Cockroaches: The Mahoney Affair

The Mahoney Affair is much more worrisome in what it holds for the future than its sins of the past.

Hello everyone and welcome to The Vortex where lies and falsehoods are trapped and exposed. I’m Michael Voris.

There’s an old expression – there’s no such thing as just ONE cockroach. My mom, God rest her soul, used to use it a lot.

She meant, that whenever you find one bad thing in a situation .. it’s generally the case that there are other bad things as well. Call it the Red Flag phenomenon.

You know .. your suspicions are aroused because some unpleasantry comes to your attention.

Take the case of LA’s former Cardinal Roger Mahoney. There were warning signs and red flags all over his reign in LA .. a cockroach that would be seen here and there.

From the architectural horror he built that is LA’s cathedral .. nicknamed the Taj Mahoney .. to the even more frightening Religious Education Conference he began and unfortunately is still being conducted .. there was a stench around this archdiocese for decades.

That religious ed conference gathers thousands of Catholic school teachers for a number of days and presents them with one dissident teaching after another .. fills their heads with modernistic notions of the faith that they then go out and spread to students in their charge. And that is exactly what Mahoney wanted to accomplish .. more on that in a moment.

Of course the entire conference is always “topped off” with a Mass that could be only considered insulting to the Almighty. More of a floor show then an act of worship.

Who could honestly be surprised that this is what it has come to now for Cardinal Mahoney. Being essentially publically disgraced for his involvement in a massive coverup of homosexual predator priests.

Let’s not forget .. that while he was enlisting armies of attorneys to protect his own eminence .. he had already presided over the largest payout in history to victims of his predator priests .. $660,000,000 dollars.

Cardinal Mahoney is a candidate for one of the prelates in America who has done more to destroy the Church than any other. His closest competition .. in a very crowded field would be Chicago’s former Cardinal Joseph Bernardin.

For a long period .. these two men ruled the Church in America .. advancing their distorted versions of Catholicism with its emphasis on social justice and down playing of adherence to magisterial truths.

Bernardin practically set the stage and cleared the decks for the common attitude now expressed by hundreds of Catholic pro-abortion politicians of being personally opposed, but.

But here is what is most alarming in all this .. for a substantial period of time .. decades .. practically no priest or monsignor in America who was named bishop was named without at least the implicit approval of these two men .. and in many cases .. they were elevated to bishop with the hard line backing of these two.

And when it comes to promoting people – who are you most likely to promote? Of course, people who see the world like you do. They share your same worldview, most likely temperament, in the case of theology, same opinions, most likely the same management style. This is just all human nature.

You aren’t going to press hard for someone you don’t like or don’t agree with to be promoted.

So it begins to take your breath away when you stop and realize that these two men sat atop the Church in America for decades pushing their agendas and promoting loads of clerics and hiring tons of lay people who agreed with their watered-down Catholicism.

They unleashed a spiritual terror on the Church .. far greater in its destructive power than even the homosexual clergy sex abuse crisis .. although that was one cockroach that could have easily been an indicator that somewhere there was a larger nest of them.

Cardinal Bernardin insisted in his last will and testament that the Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus sing at his wake – which they did. He admitted publically that three times he had been implicated in charges of sexual abuse himself although .. in fairness .. none of them had ever been proven.

Cardinal Mahoney was such close friends with Bernardin that he was the chief “presider” at Bernardin’s funeral. One of Bernardin’s closest buddies among the nation’s bishop’s was John Roach .. who rose to level of archbishop of Minneapolis.

When he was promoted to that see .. the gay publication The Advocate out of New York praised his appointment saying .. at last .. a bishop who openly supports gay civil rights!

Observers at the time said Bernardin and Roach were inseparable .. conjoined at the hip as one commenter in a newspaper interview put it.

The power base for all these birds of a feather was the Conference of US Bishops .. at the time known as the National Conference of Catholic Bishops .. or the NCCB. Today .. it’s the USCCB. In the late 1960’s .. Detroit Cardinal John Deardon brought then bishop Bernardin to the conference to the office of General Secretary and from that powerful post .. consolidated his power and began exerting intense political power from behind the scenes.

Both Bernardin and Roach were in deep with Mahoney who saw his star rising quickly with such powerful allies. These men and many of the ones whose careers they advanced shared a view of false ecumenism and pushed it heavily .. watering down the Catholic Faith heavily in the minds of ordinary Catholics.

