Rector of Boston's St. John's Seminary, Monsignor James P Moroney, to Go on Vacation

This afternoon, Cardinal O'Malley released a statement saying the rector of St John's seminary has been told to take an extended summer vacation for the Fall semester after two former seminarians posted on social media that they witnessed and experienced activities contrary to moral standards and formation to the Catholic priesthood.  Boston Catholic Insider has latest details.

Some of the appointees on Cardinal Sean's team are unknown to me, so I am reserving judgement on whether the outcome is rigged until after I do diligence.

I will say Bishop O'Connell has never come across to me as someone who has any desire to reach independent conclusions about internal corruption.   My nickname for him was "the sled dog".   I always had the feeling the archdiocese was loading up his sled and he was trying to sell the snake oil. 

Further, an extended summer vacation for the rector does not reflect the serious nature of the seduction, harrasment, persecution, obstruction and corruption at Catholic seminaries.

I'm hoping the willingness of seminarians to publicly speak about the filth and the related harassment of faithful men who refuse to go along with it, will help drain swamps at other seminaries across the US.

I think we are going to have to wait and see how it plays out.

Prior to this developing story, I had been giving prayerful reflection to next steps in draining the episcopal swamp.  I watched Cardinal DiNardo's recorded statement and tuned in to several of Cardinal Wuerl's guest appearances  on the crisis.   I also read bishop Barron's article.

With all due respect, they are out of their ever-loving minds.

The pattern emerging is apology tours, an investigation on what happened with McCarrick and developing more useless procedures on how to internally inform the chain of command who has never done anything but promote those who teach or practice sexual debauchery and abuse power.

We've been there/done that.  All we have for souvenirs is a basement full of patronizing letters from chanceries.

We have a very small window of opportunity to pull the rug out from under their 2018 sequel to the dog and pony show.

Please.  Let us dispense with the farce that we need an investigation on why McCarrick was given 50 years to abuse his power to conduct gay orgies.

We already know what happened. There is an endemic culture of homosexual sex in the priesthood and heirarchy that protects everyone in the club.   If you give any indication you have zero tolerance for using the Church as the Tinder for Catholic homosexuals, your vocation or family are targets for malicious conduct.     This dynamic has been in full throttle for 60 years, whether in a parish, a school, a seminary, CCD or any other apostolate in the Catholic Church.   In some dioceses , it is the operating culture.

Let us also face another sad reality:  There is no hope of cleaning house with a Holy Father who would promote and appoint a bishop who painted a homoerotic mural of himself and Christ  or surround himself with a Cardinal whose apartment is raided for gay orgies or pick a spokesperson for himself whose obsession is encouraging gays to have sex.     Catholics have informed him and begged for his help and his response has made crystal clear that his intentions are the promotion and enabling of the club.   The damages to trust are irreparable.

What is needed is an independent clearing house for allegations of every priest and bishop in every diocese whose pastoral ministry advocated gay sex, abused power, sexually harrassed or used intimidation tactics to against orthodox practicing Catholics.

Where there is smoke, there is fire.

Laity provides lists and an independent  team of orthodox Catholic lawyers and law enforcement officials trained in forensics conduct audits of their files. 

Boston Catholics tried reporting suspicious and bad conduct to Cardinal Sean for many years. 

When complaints began surfacing that one priest was only at the the parish weekends and was spending weekdays in Massachusetts gay sex hookup community of Provincetown, complainants were told by the Cardinal's staff that the Cardinal has "confidence" in this priest.

When complaints surfaced that another priest lived with his gay lover for years in the South End, you can guess what happened when Catholics called the chancery.  Nothing.

When another priest notorious for luring and confirming gays into mortal sin was simulating the Sacrament of marriage with a phony ritual, complainants were told the priest is the Cardinal's friend.

When a gay parishioner of a Boston Shrine wrote a tell-all book of sexual debauchery taking place within a Franciscan order and described (and even nicknamed) an archdiocesan priest's involvement in the sex club, you know what happened when Catholics called the chancery?   The same thing that happened when people complained about McCarrick.  Bupkis.

When problems with Church teaching had a foothold, Boston Catholics developed an independent infrastructure for reporting bad behaviors and promised anonymity. If the evidence was clear and verifiable, it was publicly reported.  That was the only effective way to avoid the hijacking of outcome and uprooting the corruption.  Perhaps the same structure is needed to manage the abuse of power.

In February, Cardinal Joseph Tobin made the mistake of publicly tweeting what he meant to be a private message.  "Nighty-nights baby.  I love you."    He offered the ludicrous explanation it was meant for his 65-year-old sister.  He got away with it.   Any team doing forensics needs to start with his phone records and his computer.   Reconstructing McCarrick's train accident is a complete waste of resources and hands bishops the outcome of useless procedures they never have and never will follow.

Frank Keating recently said the bishops had their chance 15 years ago to put meaningful reforms in place, they've proven they will not and the only thing left is complete exposure.     The right structure and the right people have to go into place, but my recommendation is an independent clearing house and forensic team.