We learn that the new Archbishop of San Francisco celebrated his ecclesial elevation making jokes in the pulpit about his DUI arrest (last time I looked driving while drunk was a very serious danger to others--check out the Bishop of Phoenix who killed a man in a hit and run while drunk a few years ago, apparently the new archbishop learned nothing from that episode).
Meanwhile, in the basement of the Catholic cathedral the Episcopal prelate of Northern
California, Bishop Marc Andrus was excluded from the event going on upstairs, apparently
because, in a letter to his diocese a week earlier, he had dared to question Catholic "theology"
that tells us homosexuality is "intrinsically evil" and rebukes all science that teaches the exact
opposite.
So much for interfaith ecumenical spirit.
But most ominous of all on this "Installation Day" is the report that outside the Cathedral was a group of hundreds of "Neocatechists" celebrating the installation of this new archbishop who is a member (as is the new archbishop of Los Angeles) of Opus Dei.
Here is where the real scary story looms.
What is the Neocatechist movement?
It is, like Opus Dei, a neo-fascist Catholic sect. I discuss the Neocatechist sect in my recent book, The Pope's War: Why Ratzinger's Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved (where I also lay bare the truths behind the hyper-secretive -- and influential -- Opus Dei sect).
The Neocatechist movement is highly secretive but boasts 1.5 million followers in 106 countries, supports 70 seminaries, and is called "the most powerful neoconservative movement in the church."
The founder, Kiko Arguello, is "the nearest thing to a televangelist that we have in Spain" and is "one of the most powerful men in the Catholic Church." After his conversion from agnosticism, like a good convert, he became more papist than the pope. Key to his catechesis is sexuality. He claims that homosexuality "is a sickness that can be cured." He rejects condoms and teaches that "25% fail." He encourages having as many children as possible -- members average five children per family. Pope John Paul II was an ardent admirer of Kiko, and the pope's personal secretary, Stanislaw Dziwisz (now a cardinal in Poland and a fierce opponent of separation of church and state, who is deeply resented there and is the same person who charged $50,000 for private Masses with the pope), is their champion.
Kiko's followers include 3,000 priests and 1,500 seminarians. They organize many "religious demonstrations" that are in fact political ones, and, like Dziwisz, they rally against the separation of church and state.
Cardileone's ardent support and fundraising for Proposition 8 is only the tip of the iceberg. The Pope's deliberate appointment of this homophobic Opus Dei bishop is not just an insult to San Francisco and its citizens and its values: It is an ultimate act in cynicism.
Since he is still in his 50s, San Francisco and environs is stuck with him probably for twenty years. In Oakland, where he was previously bishop, most clergy and Catholics are dancing in the streets that they are rid of him. In San Francisco, Good Luck. It is a time of religious darkness.
Watch the man carefully and all his Opus Dei and neo-catechumenist minions just as you keep an eye on the Opus Dei members of the Supreme Court and media.