27 August 2018

Archbishop Vigano ... whose narratives are fictive?

UPDATE
I first published this piece on 30 July this year. I am reprinting it now because it seems to me that one of the strongest arguments favouring acceptance of Archbishop Vigano's disclosures is that the picture he gives us of PF's character fits so closely the conclusions which some of us have come to about PF's evasive attitude to Truth.

One of my motives for writing this piece in July had been the following. PF had recently accused the Four Cardinals of lying: they claimed that the Dubia had been delivered to PF's desk; he claimed that he first heard about the Dubia after they were made public: "I heard about it from the Press".

Given this conflict of testimony, it was not easy to understand why four cardinals should put themselves so very much in the wrong by behaving like that and by lying in such a way. So I wrote:

It is a now familiar picture: the Pope who shifts the blame on to others ("I was poorly informed"); the Pope who contradicts himself; who says different things to different people. The recent account of PF's dealings with the Argentine military dictatorship is unsubstantiated but terrifyingly circumstantial and unnervingly fits in with many compelling reconstructions of his character.

We have a Pope who, in any sort of Mess, rapidly takes easy and facile refuge in Fictive Narratives.

Many of us have felt driven to differ from PF's views on basically important matters of Faith and Morals. Nevertheless, he and we are fellow-Christians with all that this implies about our common life together in Christ's Body the Church.

But how easy is it to do any sort of meaningful business with a Roman Pontiff the integrity of whose word looks increasingly implausible? (Or, indeed, with his public apologists?)

Any sort of meaningful business, that is, other than waiting for these terrible days to pass.

NEW PERSONAL FOOTNOTES:

(1) The words of Pope Benedict XIV which I reported as recently as Saturday morning ("the Mug"), have been spectacularly fulfilled by Mgr Vigano: the Scum certainly now is right on the Surface of the Cooking Pot, for everyone to see! I think I had better visit Ashmole more often!
(2) PF's neat way of dodging questions in the airliner does immense credit to whichever of his aides dreamed it up. Talent there!
(3) A bishop Strickland finds the Vigano Testimony 'credible'. Now his website is down, just as Bishop Egan's was so recently.
(4) Both the Testimony of Archbishop Vigano; and the admirable letter of Bishop Philip Egan calling for a Lay Congress and an Extraordinary Synod to consider the crisis, are dated to the Octave Day of the Assumption, the Queenship of Mary aka Her Immaculate Heart.

Perhaps 22 August will go down in History as the Marian intervention which precipitated the ending of this calamitous and divisive pontificate.

24 comments:

Dan said...

Everything in me cries out that it's time to abandon whatever this "church" has become. Time after time I've watched as this "church" actively suppresses and destroys anything Catholic.

My parish finally got a young priest who actually spouts Catholic teaching, and of course he's suffering the consequences.

The destruction has become readily apparent under the Francis. The destroyers are positively gleeful.

TLM said...

Lord God help us!!! Hail Mary! Please guide your children!!! Keep us faithful to your Son and to the true Church!! AMEN!!

Ana Milan said...

While waiting for these times to pass we must be ready with a Plan B for when they do. The Hierarchy is presently stacked against us getting a Pope faithful to Christ who will preserve the Apostolic link & be vigilant in ensuring the correct interpretation of scripture & precepts of the OHC&A Church are being taught. Silent prelates must seek to assure us that such a Plan has been draw-up to be enforced as soon as PF no longer occupies the Seat of Peter.

E sapelion said...

Pope Benedict spoke of 'Filth' in reference to the behaviour of priests who are sexual predators. No doubt this has always been a problem in the Church, as in every other walk of life. It is clear that Pope Francis has been slow to realise the extent to which Princes of the Church are prepared to lie through their teeth about it. However he is doing considerably better than Pope John-Paul II, who thought that charismatic figures like Maciel and Karadima were part of the recovery of the Church. I don't see these days passing until the Augean Stables have been cleared, and I have no idea how to achieve that.
Pope Pius IV tackled the problems of nepotism and corruption by creating his nephew Charles Borromeo a cardinal at the age of 22, and getting him to drive through reforms! All we can do is pray that PF finds the right people to achieve the task.

