Mr. (formerly Cardinal) Theodore "Uncle Ted" McCarrick has died.
His predatory sexual advances to seminarians were well known even in the 1980s, apparently, but he became one of the most powerful men in the Catholic Church.
Pope Francis was his protégé and cancelled the restrictions that Pope Benedict XVI had placed on Uncle Ted.
I recommend my friend Rod Dreher's article about how networks of sexually corrupt bishops and priests go back for generations.
In a talk at Villanova University in Philadelphia six months after Pope Francis's election, Mr McCarrick said:
“Before the Conclave, nobody thought that there was a chance for Bergoglio”
"A very interesting and influential Italian gentleman” [visited me to ask me to campaign for Bergoglio].
"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 he 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, ‘He 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".
Paul Vi made McCarrick an auxiliary bishop of New York in 1976. At that time Fr. Bergoglio, SJ, was provincial of the Jesuits in Argentina. In 1981, when John Paul II mad McCarrick the bishop of the new diocese of Metuchen, Bergoglio was rector of a theological college in Argentina. It is not clear to me whether Bergoglio was still rector in 1986 when McCarrick became archbishop of Newark, or was studying theology in Germany. In 2001 when McCarrick was moved to Washington and became cardinal, Bergoglio was archbishop of Buenos Aires.
ReplyDeleteNow I am no expert at Vatican intrigue, but I have never heard of the church in Argentina influencing appointments to sees in the US.
Of course not. It's the other way around. McCarrick pushed for Cardinal Bergoglio to be elected Pope and after he was he then had the restrictions placed on him canclled.
Deletehttps://cruxnow.com/news-analysis/2025/04/theodore-mccarrick-is-dead-and-his-ghost-haunts-the-church That will inform you of other wrongdoers in high places protected by the highest place. The mainstream media ignore these stories because they like the Pope, unlike his saintly predecesor.
Delete