The following comes from a March 4 posting on the blogsite, Whispers in the Loggia.
….”The Cardinals of Camarillo” would make a great book – in all honesty, it’s one this scribe’s wanted to write for some years. In all due praise, though, the Salt Lake Tribune’s Peggy Fletcher Stack went first, producing an immaculate study on two of the group along with the other two bishops from their class back in December. (In retrospect, maybe it’s a good thing the idea never got moved on, as we might just be coming to the culmination of the epic.)
Still, between their backgrounds – Mahony, the progressive activist who John Paul II iconically dubbed “Hollywood” and has since taken to blogging the interregnum in the face of controversy; Levada, the moderate theologian and all-around “fixer” who’d shock many by becoming B16’s first red hat, and Rigali, the quintessential Roman heavyweight formed by Paul VI and the mighty Giovanni Benelli, who’s been spending these days alongside his St Louis protege, now the cardinal-president of New York – together with spheres of influence which respectively reach deep into Latin America and the wider global south, the CDF-centric Curia built by Benedict and Bertone, and the Ratzinger crew’s eternal rivals in the ancien regime of the Secretariat of State, practically every geographic, ideological and situational (e.g. Curia vs. diocesan) base of this Conclave is covered.
Despite their differing experiences and outlooks, the trio have remained close since their start at St John’s Seminary (above) – Levada joins Mahony for part of the retired LA prelate’s annual summer getaway at his Yosemite cabin, and as CDF chief, the former archbishop of San Francisco flew into Philly for Rigali’s 50th anniversary as a priest amid the tumultuous fallout of the 2011 grand jury report on clergy sex-abuse that would expedite the legendary diplomat’s departure.
Last time, however, the triangle wasn’t completed – only with Benedict’s election did Levada become the highest-ranking American in Vatican history with the new Pope’s nod to succeed himself at the head of the doctrine office, a choice born both from their own long, comfortable history, but likewise Joseph Ratzinger’s desire for a US prelate to bring his bench’s experience in tackling clergy sex-abuse onto the global stage. (Despite the flack he’s invariably taken from more traditional elements, it bears reminding that as archbishop of Portland in the late 1980s, Levada was the lone American Ratzinger recruited to serve on the editing commission of what would become the Catechism of the Catholic Church.)
Within months of each other, only last summer did all three enter retirement. Yet in a voting college where a full quarter were only elevated in 2012 – and at least to some degree, are still getting used to the reality of themselves in scarlet, let alone as papal electors – the dynamic of this Conclave lends an even greater weight to the contacts and memory of the veterans who’ve bestrode the scene for decades and know the elements at hand well enough to start toward a consensus….
To read entire posting, click here.
Isn’t Camarillo the notorious abode of the Criminally INSANE?
If you read the hair-raising Life Site News article With the Pope Against Homoheresy, you begin to wonder why it took all these decades for such behavior to be identified as just criminal in essence, with conspirators and cabals, the banality of evil and fellow-travellers all too willing to look the other way?
Camarillo State Hospital has been closed for a very long time. The grounds now for Cal State University, Channel Islands.
So, let’s guess where the inmates transferred to.
In the Bible one finds the phrase “temple prostitution”.
The only “keys” I would like to see are the ones thrown away after Cardinal Tweeter Mahony is thrown in jail.
LOL!
How much damage to the Holy Church have the 3 “Cardinals of Camarillo” done? They are modernists at best, and have done much to bury the traditions of the Catholic Church.
More compromises!
Cardinal Levada recently made this statement at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park.
On February 25, 2013, Cardinal Levada drew a sharp divide between gay men and pedophile priests.
“By nature homosexuality is a not a predatory activity, it is a sexual activity that the Catholic church does not condone,” he said. By contrast, he said pedophile priests are violating the sanctity and purity of young people.”
In 2000, a police sting operation caught the academic dean of St. Patrick’s Seminary, Fr. Carl A. Schipper, soliciting online for sex. Fr. Schipper was arrested on March 2, 2000. According to an article by San Francisco Faith:
“The 57 year-old priest fell under police suspicion in September while an investigation into the reported molestation of another 13-year-old boy yielded Schipper’s America Online screen name, which was written on the boy’s hand. Schipper is not a suspect in that case. San Jose police are examining the computers’ memory caches at Schipper’s home and his office at St. Patrick’s seminary. Police are also looking into America Online archives to see if there were other juveniles involved. When asked if the solicitations were occurring from St. Patrick’s seminary itself, Sergeant Hewitt of the San Jose Police department told this writer there was ample reason to obtain a search warrant for Schipper’s offices at St. Patrick’s.”
