Red hat for San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy: Vatican message to U.S. Catholic bishops?

Two years before long-standing rumors about Cardinal Theodore McCarrick leapt into headlines worldwide, America's most outspoken activist on clergy sexual abuse met with his local bishop -- San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy.

"It was clear to me during our last meeting in your office, although cordial, that you had no interest in any further personal contact," wrote the late Richard Sipe, a former Benedictine priest who then worked for the Seton Psychiatric Institute in Baltimore. While church officials asked him to report to McElroy, "your office made it clear that you have no time in your schedule either now or 'in the foreseeable future' to have the meeting that they suggested."

Sipe's 2016 letter to the San Diego bishop was later posted online and is frequently cited as an example of a bishop ignoring warnings about the now defrocked McCarrick, who often boasted about his clout as a Vatican kingmaker. Now it will receive more attention because Pope Francis has named McElroy to the Sacred College of Cardinals. This promotes the San Diego bishop over several prominent archbishops -- including Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez, who leads America's largest Catholic archdiocese and is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In his hand-delivered report, Sipe told McElroy that his ongoing research indicated that 6% of American priests were guilty of sex with minors. Meanwhile, a "systemic" trend was clear: "At any one time no more than 50% of priests are practicing celibacy."

As for the powerful McCarrick, Sipe noted: "I have interviewed twelve seminarians and priests who attest to propositions, harassment, or sex with McCarrick, who has stated, 'I do not like to sleep alone.' "

Debates about McElroy's elevation have focused on other divisive issues in Catholic life, although decades of sexual-abuse crimes loom in the background. He has, for example, supported the ordination of women to the diaconate, allowing them to preach, perform weddings and serve -- one step from the priesthood -- at Catholic altars.

McElroy has openly clashed with American bishops anxious to address "Eucharistic coherence" as prominent Catholics, especially President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, support -- with words and deeds -- abortion and LGBTQ rights.

Chicago rules vs. the Latin Mass: There's more to 'worship wars' than the Tridentine Rite

Since the late 19th Century, Catholics have recited the Prayer to St. Michael when facing disease, disaster and despair.

It proclaims, in part: "St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. … O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan, and all the evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls."

Before Vatican II, this prayer was often recited after Mass, although it wasn't in the rubrics. In 1994, St. Pope John Paul II urged Catholics to embrace it -- while preaching on threats to the unborn.

The faithful at St. Joseph's Parish in Libertyville, Ill., stopped reciting the Prayer to St. Michael aloud after Masses this past summer. While debate continues about what the Archdiocese of Chicago instructed, livestreamed remarks by the associate pastor went viral, during a worship wars surge in modern Catholicism.

"What I'm going to say, I'm going to say this with a lot of respect. Following the directive of Cardinal Cupich, we want to remind everyone that the Prayer of St. Michael is not to be said publicly following Mass," said Father Emanuel Torres-Fuentes. "As a priest, I have to obey, and I obey this at peace."

While Cardinal Blase Cupich's actions have made news, this drama opened in July with a Pope Francis apostolic letter entitled "Traditionis Custodes (Guardians of the tradition)." It restricted use of the old Latin Mass, thus undercutting "Summorum Pontificum (Of the Supreme Pontiffs)" by the retired Pope Benedict XVI. That document said the post-Vatican II Novus Ordo was the "ordinary form" for the Mass, but the Tridentine rite was an "extraordinary form" that could be encouraged.

The Pope Francis letter appeared to give local bishops some freedom to control use of the old Latin Mass. Then the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship released guidelines on Dec. 18, explaining the pope's edict.

Many bishops, for example, had granted dispensations allowing some diocesan parishes to use the Latin Mass. But Rome's new guidelines said this was not permitted -- only the Vatican could grant exceptions. Also, any parish allowed to celebrate the Tridentine Mass could not list this service in printed or online Mass schedules.