Concerns over Pachamama are overblown, according to a leading Vatican official. “I don’t know the Amazonian culture well enough to say what the scope of these symbols is, but they didn’t bother me,” Cdl. Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, told a Spanish website last week. “To say that it was idol worship … Read more
On the Feast of the North American Martyrs To bear witness to corruption in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church was a painful decision for me, and remains so. But I am an old man, one who knows he must soon give an accounting to the Judge for his actions and omissions, one who fears … Read more
As we have seen in these last years, the Vatican does not appear to be too apt at working in the field of public affairs. Somehow, one is always able to see through its attempts at trying to skew a piece of information. At times – as with the March 2018 Vatican ‘Lettergate’ scandal – the Vatican’s … Read more
The Vatican’s prefect for the Congregation for Bishops has confirmed that, in response to Theodore McCarrick’s serial sexual predation of young men and boys, Pope Benedict XVI imposed punitive measures against the former Washington, D.C. cardinal — and that Pope Francis lifted them. In an open letter published Sunday, Cdl. Marc Ouellet slammed Vatican whistleblower … Read more
Finally there is some movement. This weekend the Vatican began responding to the dismay of the laity over the McCarrick scandal. The responses are certainly tardy, and still not terribly reassuring. But they are responses, at least; the “stonewall” approach is breaking down. The first response, issued by the Vatican press office on October 6, … Read more
To cut to the chase: Cardinal Ouellet’s open letter (full text here) has confirmed there were restrictions on then-Cardinal McCarrick. This has been a major point of contention in the press, but it is really a secondary or an ancillary consideration. I’ve been saying from the start — I called it on August 27th, in the Catholic Herald — … Read more
Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, today issued an open letter to Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, in response to his explosive 11-page testimony, alleging that Pope Francis and several high-level prelates were complicit in covering up ex-U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s homosexual abuse of seminarians. In his letter, released only in French (official … Read more