Tom McLaughlin: Two heroes

Two heroic men are in hiding today because they stood up for what they believe is right. Both are ordained priests of the Roman Catholic Church — one a lowly parish priest and the other an archbishop and Vatican diplomat. I admire them because they did what others are afraid to do, while knowing it would bring a world of hurt down upon them. It might even cost them their lives.

Maybe the archbishop’s display of courage inspired the priest, I don’t know, but Archbishop Vigano, former papal nuncio (Vatican ambassador) to the United States, published an eleven-page testimony last July which shook the Catholic Church to its roots. It named names, specified dates and referred to documents held in the Vatican by the pope’s closest advisers and by Vigano’s successor in Washington, D.C. Vigano claims his church, my church, is under the influence of a “homosexual network,” many of whose members are sexual predators or their enablers. Vigano accuses Pope Francis of covering for them and calls on him to resign.