Church Militant The Vortex Feed

TRANSCRIPT

If there was ever a question of the Catholic crisis not being mainstream, those questions can now be laid aside.

Sean Hannity, the dominant star of prime-time cable news commentators, has made it official. 

He is leaving the Catholic Church, and his reason — as stated in an interview published three days ago in the Christian Post — is the Catholic Church has "too much institutionalized corruption," adding that it has not been rectified.

The 57-year-old Fox News star, to be certain, had already been on record years ago saying he disagreed with Church teaching on birth control, as was famously revealed in a 2007 Fox News interview with then Fr. Thomas Euteneuer.

But before we pigeonhole him and his latest announcement about leaving the Church into a specific box, we need to learn something here.

Given the near-daily reports now of corruption, it's easy to think of the crisis in terms of these unfolding scandals of homosexual priests abusing teenage boys, or bishops covering them, or Vatican officials ripping off billions, using money for gay lovers, or misdirecting money donated for charity for investments or administrative costs. The scandals show no signs of abating.

But those scandals are only symptoms of the greater crisis — a crisis as Church Militant has been saying for nearly a decade — is of supernatural faith within the hierarchy.

Of course, when you lose your faith, all these horrible, sinful, wicked, evil things are going to happen. And how has that trickled down to the average Catholic, like Hannity in this case?

The lack of faith among the hierarchy has been an issue for decades now, and it would be preposterous to not understand the massive falling away from the Faith this has caused.

The dominant effect of the crisis has been this: the Faith not being transmitted to the laity. And that stands to reason; one of the first principles of philosophy is: You cannot give what you do not have.

So how could a clergy and hierarchy that no longer possessed the Faith themselves transmit it to a laity being besieged by a culture attacking the Church on every side?

At the very moment the laity needed fathers to stand and protect them, these men deserted them. But more than deserting, they also betrayed them by setting in motion the machinery to perpetuate the evil for generations to come.

In addition to just themselves, they also recruited thousands and thousands of other homosexual and faithless men into seminaries. They populated the seminary faculties with gay abusers. They kept orthodox men out of the seminary and ordained active homosexuals to go out into the parishes and corrupt the minds of the faithful.

These wicked men stood in pulpits and worked out their own psychological trauma instead of teaching the Faith, slowly perverting congregations and turning them away from the Faith.

Sean Hannity is responsible for his own choices. No one is saying anything else. But — and it is a big but — his public apostasy has not happened in a vacuum, as it hasn't for tens of millions of other American Catholics who have also left the Church.

Interestingly, Hannity says since leaving the Church he is "closer" to God. That would be the expected response from any Catholic who was taught next to nothing as a child, and then has witnessed nothing except a steady flow of one story of corruption after another pouring out of the Church.

Of course, the correct response is to remain in the Church and fight for Her. But Hannity — like so many other Catholics, it would appear — apparently was never taught what the Church actually is — Who She actually is.

So he has no concept of staying and fighting for something because he doesn't see the "something" worth fighting for.

One final thought: There is a parallel case here for Hannity. 

American politics and journalism are rife with scandal; the country itself is being transformed into a socialist state. The nation itself is transforming into something it was never destined or designed to be.

Yet Hannity doesn't throw in the towel on America and become a Canadian, for example. Why Because he has sufficient "catechesis," if you will, in what America is. He is schooled in the founding documents; he is schooled and educated in the country's history and so forth.

He understands it's worth fighting for. But in the case of the Church, he has little to no understanding. He was trained in the Faith by faithless men — by men who were, in reality, actual enemies of the Faith.

His move away from and now out of the Church can hardly be a surprise.

TRANSCRIPT

2019 is drawing to an end. 2020 is dawning, and every indication is the coming year will bring a titanic struggle of world views — in short, the forces of God and anti-God.

This war will be played out in a million different battles, but do not be deceived; all these battles are part of the same war.

The anti-God forces are well-entrenched and — for the moment, from a temporal point of view — occupy the high ground, meaning they control all the institutions of the culture: media, courts, entertainment, education and religion.

And if we are honest when we assess the control of the religious arena the Left currently has, we must admit that includes the operational control of the Catholic Church as well.

While all other religions are false — even if they do happen to possess some elements of truth — the Catholic Church possesses the fullness of truth.

But that supernatural reality does not guarantee that the transmission of the truth will always be faithful to the reality. 

If the men charged with faithful transmission of the truth become corrupt — spiritually, morally and financially — that does not impact the truth itself, but it does impact the ability of the world to hear it correctly. 

We Catholics have now reached a point in our long history where the world has so moved into the Church and set up camp that almost any faithful transmission of the teaching is totally threatened. 

These corrupt leaders in the Church have made consort with the world and its anti-God agenda, for which there will be hell to pay for them in the next life if they remain on their current course. 

The agendas of the world and these corrupt Churchmen are indistinguishable from each other.

The degree of the overlap is so extensive that, placed side by side, it's difficult to determine which is the political and which is the so-called theological.

The world of politics is where this agenda is most aggressively being pushed. 

It is precisely the driving force behind the phony impeachment by the Left — the third failed attempt to remove President Donald Trump from office. 

Trump, for all his personal failures, actually is a better representation of Catholic social teaching than Pope Francis and his gay cohort.

On immigration policy, the pope is wrong; Trump is right.

On the death penalty, the pope is wrong; Trump is right.

On climate change, the pope is wrong; Trump is right. 

