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PDF versionGeorge Weigel: Whitewashing history
He continues to excuse the late Pope John Paul II from any culpability in the Legion scandal
Dec. 30, 2010
George Weigel speaking in Atlanta in 2007 (CNS)
Analysis
George Weigel, Pope John Paul II biographer and a leading conservative voice at the Washington-based Ethics and Public Policy Center, has recently become a critic of the Legion of Christ, the scandal-racked religious order, after years of supporting it while dismissing complaints and charges against its founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado.
Among high-profile U.S. Catholic conservatives who long defended Maciel while denigrating his accusers, Weigel alone has made a turnabout in urging Legion reforms.
However, he continues to go out of his way, as he has for years, to excuse the late Pope John Paul II from any culpability in the Legion scandal. It was John Paul, more than anyone else, who backed Maciel and the Legion and elevated both in church status.
"I have been deeply impressed by the work of the Legionaries of Christ in the United States, in Mexico, and in Rome," Weigel wrote on a Legion Web site in 2002. "If Father Maciel and his charism as a founder are to be judged by the fruits of his work, those fruits are most impressive indeed."
Published accusations against Maciel first surfaced in 1997. In a report coauthored by this writer in Conneticut's Hartford Courant, nine men, interviewed in the United States and Mexico, charged that Maciel had molested them in Spain and Italy during the 1940s, '50s and '60s. Several said Maciel told them he had permission from Pope Pius XII to seek them out sexually for relief of physical pain.
U.S. Catholic conservative voices, including Catholic League president William Donohue and political activist Deal Hudson, defended Maciel at the time. Other conservatives had offered their continued support for the Legion founder. Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, former U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican Mary Ann Glendon, and CNN political analyst Bill Bennett were among them. Glendon, now a Harvard law professor, scoffed at "old slanders" and in a letter dated May 23, 2002, called Maciel a man of "radiant holiness."
Weigel's own endorsement came a month later. Both of their statements followed the April 2002 meeting of the U.S. cardinals with John Paul in Rome to discuss the abuse crisis. With clergy sex abuse receiving more media coverage, it was a period in which Legion leaders wanted to shore up Maciel's reputation amid heavy scrutiny.
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The defense of Maciel by conservative Catholics gave valuable cover to Maciel as the Legion struck back against the men from Mexico and Spain who had come forward to relate that they had been sexually abused by Maciel when they were teenage seminarians.
To say that Weigel, Glendon and Neuhaus — who asserted Maciel's innocence as "a moral certainty" — were duped is to overstate the obvious. Clearly, they were influenced by John Paul's own personal support for Maciel.
A larger question is why not one of those supporters bothered to sit down with the men who had accused Maciel, including Juan Vaca, the first to come forward with charges in a document he sent to Pope Paul VI in 1976, or Fr. Felix Alarcón, or the other six survivors, to hear what they had to say.
In 2006 Pope Benedict XVI banished Maciel from active ministry.
One week after the Feb. 2, 2009, news that Maciel had led a double life and had fathered a daughter, and after several priests quit the Legion, Weigel posed questions about the Legion in an essay on the First Things Web site, published by the conservative Institute on Religion and Public Life in Washington.
Many people with friends among "Legionary priests have known for years [that] there is great good here, as there is among the faithful members of Regnum Christi," Weigel wrote. "How shall that good be saved?" He called for a "root-and-branch examination" and "a brutally frank analysis of the institutional culture" by the Vatican. "Can the Legion be reformed from within, after those complicit in the Maciel web of deceit have been dismissed?"
Sanitizing the past
Today Weigel is the leading conservative voice urging Legion reform. Yet his demands for Vatican probity are preceded by a lengthy record of whitewashing John Paul's failure in the abuse crisis. In two biographies of the late pope, and in a 2002 book, The Courage to Be Catholic: Crisis, Reform and the Future of the Church, Weigel's treatment of the abuse crisis is marred by his blindness to a host of early reports and books on what sociologist Fr. Andrew M. Greeley called, in 1992, "the greatest scandal in the history of religion in America." The first volume of Weigel's papal biography, in 1999, completely avoids the issue. When the Boston scandal in 2002 forced John Paul to deal with it, Weigel flew to Rome as an ad hoc papal advisor.
