The bar for what many Catholics consider episcopal heroism is so low right now that it would take a world class limbo dancer to slither beneath it.
Case in point: Bishop Joseph Strickland and the 47-second-long comment that he made at the recent USCCB meeting in Baltimore.
For those who wish to read his comments, they went like this:
I admit this is off topic in some ways, but since we’re in the area of doctrine, I don’t know how many of us have seen on the social media priests and others gathered celebrating the Confirmation of a man living with a man openly, and it just needs to be addressed. Uh, Father James Martin once again involved. Great pictures of all of them smiling. Here we are talking about doctrine. I just thought I need to raise that issue. I know it’s not part of any agenda, but this body gathered, we need to address it. Thank you.
OK, granted, it’s better than saying nothing. But courageous? Brave? Heroic?
Ironically, it seems that many of those who believe that it was are Remnant readers who casually joined, even if only in spirit, Michael Matt’s impotent “We Resist You to the Face” campaign, as if publicly accusing the Holy Roman Pontiff of deliberately attacking the Catholic Church is just another day in the park.
The backstory to Strickland’s comments concerns the viral video of Gio Benitez, a “gay married” ABC News anchor who was “confirmed” [sic] at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in Manhattan. Participating in that circus were three priests, James Martin being one of them.
The minister of the ersatz confirmation was the pastor, a Paulist priest named Eric Andrews.
A couple of observations:
The conciliar 1983 Code of Canon Law is clear on a number of points, each of which are well known to Bishop Strickland, the former Ordinary of the Diocese of Tyler, TX. Among them:
– The Confirmation candidate must be “suitably instructed and properly disposed.” (Can. 889 §2)
Gio Benitez, however, is convinced that he has a husband, who, incidentally, was his sponsor.
– More importantly, “The diocesan bishop is to administer confirmation personally … he can however grant the faculty to one or more specific presbyters.” (Can. 884 §1)
So, one of two things happened. Either Fr. Eric Andrews, pastor of a well-known LGBTQ+ friendly parish, went rogue, or he was given the faculty to confirm by his Ordinary. That man’s name is Cardinal Timothy Dolan.
I’m inclined to imagine it’s the latter. After all, Dolan has long been limp wristed on the homo issue.
In any event, unless the Archbufoon of New York had gone back to his room for a nap or another dose of Ozempic, Dolan was most likely present as Strickland spoke.
Either way, Timothy Dolan is eminently responsible for the travesty under discussion, i.e., he needs to answer either for giving Andrews the faculty to confirm Benitez, or for having a rogue priest in his archdiocese who took it upon himself to minister the mock sacrament without it.
Bishop Strickland knows all of this. He had plenty of time to think it though prior to stepping up to the microphone.
What would it have cost him to call Dolan to account, by name, right then and right there?
Nothing.
What would he have stood to lose by insisting, demanding even, that the matter be addressed?
Nothing.
What price would he have had to pay by declaring that the mock Confirmation is both a grave sin and utterly invalid?
Zero.
Strickland is no longer the Ordinary of any diocese. At present, he is a celebrity banquet bishop whose material needs will always be met thanks, at least in part, to the naïve generosity of the same brand of wealthy benefactors that fund the lifestyle of men like Cardinal Raymond Burke.
In fact, the Strickland brand would only have grown in value had he spoken like an Apostle that day.
Yes, the comments he made are better than a stick in the eye, but heroic they were not.
