Defending the Pope on Spy Wednesday

Everyone's heard of Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.  Not as many are familiar with the ancient and traditional name for today, "Spy Wednesday".  The name is thought to have originated in commemoration of the day on which Judas agreed to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.

The purpose of this post isn't to liken those individuals within the Church who have betrayed Her to Judas Iscariot; although the analogy is quite apt.  What is really motivating me is the campaign of vilification which the MSM has unleashed against the Pope, using some recent revelations about the handling of past cases of sexual abuses in an attempt to portray him as personalbly culpable of mishandling or covering-up specific cases.

The media has played fast and loose with the facts, and in their irresponsible lust to discredit the Church they have done far more harm than to simply libel the person of Pope Benedict XVI.  As egregious as the sins of the abusive priests are, and those of the bishops who failed to take proper action in their cases, the Church has largely dealt with the past cases and implemented policies and safeguards designed to prevent future incidents - and to handle them properly if they do occur. 

And occur they will.  We are dealing with human nature and human sin.  It is not the fault of the Church if one of Her sons commits unspeakable acts of his own volition, nor if his religious superior fails to take proper action upon learning of them.  They alone are liable to the judgments of courts civil and ecclesial - and to the Final Judgment of God.  Ultimately, the enemies of the Church know this; and they know that in order to wound the Church more greivously than the revelations of the past decade have done they must come up with a "big name" and tie him to some enormous malfeasance.  Hence the rush to judgment when the name of Cardinal Ratzinger (former title of the present pope) was peripherally linked to one case in Germany and another in Milwaukee.

In both instances, the New York Times has led the charge to mischaracterize and sensationalize these cases.  Individuals more knowledgeable than me have convincingly refuted their misrepresentations.  In the Milwaukee case, the NYT attempts to portray the then-Cardinal Ratzinger, in his capacity as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as having been lax in dealing with questions regardin a canonical trial for the accused priest.

In fact, insofar as the case was mishandled the blame almost certainly rests with the former Archbishop of Milwaukee, Rembert Weakland, best known as as a longtime dissenter from Catholic orthodoxy who resigned in disgrace when it was revealed that he had authorized payment of some $400,000 in Archdiocesan funds as "hush money" to his own former homosexual lover.  The NYT uncritically accepted his version of events without conducting any actual "journalism", so it fell to the newspaper of the Catholic Archdiocese of Anchorage (in Alaska!) to publish a somewhat different account by Fr. Thomas Brundage, former Judicial Vicar of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and the man in charge of the trial of the priest in this case.  What, you may ask, did Fr. Brundage tell the New York Times?  Nothing - they never bothered to contact him!  That did not stop them from attributing various comments to him, comments which were contained in unsigned, handwritten documents obtained by the NYT.

As Fr. Brundage notes, the Vatican's handling of the process on these cases improved markedly in 2001, when the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was given responsibility for them.  It's prefect at that time was... Cardinal Ratzinger!

There are plenty of good people out there trying to set the record straight on these cases, but unfortunately none of them has a big or bully a pulpit as the New York Times.  But if you want to know the truth you can find it, thanks mainly to the "alternate media" of the Internet.  Occasionally there's some fair treatment in the MSM, like this coverage of a recent talk at Providence College by columnist George Weigel, but sadly it's the exception rather than the rule.

At the Mass for his "inauguration", Pope Benedict XVI begged us to "Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves".  The wolves are very near indeed, and they have tasted blood.  Pray for the Pope, and learn the facts so you can defend him when you hear him or the Church maligned by know-nothings.  The Catholic Faith is true, and the Pope is the Vicar of Christ on earth.  During Holy Week it might be opportune to remember St. Peter, who denied Jesus three times, if we're even tempted to simply keep quiet in the face of anti-Catholic bigotry.