Weigel is the rare writer not in the Legion's employ to get an interview with Maciel. After the 1997 Hartford Courant report, Maciel shunned journalists, even canceling a speech in Chicago for fear of facing reporters. Weigel's 2010 book, The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II — the Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy, notes that he interviewed Maciel on Feb. 19, 1998. Weigel does not quote Maciel, nor explain what he asked or what Maciel said, other than that John Paul broke a "logjam in 1983" for the approval of the Legion constitutions.
John Paul "may well have been ill served by associates and subordinates who ought to have been more alert to the implications of [Maciel's] cult of personality," writes Weigel. "The reasons that those associates and subordinates were skeptical of the charges will be investigated and debated for years." This, from a writer who had 10 interviews with John Paul for the 1999 book and better access to curial "associates" than most journalists at the Vatican.
"Despite the negative implications of John Paul's reputation that some of [his] critics quickly drew," Weigel writes, "what was at work in this scandalous affair was deception in the service of the mysterium iniquitatis" — the mystery of evil.
And so we are left to believe that one of the great moral leaders of the last century was deceived by the "mystery of evil."
Vatican politics
Weigel airbrushes any reference to Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano pressuring then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to halt the Maciel prosecution from 1998 to 2004, and to the significant sums of money that Maciel advanced to both Sodano and papal secretary Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz (NCR, April 06, 2010). Of Dziwisz, a pivotal Maciel supporter, Weigel simply notes that the Polish prelate was "susceptible to misreading personalities." (Dziwisz has refused to answer NCR questions.)
What made John Paul insist on praising Maciel for years after the 1998 canonical filing by ex-Legion victims at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith? NCR's John L. Allen Jr. reported in 2004 that John Paul and his senior advisers simply did not believe the accusations. Yet no one in Vatican inner circle felt the moral urgency to speak to Vaca or the seven other ex-Legionaries mentioned in the doctrinal congregation case.
Heaping blame on Maciel is easy now: He's dead. Why did the Vatican legal system break down? Why did John Paul not demand a probe of Maciel? The deeper mystery is why he could not bring himself to confront the larger crisis Maciel personified.
In 1999, a year after his Maciel interview, Weigel published a 992-page papal biography. Witness to Hope chronicles John Paul's life from childhood and priesthood in Poland, under the Nazi darkness, then communism, through the milestone events as pontiff with lucid analysis of his philosophical, theological and political thinking. Weigel credits Maciel with helping to persuade the president of Mexico in 1979 to meet John Paul at the airport on his first papal trip to Latin America. Not a word on the allegations against Maciel from 1997. The book ignores widely reported clergy abuse cases that rocked America and Ireland in the 1990s: the charges that brought down Covenant House founder Fr. Bruce Ritter; the resignation of Archbishop Robert Sanchez of Santa Fe, N.M., amid allegations from young women; the $119 million jury verdict against the Dallas diocese in 1997 that was a subject of great conversation in the Congregation for the Clergy, according to former priest Christopher Kunze, who worked there at the time. Were these not issues for the pope?
Jonathan Kwitney's biography Man of the Century: The Life and Times of Pope John Paul II, published two years before Weigel's, examines the abuse scandals with a straightforward approach, faulting John Paul for denial. A former Wall Street Journal correspondent, Kwitney, now deceased, wrote admiringly of John Paul's geopolitical triumphs and great pastoral gifts, yet with a moderately critical view of the pope's reaction to such internal church matters as celibacy and women's ordination.
Weigel wrote on the abuse issue in 1999:
The issue of whether the priesthood had a greater proportion of child molesters than other denominations or professions had no consensus at the time. Nor does one exist today. Weigel's "evidence" source was Philip Jenkins' Pedophiles and Priests: Anatomy of a Contemporary Crisis, a 1996 book based on secondary sources rather than church files unearthed by discovery subpoenas. Jenkins argued that the 1990s scandals were a construction of the media, abetted by liberal Catholics, notably Dominican Fr. Tom Doyle, who became an advocate for victims of clergy sex abuse, and Greeley. Jenkins' theory collapsed in the 2002 media coverage that revealed bishops had concealed child molesters in many dioceses. Jenkins works as an expert witness for dioceses facing abuse cases; according to his own sworn testimony, he charges $450 per hour.
