HE THAT WAS DEAD SAT UP, AND BEGAN TO SPEAK

A SERMON FOR THE 15th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

A few weeks ago, I asked you to bear in mind that God continues to shower his graces on his Church.  “Shower” probably isn’t the right word, it seems more like a light drizzle.  But God does continue to inspire churchmen to take the first steps towards restoring his Church to its rightful place as the guardian of faith and morals.  I asked you back then to look out for such steps, and to treat them not with cynicism but with hope.  The cynicism is somewhat excusable after so many years listening to the ever-worsening smell of rot issuing from the Vatican and its incumbents, and yet, every now and again, we get a faint sniff of something vaguely Catholic.

This past week, no less a figure than the former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States (in other words, the Pope’s ambassador to Washington), Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, came out with an astonishing statement implicating Pope Francis in and calling for his resignation.  He based his argument on his inside knowledge of the grotesque actions of the former Archbishop of Washington, Theodore Edgar Cardinal McCarrick, known to his victims as “Uncle Ted.”  McCarrick’s career had prospered during Paul VI’s campaign to encourage the placement of homosexual clergy into positions of power.  He was consecrated in 1977, and quickly rose through the ranks to become the Cardinal Archbishop of our nation’s capital, one of the most influential positions in the American Church.

The allegations against him are by now public knowledge and well known, so we don’t need to repeat them here.  But Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano’s allegations this past week were new and unprecedented in the post-Vatican 2 Church.  It was Archbishop Vigano who had brought McCarrick’s depraved acts to the attention of then Pope Benedict XVI, who eventually placed severe restrictions on McCarrick, forbidding him to celebrate Mass in public, to participate in public meetings, to give lectures, or to travel.  As Apostolic Nuncio, it fell to Vigano to discuss these sanctions personally with McCarrick.

When Francis was elected, Vigano made sure that he knew about McCarrick’s behavior, but—and here’s the bombshell—the new Pope removed the sanctions and gave McCarrick a whole portfolio of new responsibilities, including renewed contact with seminarians, and involvement in the decision-making process to name new bishops for San Diego and Chicago.  The fact that this accusation comes from someone with the high position of Archbishop Vigano has forced the American Conference of Catholic Bishops to announce they will investigate Vigano’s accusations.  Meanwhile, the media smells blood and one suspects that the scandal is likely to grow.  Will it go anywhere?  I don’t know, but again, I’d stress that we shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss the possibility that it will all be covered up.  God has certainly brought to light here the dark deeds of his clergy, and it is up to all Catholics worldwide to respond appropriately.

In today’s Gospel, our Lord raises from the dead the son of the widow of Naim.  And no doubt he has taken a similar role with Archbishop Vigano.  He has taken this Vatican 2 bishop by the hand and commanded him to arise.  And indeed Vigano rose up.  Like the son of the widow of Naim, “he that was dead sat up, and began to speak.” And I believe he speaks the truth. Let me quote to you from an article by Marc Thiessen in the Washington Post: “Viganò’s accusations are serious and credible. He has everything to lose by making them public. He cited specific letters and documents that he and others sent to Rome — which he said are readily available in the files of the Holy See and the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington. The Vatican must now release them. And his account was backed on Monday by Monsignor Jean-François Lantheaume, the former first counsellor at the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, who said Viganò “tells the whole truth. I am a witness.” Most importantly, in his letter the archbishop declared that he is “ready to reaffirm them under oath by calling on God as my witness” — which means he is calling for his own eternal damnation if he is lying. Is Pope Francis willing to do the same?  Viganò is courageously sacrificing his own episcopal career to expose the truth. Now is the time for others with inside knowledge to step forward and do the same.”

And where does all this leave us?  With hope!  Let us be inspired by these revelations to renew and redouble our prayers for the eventual restoration of the Church.  In today’s bulletin you will find a copy of the Prayer of Restoration that members of our Guild of St. Peter ad Vincula are required to say daily. Please join us by adding this prayer to your daily devotions.  It’s a prayer that is of vital importance for us in the heart- and conscience-shaking position we are in today, abandoned by our Church and pastors.  In it, we pray that God will restore to us a pope filled with all the holy virtues, including Faith!  So many traditional Catholics have become complacent in their weekly attendance at their little chapels, and don’t even bother any more what’s happening in Rome.  But if we don’t pray for the restoration of the Church, who will?  If we believe that we are seeing the crucifixion of Christ’s Mystical Body today, then let us have hope that her resurrection will follow. I don’t know how that will happen, and neither do any of us, but that shouldn’t stop us from praying for it. This week, we’ve seen a flurry of dissent against the awful man who wears the white cassock.  We must play our part in this dissent, at least by praying very, very hard that it will bear fruit.  If we have been ignoring this most vital of prayers, then we have been as though dead. Now is the time to obey our Lord’s command to arise, and for the dead to sit up and speak.