Theodore McCarrick

Priesthood: From Uncle Fultie to Uncle Ted

This is no easy time for the priesthood. The culture that produced and celebrated Bing Crosby’s portrayal of Fr. Charles O’Malley in Going My Way (1944) and, two years later, The Bells of St. Mary is extinct. Decent, congenial “Fr. Chuck” was a blithe symbol of goodness, honor, and virtue that an entire nation could trust and embrace. Not any more. On both sides of the screen, the cultural landscape has changed. In the culture at large, and the eyes of many Catholics themselves, the priesthood has become a tainted profession. Continue Reading
McCarrick's Seminarians

Ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick interests me less than the seminarians who kept mum for so many years. The saga of this man is far larger than the story of one libertine prelate. The ugly dimensions of the scandal lie in the conspiracy of silence, a de facto collusion that permitted a known sexual predator—a sociopath—to rise through the ranks of Church nomenklatura. Set aside, if you can, McCarrick’s alleged abuse of an eleven year old boy. That is of a different order of magnitude than snuggling with grown seminarians. Continue Reading