My friend Fr. Raymond de Souza wrote at National Catholic Register “It’s time to turn down the temperature”. His basic idea is that Archbp. Viganò was wrong to call for Francis to resign and Team Francis were wrong to engage in character smearing and stonewalling: both sides need to tone it down. Canonist Ed Peters wrote a thorough response to Fr. de Souza at his blog In The Light of the Law. I think Peters makes the better argument, which is in essence:
[T]he shouting in this mess is coming overwhelmingly from one side, the side that has been wronged! To call on ‘both sides’, then, “to turn down the temperature” is, therefore, effectively aimed at squelching one side here, the victims!
Allow me to riff for awhile.
Team Francis and their allies in the MSM are stonewalling. They want all of this to go away. If they can hang on, it’ll pass. Cunctando regitur mundus.
At the dark foundation of The Present Crisis is the fact of a homosexualist agenda in the Church which has infiltrated to offices of great power. There are other issues too, but that’s a key. Nothing will be solved if that isn’t dealt with. Various are the approaches, but something must be done. The only thing worse than choosing a less than perfect solution, would be do to nothing.
While I do not buy the claims of some, such as Jesuit homosexualist James Martin, LGBTSJ, that there are “thousands” of US priests who are homosexuals, I do believe that the percentage of those that there are in the clergy are higher, percentage wise mind you, among bishops. That’s going to make this a very hard hill to take.
The homosexualist agenda has had a long game strategy. They always have. They work by creeping incrementalism. They are incredibly well organized. As I have written before (for example HERE). A sample:
I have been writing for a long time now that the next step in the homosexualist agenda is to eliminate the “age of consent” limit. They approach their goals through creeping (and creepy) incrementalism. They will eventually rehabilitate even pedophilia, with the consent and aid of the mainstream media and liberals everywhere, even within the Church. […]
For decades our society has been slowly but surely and purposely shifted by those in control of the mainstream media and entertainment industry.
At first, because of the rise of AIDS, active homosexuals were constantly portrayed as innocent, though perhaps quirky, victims. Once the notion of homosexuality was shifted from its moorings and a new status was created in the minds of the public, another shift took place in the media. Now, TV shows and movies are saturated with homosexuals who are far more sophisticated, with it, intelligent, good looking than their more dysfunctional heterosexual counterparts. Victim time is over. It is cool to be “gay”.
For years an artificial sub-culture has been carefully crafted. It is busting out into a “new normal”.
The are more goals down the line.
[…]
Now, as I continue my riff, track back in the above to the part about homosexualist “victim status” as a tactic to shift public perception.
Do you all remember the pivotal and diabolically shrewd “Silence = Death” campaign? There was a famous poster and then variations that followed.
Look at that last one. Doesn’t that exemplify the tweets of certain homosexualists and Team Francis?
“Silence = Death” leads to “Act Up”.
You can see this leftist tactic playing out in the Senate hearing for future-Justice Kavanaugh. Alinsky would be proud.
The Silence=Death campaign was a vital step in the long-term, incremental project.
What the homosexualists know and what the papalatrous know – from their strong leftist roots, is that all rhetoric aimed at effecting social and political change must, above all, be heard.
Hence, the homosexualists and papalatrous (there’s a lot of coincidence, as we now know – thank you Archbp. Viganò et al.) will do all that they can to shut down any criticism, every call for clear answers, investigations of corruption, resignations, etc.
They have to KILL every question – and even, ecclesiastically at least, every questioner. Some, like Madame Defarge, take that notion beyond mere dark humor.
We cannot afford, at this pivotal moment, to fall into the trap of turning down the temperature, toning down the rhetoric. That’s what the homosexualist and papalatrous want.
Even so, we must not devolve into total lack of decorum and violations of charity. However, we must keep the heat up in order to keep the water moving, boiling.
