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!