And on the leading issue of our day — abortion — the pope is missing in action, and Trump is the most pro-life president in history.

Pope Francis is more aligned with the political Left than he is with Church social teaching, and if a Catholic does not see the overlap here, then that Catholic is failing to understand the reality of the current situation.

To dress up the Left's agenda in spiritual-sounding terms in an attempt to "baptize" that agenda does not legitimize it.

The Francis pontificate is either part and parcel of the Left's New World Order or being massively manipulated by the Left.

Whatever the reality, it matters little in the big picture. Catholics are being bombarded by the radical anti-God agenda of the Left through the institutional Church itself. 

And on the political battlefield, the goal is to influence enough of the Catholic vote in 2020 to remove Trump from office and put in any Democrat — a Dem who will seal the deal for the Left with judicial appointments and new laws.

The Church is in a woeful state, run by thieves and homosexuals and spiritually filthy men.

We have learned in just the past few weeks hundreds of millions have been stolen from the Peter's Pence fund.

Recent research suggests that as much as a billion dollars has been stolen from the Church in the U.S. by corrupt clergy.

German bishops are teaching that homosexuality is as normal as heterosexuality and should be accepted.

A leading Vatican official is saying that priests should sit with suicide victims as they are in the very act of offing themselves — supporting their action, as their soul faces eternal jeopardy.

Good priests are hunted down, persecuted, falsely accused and even go into hiding as the sexual abuse crisis is weaponized against them — with the prime example being the nightmare unleashed on Detroit priest Fr. Eduard Perrone by the corrupt Abp. Allen Vigneron and his chancery.

Bishops like the lying, cheating Richard Malone of Buffalo have to resign for their complicity in all these evils.

Various other bishops — like Rochester's Salvatore Matano and Cdl. Dolan and Cupich — conspire to prevent the canonization of Abp. Sheen. Sheen was a man the Left would detest if he were alive today, with his overt patriotism and ravings against Communism.

For the Universal Church to hold him up as a model today would be a gigantic slap in the face of the leftists and marxists now running the Church. 

There is no choice for Catholics other than to learn all this, know all this, and act on it. That means supporting apostolates like Church Militant that have our fingers on the pulse of all this.

2020 will be the most crucial year— the showdown of all political showdowns — and the Left knows it. So far, Democrats have raised a half-billion dollars in political donations, and the election season hasn't even officially begun.

With atheist billionaires like Michael Bloomberg and George Soros also pouring tens of millions into the coming campaign, everyone involved knows this one is for all the marbles.

Political experts are predicting that close to $3 billion will be spent this coming year to influence voters, and much of that money will find its way to corrupting the minds of Catholics.

Church Militant is leading the way to fight against that push — and not a single other apostolate in the entire Catholic world is as capable as we are in taking on this fight.

Others know politics as well; still others know about Church corruption; and some others know about the corruption yet aren't free to talk about it for fear of reprisals by Churchmen they are beholden to.

But no one has the knowledge, expertise, experience and freedom to talk about all of this like we do.

No other Catholic outfit understands the relationship of the political Left and the leftists in the Church like we do.

It was, you will recall, Church Militant that was warning the Catholic world for almost 10 years about the rampant homosexuality among the clergy. We were ridiculed and mocked routinely.

Turns out we were right. It was Church Militant who first told you about the infiltration into the clergy by Communist agents in the last century. Again, we were mocked, yet we stuck to our guns because truth is truth.

We understand how all of this fits together into one massive, spiritual war like no other Catholic outfit on earth. It's why both the Vatican and the secular media have lashed out at us repeatedly — by name — because we call them out accurately.

They will not silence us; they will not sideline us. We will be the source for Catholics in 2020 to expose all of it. 

In less than 11 months we will be sitting here in this spectacular new studio we have finished, reporting to you live on election night.

You will remember the 2016 election: Church Militant was the very first media outfit — note that, the first — to say Trump had won. None of the others could bring themselves to admit it.

We reported for nine straight hours, we prayed repeatedly during our coverage and in the end, we danced. We celebrated because we knew Heaven and its Queen had intervened.

The run-up to election night in 2020 will be very costly for us, and we are asking you to help us out here before the end of the year with whatever donation you can make.

We want to have a sufficient sum on hand to not be hamstrung in our coverage. This year many of us will be traveling — covering and uncovering how various corrupt Churchmen are pushing the leftist agenda in their dioceses.

There needs to be a fearless Catholic voice exposing all of it, and we — all of us together, you and us — are that voice.

Practically every one of the battleground states has a heavy Catholic population, and therefore what's going on in the Church has a disproportionate influence on the outcome.

So please, click on the provided link and donate whatever you are able to before the end of the year.

The fight is both spiritual and temporal. It's time to engage both.

TRANSCRIPT

We have been telling you for years, even as recently as earlier this week, that the Catholic establishment media cannot be trusted because all they do is republish press releases and lies from various bishops' offices.

And wouldn't you know, practically no sooner had those words come out of our mouths a couple of days ago, but all the proof you need just plopped into our laps.

Late Tuesday, news broke that the monstrous serial molester former Cdl. Theodore McCarrick was being transferred from his former residence in St. Fidelis Priory in Victoria, Kansas. His new whereabouts — where he was being transferred to — however, was still a mystery.

Church Militant had received information shortly afterward from a very reliable source that his destination was some facility in the diocese of St. Augustine, Florida, near Jacksonville.

After confirming what we could, we published what we knew after performing our due diligence and calling various places in the diocese where he might be being housed and — this is important — calling the diocese itself, which we did.

Our article set off a series of denials and accusations and charges that Church Militant was producing fake news.

Now, so we have the record straight, we did call the diocese of St. Augustine in Jacksonville and asked about our information. They called us back and said no one there had heard anything about it. But that's not the story we're talking about today, the McCarrick-specific story.

What we are talking about is how that same diocese of Jacksonville yesterday issued a formal statement denying McCarrick's presence in the diocese and that Church Militant had called them and asked questions about the information we were chasing down.

Here is the relevant part of their official statement: "It is unfortunate that Church Militant didn't contact the diocese for the truth before posting their inaccurate story."

Oops. That's unfortunate for them they would lie in an official statement. Remember: They denied we ever contacted them and asked, implying of course that we don't know how to do our jobs and are fake news.

Please listen to this recording between Church Militant and Jerome Wilamowski, who calls himself Jerry. He was returning our call.

Jerome Wilamowski: This is Jerry Wilamowski, Bishop Felipe Estevez's assistant. Just got back to my desk, got your message. 

CM: Calling from Church Militant, we received a rumor today on our tip line that they're moving the former archbishop McCarrick to a facility there in St. Augustine diocese. 

JW: I got your message. Bishop Estevez is actually on a retreat this week with, like, 30 other bishops in South Florida, so I did, I sent him a note with your information and your contact information to have him give you a call back when he gets a chance. 

CM: Ok. 

JW: I chatted with our chancellor here in our communication area, and they have not heard anything, they have not heard anything, nor have I. That doesn't mean the bishop doesn't know. I did send him a note that you called, and I'll have him reach out to you.

So not only did we speak with Jerry, the executive assistant to Bp. Felipe Estévez, but he himself tells us, as you heard yourself, that he had discussed it with the chancellor in the communications area.

So they did get a call from us and they admitted it. That press release is, in short, a straight-up lie.

Now part two to the story: The Catholic establishment media couldn't resist licking their chops and coming after Church Militant, trying to prove we are fake and sensational news.

Catholic News Agency editor-in-chief J.D. Flynn pounced on the diocesan statement, gleefully tweeting out that we never called the diocese: "That was a rumor circulated by Church Militant, who never contacted the diocese for information," a spokeswoman said.

Now, Catholic News Agency's (CNA) repeating of the diocese's charge is rich because they released a social media hit on us for not contacting the diocese, when CNA had never contacted us asking if what the diocese claimed was true.

So we get lied about by a diocese — formally, publicly, officially (which we have the proof of is a lie) — and then the Catholic establishment media, unquestioning, just repeats the lie. 

This is exactly what Church Militant has been reporting for years, and now thanks to the phone recording, we have the proof.

And thanks to CNA's horrible reporting skills and lack of professional due diligence, we have the goods on them as well.

In journalism, we have a term for this: gotcha!

A lying diocese and sycophant media outlet.

Gotcha, guys. Gotcha.

TRANSCRIPT

Is Theodore McCarrick dead? Church Militant yesterday received an anonymous letter with a New Jersey postmark on it stating just that.

First, here is the letter, in its entirety:

Church Militant

First, Church Militant receives all sorts of tips on all sorts of stories. Until we can verify them, we would never report them. And for the record, we are not reporting that McCarrick is dead and has been secretly buried in Hays, Kansas.

After thoroughly checking every possible angle and source on this we can report, it appears to be not true, even in the slightest. Some of the timeline in the letter doesn't seem to correspond with on-the-record information.

For example, the Fidelis Friary in Victoria, Kansas where McCarrick was last known to have lived reported to media that he had left around Christmas time on his own and that they are not responsible for tracking his whereabouts. Obviously he couldn't have left at Christmas if he was already in a grave two months prior.

So the letter is wrong, or the friary is lying — but we're not sure why the friary would lie.

Likewise, again after thorough vetting with various officials and funeral homes and cemeteries, and police and public records, and medical examiners, etc., nothing has been discovered by us that would suggest this letter has a shred of truth to it.

So why are we telling you about it?

A couple of reasons. First, to show how someone or someones might be trying to steer the McCarrick story from behind the scenes and influence coverage. Interest in this story is intense and intensifies every day that passes that the Vatican does not release its investigation.

McCarrick remains — to this day — an enigma, and no one in the hierarchy has come forward publicly to reveal what they know about his lifelong evils, in which many of them were participants.

It would be unthinkable that various members of the McCarrick inner circle would not want to know where he is in case he would come forward and spill the beans on them.

It's safe to say that some would, in fact, prefer that he be dead and take his secrets to the grave. Others might even assist him to an early grave.

McCarrick was at the center of decades of crimes and cover-ups on a gigantic scale, and not a few prelates know that McCarrick knows.

The second reason we are telling you about this anonymous letter is the damage that this kind of news — if and when it begins to circulate — could inflict on McCarrick's surviving victims.

Imagine for a moment that this homopredator had entrapped you in his snare for months or years. You are suffering the silent agony of his predation and are reminded of it even more pointedly now as news of his whereabouts and the Vatican's delay keep making headlines.

There's something a bit twisted about not feeling any sympathy for the survivors of this former cardinal who molested and abused countless boys and young men.

And there's something further twisted about wanting to deliberately spread disinformation about one of the most closely followed stories in the Church — where loads of people have an intense interest in wanting the full truth to come out, and many others have an equally intense interest in keeping that truth from ever being revealed.

TRANSCRIPT

As we approach the most significant, landscape-altering election probably in U.S. history, the Catholic bishops have a word of advice for us all: Keep it civil.

Parishes all over the country have begun initiating the latest limp-wristed plan of the nation's bishops: Keep your discourse civil.

First, that's a little rich from the lying, cover-up mitered crowd who, while keeping it "civil," ordained thousands of men who raped your sons, stole your money and perverted doctrine. But hey, at least it was all "civil" — socially polite, lots of chuckles and guffaws and back-patting and martinis.

Civility, it would appear, is in the eye of the beholder. Near the end of last year, in anticipation of the 2020 election, the U.S. bishops launched this, literally called "Civilize It: Dignity Beyond the Debate." Those who no longer trust the body of bishops see this as just one more move to try and shape the Catholic vote by quieting down the rabble-rousers.

Be sure of this: Whenever evil people start calling for civility and calm, they are losing the public trust, and they know it.

The program is built around three principles: civility, clarity and compassion. Sounds impressive, until you realize this is nothing more than just the latest warmed-over version of everything the lying, cheating, gay and cover-up bishops have used as a weapon for decades to screw over the faithful.

Being socially polite is not a recipe for fighting evil. No one is saying go out and personally insult someone, but to remain a passive milquetoast who just sits there in the corner being polite and soft-spoken — please!

The evil monsters who now have control of every institution of the culture did not gain control by being polite and socially courteous. The abolitionists were not socially polite; neither for that fact was the civil rights movement. They weren't violent, true, but they certainly weren't "polite." They each opposed and upended every cultural maxim of their day. That's what social movements do. In fact, it's the only way social change for the good is brought about.  

Existing cultural mores, which in these days are virtually all bad, must be openly challenged. That is going to set lots of people's teeth on edge. And it will start the name-calling and slandering and everything else, and in some cases, a violent response. You don't respond with violence, but you don't fold to it either. 

Under the "clarity section" it says I will be "listening and seeking to understand others' experiences." Let's be real for a moment here. No, I won't. I have absolutely zero desire to listen to and understand the experience of a murderous gang of Hollywood elites who receive awards and brag about how they killed their children to get the award and are applauded like mad for doing so.

Maybe in some quiet corner, someday, away from the crowd, maybe. But in the throes of a throwdown like the 2020 election, no! 

You literally murdered your child so you could receive a golden idol, and you said so. There, I listened. I understood your experience. Check! You are a twisted child murderer who — and this is the point of all this — wants to make others believe that what you did is admirable and encourage them to do the same.

This is what is wrong-headed, and frankly, pansy about this initiative by a bunch of sissified, weak men hiding behind their robes. They can't face head-on — can't even come to terms with — the concept of actual evil, much less confront it, tackle it and defeat it. Perhaps it's because so many of them have allied themselves with evil in their personal lives and their episcopates.

How dare these panty-waists and wicked men preach to Catholic voters how to be "civil."

Exactly how do you civilly shred thousands of documents that would prove your guilt and complicity in destroying the lives of tens of thousands of mostly teenage boys whom your clerical buddies raped?

The filth you have collectively foisted on the sheep will be your everlasting shame, and even in the face of your thefts of billions, your emptying of parishes — not to mention souls and bodies — you still persist in your wanton destruction of the Faith and of truth. 

Please instruct us, Your Excellencies, how any of this is "civil"? Perhaps we could gather for a cup of tea and a few biscuit cookies so you could instruct us — sipping pinkie extended, of course — so we could be all dainty and socially polite and "civil."

Civility, Your Excellencies, is for those who are civilized, and frankly, your collective actions disqualify you from that designation. You have no right whatsoever, given your evil and filth, to lecture anyone about being civil. It's revolting and angering to hear. Elites who have been in control for years using the conventions and politeness of a civilized society start to get very upset when their cover is blown and they are unmasked for the horrible people they really are.

Make no mistake and have no wonderings about it — most of the nation's bishops are unfit for their high office. They are a disgrace to the gospel message and foul it by their constant hypocritical appeals to it. They don't believe in Hell. They don't believe in the Real Presence. They don't believe in the Church, and the proof is in the beliefs of those who they had watch over the people.

People go where their leaders go, and the leaders, by and large, are a bunch of weak, emasculated, vengeful old queens with boyfriends or a past (or both) who, when losing their grip, appeal to "civility" in the upcoming election.

Hell, most of you won't even publicly denounce the horror of the most uncivil act that could ever be perpetrated: the murder of children in the womb by the tens of millions. You don't give a rip about it, regardless of your rare comments to the contrary.

Judas, who is the spiritual father to the largest bunch of you, also began as a thief. You have stolen billions from the faithful, the latest example being the Peter's Pence fund, advertising it as money for the poor, when the money is being used to pay off the Vatican's annual budget shortfalls. (While that's allowed, it's how it's touted. It's presented as 90% to the poor and some to Vatican administrative overhead, as opposed to nearly all to plug budget holes and some leftover pennies to the poor.)

By the way, do the bishops get a cut of the money? We don't know. They never say and, of course, it's impolite and uncivil to ask such gauche questions. But the old queen crowd will try to sound all polite and relevant by asking for civility and clarity and compassion.

What they will never talk about, however, is truth. They prefer to bury truth under a cloak of social politeness and wonderful cocktail mixers. They steal, lie, cheat, kill and cover for one another on a scale that would make mafia hit men blush. As various federal and state law enforcement officials have told us, they have no conscience. 

But Church Militant and others who are sick of this tyranny, we are the "uncivil" ones because we speak plainly and clearly and compassionately. See, we don't want you to go to Hell, but you are certainly on that path and we want you to turn around. There. Is that civil, clear and compassionate enough?

You wonder where John the Baptist would have fallen on their civility scale.

TRANSCRIPT

There is something seriously wrong in the Church when it comes to the relationship between many priests and their bishops.

There are loads of priests who simply do not trust their bishop, period. They see them as weak, vengeful, manipulative, homosexual, thieving or a host of other terms we've been told. Rightly or wrongly, trust has been so deeply eroded that for many priests, it's become a kind of adversarial relationship, which is a horrible situation.

Church Militant has reported on numerous such cases where priests have been mistreated by their bishops — either falsely accused, publicly denigrated, you name it.

Another such story popped up in the diocese of Crookston, Minnesota last week with Bp. Michael Hoeppner. Hoeppner, you will recall, is the very first bishop on earth to be investigated under Pope Francis' new norms for bishops accused of covering up sex abuse.

His case is being investigated on behalf of the Vatican by St. Paul-Minneapolis Abp. Bernard Hebda. The status of that investigation is another story, but suffice it to say, there appear to be some problems there. More on that in a later Vortex.

In this case with Hoeppner that Hebda is investigating (try to keep up with the similar-sounding names here), Hoeppner was caught covering up and being evasive on camera in a video deposition where opposing counsel charged him with lying to avoid giving a straight answer.

That case does not look good, not good at all for Hoeppner, who we assume wants to retain his job as bishop of the diocese and might want to present the façade of a bishop who is "tough on crime," more specifically sexual abuse or sexual assault. So a few days ago, a case emerged where the case could be made that Bp. Hoeppner is doing just that — suspending a much-beloved, faithful priest, accusing him of "boundary violations" in confession.

The priest was so flabbergasted at what Hoeppner accused him of and then did to him that he actually took to Facebook about the case, posting this letter to clearly lay out his side of the story. Father Bryan Kujawa spells out that an anonymous woman accused him of touching her leg in confession, which he outright denies in very clear terms; but get this — she isn't the one who made the accusation. It was another woman who went to the diocese and reported that a separate woman told her this. So follow the bouncing ball here. 

Hoeppner suspends Fr. Bryan because a woman comes to him and says that another woman, who wants to be anonymous, told her that Fr. Bryan touched her in confession. That's hearsay; in fact, it's the very definition of hearsay, and quite a number of people in Crookston are ticked off about what Hoeppner did in response.

Faithful Catholics had already been collecting signatures on a petition to get the bishop removed based on his deceitful answers under oath and the underlying actions he had been successfully sued for, costing the small diocese millions in payouts to 15 victims.

This case will only add fuel to that fire. In fact, it already has. 

This past weekend, one member of the congregation — when it was announced at Mass that Father wouldn't be there anymore — said in response: "This man being accused is a solid priest! We are sickened to hear about his leave of absence. ... Tonight it was explained to the laity that Fr. Bryan was leaving and people literally walked out! ... I have attended a Mass celebrated by this young priest and was so blown away by his reverence for the Mass."  

And yesterday, billboards popped up all over the region urging people to call the diocese in protest of this latest move by the bishop. But it gets worse. 

Based on nothing more than hearsay, Hoeppner ordered Fr. Bryan into a treatment facility — St. John Vianney in Downington, Pennsylvania — but various people have cautioned him not to go, even though at the time of publishing his letter on Facebook he said he would.

This "treatment center game" is a favorite of bishops who want to sideline good priests. 

First, understand, the bishop is the client of the treatment center, not the priest. He is who is paying the bill and he is who writes the checks, calls the shots. So when a bishop ships off a priest he doesn't like, as opposed to an actual head case who should never have been ordained in the first place, he can have a backdoor discussion with the center and tell them he wants the priest there for six months.

The center, following its client's wishes, has an intake meeting and then evaluation with the priest, and suddenly — out of nowhere — makes its report and recommends he stay for six months. The bishop then deceptively claims the treatment center professionally recommended this course, and there you have it — priest sidelined, and no bishop's fingerprints on the file.

By the way, the bill for these centers can range up to $1,000 a day — a bill that faithful Catholics are paying for, not the bishop himself. 

So why might Bp. Hoeppner want Fr. Bryan shipped off? Well, Church Militant has learned that a local Knights of Columbus Council #1544 passed a resolution a couple weeks back demanding further investigation be made into Bp. Hoeppner's notorious activity in the previous cases of cover-up and deflecting under oath.

This e-mail was sent to council members a few days ago, and reveals that Fr. Bryan, chaplain to the council, signed his name to the resolution, standing in solidarity with lay Catholics calling for further investigation into Hoeppner. It was just a day or so after that that Hoeppner called him in and suspended him on the grounds of hearsay testimony, and ordered him to the treatment center.

But Hoeppner can't do all this by himself. No bishop can. They always employ the administrative help of chancery rats around them. The bishops need plausible deniability. Enter Msgr. Michael Foltz, whose name also appears on the billboards all around the diocese. Insiders say he was instrumental in this case, being the hatchet man for Hoeppner. Foltz is vicar general and moderator of the curia.

Foltz, you see, is a homeboy, and his family is kind of an institution in these parts. He is one of those well-known priests who is seen by laity as very affable, but who behind the scenes is nothing like his public image, according to those who have extensive dealing with him. Reports to Church Militant about various clergy in Crookston are that they are flat-out terrified of the man because of his continual power plays, this now-public case being just the latest example.

The faithful want an explanation not just from Hoeppner, whom they want removed, but also an accounting from Foltz, and that's why some are standing out in freezing temperatures praying and holding signs. 

Welcome to the Catholic Church in America in the 21st century — bishops ripping off millions and using the funds to hurt faithful clergy, not to mention denying justice to victims.

Much of what has gone on in the Church for decades here in the United States has been able to happen precisely because bishops and their power-hungry staff have been able to run roughshod over good priests, hiding behind secrecy and an impenetrable legal cloak of "separation of Church and State."

But as we see more and more now, that is beginning to change, as more priests are simply refusing to roll over and be walked all over by crooked prelates who have no fatherly concern for them, but want to maintain a favorable image so the bottom line is not negatively affected.

Hoeppner has forsaken his duty not only to the sheep but also to some of his priests, and allows chancery higher-ups to crush whoever they like, willy-nilly.

These types of situations, in all charity, demand justice — which requires the truth of them being exposed.

Tens of millions of Catholics in the United States no longer believe the Faith, and this kind of evil is exactly the reason why: not preaching the truth of the Faith and using the power of their office to destroy while enriching themselves.

The judgment for this has to be severe.

TRANSCRIPT

It seems the Vatican, specifically the papacy of Francis, has a real burr under its saddle about Church Militant. We can't imagine why.

Back in 2017, close papal confidant and advisor Jesuit priest Antonio Spadaro wrote a highly inflammatory — as well as incorrect — article in the publication La Civiltà Cattolica titled: "Evangelical Fundamentalism and Catholic Integralism in the USA: A Surprising Ecumenism." 

The papal advisor used the article to come after us here at Church Militant, directly naming us for allegedly collaborating with Protestants to elect Trump. He characterized this supposed alliance as an "ecumenism of hate." My, but liberals love accusing those with differing views as being "haters."

That's what was going on two years ago, however. So why is it a story now, you ask?

Well, because the pope's men keep going back to the well, resurrecting the article and pointing people to it, and not just Pope Francis' men, but Pope Francis himself, personally. In September the pontiff told 24 Jesuits in Mozambique that they should read the article, and a few days ago, Spadaro pointed to his own article again (if you're keeping score, that's three times). He made his comments in reference to the President Trump-ordered killing of terrorist mastermind Soleimani.

American politics seems to be uppermost in the minds of the Francis pontificate these days, but it's curious that these men are so closely aligning Church Militant with American politics.

They are actually correct. For those who follow us closely, you know Church Militant follows politics extremely closely and quite possibly more extensively and better than any other Catholic apostolate in the world. It was Church Militant that was the very first media outlet in the world to call the 2016 election for Donald Trump.

Based on an extensive history in political reporting over 30 years, Church Militant calculated before any of the other major media outlets that there were not enough uncounted votes left in Pennsylvania for Hillary Clinton to overcome Trump's lead, thus giving the state and its 20 electoral college votes to Trump, putting him over the top and winning the White House.

Trump has gone on to become what many in Catholic circles are calling the most pro-life president in the history of the United States.

Francis has positioned himself in opposition to Trump on every major liberal point he and his papacy push — from so-called man-made "climate change" to illegal immigration to the death penalty.

In America, many of the most politically conservative voters are also faithful, orthodox, Mass-going Catholics who oppose Pope Francis' liberal, "social justice warrior" weaponizing of the papacy. It may have been this reality that caused Francis to lash out late last year at conservative Americans, saying he welcomes their attacks and considers them a kind of badge of honor.  

What we can say is that the politicos in Rome are showing their cards that they intend to get very involved in American politics this year, and they see Church Militant as a major piece of the puzzle.

It's like déjà vu all over again.

Thanks, Vatican, but we are curious about one thing: Does Rome trying to direct American Catholics how to vote constitute foreign interference in a U.S. election?

Stay tuned. There's much more to come.

TRANSCRIPT

Hello everyone and welcome to this exclusive, breaking news report from Church Militant — news about the potential whereabouts of Theodore McCarrick.

Here's what we know: After having been defrocked, he took up residence in the St. Fidelis Friary in Victoria, Kansas for roughly the past 17 months.

Approximately a week ago he left the friary — this has been confirmed — and his whereabouts have become the subject of much speculation in the Catholic world.

Church Militant has learned from very reliable sources that his apparent destination was Jacksonville, Florida in the diocese of St. Augustine.

Within the territorial boundary of the diocese is a residence within a gated community — a house where the notorious predator priest Fr. Marcial Maciel died in 2008 — and that house was at the time owned by the Legionaries of Christ,  the community Maciel founded decades earlier, and many of whose members were victims of his homosexual predation.

That residence is not directly affiliated with the diocese of St. Augustine, but is geographically within the diocese. 

Our sources tell us that they believe McCarrick may be in that house, somewhere in the Jacksonville area. Church Militant is looking and searching for that house.

The timing of all of this is raising a lot of speculation because the Vatican investigation into the McCarrick scandal is due to be released soon, and Church Militant has learned further from sources that "soon" may be as early as this coming weekend.

Our sources inform us that the actual investigation is concluded and the formal report itself is at some stage of being translated into Italian for Pope Francis to review.

The convergence of these two pieces of information raises serious questions: If not himself, then who is moving McCarrick around? McCarrick is nearly 90 years old and reportedly not in good health. It is highly unlikely he transported himself the 1,400-mile journey that it is from Kansas to Florida. 

At the time, McCarrick had already been defrocked, and the move raised eyebrows. McCarrick had by then been reduced to the lay state, so why would or should he be able to stay in a religious friary? The answer provided by Bp. Vincke was that he had been told by Wuerl that McCarrick was retiring to a life of prayer and penance. 

If that was the case, and not just to get him away from the glare of cameras and media scrutiny, then why the move now, with just weeks or perhaps even days within the release of the Vatican report?

So the question is: Who in the Church is orchestrating all this? Remember again, McCarrick is now and has been officially nothing more than a member of the laity. Why are people in the Church doing all this?

Next question: If it turns out to be in fact the case that he is at a property in Jacksonville with ties to the Legionaires, and people in the Church have orchestrated all this, what degree of involvement might the Vatican itself have in all this?

When Maciel died, the community was taken control of by the Vatican and underwent an extensive five-year oversight and investigation, ultimately resulting in a reorganization that received approval from Rome just five years ago under Pope Francis.

The Vatican is well aware of every nook and cranny of the Legion, as well as all its properties.

Church Militant has also learned that some clergy from the archdiocese of New York are already on the ground in Jacksonville looking for McCarrick. Their hunt for the perverted former cardinal has centered around a facility known as L'Arche House, but so far, sources relay to us, their efforts have turned up nothing.

The archdiocese of New York was ground zero for the charges against McCarrick, which ultimately resulted in his defrocking by Pope Francis. The archdiocese is currently facing a multi-hundred-million-dollar lawsuit from the primary victim-survivor of McCarrick, James Grein.

That lawsuit has sent Cdl. Timothy Dolan scrambling to the courts to get them to declare unconstitutional New York's new law lifting the statute of limitations on sex abuse victims. 

Additionally, sources also tell Church Militant that the lead investigator preparing the Vatican's report is a San Francisco Bay-area attorney, Jeffrey Lena.

Lena, a very close advisor of the pope who often stays at the pope's Vatican residence Santa Marta, was apparently tasked for the job because of his past work being a legal bulldog for Vatican cases involving sex abuse cover-ups implicating the Holy See.

That raises the very serious question that the investigation may have been compromised from the beginning because of what appears to be an obvious conflict of interest.

Reports are the pope himself involved Lena in the investigation, and that raises even more serious questions about the impartiality and veracity of the report's findings, since Pope Francis resurrected McCarrick — even with express knowledge of his homosexual predation stretching back decades.

So at this point, we are left with a number of unanswered questions that authentic Catholic journalists need to uncover:

Be sure and stay tuned to Church Militant for more information. 

We are diligently working all these angles and will be updating as we learn anything further.

TRANSCRIPT

$1 billion — that's the estimate of how much money is stolen or misappropriated each year in the Catholic Church by crooked prelates or thieving clergy.

According to the trade industry publication The Review of Faith & International Affairs, in an article titled "Embezzlement in the Global Christian Community," the amount of money stolen each year from parishioners' donations is reaching windfall amounts.

The model for calculating the degree of theft was used in a recent documentary titled Thievery: Catholic Church Exposed. According to producers, thievery in the United States has reached epidemic proportions, as illustrated by the 97 non-sex abuse cases of $100,000 or more uncovered in the recent documentary — and that's only the tip of the iceberg, for researchers project over 90% of the thievery cases go unreported.

Further, based upon validated research models and confirming data from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, it's estimated that more than $1 billion is stolen annually from the U.S. Catholic Church.

Theft of enormous sums of money has gotten little attention in the Church, but that is changing, as new reports begin to surface. Hundreds of millions stolen from the Vatican's Peter's Pence annual collection, $25 million ripped last year from the American-based Papal Foundation, hundreds of thousands paid out in cash by the perverted Theodore McCarrick, West Virginia Bp. Michael Bransfield's regular stealing of huge amounts and so forth.

There have of course been whiffs here and there of various financial improprieties, such as the case covered up by New York Cdl. Timothy Dolan of the notorious Fr. Peter Miqueli, who stole vast sums from parishes to fund a lifestyle that included drugs and gay-for-pay prostitute Keith Crist. That story — the sex and the money — eventually exploded onto the front pages of New York City papers, finally forcing Dolan's hand.

But financial experts and auditors Church Militant has spoken to say the problem is much worse than the occasional headline or story that comes to the surface. Bishops keep their finances clothed in secrecy, eschewing even any appearance of transparency, and experts say that's because there is no real accountability. Bishops don't really answer to anybody, not in this life anyway.

Then there is what's called "soft theft." That's when money that's taken is allocated "legally" but oftentimes is immoral or unethical, like when a bishop approves a vast sum to spend on a house for himself. 

Wilton Gregory, the new archbishop of Washington, D.C., could be described as a "soft thief," allocating millions for a new house for himself — until news of his actions broke into the secular media and he backpedaled and canceled the plans, saying he wasn't aware of how his actions looked. They looked bad because they were, in fact, bad.

Bishops all over the country routinely do this. 

The retired bishop of San Jose, California plonked down a couple million for a "retirement pad" for himself in a swanky neighborhood until he, too, got busted in the secular press and withdrew the purchase.

Retired Newark Abp. John Myers wasn't halted, however, in his bid as Theodore McCarrick's successor to spend money like a drunken sailor on his retirement digs. His retirement house was originally purchased with parishioners' money in 2002 for $700,000 and is set in eight acres of one of New Jersey's more expensive and peaceful corners. It has five bedrooms, three bathrooms, a three-car garage, an elevator and a swimming pool. And of course, what retirement home for successors of the Apostles would be complete without a hot tub — what the archdiocese calls a "therapeutic whirlpool."

And while New York's Timothy Dolan didn't actually spend money to purchase his weekend getaway pad in upstate New York because it was donated, you've got to imagine the upkeep and maintenance bill is pretty hefty — especially the 75-foot Venetian swimming pool, which, of course, doesn't clean itself.

We could go on and on, like CNN did a few years back in a piece they called The Lavish Homes of American Archbishops.

But the party may soon be over for this thieving crowd, as Catholics everywhere are waking up to the moral and financial corruption of the mitered class.

According to one well-informed source, the Vatican — which lost millions each of the last few years — has seen a dramatic decrease in donations under the reign of Pope Francis, and the USCCB has folks close to the books who say donations across the United States are beginning to dry up.

If that continues in 2020, it could be a good year squeezing the crooks dry.

TRANSCRIPT

As we all head into straight-up combat this year — cultural and ecclesiastical — we need to understand one basic point: Sitting on the sidelines is no longer an option, in particular the Catholic establishment media. They must choose sides, and they must do it now, and very clearly.

Here's the bottom line: These folks have enabled the evil in the Church. That's something they have to own. They knew about McCarrick, for example, and sat silent because they didn't want to bring down the wrath of the bishops on their own heads. They are complicit because they had knowledge and did nothing about it.  

They knew and know about the infiltration into the ranks of the clergy by thousands of homosexual men. They knew and know about various bishops who were and are active homosexuals who devour the flock. They knew and know about the destruction of the Faith by a crooked hierarchy. They knew and know about the vast financial corruption underpinning a large part of the catastrophe. They have been witness to the greatest meltdown of the Faith, perhaps in the history of the Church — even more than the Protestant revolt of the 16th century.

Again, editorial decisions to not report on any of it — or when it has been reported on, they were always late to the game.

Back in 2002 when the Boston Globe broke the first news of the homosexual clergy sex abuse crisis, they abandoned their duty as journalists and went with the flow. The bishops said everything's cool — we've got it under control, and their media waterboys dutifully re-published the bishops' deceptive press releases like they were gospel. No critical analysis, no exploring of the root causes, but actually printing articles from the bishops that denied the connection to homosexuality.

Be certain of this: Had it not been for the independent Catholic media covering all this, they would still be lying to you or keeping you in the dark.

Why don't Catholic establishment media, for example, cover very commonsense stories, ones of interest to any Catholic? Stories like: Why don't dioceses around the country publish their financials for everyone to see? That is an extremely legit story and, to the best of our knowledge, only Church Militant broached that topic.

Catholics, especially now in the age of corruption, have every right to know how their money is being spent. How much of their collection plate donations are going to pay off victims? How much is going to legal firms? How many assets are being liquidated? My foot Catholics don't have a right to know those answers!

And even more: How bloated is the local diocesan chancery? How much does the communications director pull down each year? How big is the administrative staff? Are there all kinds of redundant offices and departments? This is nothing more than a story about transparency. 

Does the Catholic establishment media, always touting their inside knowledge of things, feel these types of stories aren't worth pursuing? In the world of authentic journalism, media reporting is all about finding the truth and reporting the truth, period.

In the political order, journalism is about being a watchdog over government because government cannot be trusted to police itself. It's why the Founding Fathers enshrined freedom of the press in the Constitution — the only profession given that kind of protection.

In a similar vein, sad to say, the hierarchy is long past the time to trust them. They have lied, distorted, covered up and enabled some of the most wicked men ever to wear a miter. These men have been horrible spiritual fathers as well as thieves, and they have left a trail of victims that will only be able to be finally sorted out on the Last Day.

When Catholic establishment media refuse to report a story, or side with the bishops and report their side, they forsake all integrity. Take the "reporting" engaged by them in the case of Fr. Paul Kalchik, who is still in hiding from Chicago Cdl. Blase Cupich. It was completely disingenuous and actually inaccurate — but it held up the establishment beautifully — painting Fr. Kalchik to be wrong and Blase Cupich to be some kind of champion.

Father Kalchik, you will remember, had to flee his parish after being threatened by Cupich after the gay banner burning incident. Father Kalchik came out of hiding and spoke with Church Militant about the role of the Catholic establishment media in victimizing him.

James Grein, long-term victim of McCarrick, broke the news on Church Militant that Cdl. Joseph Bernardin had sexually molested him, and the establishment media said nothing.

Church Militant broke the news that Bernardin had been accused of sexually molesting a minor victim as part of a satanic ritual, and that the victim had reported it to various Church officials and heard nothing in response — and the Catholic establishment media simply took a pass on the story.

Cupich did not include Bernardin's name on a list of sexual abusers to the Illinois attorney general, even though he said earlier that he would report all cases — confirmed or not — and the Catholic establishment media was MIA, totally AWOL.

Given the structure of how the Church works, and with the extremely corrupt hierarchy we now have — hell-bent on hiding truth from the laity — media reports are the only source victims have these days to gain some measure of justice. And we mean all victims — of homosexual abuse, spiritual abuse, financial abuse. It's the duty of those in Catholic media to fight for truth and justice. 

If the Catholic establishment media won't do that, they need to pack their bags and stop being part of the evil.