I repeat what Ed Peters pointed out to Fr. de Souza – and I am NOT putting the great Fr de Souza into the Leftist category, the very idea of which is hilarious! –
[T]he shouting in this mess is coming overwhelmingly from one side, the side that has been wronged! To call on ‘both sides’, then, “to turn down the temperature” is, therefore, effectively aimed at squelching one side here, the victims!
In the present case, we might say… and the pun is intended:
Silence = Stonewall
The homosexualist agenda is all over attempts to silence those who want the Church to be purified through The Present Crisis. They are clearly stonewalling.
Some of you younger readers might not know that “Stonewall”, which came to mean “holding the line” from Gen. Jackson’s stand in the Civil War, also refers to radical homosexuality and the homosexualist agenda because of violent pro-homosexual riots in NYC in 1969 at the Stonewall Inn which had been converted by members of the Genovese Mafia family purposely into a “gay bar”.
All the disgusting things that you might have read about when it comes to homosexuals “acting up” took place at the now iconic (for “gays”) Stonewall Inn, and have become part of the homosexualist agenda. It is ironic in the extreme that a Mafia crew controlled such a place. It goes to show that when some people talk about a “lavendar mafia” or an Italian “gay lobby” which controlled seminaries and institutions… WE KNOW WHAT THE HELL WE ARE TALKING ABOUT.
We are finally exposing the entangled networks of corruption which afflict Holy Mother Church and which twist and enervate her mission. Masons, Communists, homosexualists and the mob have sought to infiltrate the Church’s highest positions. I had personal experience in Rome of attempts from different groups – and I was warned about them ahead of time, thanks be to God – to pull me into nefarious stuff.
The Stonewall Inn could be the icon of what certain ecclesial and secular powers are trying to do to those who are looking for answers, answers, more answers and ACTION.
No, we will not tone it down. With all due respect, we must not turn down the temperature.
Silence would equal the death of truth.
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It’s not going to go away. New York State just subpoenaed all dioceses in the state for documents related to abuse allegations. (Source)
It so amazes and distresses me to find myself apparently “against” the Pope. Ubi Petrus, ibi Ecclesia. But, alas…
I begin to wonder about the Vatican invitation and activist exhortations for the laity to take more control of the Church. I fear that the direct involvement of laymen will dilute energy and confuse the supernatural aims we need to exalt. [I do support the idea o f lay-led audits, once the battle at the leadership allows it.] As I interpret the statements and the comments over the last week or so, it increasingly seems to me that the struggle that matters — Way, Truth, Life — if it is to be won, must be fought by Bishops, Achilles and Hectors and Aeneas, backed certainly by Pastors reassuring us at home. Efforts of the laity in themselves — outrage, pleas, and protests — are ineffective, ignored, scorned. In the end, the horror and pain of opposing the Pope will be too difficult for the laity to bear [St Paul stood up for us against St Peter]. We must pray for strength to the hearts of holy Bishops and sacred courage to the arms of Heroes, that they may be stalwart against the pride of His enemies.
Fécit poténtiam in bráchio suo: dispérsit supérbos mente cordis sui.
Depósuit poténtes de sede: et exaltávit húmiles.
Perhaps I am a clericalist…
Fr. De Souza reminds me of the well intentioned people during the Cold War who were always talking as if both the West and the Soviets were as bad as each other. You also find teachers who think that in any playground scrap both sides need their heads knocking together.
But in fact a tyranny is not morally equal to a free nation, and the bully is not morally equivalent to his victim.
Sexual Harassment (as opposed to abuse and rape) consists of unwanted sexual advances.
When a man enters a seminary he signs up to a life of chastity, thereby saying no to any sexual advances by definition. So anyone, male or female, lay or clerical, who makes a pass at a seminarian, a priest or a bishop is a harasser.
Anyone who tolerates harassment is committing a serious offence. In the secular world it is universally recognized as a sacking offence.
In this crisis the calls for justice come from the conservatives and the defence of the abusers and their allies are liberals to a man. The moral lines are strictly and clearly drawn and it is irresponsible to try to blur them.
