[Catholic Caucus] THE CARDINAL SINS: Kevin Farrell, Ted McCarrick and the Synod on Young People

Remnant Newspaper ^ | July 13, 2018 | Elizabeth Yore

[ebb tide]

Cardinal Farrell

Last week, the Catholic twitter verse was chattering about Bishop Thomas Tobin’s embarrassing, but appropriate questionto Cardinal Kevin Farrell.Bishop Thomas Tobin of Rhode Island, (not to be confused with Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark), called out Cardinal Kevin Farrell for his gratuitous comments that priests have no credibility when it comes to instructing couples on marriage. Bishop Tobin tweeted a pertinent question to Cardinal Farrell, who is the head of the Vatican Dicastery on Laity, Family and Life.

‘We’re from the Vatican, and we’re here for the kids.’ (Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, Pope Francis and Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell at meeting in preparation for the Synod on Young People.  CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Bishop Tobin tweeted this query to Cardinal Kevin Farrell who sits atop his prestigious and lofty Pontifical dicastery: 

Tobin posits the obvious objection against Farrell: “It seems fair to ask, then, if a celibate cleric has sufficient ‘credibility’ to lead a dicastery devoted to laity, family and life.”

In light of the media firestorm of allegations and Church sex abuse settlements regarding Cardinal McCarrick’s conduct, it’s relevant to pose a few more questions to Cardinal Kevin Farrell, sitting over in the Vatican opining on the laity, family and life.

1. As a priest in the Diocese of Washington, D.C. from 1984 until 2007, were you aware of the allegations and rumors surrounding your very own D.C. Cardinal Ted McCarrick’s sexual predation? As head of the Roman Curia’s Congregation of Laity, Family and Life, many Catholic laity and family members would like to know the answer.

 

2. As an Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Washington D.C for over 6 years, you were consecrated an auxiliary bishop by Cardinal McCarrick. You lived in the same D.C. apartment with him throughout those years.  Did you witness any abuse or inappropriate conduct by him towards seminarians or other young men? Did any victim tell you about McCarrick’s sexual harassment? As the head of the Curia Dicastery on Laity, Family, and Life, Catholic laity and families are very concerned about the protection of children and the safety of seminarians from predation. 

 

3. When you were appointed Bishop of Dallas in 2007, you designed your own unique and specially fashioned Coat of Arms, which pays homage, as a personal tribute to the Washington D.C. prelate, Theodore McCarrick. Bishop Farrell’s ecclesial shield honors Cardinal McCarrick in several important details and is spelled out  in his Coat of Arms on the Diocese of Dallas website:

“The lion rampant honors Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, Archbishop emeritus of Washington, and the Irish sept of O'Farrell. In the upper portion of the shield, gold (yellow) and the lion (red) are derived from the Arms of Cardinal McCarrick,whom Bishop Farrell assisted as Auxiliary Bishop of Washington. The lower portion of the lion in gold (yellow) derives from the Irish sept of O'Farrell. Here a blue field has been substituted for the green of the O'Farrell Arms, to honor Our Lady of Lourdes, upon whose feast day Bishop Farrell received ordination to the episcopate at the hands of the Cardinal Archbishop of Washington.”

What a tribute to Ted McCarrick embedded in the Cardinal’s Coat of Arms! Three references and images to one of the Catholic Church’s foremost sexual predators displayed in the Coat of Arms of the head of the Pontifical Dicastery of Laity, Family, and Life. Farrell modeled and adopted his heraldic Coat of Arms after the disgraced Ted McCarrick. Are you going to keep this Coat of Arms?

In his prominent curial role as head of the Laity, Family and Life, Cardinal Kevin Farrell is in charge of the upcoming Synod on the Youth. In preparation for the upcoming Synod, Farrell urged the young people,that they must say “how the Church needs to change its ways of doing things so we can be more attuned to the voice and to the hearts of the young.”

One final question for Cardinal Farrell:

Will the Catholic Church be more attuned now to the voices and hearts of the Ted McCarrick victims?

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Elizabeth Yore is an attorney who specializes in international child advocacy and has investigated clergy sex abuse.