A look at the index of Michael S. Rose’s Goodbye, Good Men shows that the St. Patrick’s Seminary is mentioned four times in the book, and not favorably.
Obviously, Pope Benedict XVI would not have put a compromiser as his own replacement as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Since Cardinal Levada met with Pope Benedict XVI for an hour every week for 7 years, he probably has a more thorough knowledge of the Faith than we do. There is nothing contrary to the Catholic Faith in Cardinal Levada’s statement and being at a seminary where then-Cardinal Ratzinger gave a press conference once, does not make him a compromiser either. Your story about Fr. Schipper does not even include the information that is in the book Goodbye Good Men. In the end, My Immaculate Heart Will triumph. Seat of Wisdom, pray for us. Queen of the Clergy, protect them from their enemies.
As bad as these hierarchs seem to be, consider that there may simply be none better. In other words, the whole lot of today’s bishops is bouncing on the floor of Church history, and often dipping into the cellar.
To watch a very entertaining and factual animated interview of Cardinal Mahony, Google “cardinal rogelio mahony youtube” It’s very entertaining and extremely factual.
CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
THE MANY FORMS OF PENANCE IN CHRISTIAN LIFE
1434 The interior penance of the Christian can be expressed in many and various ways. Scripture and the Fathers insist above all on three forms, fasting, prayer, and almsgiving,31 which express conversion in relation to oneself, to God, and to others. Alongside the radical purification brought about by Baptism or martyrdom they cite as means of obtaining forgiveness of sins: effort at reconciliation with one’s neighbor, tears of repentance, concern for the salvation of one’s neighbor, the intercession of the saints, and the practice of charity “which covers a multitude of sins.”32
1435 Conversion is accomplished in daily life by gestures of reconciliation, concern for the poor, the exercise and defense of justice and right,33 by the admission of faults to one’s brethren, fraternal correction, revision of life, examination of conscience, spiritual direction, acceptance of suffering, endurance of persecution for the sake of righteousness. Taking up one’s cross each day and following Jesus is the surest way of penance.34
Atheist defends Pope and Church Teaching!
Atheist Penn Jillette defends Catholic teaching and defends Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to resign.
Google You Tube Penn Jillette Destroys Modernist “Catholic” Piers
Morgan
I watched the Penn Jilette U-tube, Methinks the man tries to hard to maintain his atheist facade.
Pretty good defense of the faith for a self-described atheist, don’t you think?..
Today: Hollywood goes to the conclave.
Tomorrow: the conclave goes Hollywood??????
Too much speculative emphasis is centered on the political and personal aspects of the hierarchy and not enough attention is being paid to those things of importance to Christ. The cardinals, be they worthy or not of our respect, have been chosen who will do the electing, and the question of who will be elevated to pope is out of our hands. Our concerns should be focused on elevating our own spiritual focus and turning our hearts and souls to Jesus Christ and our minds to serving Him as He taught us to do. Let’s stop analyzing our fallible cardinals and examine our own fallible selves, the only human beings we can do anything about.
What are the odds that three friends from Los Angeles would become Cardinals?
As clergy became more secularized and sexualized, they abandoned the Gospel message, giving us worthless Hallmark card sermons until the laity has no idea what Catholicism really is.
Prolife Catholics across the country routinely must do battle against their bishops and their bishops’ lobbyists, trying to get legislation passed. Cardinals in the major metropolitan area such as Los Angeles, Chicago and New York toady to the Democrat establishment which is militantly pro-abortion.
Corrupt Cardinals picking a new Pope is such a scary thing. I would prefer to see a parish priest with a record of conversions and pro-life activism become Pope.
Brilliant, John, absolutely brilliant.
Think of the thousands of souls that have left the Church and her sacraments because of the actions of these men–particularly Cdls. Mahony and Rigali. Some fawners, like Rocco Palmo, wish to turn these men into celebrities for their own gain, others think we should simply ignore their deeds and go on our merry way: “just move on…nothing to see here…”
Google “Trail of Abuse Leads to Seminary” and the L.A. Times.
“St. John’s in Camarillo fielded a disproportionate number of alleged molesters, records show, in some cases up to a third of the graduating class.”
Many alleged?…many were busted, and admitted their shameful and ignominious acts, after being brought under control…shocking, positively shocking…
You’re right.
How about the St. Louis trio-Rigali, Burke, Dolan?
I was told by one knowledgeable friend that Los Tres Cardenales had a poker game with one of the residents of Pacific Palisades here in California. That three players out of four would become Cardinals would seem impossible, but there you are.