Weigel implies that John Paul was not properly briefed in the 1990s. Were the papal nuncios in Washington and in Dublin, Ireland, censoring their diplomatic cables home? In March 1985, Doyle was a canonist working in the Vatican Embassy. "I prepared a 42-page detailed report explaining the issue in graphic details," he told NCR. "My boss, the papal nuncio, Archbishop Pio Laghi, signed it. The document was personally given by [Philadelphia] Cardinal John Krol to the pope. I distinctly recall Laghi saying many times that 'my superiors in Rome' said this or that in response. There was a great deal of telephone traffic about it too."
In 1989 the American bishops sent canon lawyers to Rome, seeking the authority to defrock pedophiles without going through the long wait for such decisions from the pope. John Paul said no. Kwitney reports that John Paul was resistant to judging priests.
In April 2002, as The Boston Globe reports ignited international news coverage damaging to the Vatican, Weigel as an adviser to John Paul in Rome was quoted in the press. John Paul, in deteriorating health from Parkinson's disease, summoned the American cardinals to discuss the crisis. Several high-ranking cardinals and canonists defended church secrecy, impugning the media for anti-Catholic bias. Later that year, Weigel published The Courage to Be Catholic, and wrote scornfully of Cardinal Dario Castrillón Hoyos' blunders at a press conference: "Some suggested that the cardinal's wooden performance had something to do with his alleged papal ambitions." But as Weigel took the curia to task, he was filling holes in the 1999 biography. Weigel blamed the Vatican bureaucracy for failing to keep the pope advised. Although the Holy See had a sophisticated Web site and the Vatican Press Office disseminated daily news digests of papal activities by e-mail, Weigel wrote:
The "expectations gap" had nothing to do with the Internet; it had been building since at least 1989 when the U.S. bishops failed to get permission from John Paul to laicize pedophiles. As a decade of scandals followed, John Paul was largely silent, particularly at the 1995 resignation of Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër of Vienna, whose sexual transgressions with youths provoked a scandal in Austria. John Paul had plucked Groër from obscurity to become an archbishop.
For Weigel, "the crisis" begins in 2002, a position consistent with its absence from his 1999 John Paul biography. The 2002 book cites a litany of scandals, including gay seminarians dancing at the North American College in Rome. Weigel decries a loss of orthodox bearings. He does not spare bishops: "Episcopal misgovernance came in many forms: bishops who took a cavalier attitude toward sexual abuse; bishops who knowingly transferred sexual abusers … who misled other bishops about known sexual abusers; bishops who saw the crisis of clerical sexual abuse in primarily legal and financial terms … bishops who failed to clean up their seminaries."
John Paul appointed many of those bishops. The vetting process, which excluded lay involvement, eliminated any candidate for the episcopacy who had endorsed optional celibacy or women priests. The gay subculture Weigel scorns arose as thousands of men left the priesthood to marry after Pope Paul VI's 1967 encyclical Sacerdotalis Caelibatus, in which he called celibacy the church's "brilliant jewel."
Weigel ignores a substantial body of work on clerical life from the 1970s and 1980s by Greeley, psychologist Eugene Kennedy, author A.W. Richard Sipe, and the late psychiatrist Conrad Baars, who delivered a 1971 report at the Vatican, "The Role of the Church in the Causation, Treatment and Prevention of the Crisis in the Priesthood."
Weigel ignores a longstanding body of literature by these and other Catholic social scientists on the symptoms of crisis, even pathology, in clerical culture. "The deepest root of the crisis of episcopal misgovernance," wrote Weigel, "is theological. … Too many bishops in the United States have traded the rich evangelical, pastoral and sacramental patrimony that is theirs for the mess of pottage that is contemporary management theory."
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Read the first part of this report here: Gambling with history: Benedict and the Legion of Christ
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[Jason Berry is an author and producer of a film documentary on Maciel, "Vows of Silence." The Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute provided support for this article.]
My deepest thanks to Mr.
My deepest thanks to Mr. Berry for over two decades of bringing us the truth. Unfortunately, Wormtongue Weigel will keep getting richer the deeper he piles on his lies couched in religious mumbo-jumbo. But at least we know that Mr. Berry is keeping track of his outrageous falsehoods, omissions and evasions.
