The following Open Letter to the Presidents of Conferences of Bishops was written by Cardinals Walter Brandmüller and Raymond Burke, two of the four cardinals who signed a letter to Pope Francis in 2016 known as the “dubia” for the questions, the doubts or “dubia,” they had about “Amoris Laetitia.” The other two signers – Cardinals Joachim Meisner and Carlo Caffarra – have since died. Pope Francis to this day has never answered the 5 dubia.
This letter, submitted just before the opening day of the conference on the protection of minors, principally addresses what many have called “the elephant in the room,” that is, the question of homosexuality among the clergy. Homosexuality was not a part of preparatory documents about the conference that starts tomorrow in the Vatican’s synod hall, a conference intended to focus solely on the protection of minors.
A number of journalists at Monday’s press conference asked about the statistics that indicate that close to – or perhaps just above – 80 percent of clerical sexual abuse is homosexual, male with male.
The National Catholic Register’s Edward Pentin asked: “It was often said during the Synod on Youth that the abuse of seminarians and vulnerable adults would be addressed at this meeting, partly because of the McCarrick scandal. When this meeting was initially announced, it was to be about the protection of minors and vulnerable adults, but now it seems to be about the protection of minors only. Will this meeting include abuse of vulnerable adults and seminarians in particular?”
In a nutshell, Abp, Charles Scicluna of Malta, adjunct secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, replied that, “other types of misconduct will be addressed.”
Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, addressing that question, said, “it is our intention at this meeting to focus on those who do not have a voice, that is to say and minors.”
It sounded at the end of the press conference as if homosexuality, which studies have shown to be the great majority of sex abuse cases, including an alleged high percentage of such behavior among Vatican clergy, would be put on a back burner during the conference to protect minors.
To watch the entire press conference – a great deal of which took place in English, except introductory remarks by interim press office director Alessandro Gisotti who speaks in Italian and most remarks by Fr. Lombardi who explains the day to day program of this week’s meeting – click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWQncShy578
LETTER TO HEADS OF BISHOPS CONFERENCES: WILL YOU ALSO BE SILENT?
Dear Brothers, Presidents of the Conferences of Bishops,
We turn to you with deep distress!
The Catholic world is adrift, and, with anguish, the question is asked: Where is the Church going?
Before the drift in process, it seems that the difficulty is reduced to that of the abuse of minors, a horrible crime, especially when it is perpetrated by a priest, which is, however, only part of a much greater crisis. The plague of the homosexual agenda has been spread within the Church, promoted by organized networks and protected by a climate of complicity and a conspiracy of silence.
The roots of this phenomenon are clearly found in that atmosphere of materialism, of relativism and of hedonism, in which the existence of an absolute moral law, that is without exceptions, is openly called into question.
Sexual abuse is blamed on clericalism. But the first and primary fault of the clergy does not rest in the abuse of power but in having gone away from the truth of the Gospel. The even public denial, by words and by acts, of the divine and natural law, is at the root of the evil that corrupts certain circles in the Church.
In the face of this situation, Cardinals and Bishops are silent. Will you also be silent on the occasion of the meeting called in the Vatican for this coming February 21st?
Cardinal Burke
We are among those who in 2016 presented to the Holy Father certain questions, “dubia,” which were dividing the Church in the wake of the conclusions of the Synod on the Family. Today, those “dubia” have not only not had any response but are part of a more general crisis of the Faith.
Cardinal Brandmuller
Therefore, we encourage you to raise your voice to safeguard and proclaim the integrity of the doctrine of the Church.
We pray to the Holy Spirit, that He may assist the Church and bring light to the Pastors who guide her. A decisive act now is urgent and necessary. We trust in the Lord Who has promised: “Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” (Mt 28,20).
Walter Cardinal Brandmüller
Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke
Joan's Rome 