Not A Good Look

Two weeks after Bp Lopes ordained her husband a Catholic priest, Fr Kirk's wife, Ms Littlejohn, turns up on Lifesite News with the headline, "Communist Party uses Vatican deal to bludgeon the Catholic Church in China, activist says".

The Vatican’s secret deal with the Chinese communist government is being used to crush the Catholic Church in that country, making things worse for faithful Catholics in China, according to a women’s rights activist.

Reggie Littljohn, president of Women's Rights Without Frontiers, explained to EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo how the secretive nature of the Vatican’s agreement with the Communist Party-ruled government is being exploited by Chinese officials in a destructive manner. , explained to EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo how the secretive nature of the Vatican’s agreement with the Communist Party-ruled government is being exploited by Chinese officials in a destructive manner.

An hour's due diligence should have alerted both Raymond Arroyo and Litesite News that Women's Rights Without Frontiers is a non-profit with no specific program, with income and expenditures too small to rate by the normal charity watchdog sites. More work would have brought out that Ms Littlejohn reinvented herself as a "women's rights activist" about 2009, with extensive plastic surgery and a new name, and her non-profit, of which she is the only staff member, exists primarily as a vehicle for her own self-promotion.

In addition to self-promotion, Ms Littlejohn barely skirts Francis-bashing, but she's less indulgent with the local bishops:

“I have no doubt that Pope Francis and that that deal does not authorize the things that are going on,” said Littlejohn. “But the fact that it’s secret leaves the people in China helpless.”

Littlejohn scoffed when asked about San Francisco Auxiliary Bishop Ignatius C. Wang’s recent declaration that the Vatican’s China deal is very good and “I just hope it doesn't happen that they send bad (proposed bishops) on purpose for approval in Rome.”

The first question I have is one Fr Longenecker raised several weeks ago in a different context: What are you going to do about it? Her non-profit is feckless as a policy advocate in either the US or China. Ms Littlejohn herself has little credibility as a serious spokesperson for Chinese Catholics -- I've instinctively got to give more credence to a San Francisco auxiliary bishop named Ignatius Wang.

Ignatius Chung Wang (pronounced Wong) was born in Beijing, China in 1934, the fifth of eight children in a family that had been Christian for twelve generations. . . . After his ordination, Fr. Wang was unable to serve in China because of the Communist government. He was sent to Rome where he completed a doctorate in Canon Law in 1962. . . . Bishop Wang began his service in the Archdiocese of San Francisco 1974. He was a Parochial Vicar in several parishes and in 1981 was named the first archdiocesan Director of the Office of Chinese Catholic Ministry. . . . Pope John Paul II named him a Prelate of Honor of His Holiness with the title of Monsignor in 1989. He also has served in the archdiocesan Tribunal and as Coordinator of the Chinese Apostolate.

On Dec. 13, 2002, Pope John Paul II appointed Monsignor Wang to the post of Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Bishop Wang is the first Catholic Bishop of Chinese ancestry and of Asian background to be appointed in the United States.

I'm just not sure why some lady with a fake name and phony face should be believed over someone who's lived much of recent Chinese history. Just sayin'. In addition, the little I know about Pius XII (the last real pope, according to some traddies) during World War II is that he had to take seriously the potential for massive anti-Catholic retaliation by the Nazis in Germany and occupied territories -- he had an obligation to support anti-Nazi resistance, but he had to balance it against the general welfare of Catholics. It's hard to imagine that Francis doesn't see a similar precarious situation in China and is doing the best he can with it.

But Ms Littlejohn is now married to a priest of the North American ordinariate, though she seems to see little reason to restrain her public positions, which are clearly at variance with the hierarchy. This is not a good look for Bp Lopes, though it's only one recent episode among many.