More and more on this
More and more on this terrible story! It really does lead one to wonder whether, in the minds of some (in and out of the Curia), the values of Roman Catholicism, as they see it, override the values of Christianity.
Jason Berry, thank you yet
Jason Berry, thank you yet again. You and Gerald Renner are the Woodward and Bernstein of this scandal. Thank you for your brave and honest coverage of this issue. I know you have been slandered endlessly by The Legion of Christ and its allies. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, "Blessed are you when they hurl every slander at you because of me." Jason Berry, you are very blessed indeed and a blessing to the world of journalism.
JPII = Santo Subito? Oh, I
JPII = Santo Subito? Oh, I don't think so!
Might it not also be a good
Might it not also be a good idea to invite Mr. Weigel into the pages of the NCR to state his own case? He might refuse the offer, of course; but still it would have been made. And if he did write for the NCR perhaps we would be treated to the view, echoing one that seems popular in Rome these days, that the iniquities of Maciel were only made possible by "erroneous" views of what happened at Vatican II.
Maciel, like other
Maciel, like other pedophiles, got started long before Vatican II.
Ah, the truly AMAZING POWER
Ah, the truly AMAZING POWER of Vatican II! Why, it forced the saintly Maciel into abusing multiple people multiple times YEARS before Pope John XXIII was elected!
So now it's time to go after
So now it's time to go after George Weigel. Is NCR's main task to keep all of us in a rage about the sexual abuse crisis in the Church? George Weigel was a great friend and admirer of Pope John Paul II. It is unlikely that Weigel even considered that his hero might have been culpable in the exoneration of Maciel. What kind of a villain does that make him? Perhaps the same kind of villain that has exonerated and offered sympathy to the likes of Rembert Weakland?
I for one, am tired of the endless fanning of the flames of this sad chapter in our Church's history. Your paper seems to thrive on it. Tell me, are you gaining in circulation?
I read NCR for one reason -- the very excellent reporting of John Allen. However, I do wish he'd get a job somewhere else. The rest of you should go back to cleaning toilet bowls for a living. You'd be much more useful to society.
Tracy, Tracy Tracy. Now
Tracy, Tracy Tracy. Now that's pretty disgusting--the bit about the toilet bowls. It takes a lot of rage to insult so many people in about the lowest way. It reminds me of an old prof who said when a student burped in class, "behold the apeman on the threshold of articulation". Tracy, your insult is just about on that threshold---you can't go any lower than a toilet bowl. Tracy, have you ever met any toilet bowl cleaners. They're nice people and your insult really insults them also.
Tracy, the 'sad chapter' in
Tracy, the 'sad chapter' in Church history is far from over. No need to malign NCR or employ sarcasm and anger to make a point most of us are trying to find a safe place to stand. I've gone from daily Mass/rosary and adoration to none of the above.The 'crisis' is forcing millions of Catholics to find a place of personal 'congruence'. What exactly do I believe to be 'true'with regard to the claims of the 'Church'? Instead, read this passionate response to the current state of things from an Australian priest who appears to have a rather broad view of recent Catholic history.His Bishop's not answering the phone at the moment! Happy new year.
Australia
http://bit.ly/eJ6Nsu
Thank you, GWK123, for the
Thank you, GWK123, for the link. I am more and more impressed by the courageous people of Australia who post here! Oh, that we in the USA could have some of that leadership. It seems that complacency and inertia have infected a good part of the Catholic population here in the States.
You wrote: "The 'crisis' is forcing millions of Catholics to find a place of personal 'congruence'." While devastating for the institutional Holy Roman Catholic Church, this may be the Spirit's blessing on those who have the courage and grace to do it. Perhaps we are now ready as a "People of God" to evolve to that next level of spiritual development.
Thank you for your insight.
"John Allen...I do wish he'd
"John Allen...I do wish he'd get a job somewhere else."
Me too.
Mr. Allen writing for a more
Mr. Allen writing for a more orthodox publisher: "..a consummation devoutly to be wished."
Yes Tracy, Let`s sweep it all
Yes Tracy,
Let`s sweep it all under the rug and forget about the lies, the cover ups. and ignore the horendous acts of sexual abuse. Things are so much nicer that way, at least for the heierarcy, if not the victims.
