

The Archbishop of San Francisco is not treating the McCarrick scandal and Grand Jury Report as a public relations problem. While policies and procedures are necessary, they do not address the root problem, which is spiritual. It is becoming clearer that the Church in America is gripped by a personal force of evil that loathes innocence and purity. “This kind of evil,” the Lord said, “can only be driven out by prayer and fasting.” And I can say from personal experience that Archbishop Cordileone is the first to pray and to fast for the sins of his Church. At weeklong clergy convocations, when I go the small room in which is reserved the Blessed Sacrament at the conference center, the Archbishop is already kneeling, at 6am, before the tabernacle.

I have noticed he rarely drinks wine at dinners and takes little food. He is always happy to pray a rosary with me in his private chapel, even though I suspect he has already prayed his rosary.  He witnesses that a shepherd must goes ahead of his flock in prayer and penance. Only the Body of Christ can save us. Let us follow our good bishops in faithfully receiving that sacred Sacrament.

St. Maximilian
 
77 years ago last week (August 14, 1941) a man died by lethal injection in a prison cell. The guards at Auschwitz had stuffed ten men into a “starvation cell” in Block 11, but one of the condemned went into that dark pit a free man. Fr. Maximilian Kolbe was not initially chosen to die, but he had stepped forward to ask the camp commander if he could take the place of one of the doomed men, who had a wife and seven children. His sacrifice was accepted. John Paul II canonized Fr. Maximilian in 1983 as a martyr because he “witnessed” to Christ by dying in another man’s place, just like Christ. Fr. Maximilian’s sacrifice sent shock waves throughout the concentration camps. Auschwitz survivor Jerzy Bielecki described it as “a shock filled with hope, bringing new life and strength…it was like a powerful shaft of light in the darkness of the camp.”
 
Shock Waves 
 
I called my mother on St. Maximilian’s day last week to wish her a happy feast. We got to talking about the darkness being uncovered even in the lives of our most trusted Catholic prelates. In the weakness and simplicity of her advanced age, my mother said “God is stronger than any evil,” and I was greatly consoled. Yesterday another shock wave came my way, though: a grand jury reported over 1000 cases of abuse over a 70-year period in the Catholic churches across the entire state of Pennsylvania. This latest scandal reveals two things: first, the Church contains corruption from top to bottom and will always need radical reform. Second, the government contains corruption from top to bottom, and this corrupt element wants to destroy the Church. I have no doubt that if a grand jury closely examined the Pennsylvania State School System over a comparable period, it would uncover even more cases of abuse. And so, Church and State are both riddled with deceit and abuse, but God is greater than our darkness. Our churches and our governments need constant reform, and the way of reform is to make God first in our lives, not second. I dearly hope these latest shocking revelations will motivate our bishops to do what only they can do--to put God first in our Church. St. Maximilian Kolbe witnessed to God's light 77 years ago, and today I witness the love of God in my parish every day. It is beautiful to see so many praying quietly before the Blessed Sacrament at all hours in my church; it is beautiful to witness the kindness with which our office volunteers feed the poor who daily come to our front door. 
 
Our Lady
 
Fr. Kolbe wanted to die on a feast of Our Lady. In 1941, August 14 was not the Feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe. It was the Vigil of the Assumption, a Feast of Our Lady. I realized that when, after singing morning prayer for the martyrs yesterday, I saw that the Latin Mass would be for Our Lady’s Vigil. On August 14, 1941, Fr. Maximilian Kolbe followed our Lady to Jesus and so find a shaft of light leading out of his prison cell. As a prisoner of Auschwitz he was a free man, and now, as one of God's inspiring saints, he shows us how to be free of this present darkness.

Star of the Sea Parish and School has been without a pastor for four years. I’ve been serving as “administrator” (a temporary position) since August 2014, exercising all the rights and duties of a pastor without the canonical appointment. On August 25th, however, Bishop Robert Christian, OP, will install your humble scribe as pastor at the 4:30pm Mass at Star of the Sea. Archbishop Cordileone has appointed me for a six-year term, but in fact there is no canonical term limit to a pastor’s appointment. The model and patron of parish priests, St. John Vianney, spent 41 years at St. John the Baptist parish in Ars (France), dying in 1859 as pastor of that one parish. 

All of my dear readers within striking distance are welcome to attend the Mass (our music department has promised some stringed instruments in addition to my favorite Mass setting (Orbis Factor) and some beloved hymns (Sicut Cervus, O God Beyond All Praising, and Spirit Seeking). The Mass will be followed by a formal dinner, at which I hope to raise some funds for my latest project, painting and generally sprucing up the church. Star of the Sea Parish was established in 1894, and to celebrate our “Quasquicentenniel” of 125 years next October, I would like to publish a parish history and also put about $500,000 into renovating the church, primarily painting interior and exterior. All proceeds from the dinner, and all gifts to myself, will go toward this project. Tickets are $40, with discounts for families, available HERE). If you can't join us, consider making a gift for the beautification of this House of God, the parish closest to the Pacific in 1894, and so named after Mary, Star of the Sea.

Many of you gave generously four years ago for the Oratory (we actually now have five priests in the rectory, praying twice a day together), and two years ago many made gifts to restore the marble altar and build our adoration chapel. On August 25 I will give a special tour of the sanctuary and adoration chapel to our benefactors after Mass. As St. Junipero Serra would say, siempre adelante!

Deceitful Bishops
 We are demoralized by the sexual crimes against children and young people committed by ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, DC. His offenses reveal a network of bishops and priests who enforced a web of silence, perhaps fearing exposure themselves. Some of these clerics were the first to express pious outrage over sexual abuse (McCarrick himself was among the chief architects of the 2002 “Dallas Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People”). We now learn that “everyone” around New York and Washington knew that Bishop McCarrick was grooming young men for his beach house, and that, despite written complaints, he continued to advance in Church leadership. In this climate, who can believe Cardinal Kevin Farrell, whom McCarrick promoted as his vicar general, when he tells ABC that he knew nothing about his superior’s predations on seminarians and young priests? Bishops in Chile, Austria, Honduras, and Australia have also been removed for similar offenses in recent months. Who can have confidence in the Pope’s judgement when some of his closest collaborators are found to be complicit in these crimes? Can we trust our bishops anymore?
 
Trustworthy Bishops
But in Nicaragua last week, tens of thousands marched in support of their bishops. In that country the Ortega regime is assaulting bishops who stand in defense of their people. These bishops give themselves not to fundraising or media appearances (ex-Cardinal McCarrick raised hundreds of millions, which apparently protected him from scrutiny). The bishops of Nicaragua give themselves over to suffering with and for their people as good fathers rather than good fundraisers. A father who sacrifices himself for his children can be trusted. A bishop who personally suffers for his flock is trustworthy. It is in our bishops' personal martyrdom that we see the authentic face of our Christ, who died for us.
Uncle Ted
​Theodore McCarrick didn’t like the title “father.” He preferred to be called “Uncle Ted,” and he avoided doctrines that make people uncomfortable. But especially in “fatherless America,” we need fathers who fear offending God more than displeasing men. As Matthew Schmitz wrote recently, “Children without fathers do not need uncles. They need a father who fears the Father above.” Thanks be to God that the Church has many prayerful, sacrificial, fatherly bishops. May God give us the wisdom to know the difference between a shepherd and a wolf in shepherd’s clothing.