Tom McLaughlin: Getting harder to be Catholic

When secular American culture unraveled after the 1960s, I took comfort that the Catholic Church seemed to anchor traditional morality. Now, however, I’m cheering the secular authorities investigating corruption in the Catholic Church because the Lavender Mafia controlling both the Vatican and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) continues to bury it. Attorneys general in more than a dozen states have begun investigations into coverups of sexual predation and coverup by Catholic bishops similar to the one reported out by the Pennsylvania AG last summer. In just the past month, two federal investigations began and two lawsuits were filed in federal court as well.

Under this cloud, the USCCB met in Baltimore, last week. Its president, Cardinal Archbishop Daniel DiNardo of Houston wanted that body to vote on a measure that would do two things: form a lay Catholic commission to investigate the Cardinal McCarrick scandal, and petition the Vatican to release documents on McCarrick’s case. DiNardo knows how angry ordinary Catholics are that the pope and the Vatican hierarchy continue to cover for homosexual predators in their midst and that U.S. bishops have either cooperated in this or remained silent. He knows grassroots Catholics want action now.