Vatican gives Cardinal Mahony platform to attack other bishops
Eucharistic document called “totally unnecessary"

2021-11-16T11:31:01-08:00November 17th, 2021|

To be perfectly frank, the Fall Meeting of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore, Md., is near the top of the list of things about which I could not care less. I can’t even get up for the race handicapping part, which in other years has been fun. It’s just pointless, if you ask me.

There, I said it.

What’s interesting this time is the stuff that’s been on the sidelines and … ahem … peripheries of the meeting.

If Rome can be counted among the peripheries, the interview released by Vatican News on Monday morning – right about the time the US bishops were sipping their coffee – probably takes the cake.

It was an interview with Roger Cardinal Mahony, the archbishop-emeritus of Los Angeles, and it was mostly about the endlessly controversial draft document on “Eucharistic coherence” the bishops ordered at their spring plenary.

Cardinal Mahony doesn’t like it.

I think it’s unfortunate that we’re even having this document before us,” he says, and calls it “totally unnecessary.” OK, he really doesn’t like it.

[T]he document as we have it is being passed just as we come up on the holiday season, no one is going to read [it],” he says. He’s not wrong about that – and wouldn’t be wrong about it, were it written by St. Thomas Aquinas himself.

Remember,” he says, “this document was intended primarily to go after and penalize Catholic legislators.”

Only, it wasn’t.

The idea that the US bishops ever countenanced targeting politicians or public servants in any branch of government at any level is one that played a big part in the pageant of idiocy that took place around the bishops’ last big pow-wow in June, but it was never going to happen and everybody who matters knew it – even and especially the ones who were ginning up opposition to the idea.

Anyway, that Cardinal Mahony doesn’t like the draft document is not exactly surprising. It also isn’t really any sort of news. What’s news is that the Vatican’s official information outlet ran an interview in which he says so, on the opening day of the US bishops’ fall gathering.

Now, it may be that Cardinal Mahony asked the pope’s news organ for some space, and they obliged. It may be that the editorial powers at Vatican Media sought him out, and he obliged.

I asked a couple of the senior people in the organization, but they hadn’t answered by late this afternoon EST – I’m stateside these days – and, anyway, it doesn’t really matter.

What matters is that the Vatican’s official communications outfit is running an interview with a senior US red hat – one with a dismal record on child protection and clerical discipline – in which the prelate criticizes his brethren in the American episcopate for doing things their way, rather than letting Pope Francis call the plays….

The above comes from a Nov. 15 posting on Catholic World Report.

 

12 Comments

  1. Dan November 17, 2021 at 12:33 pm - Reply

    “Cardinal Mahony doesn’t like it.” Is it my imagination or does C. Mahony not know of his disgrace? Has he no shame? Had I sheltered pedophiles and obstructed justice, I would retire from all public life and repair to a monastery.

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  2. thatdirtylittleratnunnheim November 17, 2021 at 2:00 pm - Reply

    I will confess to some serious Mahoney Outrage Fatigue. I’m sorry for him and the damage he’s done to his and others souls. He will likely have an unpleasant (understatement) judgement.

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    • "Mahony Outrage Fatigue" November 17, 2021 at 11:15 pm - Reply

      I have “Mahony Outrage Fatigue,” too– as well as “Vatican Outrage Fatigue.” And I thought Mahony was forbidden to be involved in or speak at Church events!.Well, nothing new will come about in this USCCB meeting, no natter what they write. As usual, Biden and Pelosi will tell the world that they are “good Catholics,” “free to make their own decisions,” and so they will receive Holy Communion next Sunday, as they wish… But what about the 2,363 poor, unborn American babies, killed daily in their mothers’ wombs, by abortion?

  3. Drewelow November 17, 2021 at 2:19 pm - Reply

    suspension from public ministry….” teach, govern, sanctify” triple munera…isn’ t a public letter a violation of the prohibition, especially teaching on the world stage?

  4. By the way November 17, 2021 at 11:30 pm - Reply

    A new international film festival will premiere this week, featuring the winning submissions of young people from 116 countries.

    Conceived in December 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the first annual Don Bosco Global Film Festival received 1,686 short film submissions on the theme “Moved by Hope.”

    The best films, chosen by an international jury, will be streamed Nov. 18-19, both online and at physical gatherings in 135 different countries.

    Submissions were received until Oct. 15 from filmmakers aged 15 to 30. The short films could be in any genre, with three major categories: live-action shorts under 10 minutes, animated shorts under five minutes, and music videos under five minutes.

    The film festival was organized by the Salesians of Don Bosco, who said on their website that they wanted to create “a world-class film festival platform to showcase … young creative filmmaking talents

  5. Romulus Augustus November 18, 2021 at 6:32 am - Reply

    A destroyer of the Church during his tenure in Los Angeles.

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  6. bohemond November 18, 2021 at 6:50 am - Reply

    In a more sane time Mahony would be in prison

  7. John Jimenez November 18, 2021 at 10:37 am - Reply

    Mahoney, McCarrick, and those they are connected to and help put in place, are addicted to power, blind to the damage they have done, in pursuit of their desire to change the Church, this is why he would speak to a Vatican news agency, as if to give himself an air of legitimacy. Their deeds have made them illegitimate, and difficult for the rest of us to overcome

  8. Richard Donati November 18, 2021 at 10:39 am - Reply

    There are those in the church who will do whatever it takes to climb up the ladder.

    • thatdirtylittleratnunnheim November 18, 2021 at 11:12 am - Reply

      hmmm… kinda like that Judas Iscariot fella, huh?

  9. Xavier November 19, 2021 at 3:22 pm - Reply

    One person who is “totally unnecessary” is Roger the Dodger Mahoney. Another thing that is “totally unnecessary” is the monstrosity of a Cathedral built by Mahoney.

  10. Rey December 4, 2021 at 12:11 am - Reply

    Mahoney is a phony he’s a fraud in good company with his brother bishops in the U. S. He does not believe in God, otherwise he would have sincere regret for moving Oliver O Grady from parish to parish so O Grady could continue abusing children
    Mahoney shut up nobody listens to you

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