Sexual Harassment at Catholic University?

Last updated on: July 31, 2018 at 8:06 am By Jennifer Fitz

Catholic University has taken back the honorary degree it gave McCarrick. Let’s use some critical thinking: McCarrick has a long history of involvement at CUA, dating back to his own student days and including stints as chaplain and dean of students. McCarrick’s promiscuous and harassing behavior was an “open secret” so open even ordinary laypeople knew about it. CUA gave him an honorary degree anyway. Two possibilities: Somehow McCarrick was a predator in New Jersey but squeaky-clean in DC, and... Read more

McCarrick and the Banality of Dissent

Last updated on: July 28, 2018 at 12:15 pm By Jennifer Fitz

As long as we’re asking people to come clean about what they knew and didn’t: I didn’t know about McCarrick. I get a fair bit of Catholic gossip here and there, but the whole “open secret” of McCarrick’s beach house in NJ and the promiscuity of the clergy was not something that came to my ears specifically, that I recall. (Prior to last month — now of course I’m hearing it.) I have a relative who was a major donor... Read more

McCarrick, Gayness, and Humanae Vitae

Last updated on: July 26, 2018 at 6:08 am By Jennifer Fitz

I have seen surprisingly little homophobia in the McCarrick scandals, but then again I’m selective in my reading. Rod Dreher’s piece on the response of the bishops, “Among the Apostolic Bureaucrats“, gives a hint of it in one of the preserved comboxes he shares. I’d like to take a moment to talk about sane Catholic thinking where same-sex attraction and clergy corruption intersect. Begin by reading Humanae Vitae, which turns 50 today. Happy birthday to a short and user-friendly encyclical. ... Read more

McCarrick’s Dam of Silence Starts to Crack

Last updated on: July 18, 2018 at 1:04 pm By Jennifer Fitz

The New York Times has come forward with the first round of investigative reporting on Cardinal McCarrick. Points to note: The victim interviewed by the Times is Robert Ciolek, one of the two priests who were previously bound by confidentiality agreements as part of their settlements with the dioceses they sued for sexual harrassment. So this is not a case of previously-silent priests or seminarians coming forward. It is good that the dioceses have lifted the confidentiality agreements. Hardly a deluge of... Read more

How Lay Catholics Can Help Stomp Out Clerical Corruption

Last updated on: July 2, 2018 at 10:17 am By Jennifer Fitz

Rod Dreher has a McCarrick follow-up post sharing e-mails from priests who have contacted him to say We want to end this corruption, but we don’t know how. Your bishop won’t listen to you. You have no place to go if your clerical career is ruined. Your friends and family may not believe you, since widespread denial is part of the problem. Dreher writes: Even after all that the public has learned since 2002 about what’s behind the façade of the... Read more

A New Basilica, and Bishop Who Has Things He Needs to Say

Last updated on: June 26, 2018 at 2:12 pm By Jennifer Fitz

This morning I had the pleasure of being present when Bishop Robert Gugliemone announced the creation of (yet another) St. Peter’s Basilica, suitably proclaimed on the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, the diocese of Charleston’s patron saint. Updated to share a link to the proclamation: And Bishop Gugliemone’s homily: Here are a few quotes from the bishop’s homily, pulling inspiration from the example of St. John the Baptist. On the miraculous conception of the saint, but... Read more

Promiscuous vs. Predatory: How to Tell the Difference

Last updated on: June 23, 2018 at 2:06 pm By Jennifer Fitz

In response to the McCarrick case, Fr. Longenecker, with whom I generally agree, writes something I think is horribly mistaken. He describes McCarrick’s behavior as “sex games,” which he attributes to sexual immaturity. Fr. L. is correct in saying that sexual immaturity is a problem; I think he is wrong in asserting that McCarrick was not being predatory. We are both, of course, basing our analysis on the publicly-available allegations against the cardinal, and may be lacking crucial additional information. ... Read more

Soldiers for Christ Hiding Under the Bed

Last updated on: June 22, 2018 at 8:20 pm By Jennifer Fitz

Bishops and bloggers live at opposite ends of the talking jobs. Bishops are charged with being perpetually diplomatic, and bloggers . . . well, I’m going to do my end of the job now: There’s a reason we can’t have good things like religious freedom, and that reason is all the people who played nice about Cardinal McCarrick. At this point the allegations about the cardinal’s predatory harassment and molestation of seminarians are still just allegations. There’s a reason for... Read more

Whataboutism Answered

Last updated on: June 21, 2018 at 3:44 pm By Jennifer Fitz

There’s a group in my region that provides help to women feeling they have no choice but to abort. They pray at the local Planned Parenthood, and on mornings when abortions are performed, they are available in the immediate vicinity to assist any parent who asks for their help. In the past few weeks they’ve helped a young man who wanted to support his girlfriend through her pregnancy, but she was feeling like abortion was the only option. They’ve helped... Read more

Confession – Keep it Secret, Keep it Safe

Last updated on: June 19, 2018 at 8:43 am By Jennifer Fitz

In light of Australia’s new law requiring priests to break the seal of confession, a friend asked for some tutorials on the sacrament for sharing with those who don’t really understand what the issues are. Starting with the basics, here is Catholic TV’s primer on How to Go to Confession. Catholics Come Home has this excellent collection of resources on why we go to Confession and how it’s done. Did Catholics just make this stuff up? (“Medieval invention” maybe?) By... Read more