US Department of Justice to open investigation regarding the role of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy in sex abuse cover-up

Referring to Isaiah 40:6-8, 1 Peter says: “For ‘All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like a flower of the grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures forever.’ And this word is the gospel that was proclaimed to you.” (1 Peter 1:24-25 CSB).

I believe we are going to see the once-mighty Roman Catholic Church shrivel up and die in the coming years. It appears as if the US Department of Justice is moving aggressively forward with an investigation of the cover-up in the Roman Catholic sex abuse scandal.

Roman Catholics who want to dissemble about the “sex abuse scandal” may claim that sex abuse happens in schools, businesses, families, and governments, but nowhere but in the Roman Catholic Church is there a cover-up so broad and far-reaching.

The Roman Catholic website “Church Militant” has published the following (and there is a related video outlining this, tying the “sex abuse” scandal directly to rampant homosexuality among the hierarchy):

DETROIT (ChurchMilitant.com) - The federal government is ordering every U.S. bishop to preserve documents related to clerical sex abuse. The move signals the possibility of a much wider federal criminal probe into the Catholic Church than is currently taking place.

A seven-page letter sent Oct. 9 by U.S. Attorney William McSwain to [Cardinal] Daniel DiNardo, president of the U.S. bishops' conference, requests the "officers, directors, employees, agents, and representatives" of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) "to preserve the documents described in the enclosure to this letter."

The enclosure refers, among other things, to all evidence kept in diocesan "secret archives," reserved for allegations of clerical misconduct, including sex abuse.

"I request that these documents be preserved in their current form and condition, and not be destroyed, discarded, disposed of, deleted, or altered in any way," McSwain writes.

According to Vatican blogger Rocco Palmo, the letter was distributed to all the bishops on Tuesday, "and has duly spread since among internal counsels and personnel-chiefs across the Stateside church's 198 jurisdictions."

In a statement issued Friday, Anthony Picarello, Jr., attorney to the USCCB, said, "We have transmitted the U.S. attorney's letter (to our staff) at his request, and in the spirit of cooperation with law enforcement." Picarello clarified that the USCCB "lacks the authority" to enforce McSwain's request regarding individual bishops….

The federal probe follows the launch of multiple state investigations into the Catholic Church, prompted by the publication of the 884-page Pennsylvania grand jury report in mid-August, which revealed 301 alleged predator priests in six dioceses.

the US DOJ is launching an investigation now. There are 15 states doing Pennsylvania-style investigations, but this federal investigation will be able to deal with interstate movements of priests. It will consume enormous resources, it will drag on for years, and in the end, the regular drumbeat of new revelations (and anticipations of reports and indictments) will continue strangle the life out of “faithful Catholics” for years to come. Worse, the name of Christ will be derided mightily because of the Roman hierarchy.

In the coming years, it will be hard not to see this passage in Revelation 17 as a prophecy about the Roman Catholic Church:

The Woman and the Scarlet Beast
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me: “Come, I will show you the judgment of the notorious prostitute who is seated on many waters. The kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and those who live on the earth became drunk on the wine of her sexual immorality.” Then he carried me away in the Spirit to a wilderness.

I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, jewels, and pearls. She had a golden cup in her hand filled with everything detestable and with the impurities of her prostitution. On her forehead was written a name, a mystery: ‘Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and of the Detestable Things of the Earth.’ Then I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses to Jesus. When I saw her, I was greatly astonished.

The Meaning of the Woman and of the Beast
Then the angel said to me, “Why are you astonished? I will explain to you the mystery of the woman and of the beast, with the seven heads and the ten horns, that carries her. The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up from the abyss and go to destruction. Those who live on the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast that was, and is not, and is to come. This calls for a mind that has wisdom.

“The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated. They are also seven kings: Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he comes, he must remain for only a little while. The beast that was and is not, is itself an eighth king, but it belongs to the seven and is going to destruction. The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they will receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will conquer them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings. Those with him are called, chosen, and faithful.”

He also said to me, “The waters you saw, where the prostitute was seated, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages. The ten horns you saw, and the beast, will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked, devour her flesh, and burn her up with fire. For God has put it into their hearts to carry out his plan by having one purpose and to give their kingdom to the beast until the words of God are fulfilled. And the woman you saw is the great city that has royal power over the kings of the earth.”

It is hard to imagine that the US investigation into all of this will be the only one. Australia has already completed such an investigation, in which more than 4,400 incidents were reported by at least 1,880 suspected abusers (most of whom were abused in a Roman Catholic church or facility). This US probe will no doubt have a much larger scope.

In order to claim that Peter was in Rome, the Roman Catholic Church itself takes the identification of the city of Rome as Babylon (1 Peter 5), as a first pillar of its own identity. To suggest that the city of Rome, today, has some type of influence in the world, apart from “the Church”, is ludicrous. The city of Rome today has little global noteworthiness in the eyes of "the Earth", except for the Vatican and “the Holy See”. For the Roman Catholic Church now to disavow this identification would be to disavow its own historical identity.

Interestingly, it is Donald Trump’s DOJ, which will no doubt be populated with many Roman Catholic investigators. I think we will rightly see faithful Protestant enclaves (which are dwindling in number by comparison) as places in the wilderness where faithful Christians can simply observe as God’s plan unfolds.