El Codo said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dad29 said...

Yes, well. It's been said that Pp. Francis is a Peronist. Peron could say "yes" to any question on Monday and "no" to the very same question on Tuesday. Since those responses were to different people--and made each one happy--all was well!

We simply don't understand complexity.

FSL said...

"Father, you must stop this public criticism of the Holy Father."

Dude, step off. Either Pope Francis protected and promoted pedophiles, or Archbishop Viganó and Pope Emeritus Benedict (who has confirmed Viganó's report on National Catholic Register) are lying. Just whom do you find more credible? Fr Hunwicke has a duty to defend first and foremost the honor of the Faith, not that of an obfuscating, self-aggrandizing, Luther lionizing pedophile ally. Your sycophantic attitude would be comical if it were not so typical.

Anonymous said...

The Catholic Church should get rid of this sect and its gurus. Pope Francis has no choice.

Mick Jagger Gathers No Mosque said...

Dear Father. ABS thinks Mary and The Holy Ghost are to be credited and the most interesting race currently underway is will the pressure to resign increase so rapidly and powerfully that The Bishop of Rome will be forced to resign before he has a chance to Canonise his model in Faith, Paul VI.

O, and El Codo. Ultramontism and Papolatry are part of the reason for the way we are.

Father is to be credited for his courage not denounced as a crypto-protestant

The Catholic Church could use a million more Priests like Fr. Hunwicke who is acting like a man.

the Egyptian said...

he claimed that he first heard about the Dubia after they were made public: "I heard about it from the Press".

How Obama like, PF is a fast learner, total limited hangout, I believe the saying used to be

Éamonn said...

And now another former official at the Washington Nunciature has publicly vouched for Abp Vigano's account. http://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2018/08/27/former-nunciature-official-vigano-said-the-truth/

Christopher Boegel said...

“I have come to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already burning.”

Holy Mary, St. John the Baptist, Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, all Holy Apostles and Martyrs, St. Michael Archangel and the Heavenly Host, all Servants of The Lord, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, pray that The Father of Lights, and His Son Our Lord Jesus, send The Holy Spirit, and cast His Holy Fire, and renew the face of the Church.

Woody said...

Come, come, let’s not give Peron a bad name.

Sadie Vacantist said...

The Church was corrupted after WWII following the American occupation of Western Europe. Unfortunately Francis doesn't seem to grasp this reality despite the damage inflicted on South America by American "capitalism". Can a country which, in addition to its economic imperialism, massacres the innocent of the Middle East, mysteriously produce bishops and priests faithful to mother church and mother Church alone?

Woody said...

This article by Aldo Maria Valli provides some personal background to Archbishop Vigano's decision to write the memorandum, and in my view amply supports the view that Archbishop Vigano is acting in utmost good faith and concern for the Church. Note that Valli says that he told Vigano that the others would try to discredit him, and he said he knew it and that he would go ahead anyway.
https://www.aldomariavalli.it/2018/08/27/cosi-monsignor-vigano-mi-ha-dato-il-suo-memoriale-ed-ecco-perche-ho-deciso-di-pubblicarlo/

Pam R. said...

I'm sure the whole bloody bunch knew. I read Sipes blog in 2010 and his letter to Pope Benedict and wondered why McCarrick was made a Cardinal. But usually when the heat is on in the states they get booted up to the Vatican to avoid prosecution or unrest in the church. The Laity know what's going on. Most go for either social reasons or spiritual reasons and the filthy priests have been with us for centuries. So all politics is local. If I see any dirty priests in my parish I will report them directly to the police, as pedophilia or using ones position of power to abuse anyone sexually is a crime to be punished by Caesar not the church.

jaydayrock said...

