TUCHO … It’s Worse Than You Think

Fr Hunwicke has some thoughts on the appointment of an alleged protector of predators to be head of the tribunal responsible for investigating such cases.

From Fr Hunwicke's Mutual Enrichment

I doubt if it is possble to overestimate the disaster inherent in the appointment of PF's long-time crony Tucho Fernandez to the ministry once discharged, with such distinction, by Joseph Ratzinger. PF's crudely critical words about how this dicastery had operated in its Ratzingerian past, speak for themselves.

Together with the demolition of Summorum Pontificum, this appointment signifies not only the rubbishing of the entire two-and-a-half-decades collaborazione of S John Paul II and Joseph Ratzinger; it indicates the definitive ending of the Petrine Ministry, as a service to the Church, as we have known it.

Instead of providing a check against error, the now-called DDF is to be ... PF has made this clear ... an engine of on-going theological and moral corruption within the Church. If the last decade has seemed like a chilly winter for Catholics, well, we aint seen nuffin yet.

We must not be blind to the extent of the harm this man will be able, and willing, to do. He will be on the governing boards of dicasteries other than his own. Think round that ...

As a member of one of the Ordinariates, writing as an individual and only in my own name, I have particular concerns. The creation of Catholic entities out of communities dating from the Reformation was one of the most striking achievements of the last pontificate ... how terrible it would be if it ended in chaos or acrimony. It was, of course, Archbishop Bergoglio who, the day after the Ordinariates were announced by Pope Benedict, said how unnecessary they were; who deplored their inauguration.

The Prefect of the DDF is 'line manager' for the three Ordinariates.

Our best hope is that, given the smallness of the Ordinariates, they will be a long way down the queue of priorities for Remedial Treatment. Tucho may have bigger victims to hunt down first.

But, not long ago, the Ordinary of the American Ordinariate, Bishop Stephen Lopes, was elected, by the entire USA episcopate, to be their Mr Liturgy. Bishop Stephen is a good Catholic and a fine Liturgist, both theoretical and practical. It will probably be best if I do not load too much more detail onto this dangerous analysis.

I doubt whether this election went unnoticed by the Bergoglian delatores in North America ... Cupich ... the McCarrick gang ...

Then there is the question of Appointments. Pope Benedict drafted Anglicanorum coetibus specifically so that the question of the nomination of candidates to be Ordinary was protected from interference by local episcopates. The Nuncio is supposed to send to Rome a terna of names generated within an Ordinariate itself. But, once that list gets to Rome, anything can happen.

In conclusion: in addition to all rhis, there is the question of paedophile priests, which comes within the remit of the DDF. 

Oh dear.