Gerald had it as breaking news this morning, Amy posted about it, and of course Spirit Daily has the report as well. (In homage to Michael Brown, I was going to preface this post with, "Our Sad Time..."
So what's his name, Archbishop elect Stanislaus Wielgus, pulled an 11th hour resignation deal on Polish Catholics because of his scandalous affiliation with the Communist party when he was an up and coming priest. He wasn't alone in this, I'm sure. Although, I always thought being a member of the Communist party meant automatic excommunication at one time?
Anyway, this story fits in well with a real conspiracy theory. Even though some people may have never heard about it before, especially now when communism is dead...or is it? (Yes, that could be another conspiracy theory in itself.)
In previous lectures, a famous local priest, (along with Dr. Alice Von Hildebrandt more recently) has discussed the communist infiltration into seminaries citing Bella Dodd's writings. Presented is a quote on the topic taken from Bella Dodd:
"Speaking as a former high ranking official of the American Communist Party, Mrs Dodd said:
'In the 1930s we put eleven hundred men into the priesthood in order to destroy the Church from within." The idea was for these men to be ordained and progress to positions of influence and authority as Monsignors and Bishops. A dozen years before Vatican II she stated that: "Right now they are in the highest places in the Church" - where they were working to bring about change in order to weaken the Church's effectiveness against Communism. She also said that these changes would be so drastic that "you will not recognise the Catholic Church.'" -Christian Order (That sounds about right.)
Other more (sedevacantist) traditional groups incessantly point to these claims by Dodd and others while connecting all the dots for the crises of vocations, the clerical abuse scandals, the corruption of Catholic teaching, the overhaul of the Latin rite into the novus ordo, and so on. These people appear to have extensive documentation, and they've written numerous books providing evidence for their claims, yet inexplicably, they go largely ignored by Church and media. One such book, "The Devil's Final Battle" - which was not written by sedevacantists - outlines some of these theories as it pertains to the Fatima third secret.
Lumped into this pinko-commie-Church-destroying pig pile is the homosexual priest network, the Masons, the witches and demons of the catholic New Age, along with radical feminism. I'm not sure if these conspiracy theorists believe they are all in cahoots, but I'm pretty sure they think these departures from authentic Catholic teaching the intention of the Communist master plan. (Can't you just hear Judi Tenuta now, "It could happen!")
In my opinion, the resignation of the Archbishop-elect would indicate he wasn't as sinister an agent of the Communist state as conspiracy theorists would like to think. It may have simply been a mode of survival for him, which may not qualify as heroic virtue either. As politically savvy and well-informed as JPII was, don't you think he knew about this stuff?
At any rate, be careful what you read. Some of these books and theories have an undermining effect upon the Catholic faith all by themselves. I think it's better to remember Lot's wife, and not look back at the chaos and destruction, rather fix our eyes on Jesus, who inspires and perfects our faith. (Unless you enjoy conspiracy theories. But take them with a grain of exorcism salt.)
Don't keep your head in the sand either.
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