Catholic League president Bill Donohue has slammed efforts by dissident Catholics to deflect blame from serial homosexual predator Theodore McCarrick to Saint John Paul II.
Dissenting Catholics have always despised Pope John Paul, Dr Donohue notes, for his clear teaching on marriage and human sexuality and his relentless opposition to Marxism, among other things.
Now the left-wing National Catholic Reporter adds new slander against the sainted Polish pope, Donohue observes, by urging the U.S. bishops to “suppress the cult of St. John Paul II” as a way of “cancelling” his memory.
In its op-ed, the Reporter accuses John Paul II of “calamitous, callous decision-making” regarding former Cardinal McCarrick, insisting that he “willfully put at risk children and young adults in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and around the world” while setting “a deplorable example for bishops in ignoring the accounts of abuse victims.”
“In reading this editorial, one gets the sense that the true villain of the ‘McCarrick Report’ is not the predatory ex-cardinal, but rather Pope John Paul II,” Donohue states.
In this way, the Reporter, which for many years was a huge promoter of McCarrick and enabled homoclericalism to thrive, attempts to shift the blame away from the “true perpetrator” of the crimes.
“It is ironic as it is perverse, that the Reporter, which is quick to judge others for the clergy sexual abuse scandal, denies its own role in contributing to it,” Donohue adds. “To be specific, its relentless attacks on the Church’s teaching on sexuality enabled sick men to justify their homosexual assaults.”
According to the newly released McCarrick Report, when claims of homosexual misconduct reached the pope, following standard protocol, “he asked for an investigation into the matter,” Donohue observes. “While accusations of McCarrick’s vile acts did arise, other bishops came to his defence and discounted these allegations.”
“Even though there is sizable evidence that St John Paul II took proactive steps (although, in hindsight, less than effective ones) and he was misled by McCarrick, the Reporter argues that now the chief item to address next week during the annual U.S. Bishops’ Conference should be ‘requesting the Vatican formally suppress John Paul’s cult,’” Donohue notes with disdain.
“In cancelling his legacy, look for the dissident Catholics at the Reporter to fill the void with some charlatan more in line with their deranged preferences,” he concludes.