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Dubia cardinals ask bishops to confront ‘conspiracy of silence’ </h1>
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<a class="gmail-sf-author__link" href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/author/catholic-news-agency/" rel="author"><span>Catholic News Agency</span></a></div><div class="gmail-sf-author"><a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2019/02/21/dubia-cardinals-ask-bishops-to-confront-plague-of-the-homosexual-agenda/">https://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2019/02/21/dubia-cardinals-ask-bishops-to-confront-plague-of-the-homosexual-agenda/</a><br>
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21 February, 2019</div></div></div><div style="width:48px;height:165px;display:block;vertical-align:baseline;float:left"><div class="gmail-sf-sharing gmail-is_stuck" style="width:48px">
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Cardinals Burke and Brandmüller urged bishops to
'proclaim the integrity of the doctrine of the Church' </p>
<p>Catholic bishops around the world need to combat the homosexual
agenda in the Church, two cardinals said in an open letter addressed to
the presidents of the world’s conferences of bishops.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Cardinal Walter Brandmüller and Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke
wrote in a Feb. 19 letter that the “horrible crime” of clerical sexual
abuse of minors is “only part of a much greater crisis” that must be
addressed before real change can occur.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“The plague of the homosexual agenda has been spread within
the Church,” said the two cardinals, “promoted by organized networks
and protected by a climate of complicity and a conspiracy of silence.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">The two cardinals addressed the open letter to their “dear
brother” bishops who lead episcopal conferences around the world, and
who are due to meet in Rome from February 21-24 to discuss the crisis of
sexual abuse of minors.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Burke and Brandmüller pointed to materialism, relativism,
and hedonism as the root causes of an agenda promoted by “organized
networks” and “a climate of complicity and a conspiracy of silence.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">The cardinals also acknowledged the role of clericalism in
the sexual abuse crisis, which many in the Church have said lends itself
to to a culture of abuse of power and status. However, the letter said,
“the first and primary fault of the clergy” is not an abuse of their
power, but “in having gone away from the truth of the Gospel.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">“<span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>The even public denial, by words and by acts, of the
divine and natural law, is at the root of the evil that corrupts certain
circles in the Church,”</b></span> Burke and Brandmüller wrote.</p>
<p dir="ltr">They said that some bishops and cardinals have been
“silent” in response to this “drift” in the Church, and asked those
attending this week’s conference in Rome if they would “also be silent.”</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Burke and Brandmüller are the two living members of a group
of four so-called “dubia” cardinals who submitted formal requests for
clarification to Pope Francis regarding the interpretation of his
apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, published after the Synod on the
Family.</b></span></p>
<p dir="ltr">In the letter, Brandmüller and Burke note that they have
not yet had a response to the dubia, and suggest that the need for
clarification is “part of a more general crisis of the faith.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Therefore, <span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>we encourage [bishops] to raise your voice to
safeguard and proclaim the integrity of the doctrine of the Church,”</b></span>
they wrote.<span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b> “A decisive act now is urgent and necessary.”</b></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>The letter</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>was released just days before the world-wide
summit in Rome to address</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>the sexual abuse crisis,</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>and ahead of the
publication of a widely trailed book entitled </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>“In the Closet in the
Vatican.</b></span>”<span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b> Authored by a French journalist, the book purports to expose</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>a
cultutre of homsexuality, hypocrisy, and secrecy in the upper ranks of
the curia.</b></span></p>
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