For more than 30 years Roman Catholic traditionalists have been saying that the current crisis in the Church emanates from the top down, and that the Vatican apparatus refuses to admit that there even is a crisis in the Church. No, the Vatican party line is that we are living through the post-conciliar "springtime" of the Church and that we must all acclimate ourselves to "springtime" instead of seeking a restoration of what has been destroyed by the "reforms of Vatican II." I recall here the now infamous remark of Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, that the traditionalist priests of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter must not seek any restoration of the traditional Mass but rather must accept "the outcome of their insertion into the ecclesial reality of today." Big Brother could not have uttered a more chilling phrase.

        Well, it seems that at least some of those who never thought to question the decisions of the Vatican apparatus are finally waking up and smelling the coffee. In an email for publication in Crisis magazine (which usually specializes in talking about everything but the crisis in the Church), Deal Hudson (a Baptist convert and now "mainstream" Catholic commentator) recounts his rude awakening upon a visit to the curial offices in the Vatican.

        Hudson reports that: "I have some bad news for you. … Just like you, I’ve been wondering why Rome doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it. Well, I found out. And the report isn’t so good. Here’s what I learned ... Most of the high-level Curia officials think there really IS no scandal. They told me it’s just another case of media bias against the Church... that secular news reporters are just blowing things out of proportion. … In fact, one official commented that there have always been sexual scandals in the Church, and the Church is always going to be subject to sin, so why are we so concerned?"

        Well, Hudson needn’t have journeyed to Rome to find out this bad news. In fact, this is not news to anyone in the traditionalist current of the Church.

        Hudson goes on with exquisite irony: "Why are we so concerned?! Let me see... It might have something to do with the Church authorities’ denial of the real problem - namely, predatory homosexuals in the priesthood. Or we might be concerned because no one in the Church seems to be stepping up to the plate to lead us out of this mess. Or maybe we’re a little upset by the cover-up culture that's been growing in the chancery offices. And when you throw in the fact that the Curia doesn’t think there’s a scandal to begin with... well... I’d say we have a pretty good reason to be concerned. But it gets worse. Apparently, the scandal in the U.S. didn’t even register with Vatican leadership until an Italian newspaper happened to mention it in May. May! That's almost 6 months after the crisis erupted on the front page of the Boston Globe (and became the lead story on all the major news programs). I couldn’t believe what I was hearing."

        Well, here at Fatima.org we have no trouble believing what Hudson heard in Rome. Indeed, how does Hudson think the Church arrived at its present condition absent precisely the failure of governance he had to travel 6,000 miles to appreciate, but which traditionalist Catholics have been documenting abundantly for decades?

        Ah, but the same curial officials who profess to know little or nothing about the worldwide infiltration of the Church by homosexual predators, keep themselves very informed about the comings and goings of Father Nicholas Gruner and his Fatima apostolate. Why, only one day after 9/11 the Vatican press office announced to the whole world that no one must attend Father Gruner’s upcoming conference in Rome on the subversive topic of "World Peace and the Message of Fatima."

        If Deal Hudson wants to ponder something unbelievable, he can ponder that.