Freelancing And Grandstanding

Several weeks ago, I subscribed to the YouTube channel of Fr Mark Goring, CC. I'm interested in Catholic new media, and in his case I subscribed because I wanted to learn more about the Charismatic movement in the Church. When the business about McCarrick blew up, he had a lot to say, though there wasn't much new, and I wondered how much of it was prudent.

Then he started, or tried to start, a movement. I think he called it something like the Legions of St Joseph, and the point was that they'd take up a particular issue related to the Second Crisis, and they'd commit to making phone calls and sending e-mails to designated Church organs in protest at whatever. His first effort was aimed at the Archdiocese of Washington in an attempt to discourage Cardinal Wuerl from appearing at an event. He commented earlier in the week that the Archdiocese of Washington wasn't happy with him.

I'd point to his videos about all this, but everything's been taken down. Yesterday he did put up a video saying he'd been ordered by his superiors to "cease and desist". He apologized for making their lives more difficult. Well, I guess everyone learns about this kind of thing sooner or later, and watching the situation develop, I wondered how soon life would catch up with him. It caught up right about when I figured it would. You don't get to be my age without learning something, I guess.

I note that Bp Barron and Fr Schmitz said their say and then shut up. Indeed, Abp Gómez and Cardinal DiNardo have themselves been pretty quiet. The exception seems to be Cardinal O'Malley, who just before Christmas referred Cardinal Dolan to the papal nuncio for covering up an abuse case in New York. According to Michael Voris,

What impact this will have on the U.S. bishops upcoming week-long retreat of prayer and reflection regarding their failures in the arena of sex abuse and the resulting decades of cover-up is uncertain, but it seems as though this latest bombshell will at the very least make some encounters among various bishops uncomfortable.

Nearly the entire body of U.S. bishops will be gathering at Mundelein Seminary near Chicago starting next week, and this seems like news that will cause quite the commotion.

O'Malley, who is president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, seems to have fallen out of favor, at least to a degree, with Rome and Pope Francis, perhaps relating back to his revelations regarding the involvement of multiple Chilean bishops in homosexual sex abuse and cover-up and his own criticism of the Holy Father's mishandling of the case of Bp. Juan Barros.

Well, if you're Cardinal O'Malley, you can maybe get away with it. Maybe. But if there's no clear leadership, then you're going to get every Tom, Dick, and Harry freelancing and grandstanding, and in the case of Taylor Marshall, putting out stuff that's poorly presented, or in the case of Fr Goring, counterproductive.

Let's hope clear leadership and a coherent, effective strategy comes out of the Mundelein session in the coming week.