Pillar subscribers can listen to JD read this Pillar Post here: The Pillar TL;DR
Hey everybody,
Today’s the feast of St. Bernadette, and you’re reading The Tuesday Pillar Post.
If you’re reading this, you probably know already that Pope Francis is a patient right now in Italian hospital, and judging by the media releases from the Vatican, he’s really pretty sick.
The pope is also elderly — at 88, he is now the seventh oldest man on record occupying the papal office. (Though in fairness, there are a fair number of early popes whose biographical details are pretty sketchy.) He is also the world’s fouth oldest head of state, by the Vatican’s count.
Still, no one can say what will become of the pope’s illness. It’s clearly on people’s minds — I’ve gotten dozens of texts in the past two days asking me what will happen. But God only knows the hour, for any of us, and beyond that there is little to be said.
Do pray for the pope. Do pray for his consolation in suffering, that he unites it to the suffering of the cross, and in so doing draws closer to Jesus Christ.
The news
The Pillar broke the news Saturday that shortly before his retirement was announced, Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington, DC, faced a Vatican-ordered Vos estis lux mundi investigation, on the charge that Gregory had inappropriately touched a young priest during a round of golf in 2019.
The allegation against Gregory itself came in the course of a canonical disciplinary process for the priest alleging Gregory’s misconduct.
Gregory was cleared by investigators, sources told The Pillar, with one explaining that investigators concluded “that there was no case to answer for Cardinal Gregory.”
And sources said that despite rumors to the contrary, the Vos estis investigation was not the reason that Gregory’s resignation was recently accepted.
The situation merits more investigation, and we hope to do more reporting on it as we’re able. But it also points to a troubling reality about Vos estis lux mundi — an investigative process rolled out with promises of transparency and clarity about episcopal and Vatican public accountability. The fact is that we really have no idea how many U.S. bishops have faced Vos estis investigations, or why, or what the outcomes have been. We only find out about them when The Pillar happens to break the news about one.
The idea was that Vos estis would usher in a new era of institutional public accountability, and it is instead a secret process by which bishops investigate bishops without telling anyone at all.
It doesn’t have to be that way. And in fact, it’s not that way everywhere. There are countries which have had considerably more transparency about the existence of Vos estis investigations, which indicates that the matter is seemingly at the discretion of national apostolic nuncios, through whom the back-and-forth of such processes is channeled.
The effect of the secrecy, it seems to me, is to make relatively incredible, for many Catholics, a process which was supposed to boost their confidence in the Church’s commitment to justice.
At any rate, as to Cardinal Gregory — You’ll only read investigative stories like this at The Pillar, and you can read this one here.
In short, the video appeared to show the woman as a concelebrant to the Mass. As you can imagine, that took off in the press pretty quickly.
So what really happened? Well, the Archdiocese of Chapecó says it was an ecumenical gesture toward the woman, an Anglican minister, which “inadvertently violated” liturgical norms. That might come as a surprise to those in attendance, since the archbishop acknowledged the woman — vested and seated among concelebrants — during his homily.
The bill was introduced after King Charles III took the unprecedented step of nominating a practicing Catholic as the Lord High Commissioner to the Church of Scotland’s 2025 general assembly.
The archdiocese says media reports on the priest, Msgr. Joseph Reilly, are wrong, and that a 2020 letter reported by Politico — which recommended the priest not be given any leadership positions at Seton Hall — was never actually sent.
Cardinal Joseph Tobin has now contracted a law firm to investigate his previously ordered investigation of the university.
But will it make a difference? Analysis from me, right here.
FIRE Foundation of Denver works to champion the inclusion of students with disabilities in Catholic schools by providing educational resources, fundraising, and promoting a culture of belonging. They’re hiring a new executive director. Could it be you? Apply today.
Coupled with the diocese’s serious economic challenges, clerical dissension makes for a complicated situation in the diocese at the heart of the Church.
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As tensions mount between the U.S. and Beijing over Taiwan, the Holy See — one of the last diplomatic powers to recognize Taiwan’s government — is an interesting position for global diplomacy.