Maciel was a pedophile who
Maciel was a pedophile who used the Church and his position to abuse young boys. Archbishop Weakland never did such a thing. How ridiculous you are to compare the two men.
Tracy, wake up--John Paul II was not a saint. His sins of ommission in the case of Maciel clearly demonstrate that! To completely ignore the accusations brought against Maciel for such a long time was inexcusable--I wonder why you, and others like you, can't see that, even though the facts clearly support that the Pope did so. I guess the money that Maciel gave the Vatican was just too much to pass up.
A true company man. He
A true company man. He defended Maciel a few short years ago, and now is critical. How much moral courage and intellectual integrity does this take?
This is nothing more than after the fact damage control. I find him to have little to say of any real value. A "Yes man" of great stature.
I have seen enough of George
I have seen enough of George Weigel to know that what he proffers is poisonous pedagogy. He's developed an intimidating intellect only to become rabidly Catholic, you know the pious, sinister, Inquisitorial approach. Sad. His masculinity is somehow damaged, whereas when I read Jason Berry's reportage I have the sense that this is the work of a deeply caring Catholic believer. Perhaps the focus for Weigel is the 'roman' part of the story. How does it go..
'And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.'
As far as I'm concerned there's something duplicitous about Weigel's employing of his prodigeous talent and it has to in the end have to do with the paucity of authentic charity. I'd rather have a cup of Java with Jason Berry, my being a male survivor of sexual abuse (Catholic M.D.) and survivor of drug abuse/alcholism/ I don't need to whitewash anything. I just want to be found in the presence of God's elect when the carpet's rolled up. Who knows maybe Maciel will be there too. With God ALL thing's are possible.Maciel isn't the only beggar to have confused Morphine and the edenic locale between a boys legs as heaven!
"I just want to be found in
"I just want to be found in the presence of God's elect when the carpet's rolled up."
You sound just like me. I'm 62, grew up with this picture of a 2-faced God ready to consign me to Hell if I died in mortal sin and, yet, ready to welcome me into Heaven if I just 'fessed up in the confessional.
If opportunity presents (and you haven't already read the book), get hold of the Linns' GOOD GOATS: HEALING OUR IMAGE OF GOD. Easy to read but so very, very positively insightful thanks to the biblical scholarship therein. My image of God is still somewhat toxic thanks to my Roman Catholic formation from childhood, but I'm recuperating!
In the meantime, peruse the three parables in Luke 15. It is God who (as I like to say) "does the heavy lifting" of our salvation, a message taught by Jesus but corrupted by Rome soon enough. It is God who finds the "lost", not the other way around. The One who delivered this "good news" is Jesus himself.
In addition, look for reassurance of God's unconditional love in Mt 5:45 --- "For he makes his sun to shine on bad and good people alike, and gives rain to those who do good and to those who do evil." Also find this message of God's unconditional love in Lk 6:35 --- "For he is good to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful just as your Father is merciful." Finally we have Lk 6:32 --- "If you love only the people who love you, why should you receive a blessing?"
Jesus is telling us, I think, that God is not asking us to do anything more than God is ready, willing, and able to do. God's love is not "unconditional" without reason!
This gospel ("good news") is not at all the orthotoxic crap I grew up with and that is still being promoted by reactionary/fundamentalist/self-righteous/sanctimonious/judgmental/self-styled "orthodox" types in the church.
Good luck and God bless!!!
Thanks for your book
Thanks for your book suggestion - I'm on a faith journey right now trying to reconcile a God of Love with what I read in the Old Testament (especially the book of Job), and I think this book will help a lot. Blessings.
Thanks Joseph for your
Thanks Joseph for your feedback. I was introduced to the work of the Lynn's quite a few years ago now. Powerful artwork. The Catholic priest who introduced us to their liberating theology had worked at the Betty Ford center and the 'Meadows', an important center for the treatment of addiction in America.Now that the 'inquisition' is back I doubt that we'd be offered the space to meet in the basement of the catholic center anymore. Yes kids, the inquisition has returned. Vatican II wasn't employed correctly. The 'reform' will be reformed.