What we are witnessing is another form of the Delphi Technique. For those not familiar you had better read here:
http://www.vlrc.org/articles/110.html
You will recognize these techniques used with church planning, especially church building projects, discussions of liturgical abuses or orthodoxy and dissent.
While they stonewall expect a call for our “involvement” which will be little more than an attempt to calm us down and manipulate us into thinking we are going to have a say and our concerns addressed.
The real serious question is what really can be done, whom can do it, and is someone doing it? I’ve not seen any answers to this question , but hopefully there are late night calls and meetings going on …and I’m looking for God to provide a wedge of sorts to break things open. With charity, justice
demands we don’t tone it down but increase as the problems are further ignored.
I agree that we must not be silent.
And unfortunately that may involve some forms of disobedience (to man’s laws, not God’s).
However, we have to be careful of a few things.
First, “They” are trying to paint this as a “Conservative Conspiracy.” We need to be level-headed so as not to resemble that remark.
Second, and this is even more important, we must not allow our anger and our frustration to make us rebellious, disobedient, and spiteful, because these were the first sins of Lucifer and his signal vices.
If we would fight on God’s side in this war (and it appears that it will be a war) we do need to rein ourselves in occasionally so that He can remain always in the vanguard.
That doesn’t mean being silent, or speaking up less frequently. It means speaking the truth and only the truth, and stop the idle speculation and scandalmongering, etc.
Or as someone who is far more eloquent than I put it:
“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in.”
Dr E. Michael Jones does an excellent job of explaining the big picture: how it is the oligarchs who are using the 5th column in the Church (the homosexual cabal and the Jesuits), to further the sexual revolution and destroy the Church from within. Much as the Arians back was in the early centuries, were the fifth column in the Church being used to destroy it. Same old enemies.
https://youtu.be/qnZXo6TZyZw
Since when does “toning it down” = “silence” [PUH-LEEEZ]
roma247 says some excellent things above.
Fr. de Souza is such a good man I don’t think he gets the kind of game the powers that be are playing. They have no intention of doing the right thing. Cupich really meant it when he said the environment etc were part of a bigger agenda. They want coverage of, and interest in, this crisis to go away. The remaining Catholics who won’t let it go can then be dismissed as cranks, putschists, etc. In short, they desperately want the temperature turned down so they can get back to business. It’s a guarantee the mainstream media will largely let the story go, which makes it even more critical for us to stay on it & not flag in our attention.
A good piece of advice from an old mafioso applies here: Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight. When you’re fighting the Lavender Mafia you better be well-armed, well-trained & with plenty of reinforcements.
We are still so far behind the curve. The radicals have had decades and longer to coordinate, and I fear it will take Catholics that long to figure out where we are. It’s too bad. There is no leadership, and that is going to make it far more difficult.
This is a huge entity, we are going up against. God is always bigger, but this is huge. It’s in this world and has help from the other side. We are still talking about being polite. Almost by definition Catholics are polite, but politeness has little place here. This is a polite dog fight. We are bringing poodles. They aren’t.
We need to start to realize this is a new paradigm. What we said and did before is almost of no use to us now. We need to rethink old approaches and get rid of thoughts like “oh I would NEVER do that…”, because if we don’t think outside the box, we haven’t got a chance at whatever it is we are trying to accomplish. The “same old” is going to get us the “same old”. These men count on you and I showing up on Sunday and putting that check in the basket. They count on us being “polite” (cowardly) and not asking pointed questions and not to expect concrete actions.
All I know right now is we need to keep talking about it, keep posting, keep asking questions, keep yelling “Vigano!” to Cardinals and bishops and the pope. Keep asking Congress to get involved, and AG’s. Keep that HEAT on, because they are counting on short attention spans and a rapid news cycle. The media and the church treat us like we are five years old and they are counting on that.
