How I Met the Bishops' Deep State

…and half-a-century later, it’s still alive and well!

The Bishop, from "The Dance of Death", by Hans Holbein the Younger

Many American Catholics today observe events in the Church with sorrow, even anger. The residue of the abuse and coverup scandals seems never to end. Billions in payouts and bankruptcies continue, while our bishops never seem ready to provide the “transparency and accountability” that they promised for years. Homosexuals are celebrated while the Traditional Latin Mass is persecuted. Shepherds who were silent on pro-abortion “Catholic Joe” Biden rant and rail at Donald Trump.

And why? He’s the most pro-life president in history, right?

But he cut off their government money – countless millions of it in taxpayer dollars.

And that’s all they seem to care about.

It’s been a quarter-century since the scandals exploded into public view, and nothing has changed. Not one guilty bishop quit. Tens of billions of the faithful’s donations have been spent on lawyers and payouts to victims. The vast majority of the crimes revealed in the scandals were “homosexual in nature,” the bishops admitted years ago, but so what? Just try to find a prelate who will celebrate sexual purity, marriage, the family – anything that reflects Catholic teaching. And condemn sexual sin? Forget it.

Homosexuality is rife in the priesthood and the hierarchy, but all they seem to care about is bashing Trump for taking away their federal cash.

In the view of this old-timer, this hasn’t happened by accident. Most folks today realize that there’s a “Deep State” in Washington, and we’re learning more every day about how far back it goes, and how truly deep it is.

Well, there’s a Deep State in the American episcopal hierarchy as well, and this old sodbuster is going to be taking a long look at it in days to come. And that means going back in time – in this case, forty-five years or so, when I met it for the first time.

During the Reagan administration, I served as staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere. I spent most of my time dealing with Latin American policy, especially the communist subversion going on in Central America. Visitors came by my office to lobby all the time, among them representatives of the U.S. Catholic Conference (today’s USCCB). One of them was a Franciscan friar who is now the cardinal-archbishop of Boston, Sean O'Malley, O.F.M. Cap.

Other "Catholic" groups, lay and religious, came by as well, predominantly on the Left. Some of them were professional agitators. That was not uncommon — I was on Capitol Hill, after all. I recall one priest from North Carolina bragging with a laugh that he only wore his collar when he was lobbying Congress or buying a car.

And I saw nuns — lots of nuns. They flooded Capitol Hill. They always wore habits and were usually accompanied by a male minder. Many of them were sent to me by Senate staffers on both sides of the aisle, grateful that I'd meet with them.

Word got around pretty quickly that I would be glad to talk to all the holy rollers who wanted to complain about Reagan's policies, so they became part of my daily routine.

America's Bishops Stiff-arm Their Brothers to the South

Central America was always on the policy agenda, and I traveled there often. Each time, I made it a point to speak with every religious group I could find. Early on, I was surprised to discover that I was the only American official who had met every bishop in El Salvador. The visits were sometimes difficult, but worth it.

Again and again, throughout the region, bishops had one observation in common. They said that their brother bishops in the United States were on the wrong side of the ongoing wars, even siding with the communists.

Moreover, America's bishops wouldn't listen to their fellow bishops south of the border. When asked why our bishops would be so callous, Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, Archbishop of Managua, Nicaragua wryly said, "Maybe they aren't getting their mail."

The cardinal later told me he had to sleep in a different house every night because Nicaragua's communist Sandinistas were trying to kill him.

Finally, I decided I'd heard enough, and I did what I thought any layman in my position should do. I called the office of the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, D.C. and made an appointment to meet with the nuncio to tell him what I'd seen and heard.

When I arrived for the appointment, an American priest, the nuncio's secretary, met with me (the nuncio was, of course, "not available"). He listened respectfully, stone-faced, scarcely saying a word. He then showed me to the door.

After that visit, things changed — but not like I thought they would. Suddenly, I had no visitors from the bishops' conference. At the time, of course, the bishops were still in high gear attacking Reagan's policies, and their lobbyists were "working the Hill" all the time. But they never lobbied me — a Catholic staff director of the most vital Senate committee dealing with the issue.

When Bishops Refuse to Act, the Laity Have to

When I saw that nothing was going to change, I coordinated with a foreign policy think tank to sponsor visits to Washington by bishops from all over Central America. Democrats, as well as Republicans, met with us and expressed their gratitude — and often, their surprise. Liberal Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas congratulated me after one emotional meeting.

"Let's work together on this," he said, shaking my hand.

Folks, that kind of thing didn't happen very often. After all, Tsongas and my pro-life boss, Senator Jesse Helms, were seldom on the same page.

One of our visitors who addressed the Committee members was Monsignor Freddy Delgado, the President of El Salvador's bishops' conference. After his testimony, we took hm to meet with Baltimore Abp. William Borders in his chancery office. When we finally said, "I’m sorry, Your Excellency, but we've got to get the Monsignor to the airport," the archbishop told us, "No, I'll take him myself. I need to find out more. My staff hasn't told me any of this before!"

In fact, that was a very common reaction to our visits. Only recently have I found out why.

The diplomatic priest-secretary with whom I had met at the nunciature in Washington that day was Father Blase Cupich.

Welcome to the Lavender Underground

Who was running the bishops' conference in those days? Well, Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, the most powerful prelate in the country. His ally, Robert Lynch, had started working at the U.S. Catholic Conference in the early 1970s.

When I visited the nunciature, Lynch was serving as an associate general secretary of the bishops' conference. He eventually assumed the top spot and ran the conference until Cardinal Bernardin died in 1996. The next year, Lynch was made bishop of St. Petersburg, Florida, where he later had to pay an adult male employee in excess of $100,000 to settle a sexual harassment suit.

Put the pieces together: Gay-friendly Cardinal Bernardin, Father Cupich, and homosexual Fr. Lynch at the USCCB. I'm convinced that Cupich didn't tell the nuncio a thing after I left the nunciature.

Instead, I think he got on the phone to Lynch at the conference as soon as I walked out the nuncio's door, warning him: "Keep clear of this guy. He's trouble." So what if I worked for the most pro-life senator on Capitol Hill? That wasn't nearly so important to the sodomite syndicate as pushing their left-wing agenda was.

In the years that followed, our office never had another visitor from the U.S. bishops' conference. The bishops' "Lavender Underground" had an agenda then, and they have one now. And Blase Cupich has been a key player for forty-five years and counting.

You can find the rest of the story in my new book, “Charity for Sale: Have America’s Bishops Become ‘Just Another NGO’?” – available from Amazon or cforc.com/charityforsale.