“Uncle Ted” has been Dethroned

McCarrick no longer a Novus Ordo cardinal…

“Uncle Ted” has been Dethroned

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Fr. Theodore McCarrick no longer pretends to be a cardinal of the Catholic Church. After credible allegations of sexual abuse were made public in June, the Vatican forbade him to exercise any public ministry. When The New York Times then published another accuser’s story on July 19, everything really hit the fan. Now the Vatican has announced that McCarrick has tendered his resignation from the Novus Ordo cardinalate, and “Pope” Francis has accepted it.

Here is the official statement released by the Vatican press office on July 28:

Yesterday evening the Holy Father received the letter in which Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington (U.S.A.), presented his resignation as a member of the College of Cardinals.

Pope Francis accepted his resignation from the cardinalate and has ordered his suspension from the exercise of any public ministry, together with the obligation to remain in a house yet to be indicated to him, for a life of prayer and penance until the accusations made against him are examined in a regular canonical trial.

(source)

This news has naturally been disseminated widely by the different Novus Ordo news organizations. Here are the links to a few of the reports:

• “Pope Francis accepts resignation of Cardinal McCarrick” (Vatican News)
• “Pope Accepts Resignation of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick from College of Cardinals” (Zenit)
• “Pope Francis Accepts Cardinal McCarrick’s Resignation from College of Cardinals” (National Catholic Register)
• “Archbishop McCarrick, Ex-Cardinal” (Whispers in the Loggia)
• “Pope accepts resignation of McCarrick from the College of Cardinals” (Crux)

We have also compiled a selection of links to news, opinion, and background information on the McCarrick case:

• “McCarrick is ‘tip of the iceberg’: Polish priest who warned of gay bishops 5 years ago” (Life Site)
• “McCarrick Resigns. But who supported him?” (De Omnibus Dubitandum Est)
• “Open Letter to the USCCB Regarding the Cardinal McCarrick Scandal” (The Christian Review)
• “Wuerl was not informed about McCarrick settlements, DC letter claims” (Catholic News Agency)
• “Albany priest describes culture of harassment under McCarrick” (America)
• “Conservatives distort McCarrick scandal to attack Francis” (National Catholic Reporter)
• “The Truth About Cardinal McCarrick” (The New York Times)
• “The ‘Uncle Teddy’ McCarrick case” (Renew America)
• “Cardinal Farrell expresses shock over Cardinal McCarrick abuse case” (National Catholic Reporter)
• “Is Cardinal Kevin Farrell lying?” (Church Militant)
• “Uncle Teddy, Boy Raper” (The American Conservative)
• “Cardinal McCarrick’s Network” (The American Conservative)
• “What Did The Cardinals Know?” (The American Conservative)
• “‘Uncle Teddy’ McCarrick and the Conciliar Cesspool of Corruption” (Christ or Chaos)
• “Fordham Rescinds Cardinal’s Awards” (The Observer)
• “He Preyed on Men Who Wanted to Be Priests. Then He Became a Cardinal.” (The New York Times)
• “Seminarian: We knew about McCarrick” (Church Militant)
• “No question, Pope Francis made history Saturday on McCarrick” (Crux)

In the following informative podcast, Catholic Herald‘s editor-in-chief, Damian Thompson, discusses this latest development and related issues with Novus Ordo canon lawyer Ed Condon:

For the longest time, McCarrick was extremely influential in the American church, but of all his colleagues, associates, and friends, nobody knew or suspected anything of the kind — naturally! Yet allegations against McCarrick are not new, as this testimony from 2005 and this post from 2010 demonstrate.

“Uncle Ted” is how he wants to be called by his protégés, whom he in turn refers to as his “nephews”, according to reports. The following video is an extract from McCarrick’s speech on “Pope” Francis and the conclave, which he gave at Villanova University in 2013. Lo and behold, McCarrick can be heard to make a brief reference to “my nephews”:

This is significant because McCarrick is an only child. In other words, the “nephews” he is referring to cannot be the children of his siblings. Nor could this simply be a case of an octogenarian misspeaking, for in the same speech (full video here), he also refers to “my nephew Manny” (see 13:44 min mark) and even to “one of my nieces” (see 0:20 min mark).

The homosexual subculture in the U.S. branch of the Vatican II Church, especially in seminaries, has long been an open secret, and a number of books have published on the subject over the years, such as:

• The Rite of Sodomy (5-vol. series) by Randy Engel
• Amchurch Comes Out by Paul Likoudis
• Goodbye, Good Men by Michael S. Rose
• Lucifer’s Lodge by William H. Kennedy
• The Homosexual Network by Fr. Enrique Rueda

In this context, “Cardinal” Joseph Tobin’s “nighty-night, baby, I love you” tweet that he mistakenly sent out to the public back in February is perhaps deserving of a second, more in-depth look.

With the McCarrick affair, the Karadima/Barros scandal from earlier in the year and the mass resignation of all the “bishops” of Chile in response; with the recent allegations made by seminarians in Honduras and the subsequent removal of “Bp.” Juan Pineda, and with the controversy about “Cardinal” Oscar Maradiaga, it seems like the entire Novus Ordo Church around Francis is imploding.

Given this, some of Francis’ past statements can perhaps be seen now in a clearer light. For example, it is no secret that Francis has a penchant for vividly denouncing gossip (detraction), especially within religious communities and in the Vatican. Could it be that his obsession with constantly condemning gossip is not so innocent after all? Is he really trying to fight sins of the tongue, or is there a sinister, self-serving motive? His repeated carefree use of perverted vocabulary associated with the sodomite subculture in that regard — you can read the details here — suggests that ensuring purity in words and thought is not the man’s primary motive.

In any case, being no longer a part of the college of Novus Ordo cardinals, Fr. McCarrick has now reverted to being “Archbishop” McCarrick, which in truth he is not either, since his 1977 episcopal ordination was invalid, as explained here. As with “Cardinal” Bernard Law, McCarrick’s name will now live in infamy. If it hadn’t closed in 2015 due to declining enrollment, the former St. Mary’s High School in South Amboy, New Jersey, which later had its name changed to Cardinal McCarrick High School, would now surely be renamed a second time.

The last true Catholic cardinal to resign, incidentally, was the French Jesuit theologian Fr. Louis Billot, in 1927. The eminent cardinal tendered his resignation over a disagreement he had with Pope Pius XI concerning the condemnation of the French nationalist movement, Action Française. The drama of the Billot resignation is related in some detail in Peter J. Bernardi, S.J., “Action Française Catholicism and Opposition to Vatican II’s Dignitatis Humanae“, in Christopher Denny et al., eds., A Realist’s Church: Essays in Honor of Joseph A. Komonchak (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2015), pp. 27-31 (caution: this is a Novus Ordo source).

By the way, do you remember when Francis joked about McCarrick going to hell?