LETTER # 4 TO HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS AND BISHOP KEVIN VANN # 2 OF 2

LETTER # 4 TO HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS AND BISHOP KEVIN VANN # 2 OF 2 

IN PURSUIT OF THE TRUTH - HTTP://WWW.CINOPSBEGONEBLOGSPOT.COM - WED. DEC. 5/18

HERE ARE THE FINAL EXCERPTS FROM A BLOCKBUSTER ARTICLE IN THE "NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER" NOV. 25 TO DEC. 8, 2018 - BY MONSIGNOR CHARLES POPE, "COLLECTIVE COWARDS MUST BE TRANSFORMED INTO CLEAR LOVING WITNESSES."

   
 "Catholic colleges openly teach dissent without any correction from the bishops, and there is a tolerance of a moral life among their students that would shock even the most pagan of the ancient Greeks and Romans.

  
  "Liturgical abuses have abounded and remained uncorrected for decades. In the seminaries and within the priesthood, homosexual predation by an apparent network of priests has gone on for years, along with cover-ups, denials and secret payouts.

    
"The number of states initiating grand jury investigations is increasing daily.... Mass attendance has been declining for years, ... Scandals continue to arise. The Vatican Bank has been plagued by scandal for years...

    
The Holy Father himself is surrounded by questionable figures who are at the very heart of the current crises.... In response to the crisis, from Rome there has been silence.... I also repent because I am a member of the very hierarchy and cadre of those in holy orders I describe.

   I have been a priest for nearly  30 years now, and this disorder has only increased on my watch. I can not exempt myself from all blame... It goes against my training and my nature my nature as a Catholic and a priest to recite this litany of disorder. I even admit to the fear of retribution for my words.

   
 I would like to mention again that while the big picture is bleak, there are many bishops who have spoken courageously and taught well during these dark days. May they be confirmed by the Lord and preserved in their ministry. I beg the bishops to hear a cry of the heart, not just from me, one of their priests, but from so many of the faithful who must live with the disorder within the Church that we who  are in holy orders have very obligation to correct. Our credibility is nearly nonexistent.  ...

   
 We clergy must amend our lives by recommitting to the Lord' doctrinal and moral teaching; we must strive to live it ourselves and be serious about reproving the dissenters and serial violators and removing them from our ranks. We must honestly call out sin and refer to it by its proper name. We must speak no less plainly than did out Lord and his apostles, who used words like sodomy, fornication, adultery, greed, hatred, divorce and heresy.

    Resorting to vague terms like wounded, clericalism and abuse of power only diminishes our credibility. People can see right through such obfuscation. It is not my place, nor is it my goal, to set forth an agenda for the bishops. However, we who share in the sacrament of holy orders are currently president over a landscape of terrible disorder and have no one to blame but ourselves.

   
 Even if we have not personally committed moral offenses, to many of us have remained fearfully silent and /or indecisive. We have not courageously witnessed to the truth. The heroic example of the martyrs is almost unknown to us. We must change.`

    Indeed, we must seek a remarkable wherein our collective cowardice is converted, as if by miracle, into a clear, loving witness that is willing to endure the scorn of the world to reassert the truth of the Gospel. May our love for God's be so great that we refuse to lie to them or water down the truth that alone can set each one of us free.    

   
 May we who share in the exalted sacrament of holy orders, by God's grace, restore order to the Lord's Church, an order that both he and his good people deserve and require, and may God's good people pray and fast for our bishops."

George H. Kubeck

P.S. Msgr. Charles Pope is a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington.