Cardinal Ouellet is going to need a burn unit. Catholic author and journalist Phil Lawler unleashed an absolutely scorching response to the Canadian cardinal’s indignant demand to know how Archbishop Viganò can “celebrate Mass and mention his [the pope’s] name in the Eucharistic Prayer?”
“An excellent question,” writes Lawler. “It forces us to ask whether we have ever imagined that in praying for our shepherds we were thereby paying tribute to their rectitude and decency. Think of the faithful whose priests, over, say, the last 30 years, have invited them to pray for John Paul our pope, or for Benedict our pope …”
And then Lawler opens the flamethrower.
“… and for Rembert our bishop”—who used $450,000 of his flock’s contributions to buy the silence of his partner in sodomy.
“… and for Lawrence our bishop”—who throttled a male prostitute who was in the act of fellating him.
“… and for Thomas our bishop”—who struck a pedestrian with his Buick and drove off leaving him to die.
“… and for Patrick our bishop”—who outfitted his catamite with a beeper to summon him for sex.
“… and for Theodore our bishop”—who slept with priests and seminarians and fondled boys.
Lawler goes through four more names, four more accounts of bishops the faithful were asked to pray for in the Canon of the Mass as they did unspeakable things.
He then concludes, twisting the nozzle open to “kill it with fire”:
Now that you mention it, Your Eminence, “Francis our pope” fits into the roster with hardly any trouble at all.
This is one of those moments where only a meme can adequately sum things up:
