In Heavily-Plagiarized Speech, Vatican Spokesman Accuses Archbishop Viganò of ‘Lies’

As my Hampshire born Gran would say, Tommy Rosica is a piece of work. A litigious heretic is what I call him and, it turns out, a plagiarist as well.

From LifeSiteNews (H/T to Vox Cantoris)

CAMBRIDGE, England, February 15, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – A Vatican consultant and frequent English-language spokesman for the Vatican accused Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò of “lies” in a lecture in which he passed off other writers’ words as his own. 

Authors who Rosica plagiarized - often word-for-word and at significant length - include Cardinal Edwin O’Brien, Gregory K. Hillis, Fr Thomas Reese, Cardinal Walter Kasper, and Fr. James Martin. (View a comparison of Fr. Rosica's original speech with the plagiarized passages. Click here.)

At a February 8 lecture at Cambridge University,  Fr. Thomas Rosica, executive director of Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation, suggested Archbishop Viganò was a liar. Rosica, known for his pro-homosexual views, described the Vatican whistle-blowers' witness as a “diabolical masterpiece.” 

Archbishop Viganò’s 2018 testimony revealed that disgraced Archbishop Theodore McCarrick had been protected by high-ranking Church authorities, including Pope Francis himself. 

Describing the current events in the Church as a “perfect storm”,  Rosica said:

Some of you in the room may be too young to remember a book and related movie entitled The Perfect Storm –an expression … which describes when several weather patterns meet at the same time, clash and produce violent and horrible damage. The Catholic Church that we love and strive to serve is in the midst ... of a perfect, diabolical storm. Not just the Church in Great Britain, the USA, but also around the globe: Chile, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada and God alone knows how many more countries to come! 

The appalling, shameful life of a Cardinal of the Church, the shocking 900-page plus report of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury that related unspeakable depravities of priests against young and vulnerable persons; a former Vatican Nuncio’s vicious accusations against the Church’s highest authorities that is nothing but a full-frontal attack of half-truths and lies against the Vicar of Christ and Successor of Peter. 

“A series that has been rightfully called a ‘diabolical masterpiece’ of Archbishop Viganò,” he added to the prepared speech in his recorded presentation. 

Bishop Robert Barron had originally used the phrase “diabolical masterpiece” last summer to describe the clerical sexual abuse scandal, not Archbishop Viganò’s testimony. The phrase was subsequently picked up by Cardinal Edwin O’Brien. In his speech, Rosica reproduced - with some adjustments - a section of the Cardinal’s September 8, 2018 letter to the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher about “the perfect storm” without attribution. 

Cardinal O’Brien’s original passage read: 

Many of you recall the book and movie The Perfect Storm – when several weather patterns meet at once – they clash and create terrible damage.

Our Catholic Church is in the midst of a perfect storm – a perfect demonic storm: Chile, Ireland, the Netherlands, Australia, the United States – and how many more to come?! The revolting, profoundly shameful double life of a Cardinal of the Church. The almost pornographic 900-page report of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury –unspeakable depravities of priests against the young and vulnerable. A former Vatican Nuncio’s accusations against the Church’s highest authorities.

It has been called ‘A DIABOLICAL MASTERPIECE’!

Cardinal O’Brien was mentioned in Archbishop Viganó’s testimony as a member of a “homosexual current” in the Roman Catholic Church. The harsh language added to his reference for the “former Vatican Nuncio,” however, seems to be Rosica’s own.  

Near the beginning of his lecture, Father Rosica reproduced a passage - word for word - from an essay by Gregory K. Hillis, a professor of Theology at Bellarmine University, without attribution. The passage, originally published by Hillis on 16 March 2016, read:

While the Church can offer a broad theological vision that focuses on the interconnectedness of all things, it cannot pretend to have all the answers to specific concrete questions. In these circumstances, ‘honest debate’ must be encouraged that respects divergent views. This means that the church itself should be included in the dialogue, but it also means that voices currently not in the debate need to be included.

Rosica also borrowed extensively, without attribution, from an essay by Fr Thomas Reese published in the National Catholic Register in 2017. He also mined Cardinal Walter Kasper’s work, again without attribution, and slightly adapted paragraphs from an article by Fr. James Martin, S.J. titled “The Witch Hunt for Gay Priests.” Once again, Rosica failed to give credit to the author. 

View a comparison of Fr. Rosica's original speech with the plagiarized passages. Click here.)

LifeSiteNews reached out to Fr. Rosica via Salt+Light TV for comment but did not receive a response. 

Professor John Rist, who was present at the talk, told LifeSiteNews via email that Rosica’s lecture was “a very rhetorical affair” and that he challenged the priest’s ecclesiology in the subsequent question session. 

“You have spoken much of unity and dialogue within the Church while also directing slanderous comments at Archbishop Viganò,” Rist recalled saying to Rosica. 

Rist then quoted Father Rosica’s notorious remark regarding his belief that, with Pope Francis as its earthly head, the Catholic Church is now “openly ruled by an individual rather than by the authority of Scripture alone or even its own dictates of tradition plus Scripture.”  

Rosica told Rist that the citation was taken out of context, the scholar recalled. 

The professor then asked Rosica if Pope Francis himself were not responsible for the “now near total rift” among Catholics. 

“If your description of the state of the Church is accurate, must one not conclude that the present pope, so far from carrying out his primary duty of unifying believers, has more than any other single individual contributed to the now near total rift between liberal and traditional Catholics which is putting the faith of thousands of Catholics at risk?” Rist said he asked.  

In response, Rosica said only that the distinction between “liberal” and “traditional” did not go back to the time of Jesus, Rist told LifeSiteNews. 

Rosica was the guest of the Von Hügel Institute at  St Edmund’s College in Cambridge University. His gave his lecture, “Catholicity: Crises and Opportunities,” to an audience of about 30 people. A blurb for the talk suggested that Rosica would be verbally pummeling his doctrinal rivals.

“Catholicity has become a tribal designation of a particular group of Christians over against others, divisive and constraining rather than expansive and inviting,” it said.

“The lecture will explore a number of challenges and constrictions in ‘catholicity’ (the abuse crises, Christian Unity, Interreligious Dialogue, formation of priests, lay collaboration and gender representation in the Church) as well as some of the more expansive ways of thinking and being Catholic.”

Father Rosica is known for speaking harshly of orthodox Catholics, whom he accused years ago of forming a “Catholic Taliban.” He roughly admonished Catholic pro-lifers in print when they objected to the obsequious, lionizing attitude of Boston’s Catholic hierarchy towards pro-abortion Senator Ted Kennedy, on full display at what critics called his ostentatious funeral.

Rosica is also known for his pro-homosexual sympathies. He has defended LGBT activist Fr. James Martin, rejected the Catechism’s description of the homosexual inclination as “objectively disordered,” and said the phrase “intrinsically disordered” is “harsh.” Rosica was a longtime admirer of the late Gregory Baum, a homosexual dissident former priest whom he interviewed on Salt and Light in 2012.

The advertisement for the Von Hügel lecture described Rosica as a “renown[ed] author, speaker, commentator and lecturer in Sacred Scripture at Canadian Universities” as well as “the Vatican’s English language media attaché at the last five Synods of Bishops as well as assistant to the Director of the Holy See Press Office during the Papal Transition of 2013.”