His
Excellency, the Most Reverend Joseph W. Tobin
Archdiocese
of Newark
171
Clifton Avenue
Newark,
NJ 07104-0500
Dear Archbishop Tobin,
As lifelong, faithful Catholics it grieves us tremendously
to write this letter to you. However, in light of the recent revelations
regarding Cardinal McCarrick, we feel that this letter is necessary.
We originally did not want to believe that the
allegations brought against the Church by investigative journalists in 2002
were true. How could shepherds of Christ’s faithful possibly behave in this
way? These allegations stated that high level leaders in the Church were aware
of predatory abusive homosexual behavior on the part on numerous parish
priests. Instead of reporting such abusers to the civil authorities, these bishops
transferred the offenders from one parish to another after “treatment” at
miscellaneous psychiatric facilities. The abuse, which primarily began in the
1960s and 70s, continued until the scandal came to light sixteen years ago.
There were many public apologies in front of the
cameras and in front of victims groups. Policies and procedures and other
bureaucratic maneuverings were established ostensibly to resolve the problem of
these predatory homosexual priests. Promises and private pay-outs were made,
and the Church moved on.
But it really didn’t.
With the McCarrick revelations, it appears that the
entire leadership in the Church is corrupted. To the average layman or
laywoman, it now looks as if our bishops, our archbishops, and our cardinals do
not really want to solve this problem. They do not want to rid the Church of
this evil. Why? After sixteen years they cannot truly plead ignorance, can
they? It’s being reported that McCarrick’s revolting lifestyle was an “open
secret.” He was promoted from Newark to Washington DC and then elevated to
cardinal. He was allowed to stay at a seminary in retirement. How could this
have happened? It is also being reported that several priests protested
McCarrick’s advancement at every stage and were rebuffed and hushed up.
Why?
Is it that our bishops do not want to do what is
necessary to rid the Church of this festering cancer, or is it that they can’t
do what is necessary? We’ve also seen it written that McCarrick is one of many,
and that many, if not most, priests, bishops and cardinals are prone to
blackmail. A cloud of fear has descended upon the Church hierarchy – fear of
saying the right thing, fear of reporting what was known by who when it was
known, fear of airing out these “open secrets.” Is this the case, Your
Excellency? Can it be Church leadership has lost sight of its goal – to
shepherd Christ’s people – and has now allowed itself to become complicit in
the evil of a minority, if indeed it is a minority?
These are questions the laity want answered, and the
longer it takes for honest answers to come forth, the worse Church leadership will
appear in our hearts and minds.
It is clear that the evil of sexually active clerics
preying upon and abusing those without power must be completely eliminated from
the Church, and that our bishops and cardinals must do a complete reversal of
their past behavior in order to do this. It may entail mass resignations. It
may entail installing a special prosecutor to ferret out these evildoers. But
it must be done and it must be done now.
Sadly, it is our conviction that until a visibly
authentic change in direction regarding this scandal is manifested, it would be
best for us to channel our discretionary charitable giving to other avenues.
Until the Church makes progress towards a true repentance – metanoia – in
thought, word, and deed to the problem of the McCarricks in the priesthood,
until such a time, no further funds will come from our family. We will also
encourage other faithful Catholics to divert their giving to more responsible charities
to the best of our abilities.
Respectfully yours in Christ,
Mr. and Mrs. Hopper
* * * * * * *
Letter to be mailed out and emailed to our Archbishop
later today, with our real names of course.
Will post his response, if / when I receive one.
Feel free to customize and copy and send out to yours.
2 comments:
We will be very anxious to see if you receive a response. We commend your courage and support you.
If I do receive anything, I will post it on the blog. So far it's been 10 days without a response - figure it reached the mailing address a week ago. I'm also looking for an email address to send it to, but nothing is explicitly stated on the diocese website. But I'll continue to look. I said to the wife, after I get no response for two weeks or so, I'll email it to them, so that's the next step.
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