Cardinal DiNardo told the assembly that the Vatican had requested that actions be delayed until after a global meeting on sexual abuse which is scheduled to take place in February, 2019.
“I remain hopeful that this additional consultation will ultimately improve our response to the crisis we face,” Cardinal DiNardo said.
Cardinal DiNardo’s announcement appeared to be a shock to most of the bishops assembled, who up until this morning had expected the voting to take place Tuesday as planned.
Several of the bishops in attendance expressed disappointment or concern about the delay, believing that actions should take place as quickly as possible to begin to rectify the situation and repair the damage done to the relationship between the faithful and the Church.
“This kind of thing is a blow to what we’re trying to overcome here in the United States – the perception of a hierarchy that is unresponsive to the reality of the tragedy,” said Bishop Shawn McKnight of Jefferson City, who became a bishop this year.
Among many who are scoffing at the latest Vatican sabotage, Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, called this last-minute order “truly incredible.”
“What we see here is the Vatican again trying to suppress even modest progress by the U.S. bishops,” said Doyle, whose group compiles data on clergy abuse in the church. “We’re seeing where the problem lies, which is with the Vatican. The outcome of this meeting, at best, was going to be tepid and ineffectual, but now it’s actually going to be completely without substance."
REMNANT COMMENT: So much for decentralizing the governance of the Catholic Church. Bergoglio is beginning to make Borgia look like pussy cats.
But does Pope Francis really think he can have it both ways? On the one hand, he claims to want decentralization and greater freedom for the bishops to make their own rules regarding liturgy and moral theology. But when things don't go his way, he behaves more like an unhinged mob boss with a laundry list of vendettas to settle. Which is it, Holiness? The Synodal Church of Accompaniment, or the Bergoglian Church of Cosa Nostra?
What are we to make of this latest outrage? Is Francis afraid the American Bishops might actually confront the crisis the whole world is talking about—the crisis about which the guy in charge prefers to “say not one word”?
Has he somehow failed to notice that his style of leadership—long on selfies and embarrassingly short on self-awareness—is beginning to enrage not just traditionalists but any and all Catholics still bothering to get out of bed on Sunday morning?
Francis Fatigue is setting in everywhere, even among our hapless American shepherds, as evidenced today by the perfectly reasonable complaint of an exasperated Bishop McKnight:
“I’m beginning to wonder if we need to look at a resolution where we refuse to participate in any kind of cover-up from those above us. It’s for the good of the church. We have to be respectful of the Roman Curia but also, we have an obligation to our people. And our priests.”
Indeed! The wild and crazy pontificate of Pope Francis is becoming a clear and present danger to everyone, even bishops.
The Church in this country has been rocked to its very foundations by a clerical sexual abuse crisis that has no precedent. Not only are the attorneys general of several states launching full-scale investigations of our Church, but now the Department of Justice wants to get involved. Are we really ready for that? “We're from the Federal Government and we're here to help. Papers, please.”
Quite obviously, if the bishops don’t act decisively and yesterday, this could spell the end of the Catholic Church in America. They're already closing churches and losing lawsuits with machine-like precision. But what’s Francis do? He orders them to hold off for another four months and effectively do nothing, prompting many Catholics to wonder out loud: Has this man lost his mind completely? Must the good of the Church and even the protection of children take a back seat to the increasingly bizarre personal agenda of Pope Francis?
Incredibly, the media are still hailing this man as a paragon of humility, leaving many--inside the Church and out--wondering in what sense that could possibly be the case.
Please, Holy Father, do the Church a favor and prayerfully consider resignation...sooner, preferably, rather than later. The future of the Catholic Church in the modern world may well depend on it.
