Pope Francis is McCarrick's protégé: “If he has two years, he will have changed the papacy"

Monsignor Ferrari‏ @ServizioVatican 
McCarrick's limping Christ pectoral at the Conclave which elected Francis, just about sums everything.

Former Cardinal Theodore ("Call me 'Uncle Ted'") McCarrick and Harvey Weinstein were both treated in the media as convicted criminals before any prosecution of either began in the courts, which is odd as both are Americans living in a country with the rule of law.


Mr McCarrick, as he now is, was removed from the college of cardinals, which is something very rare indeed, because he was “credibly accused” of sexually abusing teenagers, seminarians and young priests. Mr. James Grein alleged that from the age of 11 he was sexually assaulted serially by him and the relations continued throughout his twenties. Uncle Ted said he remembered nothing of this.

As far as I know, no criminal or civil proceedings have been brought against Mr McCarrick in the American courts but a couple of days ago the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (the Propaganda Fide) rejected his appeal and the Holy See announced yesterday his conviction for sexual abuse of minors and adults and solicitation in the confessional (sic). His penalty is to be defrocked.

This piece of news is of no importance.

What is important is that the allegations against him were known to senior people in the Church at least by 2001, when Fr. Boniface Ramsey raised the issue of McCarrick’s misconduct with seminarians with the Papal Nuncio. Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who finally resigned because of not taking under-age sex allegations to the police, mentioned the allegations to the Nuncio in 2004 but later forgot and insisted that he had heard nothing about them. His memory finally returned some months ago. 

What is very much more important is that because of the sex allegations McCarrick was severely out of favour under Pope Benedict XVI and instructed to make himself scarce and devote himself to prayer (the statute of limitations meant there was no point in the police being informed) and that he was taken back into favour by Pope Francis, who had been told of the allegations.

What is even more important is that McCarrick is only one of many bishops (sic) and priests who had and have immoral relations with men or who interfered with boys. 

There unfortunately really does seem to be a homosexual mafia in senior positions in the Church. 

Frederic Martel just published a book based on conversations he had in and around the Vatican in which he alleges that 80% of priests in the Vatican are homosexuals. 

This figure is, I am certain, a huge exaggeration, as all such figures plucked from nowhere always are. Nevertheless, undoubtedly a substantial number of priests in the Vatican and elsewhere are practising or non-practising homosexuals. 

Pope John XXIII and Pope Benedict XVI both repeated the instruction  that non-practicing homosexuals are not to be ordained.

Cardinal Cupich of Chicago, a protégé of McCarrick, said when asked on TV about whether the Pope knew of the allegations against McCarrick:

“The Pope has a bigger agenda. He’s got to get on with other things—of talking about the environment and protecting migrants and carrying on the work of the Church. We’re not going to go down a rabbit hole on this.”

Another of McCarrick’s protégés and his former auxiliary bishop in Washington, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, has insisted he never had any suspicion about the man with whom he shared an apartment and described as his mentor. A couple of days ago the Pope appointed Cardinal Farrell was camerlengo, the officer who arranges the next papal conclave.

Before Benedict came to the throne McCarrick was hugely influential in Rome, where he was in he habit of handing large amounts in banknotes to prominent clerics in thanks for their work, in the Church in America and in the wider world. 

He presided over the ducal funeral for the adulterer and advocate of legal abortion Edward Kennedy. He had very good relations with the Democrats and campaigned for immigration reform.

Father Alexander Lucie-Smith, the journalist, is a wise and clever man and has rightly said

McCarrick is the symptom, not the cause, of the disease. The disease is cronyism in the hierarchy. They all knew, but he was their friend; they circled the wagons round him; if it hadn't been for the press and the anger of the laity, McCarrick would still be a cardinal.

It seems that the present Pope is another of McCarrick's protégés. 

In a talk at Villanova University in Philadelphia six months after Pope Francis's  election, McCarrick said:

“Before the Conclave, nobody thought that there was a chance for Bergoglio”

but a 

     “very interesting and influential Italian gentleman” 

visited him to ask him to campaign for Bergoglio. (Is the Devil Italian? Only joking.)

We sat down. This is a very brilliant man, a very influential man in Rome. We talked about a number of things. He had a favor to ask me for [when I returned] back home in the United States.

But then [the influential Italian] said, ‘What about Bergoglio?’

And I was surprised at the question.

I said, ‘What about him?’

He said, ‘Does he have a chance?’

I said, ‘I don't think so, because no one has mentioned his name. He hasn't been in anyone's mind. I don't think it’s on anybody's mind to vote for him.”

He said, ‘He could do it, you know.’

I said, ‘What could he do?’

He said, ‘[Bergoglio] could reform the Church. If we gave him five years, he could put us back on target.’

I said, ‘But, he’s 76.’

He said, ‘Yeah, five years. If we had five years, the Lord working through Bergoglio in five years could make the Church over again.’

I said, ‘That’s an interesting thing.’

He said, ‘I know you’re his friend.’

I said, ‘I hope I am.’

He said, ‘Talk him up.’

I said, ‘Well, we'll see what happens. This is God’s work.’

That was the first that I heard that there were people who thought Bergoglio would be a possibility in this election.

Mr. McCarrick  continued: 

“[Francis] has an understanding of human nature, an understanding that, though he says some things that maybe would surprise us, but the interesting thing is that if you examine what he is saying, it is what the Church has said all the time. Maybe not what the canonists have said all the time, or what different theologians have said all the time. But the teaching of the Church all the time is the teaching of Pope Francis.”

And:

“if he has two years, he will have changed the papacy. The longer he is in, the more I think it is likely that we could say that he has changed the papacy".

James Grein has issued a statement. 

Statement of James Grein
For years I have suffered, as many others have, at the hands of Theodore McCarrick.  It is with profound sadness that I have had to participate in the canonical trial of my abuser. Nothing can give me back my childhood and I have not taken any pleasure in testifying or discussing what happened to me. There are no winners here. With that said, Today I am happy that the Pope believed me. I am hopeful now I can pass through my anger for the last time. I hope that Cardinal McCarrick will no longer be able to use the power of Jesus’ Church to manipulate families and sexually abuse children. 
This great historical and holy situation is giving rise to all Catholics and victims of abuse across the world.  It’s is time for us to cleanse the church. Our Lady’s work is in process.
McCarrick has haunted the Church for the last 50 years.  A Church which has been cut off from Jesus. Run by men who have chosen to worship money, power, greed. The exact opposite of God’s Holy Teaching. 
This has to change. It’s Jesus’ Church – I want to return. 
I must thank my family for without their belief and guidance I would be somewhere else.  I must thank my lawyer Patrick Noaker for helping me through the legal world. I must thank the important journalists who have listened to me and believed me.
We must continue to pressure state AG’s and senators to open the statutes of limitations. It’s these SOLs that has kept all of the abuse hidden from us.  Hundreds of priests, bishops and cardinals are hiding behind man made law. It is Time that we opened the books and expose the pure evil of these men. 
Again, it is Jesus’ Church – I want to return.  
Stand Up For Jesus and walk with me.

James Grein
Jesus is my savior