On the eve of the installation of His Grace Francis Leo - A Monograph on the State of the Archdiocese of Toronto

Tomorrow morning at Toronto's St. Michael's Cathedral, His Grace, Francis Leo will be
installed as Metropolitan Archbishop of Toronto. Archbishop Leo will be 52 in June and is the youngest bishop since Michael Power. The task ahead for Archbishop Leo is enormous. The Archdiocese of Toronto since Philip Pocock through Gerald Emmet Carter, Aloysius Ambrozic, and Thomas Collins has been a veritable "deep church." There have been cover-ups and pay-offs. A recently-deceased former Vicar-General and Monsignor fathered children whilst, in his position unbeknownst to the faithful, a scandal covered. Seminary professors and "liturgists" at St. Augustine's Seminary engaged in rampant sodomy covered up, much of it criminal and covered up through pay-offs and non-disclosures and explained away by rectors many of whom knew it was happening. Liturgy is in a state of anarchy in many places or simply, banality, catechesis is non-existent, schools are in apostasy, our hospitals engaging in narcotic "harm reduction" and the distribution of condoms and worse. For these last two, we have taken from Caesar and now dance to his tune. We saw the cancellation of Mass at the demands of "virtuous" public health officials and government in exchange for what amounted to wampum. We have seen under Cardinal Archbishop Collins a list of isolated and demoralized priests who have no support and no spiritual father, who have been insulted and ostracized over medical choice, and many of whom have been in one way or another, canceled. Young people want nothing to do with their parishes and have abandoned the faith. Parishes are generally in decline except for still intact new immigrant communities and even then, the new generations are not well staying. Faith is evaporating before our eyes and when we look around us we see an indictment on every Metropolitan Ordinary in Toronto since the Pocock. Collins has been no better and has presided over the near collapse. This is the reality. The Emporer has no clothes. Thomas Collins betrayed one and all when he shut down our churches and refused to stand up to the diktats of government. The last two weeks of posts are a reminder of the failure of this man against those toadies who praise and exalt him. 

I am honoured to have been provided, from an Anonymous source, this monograph on the current state of affairs and the task ahead. 

Truth suffers but it does not die

(St. Teresa of Avila) 

March 25, 2023 will mark the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the Archdiocese of Toronto. The new Archbishop, Francis (Frank) Leo will be installed and will undertake the spiritual guidance and care of the clergy and faithful of this portion of the Lord’s vineyard.

Undoubtedly, by now, His Grace will have been briefed by the representatives of the various Offices of the archdiocesan curia, and by the outgoing Archbishop, Thomas Cardinal Collins. If the Cardinal’s recent and surreal interview with the The Pillar is any indication of what Archbishop Leo has been told about the state of affairs as they pertain to the pastoral obligations and work of the archdiocese, the new Ordinary is in for a very rude awakening. In fairness, His Grace is coming from the Montreal; hardly a bastion of orthodoxy and fervour; and Toronto has yet to experience the church closures and the clustering of parishes that have occurred in Quebec. Nevertheless, in all fairness, so that he might undertake his task honestly and realistically he deserves to receive a truthful assessment of the state of things and not a narrative fashioned by the ideology and delusions of those who together with Cardinal Collins have shaped the life of this archdiocese for decades.

The new Archbishop takes possession of a metropolitan see that may be aptly described as a desolate city. This sad state of things is not particular to Toronto. It is undeniable that the Church is in decline throughout the world; and over these many years of crisis and collapse not a few have undertaken to chronicle the litany of betrayal of the faith and of the faithful, institutions of learning most especially, and of health care facilities. Our once distinctively Catholic institutions, largely staffed by dedicated religious men and women and dedicated laity are mere shells, no longer animated by a Catholic ethos. The Church in Toronto has experienced all of this and more. What makes this decline particularly tragic in the archdiocese of Toronto is its effect not only on its suffragan dioceses but also the propagation of ineffective and destructive pastoral theology throughout the country and beyond through the city’s once Catholic university colleges and the archdiocesan seminary. As the largest English speaking see in the country, Toronto is not without influence, good or bad; and the desertification that has occurred in Toronto reflects a general trend everywhere, especially in the years of the current pontificate.

The new Archbishop must understand that there are figures in the archdiocese who hold positions of pastoral authority and influence and who have done so since the arrival of Gerald Emmet Carter as Archbishop in 1978. For over forty-five years, these clerics have occupied influential posts entrusted to them during the tenure of Archbishop Philip Pocock. During these many years they have been able to establish a deep church that through their younger acolytes and accomplices establishes policies and determines governance of institutions and institutes both under the direct control of the archdiocese, such as the seminary, and other institutions, particularly the sizable school boards and other institutes of learning. The claim that the governance of school boards is a matter of publicly elected trustees is a glaring dereliction of duty. Why are anti-Catholic trustees not censured? Who teaches the religion courses to young teachers for certification? Usually, former clerics who are ideologically in league with the deep church. In the confusion experienced everywhere by the post-conciliar reforms hastily and often indiscriminately imposed, the faithful of the archdiocese have been subjected to the tyranny of novelty and rebellion. For the average Catholic, this tyranny was felt most acutely in the breakdown of authentic catechesis and in the liturgical anarchy that scandalized the faithful and destroyed sacred art and architecture. Suffice it to say that the toleration of liturgical abuses which famously began in Toronto at the Newman Centre has never ended. Archbishop Pocock’s refusal to exercise episcopal oversight at the university chaplaincy and to correct liturgical abuses there and his tacit approval of dissent and disregard for canon law and liturgical rubrics everywhere else opened the floodgates and the rest as they say, is history. As a result, still today, anything is tolerated except liturgical sobriety and orthodox teaching. Tout le monde fait ça.

