The National Catholic Reporter portal (July 4, 2026) reports the release of the Michigan Attorney General’s sixth report on clerical sexual abuse, this time targeting the Diocese of Saginaw, a jurisdiction of the conciliar sect. Over a 75-year period, 37 “priests” and one “deacon” stand accused by 104 victims, predominantly in the 1970s and 1980s. “Bishop” Robert Gruss offers apologies, cites compliance with the 2002 USCCB “Charter for the Protection of Children,” boasts of “Virtus” training for 5,174 people, and emphasizes cooperation with secular authorities. No criminal charges were filed. The sect’s hierarchy presents this managerial compliance as “progress” and “healing.” This bureaucratic theater constitutes a diabolical substitution of the Church’s divine constitution for corporate risk management, proving the conciliar structure is a paramasonic NGO devoid of jurisdiction, valid orders, and the supernatural life of grace.
The Juridical Fiction of the “Diocese” and the Nullity of “Orders”
The article speaks of the “Diocese of Saginaw,” “diocesan and religious order priests,” and “Bishop Robert Gruss.” From the perspective of integral Catholic theology, these entities do not exist as Catholic realities. Since the usurpation of the Holy See by John XXIII (Angelo Roncalli) in 1958, the See of Peter has been vacant (*sede vacante*). The men occupying episcopal chairs in the conciliar sect are not successors of the Apostles but functionaries of a revolutionary structure. St. Robert Bellarmine teaches definitively: “A Pope who is a manifest heretic, by that very fact ceases to be Pope and head… by which things he may be judged and punished by the Church” (*De Romano Pontifice*). The “bishops” of the neo-church, by their public profession of the heresies of Vatican II (religious liberty, ecumenism, collegiality, novelty of the Mass), are manifest heretics. By Canon 188 §4 of the 1917 Code — binding divine and ecclesiastical law — every office becomes vacant by the mere fact and without any declaration by reason of tacit resignation recognized by the law itself, if the cleric publicly defects from the Catholic faith. Fr. McDevitt confirms: “Joining, or enrolling in, a non-Catholic sect is not required to establish the publicity which the canon demands”; formal heresy suffices.
Pope Paul IV’s Bull Cum ex Apostolatus Officio declares the promotion of a heretic “null, void, and of no effect” even if “uncontested and by the unanimous assent of all the Cardinals.” The “ordination” rites promulgated by Paul VI (Montini) in 1968, used for the vast majority of the 37 accused “priests,” are deficient in form and intention, rendering them at best doubtful, at worst invalid. There are no valid priests, no valid Mass, no valid jurisdiction in Saginaw. The “victims” were abused not by Catholic priests exercising the power of orders, but by laymen masquerading as clergy within a counterfeit hierarchy. The “Diocese” is a civil corporation, a juridic fiction of the antichurch.
Linguistic Level: The Vocabulary of the NGO, Not the Bride of Christ
The linguistic decay is total. “Bishop” Gruss speaks of “accountability,” “transparency,” “compliance,” “audited,” “safeguards,” “safe environment training,” “background checks,” “third-party firm,” “policies,” “procedures,” “review board.” Not a single supernatural term appears: no mention of peccatum (sin), poenitentia (penance), infernum (hell), gratia (grace), sacramentum (sacrament), iurisdictio (jurisdiction), sanctitas (holiness). The “Charter for the Protection of Children” is a purely human, positive law document, ratified by a usurping episcopal conference (USCCB) that has no canonical existence. It replaces the ius divinum and the Canones of the Church.
The phrase “the Catholic Church in the United States has made significant progress” is blasphemous. The Church of Christ non proficit sed est (does not progress but is); she is indefectibilis. What “progresses” is the conciliar sect’s mimicry of secular governance. The “Body of Christ” is invoked equivocally: “sins and crimes which damaged the Body of Christ.” In the sect’s ecclesiology, the “Body of Christ” is the sociological congregation; in Catholic doctrine, it is the Mysticum Corpus united by unity of faith, sacraments, and government under the Roman Pontiff — precisely what the sect lacks.