They all .. the whole gang .. never stopped talking about social justice .. but could rarely find a word for Holy Days of Obligation, the Rosary, Hell, etc.

And when it came to the homosexual priest sex abuse cover-up .. they used whatever authority they could .. certainly Mahoney as the records now reveal .. to hide .. distort .. and keep from the public the truth.

Even when certain guidelines and policies were finally adopted .. it was more out of a concern for the terrible financial losses and public relations disasters that might occur than any thoughts of the victims.

The episcopate in America was ruled over by this mindset since essentially from the end of the Second Vatican Council in the mid 1960’s. The mindset was one of using the institution and all its trappings to quietly insert a new church .. what has been dubbed by many as AmChurch .. the American Church.

Cardinal Mahoney was masterful at this .. not only in his own right .. but also in the various appointments and hires he made .. many of whom are still around and active and far from retirement.

As men of this mindset advanced along their plans and became further and further removed from the truth of the Church .. which is of course only natural since they were trying to create a church of their own devising .. they became open to all manner of corruption .. which can happen and does to everyone who moves away from Our Blessed Lord.

As they and their reigns fell more away from authentic Catholicism .. they fell more and more into spiritual darkness and all the evils that live and hide in that darkness.

A morally bankrupt approach to hundreds of sexual abuse victims .. a cathedral that is nothing less than hideous .. a 660 million dollar settlement, that may be only the beginning when Mahoney thought it was the end .. an annual religious education conference designed to instill AmChurch into the minds of thousand of teachers so they could in turn corrupt younger minds in their charge .. a clergy peppered with homosexuals .. a prime-time battle with Mother Angelica and her EWTN network over his tired heterodoxy .. a battle which by the way Mahoney eventually won by forcing her to resign and no longer have any involvement. Many say EWTN has never been the same since Mother left.

It’s also a little shocking that Mahoney was one of the loudest voices calling for the head of Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston for his covering-up of homosexually abusive clergy .. when he was doing the exact same thing on the other coast. But Law represented a more orthodox approach to the faith .. at least on paper .. and he became fair game for the heterodox .. like Mahoney to throw over board.

This is the legacy of Cardinal Mahoney in Los Angeles and his 26 year reign. There’s never just ONE cockroach. But there’s another saying that is even more relevant because while all those things happened in the past .. still present are those clerics and lay people in Los Angeles and all around the country that share their same stripes .. from Bernardin to Roach and the hundreds they all heavily promoted.

While there is never just one cockroach .. it’s just as true that birds of a feather flock together. It would be unwise to presume that the Church in America will settle into an era of peace and stability until these past horrors are owned up to and MOST ESPECIALLY that people be vigilant about the allies and underlings that these men promoted.

“It’s also a little shocking that Mahoney was one of the loudest voices calling for the head of Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston for his covering-up of homosexually abusive clergy .. when he was doing the exact same thing on the other coast”

And there on those on this forum that actually believe Ratzinger didn’t know about the covering up of child molesters for decades.

I'm curious to see how the froth at the mouth catholics can do no wrong FR crowd reacts to this. I previously stated that the church hierarchy squandered its moral authority by jumping on every liberal bandwagon except those relating to reproducion (I guess homosexuality doesn't really relate to reproduction), and the shrill FR loudmouths were all over me. I wonder how they'll react to this.

You want a reaction - you got one.

This is exactly what orthodox Catholics been saying for years. Heterodoxy goes hand in hand with bad liturgy, bad music, bad instruction, and all of this centered around dioceses led by politically liberal and theologically suspect ordinaries. Like the article says, there's never just ONE cockroach.

Paul VI (advised by the problematic Abp. Jadot) let these bishops run wild, probably due to fears of being seen as 'interfering' with American sovereignty. John Paul II tried to rein them in, but by that time they were too well entrenched to be moved without major scandal (which did eventually transpire).

The problem is that the Church is not the military or a corporation, and the Vatican cannot just swoop down and slap a bishop with a 2x4, or fire him.

This is exactly what orthodox Catholics been saying for years. Heterodoxy goes hand in hand with bad liturgy, bad music, bad instruction, and all of this centered around dioceses led by politically liberal and theologically suspect ordinaries.

Exactly.

To paraphrase a 19th century Irish bishop, "All heresy begins below the belt."

People try to blame the Pope, when he was the one who eventually got to the bottom of this mess.