The many years since the devolution of Catholicism began in earnest in the 1970’s enable us now to see that these efforts were directed at the destruction and eradication of so-called Tridentine Catholicism. In the years spanning the post-conciliar years and the tenure of Gerald Emmet Cardinal Carter (1978-1990), at least as it concerns parish life, everything depended on whether the clergy of the parish were guided by what we now refer to as the hermeneutic of rupture or the hermeneutic of continuity. Some parishes were noted for their liturgical anarchy and the seminary, whose student body was decimated in a matter of a few years, became a hotbed of immorality, heterodoxy and liturgical anarchy. These problems have not been effectively resolved. Few were the priests who understood that this rupture with Tradition was and is a recipe for destruction and eventual loss of faith. One cannot fail to mention with admiration and reverence the faithful and courageous witness of Msgr. Vincent Foy, a canceled priest before the term was ever coined, who at one time was even forbidden to live within the boundaries of Archdiocese by one of its Ordinaries. Providentially, he outlived his detractors and persecutors.

Intolerance for anything remotely traditional and anyone intellectually convinced of the value and necessity of Tradition resulted in the banishment of so-called traditional priests to the peripheries of the archdiocese. Again, this is not particular to Toronto, and it reflects a widespread phenomenon that has caused anguish for priests and laity alike. It would seem that almost everywhere episcopal intolerance for orthodox priests has now developed the force of custom in the Church. For a time, during the pontificate of Pope Benedict when it seemed that traditional practices were again in vogue, the careerists among the clergy sported lace and put out a few extra candlesticks but all this has disappeared with the new pontificate. These are the clerical stars who boast of their travels and hobbies on their Facebook pages. The rest of the clergy are on the whole badly educated and fearful of the heavy handed hierarchy, and the entitled though ignorant laity. Moral guidance is seldom if ever given from the pulpit, for fear of being delated to the regional bishop or the ordinary.

All manner of abuses are tolerated by appeals and affirmations of ‘being pastoral’, but few of the clergy truly understand that a pastoral approach to anything implies the good of souls. Precious little of what passes for work in the archdiocese has anything to do with the salvation of souls which is the supreme law of the Church. “Social ministries”, an undefined category, occupies the apparatchiks in the offices of the pastoral centre and make work projects with no discernible results distract the parish clergy and volunteers. An excellent example of such sterile incompetence is the youth office, usually headed by an immature, young cleric whose sartorial penchant for running shoes and jeans assures appointment to this post. A whole industry has developed around this “ministry”. The end result of this interminable war against the Traditional Faith are empty parishes, an empty seminary, the disappearance of religious communities, and schools that are scandalously at odds with Catholic moral teaching. Much more could be said about the sad state of affairs but the evidence of decay and inertia is in plain view for everyone to see and to experience. Yet, the deep church still has a stranglehold on what is left of the Church in Toronto.

By any metric, nothing is better in the archdiocese of Toronto than it was in 2007 when Cardinal Collins took over the reins of command. A renovated Cathedral means nothing and its use as a venue to eulogize politicians responsible for the holocaust of abortion in our nation is a scandal. At the root of the collapse of the Church in Toronto and elsewhere is the pernicious heresy of modernism whose denial of objective truth has resulted in the dictatorship of relativism and the failure in governance and oversight on the part of a modernist hierarchy. Perhaps the most glaring example of decay is the scandalous silence of the hierarchy in the face of a school curriculum that corrupts the minds and souls of our children, the most morally vulnerable among us. To expect teachers who face loss of employment to defend Catholic moral truth is a dereliction of duty on the part of the shepherds. Failure to support brave teachers, parents and priests who challenge the immoral policies of the school boards and administrators is also scandalous. The corruption of innocence cries out to heaven. The deliverance of our children from the evils of transgender ideology and sexual perversions boldly promoted in separate schools is the most pressing of the many tasks that the Archbishop must undertake.

The reluctance and refusal to enunciate and to defend Church teaching as it pertains to faith and life and most especially the moral law has resulted in the present desultory state of affairs: a predominantly ignorant laity now mostly indifferent to the Faith, educators who boldly flaunt their heretical and immoral beliefs, a balkanized presbyterate dominated by a liberally minded group of representative clergy, and a hierarchy more faithful to government directives than to Catholic truth. The so-called pandemic with its parish closures, its assault on the sacred liturgy and surrender to the arbitrary dictates of health authorities has only expedited the decline of the Church. What is left, where it has not been made to scatter and disappear is a remnant Church, marginalized and dispossessed but fervent in faith and in charity.

The new Archbishop faces a very challenging task. His relative youth as he undertakes his tenure is a blessing and a rare opportunity to carry out and firmly establish meaningful reforms. If he has the courage and foresight to break with the disastrous policies of his predecessors and the laissez faire attitude of his immediate predecessor, he will dismantle the deep church and govern and guide his flock to holiness of life and eternal salvation. If he doesn’t, then he will preside over the dismantling of the façade that hides decay and rubble and the Church in Toronto will definitely be catacombal. The wealth of the archdiocese of Toronto has enabled its functionaries to avoid the public scandals that have in some cases resulted in financial insolvency in other dioceses; but worldly wealth no matter how abundant is never greater than truth, the daughter of time.

May the prayers and protection of Our Lady to whom Archbishop Leo appears to have a devotion assist him. May the prayers and witness of St. Thomas Becket, St. Charles Borromeo and our own Bishop Michael Power strengthen him. Ad multos annos!