I found a very excellent reflection and commentary by Bp Athanasius Schneider on Father Z's blog.
His conclusions about what must happen now are so hopeful!

"That the Holy See and the Pope himself will start to cleanse uncompromisingly the Roman Curia and the episcopate from homosexual cliques and networks. (2) That the Pope will proclaim unambiguously the Divine doctrine about the grievously sinful character of homosexual acts..."

John Vasc said...

Speaking of narratives, wasn't it fascinating, the way PF diverted the plane Press Conference from homosexual power-cliques in the clergy and hierarchy to his obsession with mothers 'who were told not to contact the children' - i.e. the birth-children they've given away for adoption and upbringing. A moment's reflection tells anyone that this is a matter of legal and moral common sense, to avoid harm, severe mental confusion, and the undermining of the child and the adoptive parents. There is no such personal 'entitlement' to interfere in another family after giving up a baby for adoption - nor is doing so following 'the Fourth Commandment'. What an eccentric and one-sided interpretation of that Commandment! And what a remarkable ignorance of the law...

...Unless of course it was just a deliberately diversionary avoidance tactic by a desperate man.

Pam R. said...

There is no blood test for gay. The honest people who admit it will be weeded out. The dishonest will stay and be driven deeper into the closet only to fester there. Witchhunts never work.

Nicolas Bellord said...

Archbishop Vigano says that much of what he alleges is supported by documents in the relevant archives of the nunciature in Washington and the Vatican. It is vital that these documents are published asap before the shredders get there. If they exist they will provide conclusive evidence of the truth of what the Archbishop has alleged. Unless we have a statement from the nunciature in Washington in the next week we can assume that they do exist.

Nicolas Bellord said...

Indeed I have now emailed the nunciature in Washington as follows:

To whom it may concern:

Archbishop Vigano has said that there is documentary evidence to support what he has alleged with the implication that there exist documents in your nunciature recording the memos he says he sent to the Vatican. Is it not incumbent upon you to investigate whether such evidence exists or not and to publish the results of your investigation as soon as possible so that the faithful can judge the veracity of what the Archbishop has alleged. Silence on your part will be taken to indicate that the documents do exist.

Christopher Boegel said...

Breaking Story: the NC Register now reporting that the AD of Washington refuses to respond to evidence that it assisted in rapidly transferring McCarrick out of the seminary and into a parish rectory, at apparently significant expense in preparing an expansive apartment.

Jhayes said...

FSL, the National Catholic Register has clarified that it did not claim that Benedict had confirmed the contents of the Vigano "Testimony."

"The Register reported Aug. 25 that Benedict XVI had issued sanctions against then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick but we never stated that the Pope Emeritus confirmed — as alleged in The New York Times — all of Archbishop Viganò’s recent testimony on corruption in the Church.

Much is being made on social media today about Archbishop Georg Gänswein’s comments in which he said it is “fake news” to suggest that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI confirmed Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s testimony on abuse cover up in the Vatican.

What Archbishop Gänswein said is entirely accurate: Any assertion that the Pope Emeritus had seen the entire testimony, and confirmed it, is untrue."

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/ganswein-comments

Nicolas Bellord said...

@jhayes

But the NCR and Pentin are still claiming that Pope Benedict has said that he did sanction McCarrick but cannot remember exactly in what form. It is pretty clear that he did as we have the evidence that McCarrick was moved out of the seminary and a priest said he overheard the then Papal Nuncio giving the news of the sanctions to McCarrick and that it seemed to be a fairly explosive event. Anyway it must be possible to search for any documentation that exists both at the Nunciature in Washington and back in the Vatican.

In my view the Pope should be appointing an independent layman such as a retired judge to investigate this with full power to demand full discovery of all relevant documentation. If the Pope fails to do this by say 30th September then the College of Cardinal should force his resignation.