We’re taught that the seminarians transition to priest through the deaconate, but I’m beginning to wonder if some of them transition through the demoniate.
LOL!…
Three of the most “modernist” Cardinals we have ever seen. Cdl Levada was a distaster in S.F. and well Cdl Mahony — one could go on forever about his reign in L.A. from the notorious Rel. Ed. Conferance to dancing vestal virgens prancing around that so called cathedral of his. Also all three were haters of the Traditional Latin Mass. As far as St. John’s Seminary is concerned, it should have been closed years ago.
Better than closed up would be cleaned up, wouldn’t you agree, Janek?
I say it has been, and I say it is a good seminary and produces very fine priests . . . these days. I hear what you are saying but feel that this song has been sung to death, especially now that the seminary is what it is. I suggest visiting there, getting to know some of the seminarians and their teachers, and then deciding.
I’m not saying your comment is without merit, but many of these comments have been nothing short of silly, and many people still are denouncing a very worthy place. I know that once upon a time it was not what it is today, but what is the point of cleaning up a place if everyone is still going to throw stones at it for its checkered past?
I think that despite many past stains on its record, the worst thing it ever did was produce Cardinal Mahony, who has been a plague on Catholicism in the United States whose shocking story is still writ large around the world. This situation has not been fully resolved even yet, so it is quite legitimate to continue to demand resolution of all the bad things that have happened because of him.
However, I do firmly believe St. John’s Seminary is a completely different situation and is very deserving of a second look. I think you would likely support what you find being taught there. I have friends who are priests now who graduated from St. John’s in recent years, and know a few of the seminarians, and I only wish I were as well informed and dedicated as these fine seminarians and priests are. They are a gift to the world, as is beautiful St. John’s Seminary, once again.
Please look into the situation yourself and see if you don’t find a fine institution, grace, redemption and holiness on the grounds of St. John’s Seminary these days. The fine young men studying there do not deserve to be burdened with the continuing negative comments we hear many years after the air has been purified at St. John’s Seminary, in my humble but confident opinion.
Maryanne, a man has to prove himself a man, and so does a seminary full of men have to prove themselves men, every last one of them. What program would they mandate at the seminary to make this happen?
I don’t know the specifics, but I do know several of the men there who are in charge of the spiritual direction of these young men, and I only know one young man who was personally guided to abandon his studies, but of course there have been many others. This is not the sort of thing that members of the laity are told about, of course, but if you attend any of the public offerings at the seminary, I think you would get the sense of the place as well as the values of the people running the place and the men who are studying there. In my case, I have always left there feeling both that I’ve been on holy ground and in the presence of true Catholics who truly love Jesus and want to spend their lives in his service. Beyond that, I cannot vouch. Why not come down and see for yourself sometime, and we can then compare notes? You can ask the seminarians what they are thinking, feeling and experiencing, and talk to some of the priests and others who are hard at work there, profoundly dedicated to doing a wonderful job. Or just walk the grounds and pick up the vibes of these men and see if you don’t agree, these are seriously dedicated young men devoted to Our Lord and wanting to be outstanding priests.
I think we need to give them, and St. John’s, a break. I’ll be there tonight and will tell you if I sense anything other than what I’ve been sharing in recent years about St. John’s Seminary. I am a traditional Catholic as well as a supporter of St. John’s Seminary. I’m quick to react to things I feel are anti-Catholic or somehow not right, as you may have noticed over the years. I’m not saying I’m positive that my assessment is spot on, but I am confident that it is pretty hard to fool me nowadays. You live long enough, and you develop a sense of people. I say these are wonderful people.
St. John’s Seminary was referred to as the “lavender mafia” headquarters for years…they were churning out “gay” priest’s by the bushel…many were busted years later for sexually assaulting young men…I hope and pray that thing’s have changed, I had a dreadful experience at this place years ago…it burned an indelible impression in my head…Cdl Mahony was the “modernist kingpin” and ringleader of these “lavender lads”…
My husband and I attended a lecture at St. John’s Seminary hours after the new pope was elected, and I have to say all that I heard and saw was as uplifting to my spirit as was the election of this great cardinal to the papacy. Please let’s put an end to negative talk about this seminary. Of course, some will not hear this call, but I invite those who have lingering suspicions to join me on some of the occasions throughout the year to spend time on campus with the people associated with the seminary as professors, administrators and students before casting aspersions again inappropriately, which, after all, is sinful. I believe you will see the light of Christ shining through.