When Joseph Ratzinger was appointed to the CDF in 1981, it did not have clear jurisdiction over crimes by homosexual clergy. The authority was probably in the Congregation for Clergy, at least in the context of dismissals from the clerical state, but many cases were supposed to be decided in the diocese and only then appealed to the Rota. When the homosexual abuse cases began to surface despite local ordinaries' attempts to conceal them, it was Ratzinger who consolidated jurisdiction and put it directly into the CDF. That stopped the delaying and passing the buck around.

So quit blaming Cardinal Ratzinger. When he found out about this, he took action and moved responsibility to the highest available level. And his actions were a significant factor in bringing abuses to light and stopping them.

You do not have any idea of the reality of this situation.

Ratzinger has done more to address this travesty than ANY Churchman in the last century. He was thwarted at every turn in his efforts, prior to becoming Pope, by the entrenched bureaucrats in the Vatican and elsewhere. Since becoming Pope he has done everything possible to correct this. Let's lay the blame where its due, on heterodox and personally compromised prelates, bishops and priests, not on the one man honestly trying to clean up the mess.

If you want to pin the blame on a pope, that would be Pope Paul VI.

I'm curious to see how the froth at the mouth catholics can do no wrong FR crowd reacts to this.

Funny ... of course, we don't have to wonder how the froth at the mouth catholics can do no right FR crowd will react.

They'll react like leftists ... puking up half truths, distortions, and fabrications.

It's really unfortunate ... they make intelligent discussion nearly impossible.

Funny ...

Folks used to bitch about how horrid "The Inquisition" was ... usually in error.

Then the Church kind of got out of the inquisition business ...

Which was a mistake.

Church leaders should NEVER (I mean, really NEVER EVER) listen to outsiders who whine about what the Church should do.

Listening to radical 'reformers'? Not too smart.

Listening to bleeding hearts? BAD IDEA.

Listening to psychologists? Even worse idea.

Listening to leftist revolutionaries? Worst idea ever ... and several Popes warned against it.

No ... Listen to Christ, and the heck with worldly idiots.

Letting Protestants and Protestantism influence Vatican II and the liturgy which came out of it?

That also ranks up there with “Worst idea ever.” Protestantizing our liturgy? How many protestants did that bring home to Rome (the only true goal of true ecumenism)?

I'm curious to see how the froth at the mouth catholics can do no wrong FR crowd reacts to this.

No one says that Catholics can do no wrong. Indeed, if you were familiar with orthodox Catholics you would know that they have been complaining about these men for years. But I would point out that the problem with Mahony and his allies is that they worked against Catholic teaching rather than promoting it.

I previously stated that the church hierarchy squandered its moral authority by jumping on every liberal bandwagon …

Correct if by the church hierarchy you mean the individual bishops who over the years have betrayed the Catholic faith. False if you mean the entire order of bishops as the proper successors of the Apostles to whom our blessed Lord gave the governance of the Church. Thankfully the Mahony generation of bishops is being replaced by a new generation. By God's grace may they restore the church that our Lord has given to their charge.

Didn’t know about it?

Hell, Ratzinger & Wojtyla had the problem 97% eliminated by 1990, about a decade before the news media caught wind. Why do you think that a pair of exorcists were chosen to lead the worldwide church? The problem is that the American news media claims that what they wanted to see done to exonerate someone of covering up is a public humiliation of the guilty. In truth, this accomplished little: Law moved to defrock the worst of the pedophiles and the mainstream media turned the pedophile into a folk hero (”We was all on the cover of Newsweek” — Paul Simon in “Me and Julio”), so Law turned coward and media sycophant.

Truth is that as early as 1962, Pope John XXIII warned the American episcopate that homosexuals should not be ordained, because the rigors of celibacy warped an unhealthy sexuality. When his successor, Pope Paul VI issued an encyclical publicly about sexuality (”Human Life”), the American bishops broke into all-but formal schism, refusing to obey. His successor, Pope John Paul I, died under mysterious circumstances only a month into his reign, during the year the crisis peaked (1978). Since then, for 35 uninterrupted years, the Catholic Church has been led by exorcists Wojtyla and Ratzinger. By 1990, they had reduced the pedophilia levels by 97% (John Jay study, 2005), banished the socialist-loving Liberation Theology into heresy, established alternative hierarchies of religious orders, and begun an ideological reform of seminaries, which in 2011 finally reached the frustration point, resulting in the closing of every Irish seminary.

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