Whatever is accomplished is up to God. Our job is to fight these men for as long as we can and with as much strength as we can. Pray for success. Make them nervous. Spread the word! Keep this issue alive. All I have to do to rekindle enthusiasm is think of McCarrick’s victim “James”, and that photo of him with his disgusting arm around the young man, whose life he wrecked, and all the other poor boys, God help them. We’re at a disadvantage, but we do have some things to use, if we use everything we’ve got.
There is only one tactic that is available to us and that is prayer. The Pope is answerable to no human; so there is no way that he can be removed if he refuses to go. Only Jesus can remove a Pope. So, prayer and penance.
I’ll tone it down by funding down. I would really like my bishop to attend the nov meeting and inform his fellow bisops how money isnt flowing in. Somebody isnt going along with business as usual.
It looks like Pope Francis is reverting to pay, pray, and obey.
Until the likes of Wuerl, Tobin and Cupich are gone the church does not get 1 penny from me, oh and in response to Cardinal Tobin’s tweet that the crises demanded both prayer AND action I said ‘sure it does, your resignation from your See and the Collage of Cardinals would be a good start”
Kathleen10
I liked your analogy:
This is a polite dog fight. We are bringing poodles. They aren’t.
But Perhaps they don’t realize how ferocious the Standard Poodle can be. (They were bred to hunt bears.)
Even toy poodles can be formidable in sufficient numbers.
Let’s band together and support Pope Emeritus Benedict (“God’s Rottweiler”), pray for the conversion and resignation of his successor and generally for all of these malefactors to be allowed to bear the consequences of their evil deeds.
Before The Holy Face of Jesus, one cannot but deeply, silently grieve over all that has come to light. But it is appalling for PF to stay silent on this before a world that has been scandalized by the very Church he shepherds.
There are still so many good and loyal Catholics talking about abuse of children, rightly so, to an extent. There are statistics about that having reached a peak in ’95. A major key to the attempted destruction of the Church from within at this time is homosexuality all the way to the top/the Vatican. One of the most explicit exposes has been the homily by Father Altier, St. Raphael’s, that has gone viral. He talks about Bella Dodd, Communists, her conversion and testimony before Congress, and much of this infiltration beginning in the 1920’s. Some of us have read about all this years ago, and of course there have been warnings from our Blessed Mother. So we are up against homosexuality, Freemasons, and all the other evils you have discussed, Father Z. It is my firm belief that most Catholics have no idea of the magnitude of the problem. There is a huge battle to be fought, and indeed, you and all good priests need not only a great deal of prayer, but laity involvement and voices! I ask Mother Mary to keep her mantle wrapped around you, Father.
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I have personally witnessed a cover up. It was completely successful, there is no evidence left. No witnesses willing to speak. There is nothing but silence. It’s crushing, I can’t begin to tell you how crushing.
You could divide the Church into three groups – the blessedly ignorant (and we must do everything in our power to keep them ignorant because their faith couldn’t withstand the shock of knowing – that is what I was told). The will-fully oblivious because they just can’t believe the evidence of their eyes (or ears in some cases). They want to believe that adults simply wouldn’t do those things – like threatening to murder a 7 year old in a room full of witnesses because she’s causing too much trouble. Who behaves that way, seriously?
The third group is very evil, and very demented and quite possibly possessed. They do not abuse children because they are ill in the head, but because they desire to destroy the faith. I fully believe them capable of murder and have lived in fear of them for over 35 years.
Your silence puts you squarely on the side of the third group.
I have to respectfully disagree with your disagreeing with Fr. Martin’s estimate of “thousands” of gay priests. He is very likely right. A good friend was a seminarian at Mt. Angel about ten years ago. He was informed by a professor that at least half the seminarians were gay. And this is a “conservative” seminary. Repeat this percentage across all the seminarians across the decades, and “thousands” sounds like a underestimate.
[I just don’t buy it.]
Fr. Boniface Ramsey has provided a letter signed by Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, dated Oct. 11, 2006 that corroborates with Archbishop Viganò’s Testimony. The Vatican KNEW about “Uncle Ted”.
He may be publishing a story in 1P5 about his experience. You can then ask him about it yourself.