What role could the Vatican play in the escalating global concern over Taiwan? Ed Condon explains the world.
Are we canceled?
Some readers in the Chicago-land area have reached out to me about three talks I was scheduled to give next week in proximity to the Windy City.
On Thursday, I was scheduled to give a talk about the work of Catholic journalists, as part of a “Catholic Culture” lecture series in Oak Brook, Illinois.
On Friday, I was scheduled to talk with college students and faculty about living the Christian life amid the shifting cultural ground of the U.S. and division in the Church.
On Saturday, I was scheduled to speak with high school students about the dignity and gift of people with disabilities. Disabled people. That’s what that talk was going to be about.
All three talks were organized by the Lumen Christi Institute, a unique intellectual apostolate whose work is mostly in proximity to the University of Chicago, but has a mission that resonates across the Chicago archdiocese, and indeed, across the Church.
I respect the work of the Lumen Christi Institute immensely. You should too.
Yesterday, the institute informed me that the talks were canceled. It was clear to me that it was not Lumen Christi’s decision to cancel them.
It apparently just turns out I am not welcome to speak in the Archdiocese of Chicago. Even about the universal call to holiness. Even about loving the Church as a mother, and believing that Christ can heal all wounds and sin, which is what I planned to talk about on Thursday.
Even about knowing and loving people with disabilities.
I reached out to the archbishop’s office of the Archdiocese of Chicago yesterday, to better understand the decision, but I have not yet heard back. Maybe it was just some kind of mix-up.
But if there is some concern about my orthodoxy, I would like to hear it — and correct it. But I doubt it’s that.
If there is some concern about the accuracy of our reporting, I’d be glad to hear that, too.
If there is some sense that I am not sufficiently loyal to the Holy Father, or to the Church, I’d be glad to understand it.
But I don’t think it’s that. I think the problem is that The Pillar takes seriously Pope Francis’ 2018 admonition, that Catholic journalists should do their work for the sake of reform in the Church.
I think it’s that I’m not a housecat. And I’m concerned if that makes me the wrong kind of people for the Archdiocese of Chicago. Even to go tell a bunch of high school kids how much I love the extraordinary children God has given me.
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In truth, I almost let this go, and decided not to say anything, until Ed found out this morning that a talk he was scheduled to give tonight in the Archdiocese of Washington had been canceled, just after we reported on a Vos estis lux mundi investigation in that archdiocese.
And then an interview we had scheduled with a high-ranking Churchman was abruptly canceled too.
In short, my talks got canceled this week, and so did Ed’s.
Here’s my concern: We’re not polemical or incendiary. We make it a point to avoid sensation. We’re equal opportunity reporters — we cover everybody, with the same rigor and seriousness. We’re not culture warriors or showmen, we’re not twirling our pencils in a whirlwind on conspiracy-laden YouTube videos.
We consistently urge obedience to ecclesiastical authority, even as we urge better governance where it’s needed.
We try to be cool and normal, is what I’m trying to say. The problem, so far as I can tell, is that we do the reporting seriously.
If we’re persona non grata in segments of the Church for doing our jobs, what does that say about the Church’s commitment to the values we’re committed to: transparency, accountability, good governance? That’s the part concerning me, right now.
Getting canceled in Chicago or DC strikes me as both the best argument for The Pillar’s existence, and the reason why sometimes, it’s no fun to be The Pillar at all.
We’ll obviously keep doing our jobs. We’re obviously undeterred. We obviously think The Pillar is important, and we honestly hope you’ll be with us, helping us to do more. It should be obvious that the work is needed. And it should be obvious that to do this, we need more people on the team.
But right now, I’m mad. And I’m discouraged.
I don’t expect I’ll hear back from the Chicago archbishop’s office. But I hope I will. I was really looking forward to giving that talk about my kids.
Please be assured of our prayers, and please pray for us. We need it.
Yours in Christ,
JD Flynn
editor-in-chief
Pariah of the Second City?
The Pillar
