We first encountered Msgr Stetson here in 2013, when I discussed the statement he made to a parish meeting in late 2011 that he "didn't check passports at the communion rail", which many took to mean that he would handle the question of what kind of pastoral care could be given to members of the parish who did not become Catholic at the time of the transition by ignoring it.
Knowledgeable visitors immediately brought up actual Catholic doctrine, which simply says that non-Catholics who have not been properly received into the Church via the sacraments are not eligible for Catholic communion. In fact, it would be a violation of canon law for Stetson to offer it to people he knew to be non-Catholics. The more I learn about Stetson, the more this episode strikes me as important.
Stetson's Wikipedia entry mentions that he was vicar of the Opus Dei operation in Chicago for 17 years, and in that time Opus Dei took over the St Mary of the Angels parish there. A visitor points out that this Chicago parish was in fact the first Opus Dei parish in the US, and at least according to the visitor, Cardinal Bernardin was the one who approved it. However, Bernardin was Archbishop of Chicago from 1982-1996, which may be a little late for this chronology -- any help from other visitors will be appreciated. However, Bernardin is regarded as a major liberal and apparently at least a tacit supporter of the gay agenda in the Church; that he would allow an Opus Dei parish under Stetson suggests he never saw either as a threat.
Following Cardinal Law's departure for Rome in 2002, he was succeeded by John Myers, Archbishop of Newark, as Delegate for the Pastoral Provision. Stetson continued to work for Myers as Secretary. Myers is a member of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, an association of diocesan clergy associated with Opus Dei, and, although a conservative, is rumored to be gay. Myers, according to this visitor, took care of the settlements concerning Cardinal McCarrick's time in Newark.
According to his Wikipedia entry,
Msgr. Stetson was appointed Director of the Catholic Information Center in Washington, DC, by Theodore Cardinal McCarrick in 2004. He succeeded Fr. C. John McCloskey who had been director since 1998. The operation of the Center has been entrusted to priests of the Prelature of Opus Dei since 1993. In fall of 2007, Msgr. Stetson left as head of the Catholic Information Center.So there seem to be connections with gay, gay-tolerant, or gay-friendly bishops, two of whom became subjects of major scandal, throughout Stetson's career, while Stetson himself seems to have viewed matters of canon law with considerable flexibility whenever it suited him. Theological liberalism or conservatism seems to have been at best a secondary matter throughout the recent history of the Catholic Church in the US.
My visitor speculates, "I think that McCarrick was OD-friendly because they had dirt on him. I even wonder if OD started this McCarrick thing to bring down Francis." In the current atmosphere of crisis, of course, anything could be the case. Elsewhere I saw someone try to parse the crisis as entirely an issue of Opus Dei vs Jesuits -- they are, it seems, traditional enemies. In that case, as Henry Kissinger remarked in a different context, it's too bad they can't both lose.
Nevertheless, I'm inclined to keep Opus Dei as a force in the world in perspective. If we establish 1960 as a rough point at which the prelature began to plant numeraries in influential careers to forward a Catholic agenda, we've seen:
- Abolition of prayer in state schools
- Universally legalized contraception
- Universal adoption in the US of no-fault divorce
- Legalized abortion
- Mainstreamed gay culture
- Legalization of same-sex marriage in the US
- The rise of militant Islam as an enemy of the Church
- Substantial progress toward legalized euthanasia in the US.