Theological Level: Cooperation with Caesar as Rejection of Christ the King
The report highlights: “All seven dioceses have cooperated with the AG’s investigation… Representatives of the diocese have met regularly with members of the attorney general’s team.” This subjection of the “ecclesiastical forum” to the civil power is explicitly condemned by the Syllabus of Errors (Pius IX, 1864):
- Error 20: “The ecclesiastical power ought not to exercise its authority without the permission and assent of the civil government.”
- Error 31: “The ecclesiastical forum or tribunal for the temporal causes… ought by all means to be abolished, even without consulting and against the protest of the Holy See.”
- Error 41: “The civil government… has a right to an indirect negative power over religious affairs.”
- Error 42: “In the case of conflicting laws enacted by the two powers, the civil law prevails.”
The conciliar sect voluntarily surrenders the libertas Ecclesiae (freedom of the Church) — a right “conferred upon her by her Divine Founder” (Syllabus, Error 19) — to the secular state. Pius XI in Quas Primas thundered: “When God and Jesus Christ were removed from laws and states and when authority was derived not from God but from men, the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” The sect’s “cooperation” is not justice; it is the recognition of the State as supreme judge of the Church, a practical profession of the heresy of Gallicanism and Modernism. The “Attorney General” becomes the true “bishop” of Saginaw in the external forum.
Symptomatic Level: The Abuse Crisis as Fruit of the Conciliar Revolution
The article notes: “A vast majority of the allegations occurred before 2002… Most of the allegations contained in the report concern allegations of misconduct occurring in the 1970s and 1980s.” This timeline is the signature of the conciliar apostasy. The destruction of the lex orandi (Novus Ordo Missae, 1969), the demolition of seminaries, the introduction of modernist psychology, the relaxation of discipline, the infiltration of homosexuality into the clergy (documented by the Vatileaks and numerous studies) — all flow from the false council. The “Charter” of 2002 is not a remedy; it is a placebo administered by the disease itself.
The “Virtus” program (5,174 trained) is a Masonic-style compliance regime. It treats the mysterium iniquitatis as a risk-management variable. True reform is impossible without the True Mass, the True Priesthood, and the True Faith. As Pius X condemned in Lamentabili sane exitu (1907), the Modernist error holds: “The Church is an enemy of the progress of natural and theological sciences” (Prop. 57) and “Truth changes with man” (Prop. 58). The sect’s “progress” in “safeguards” is the progress of the synagoga Satanae perfecting its camouflage.
The “Apology” as Theatrical Penance Without Jurisdiction
“Bishop” Gruss: “Please accept my sincere apology for the pain and suffering you have experienced… I apologize to you on behalf of the Church and our Diocese.” A layman (for he is no bishop). An apology from a private individual — even a well-meaning one — has no ecclesiastical efficacy. He cannot absolve, he cannot bind, he cannot govern. He speaks of “mercy to the sinner” and “healing,” but the sect has no access to the Treasury of the Church (Indulgences, Sacraments, Jurisdiction). The “victim assistance coordinator” offers therapy, not the Sacramentum Paenitentiae. The tip line (844-324-3374) replaces the Tribunale Ecclesiasticum. This is the abominatio desolationis standing where the Holy Place should be.
Conclusion: No Salvation in the Conciliar Structure
The Michigan AG report is a secular autopsy of a corpse. The “Diocese of Saginaw” is a cadaver of the conciliar sect. The 37 “priests” were wolves in stolen vestments; the “bishop” is a hireling fleeing the wolf (Jn 10:12). The faithful of Michigan seeking Christ will find Him only in the catacombs of Tradition — at the altars where the Missale Romanum of St. Pius V is offered by priests validly ordained in the old rite by bishops consecrated before 1968, holding the integral Faith, una cum the true Roman Pontiff (whoever he may be, *sede vacante*). Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus. The sect’s “compliance,” “transparency,” and “apologies” are the whited sepulchers of the Pharisees (Mt 23:27). Flee the neo-church. Save your souls.
Source:
Michigan AG report on Saginaw Diocese lists 37 priests accused of sex abuse in 75 years (ncronline.org)
Date: 04.07.2026