Timmy and the Pope

“When the faith is in imminent peril, prelates ought to be accused by their subjects, even in public.”
(St Thomas Aquinas)

Monsignor Charles Pope is a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, and pastor of Holy Comforter - St Cyprian Parish in the District. He has long been one of the regular celebrants for the monthly Missa Solemnis at St Mary Mother of God Church (Old Saint Mary's) at the east end of Chinatown, where yours truly served for him for several years. He also writes a regular column for the archdiocesan weblog.

His most recent one concerned the decision of the organizers of the Saint Patrick's Day Parade in New York City, to include an ostensibly Irish LGBT group (or LGBTQ, or LGBTQI, or whatever the hell it's up to now; what's the latest, LGBTQIA?) that wants to march in the parade as a distinct group, as if on the premise that bringing it up from the rear is a perfectly Irish thing to do on "some enchanted evening."

A modest proposal, yes?

It’s time to cancel the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and the Al Smith Dinner and all the other “Catholic” traditions that have been hijacked by the world. Better for Catholics to enter their churches and get down on their knees on St. Patrick’s Day to pray in reparation for the foolishness, and to pray for this confused world to return to its senses. Let’s do adoration and pray the rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet unceasingly for this poor old world.

Apparently not. It used to be found at the adw.org domain, but alas …

In the 24 to 48 hours since the article appeared, it was removed without further comment, a tome which did not mention nor make reference to any ecclesiastical official of any jurisdiction, never mind call into question their prudential judgment, nor personally attack any particular member of the Church, whether cleric or laic. His commentary could have been interpreted in the most benign sense possible, that concessions of the faithful to the world are not met in kind by the world, thus proving that this IS not our world, that our Kingdom lay elsewhere. It was, at the end of the day, a response to the promotion of "an objective moral evil" with a call to prayer.

And we just can't have that, can we, Your Eminence?

So, every now and then, those clowns at Rorate Caeli do something besides embarrass themselves, and they copied the whole piece over and posted it themselves. And so we give a Tip of the Black Hat to them for doing the right thing without being jerks. We also give one to Msgr Pope himself, for taking what he had to know was a certain risk in publishing that over which a bunch of cowards in choir dress would invariably get their cinctures in a knot. We also give a Whack Across the Back of the Head with the Black Hat, to he who ultimately must bear responsibility for its removal.

But the ultimate WATBOTHWTBH goes to the one mere shadow of a man, who had a choice of whether to disassociate himself from that which can be no less than "an objective moral evil."

To wit, Timothy Cardinal Dolan responded thus ...

The Saint Patrick’s Day Parade Committee continues to have my confidence and support. Neither my predecessors as Archbishop of New York nor I have ever determined who would or would not march in this parade (or any of the other parades that march along Fifth Avenue, for that matter), but have always appreciated the cooperation of parade organizers in keeping the parade close to its Catholic heritage ...

After all, it wouldn't be the first time in the history of the Church, that a man of authority publicly washed his hands of that in which he took some part -- in this case, as Grand Marshal of one of next year's "any other parades." Status quo suprema lex, Your Immenseness, don't you think?

Or don't you?

UPDATE 1: Msgr Pope issues a clarification.

I removed the post upon further reflection due to the strong nature of the language I had used in parts of it. I apologize if the language I used caused offense.

It's okay, Father. Most of us were not offended. We all know who was.

UPDATE 2: The part where Cardinal Dolan says ...

Neither my predecessors as Archbishop of New York nor I have ever determined who would or would not march in this parade.

… isn't quite true, if you consider the following from the New York Times in 1993:

Declaring that political correctness is not worth "one comma in the Apostles' Creed," John Cardinal O'Connor triumphantly reviewed a St. Patrick's Day Parade …

And so, the plot thickens.