What Did The Cardinals Know?

The American Conservative ^ | 7/23/18 | Rod Dreher

[marshmallow]

The Washington Post writes about its retired hometown cardinal, Uncle Teddy McCarrick.

Once a globe-trotting representative of the Catholic Church worldwide and one of the architects of the church’s policy on sexual abuse, McCarrick’s precipitous fall over the past month has shocked Catholics, especially in Washington, where he was a popular archbishop from 2001 to 2006.

McCarrick’s future now rests with Pope Francis, who as pontiff oversees the cardinals. Many church-watchers think this is a make-or-break moment for Francis because of McCarrick’s stature and the fact that Catholic clerical sex-abuse crises are exploding in Chile and Honduras.

It is, or ought to be. McCarrick has long been said to be close to Francis. As I wrote the other day, McCarrick’s longtime friend and protege, Bishop Kevin Farrell, was made a cardinal by Francis and made head of the Vatican’s office in charge of family policy for the worldwide church. Farrell has endorsed Father James Martin’s book advocating affirmation of LGBTs in the Catholic Church, and is overseeing next month’s world family meeting in Dublin, where Father Martin will give a keynote speech.

However innocent he may be of wrongdoing — and nobody has accused him of anything wrong — Cardinal Farrell cannot escape the shadow cast by the black McCarrick cloud. Here is Cardinal Farrell’s coat of arms:

[Slyfox]

I met Farrell once when he was bishop of Dallas at a function at my parish. I introduced myself as one of the founders of the first Catholic pro-life women's clinic in Dallas. He reacted to me in a way that led me to believe that he is not a very sincere person. He actually brushed me off.

I know this doesn't seem like much when people in the article suffered greatly, but it said a lot about him.

[Marchmain]

Wow. He’s not acting so pompous these days, I bet. Sorry that happened to you, the clinic is an impressive thing.