Massing Things Up

Our leaders—not all—but too many bishops and cardinals have royally messed up. Many of the others, desperately avoiding the elephant in the room, seem unwilling to state clearly the problem. I.e., sin.

Adding to the turmoil, lettered lay theologians sound more like sedevacantists than Catholics. In their zeal to defend the old Latin Mass or the Ordinary Form of the Mass, they forget that they do not occupy the Chair of Peter and should not, by issuing their own motu proprios or apostolic letters, pretend at being pope. True prophets do not aim to discredit ecumenical councils, for example, by indiscriminate criticism. In truth, partisan attacks merely reveal a childish revolt against developments, restorative and/or renewing, that do not fit their progressivist or traditionalist ideological framework.

A pope may be incompetent, bad mannered, foolish, etc., but the Chair of Peter endures in spite of weak and sinful men. We can hope that bad popes have short reigns, as much as we can and should pray that wicked laymen, unwilling to abide by the Gospel, may be excused from the Church by means best enacted by God through faithful men and women who serve the Church as the saints have always served her.

The unwillingness of bishops to censure Catholic-in-name-only politicians and abusive clergy using the means provided by canon law, for example, reveals their lack of character. Bishops who tolerate a false charity toward impenitent Catholics have enabled a culture of sexual and liturgical abuse to permeate the Church. So-called Catholic politicians have been permitted the lie of retaining their status as "faithful Catholics" while they promote policies and make unjust laws which attack the very foundations of human identity and dignity.

A question lingering or lurking around the internet is who will replace Cardinal Wuerl? One man immediately comes to mind: Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap.

Archbishop Chaput is a model bishop. He is a man who calls out sin and doesn't hide behind excuses. He comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable with the unvarnished Gospel. He is what every bishop should be, and what every bishop should be should not merit any accolades, for a man who is made bishop should be nothing special. He should be nothing less than a man of God.