Down the rabbit hole

Carlos Caso-Rosendi

“Pray constantly, implore tirelessly, and weep bitter tears in the seclusion of your heart, beseeching the Eucharistic Heart of my most holy Son to take pity on His ministers and to end as soon as possible these unhappy times by sending to His Church the Prelate who shall restore the spirit of her priests.” — Our Lady of Good Success.

A dense dark cloud hovers over Buenos Aires tonight as the national currency plummets and the freely elected government faces the consequences of its own incompetence. The upper echelons of the Catholic Church seem to be under the same ominous cloud as the never ending scandals in the United States are now spilling over to Rome, courtesy of Monsignor Carlo Maria Viganò (pron. vee-gah-nó rhyming with bordeaux.) I am very much tempted to go into one of my usual self-righteous tirades but I won’t.  Someone important said that the sexual abuse of several hundred minors and young men by a bishop of the Catholic Church is a “rabbit hole” not worth visiting. A curious choice of words that reminded me of Lewis Carrol’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), mainly because Mr Carroll was known to have a weakness for very young girls.

Both the financial troubles of the Argentine government, and the ethical troubles of the Catholic Church share a common element: to continue doing the same things hoping every time to have a different result. All the Argentine administrations since 1916 have practiced some form of economic isolationism. That eventually leads to one of those periodical financial crisis. Do not think that those crisis are the result of some mysterious process that is very hard to understand. No, the problem is a rather plain refusal to let the people earn a living in freedom. Argentines are for the most part denied the opportunity to trade, import, or export anything for profit or for mere use without having to go through a maze of regulations that would make anyone dizzy. We gradually got to a point that the economy shrinks periodically as crisis follows crisis, and the level of poverty rises year after year. The sad part is, this is as completely unnecessary as it is self inflicted. The people of Argentina lay trapped in a spiral of misery while sitting on a considerable portion of the world’s natural riches. Talk about going down a rabbit hole!

 

Our bishops seem to be caught in a similar trap. Ignoring the consequences of continuously allowing sexual abusers to ruin the lives and risking the damnation of countless souls given to their care. The problem reached a climax this past week when Monsignor Viganò presented his now famous written memories. As of tonight, a number of declarations have followed. I am not a Vaticanist and I my conclusions may be wrong but I am now under the impression that some of the actors in this drama are not telling the truth, and others are not telling all they know.

It was only hours ago that I stroke a casual conversation with a young man during a bus ride. Soon the conversation veered towards religion. The young man told me he was a non-practicing Catholic turned Communist but then he explained, no one has ever presented the faith clearly to him. I hope what he heard in that bus ride bears fruit one day. Will he go to one of those left-leaning priests in a local parish only to be directed to the works of Leonardo Boff, Jon Sobrino, or Juan Luis Segundo? Talk about going a rabbit hole!

I know, I am rambling again … may be. The faith, our faith, is almost nowhere to be found. Those of us who care to dig, will find the treasure but it is difficult to find our faith in the places it used to live. Bland homilies, lifeless, almost technical books filled with ideological jargon, Marxism, Modernism, and the abundance of those hunting for the flesh of young men … Don’t tell me I am exaggerating or lying because I have seen it with my own eyes, I have paid the price for sounding the alarm, I have been thrown into exile and holy poverty by the likes of those you see on television denying reality.

I decided to leave them behind ten years ago when I asked a question to Our Lord kneeling before the Sanctuary. To my surprise he answered: “Do not be afraid, I am with you.”

Jesus has told us to go and preach the Gospel to all nations for a witness. When that witness is not worthy of Our Lord, when souls are not informed of his unfathomable wisdom and love, when the good doctrine is silenced and replaced by the utterances of demons, Our Lord is crucified anew.

I am not going to go down that rabbit hole. We have been warned: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should declare to you a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be accursed!” (Galatians 1:8)

Learn the faith, pray the Holy Rosary, fast and sacrifice all you can. Heed the words of our Pontiff: “Hagan lío” (Raise a ruckus) indeed, let us raise a mighty ruckus that reaches the Heavens of the Heavens and charge against those accursed men who want to crucify Our Lord again.