THank you Jason Berry and NCR
THank you Jason Berry and NCR for continuing to call the Church to accountability. As a victim and survivor of clergy abuse I have my doubts that the church will ever own up to its own dysfunction. It would be nice to see a shred of light at the end of this long dark tunnel.
Jason, yet another excellent
Jason, yet another excellent piece on the Legion scandal. Interesting that George Weigel now says John Paul may have been ill-served by associates and subordinates who ought to have been more alert to Maciel's cult of personality. Surely it was always a cult of personality irrespective of whether or not Maciel was a sexual predator. Surely Weigel has contributed in no small way to John Paul's own personality cult?
To expect Weigel to be
To expect Weigel to be capable of seeing any flaws in any pope..... the Vicar of Christ on earth, is almost as foolish as expecting the same from John Allen.
Both men seem to believe literally that no pope can ever be wrong.
They will both be in the crowd (in front, of course, a reward for their loyalty)cheering the canonization of the much flawed John Paul II. When that happens, people capable of seeing the papacy what what is is, will be weeping.
It is so obvious that there
It is so obvious that there is a huge disconnect with the conservative segment of the lay and clerical Roman Catholic population, represented by people like Weigel, William Donohue and Father Neuhaus, Mary Ann Glendon etc and the rest of us mere mortals. I am willing to cut Pope John Paul II some slack in that in the last decade of his life his cognitive faculties left something to be desired, but there were more than enough people in the Curia and among the hierarchy who knew what was going on with Maciel and others who were involved in the clerical sexual abuse and in the financial scandals. It is a grave sin/behavior for priests to sexually abuse, children, young adults and for the bishops and other members of the hierarchy to cover it up. Retire Cardinal Law, demote Archbishop Leonard from Belgium and stop with the Vatican PR program which most of the world can see through. It is sad and it is embarrassing.
Cardinal Law is now 79 years
Cardinal Law is now 79 years old and will be 80 in November 2011. He certainly could retire this year.
Pope Benedict's writings are more than good, and I do not consider this the Vatican PR program. There may well be a "Vatican PR program", but that is not it.
It is interesting that a number of people think the Vatican needs a PR program, with a press secretary and all like the President of the U.S. has. The media seems to think it can make or break any and everything.
I remember reading Witness to
I remember reading Witness to Hope and being horrified by Weigel's account of the young John Paul before the
invasion of Poland: he simply didn't see it coming. That's when I realized that the late Pope was a romantic incapable
of reading the signs of the times. His seduction by Maciel isn't surprising in light of this. His inability to truly lead the church, likewise. I wonder who George Weigel's masters are.
his analysis of the church
his analysis of the church has about as much integrity as his political analysis.
Who is Geo. Weigel and what
Who is Geo. Weigel and what are his credentials. Is his father Wayne Weigel?
Benedict XVI has stated that
Benedict XVI has stated that the sexual abuse crisis has theological roots. He states that it is the moral relativism or proportionality of contemporary social ethics, that is its primary cause. By this, I think he means that by the exchanging of absolute "prohibitiva" or "thou shalt nots" for a relativism that speaks of lesser and greater evils such things became accepted by some. Although I totally disagree with Benedict`s conclusion, I do think another kind of proportionality was at work in the crisis, encapsulated in the question of what is most destructive to the church: the sacrificing of the priests and bishops involved in the abuse and its cover up -- or justice to the victims of the abuse. Sadly the powers that be chose against the victims; and as far as I can tell they are still doing so.
A wise man will change his
A wise man will change his mind when presented with the facts, a fool won't. There is nothing else to say!
Congratulations on a clear
Congratulations on a clear and objective account of how honest but conservative writers can be misled by their own loyalty to the leaders of the Church. Of course liberals can be equally guided by their own preconceptions.
However it is the responsibility of the writer to present the facts fully and accurately, not a selective synopsis of the case for either position. Such honesty is fair to the reader and if the author is being paid as a witness for one or other point of view, he should acknowledge it in his introduction.
Philip Jenkins, holds Britsh
Philip Jenkins, holds Britsh citizenship, is an Episcopalian and is a darling of Catholic bishops who use him to excuse the clergy abuse and coverup. He is an academic paid hack. His mantra at trials is 'Catholic priest abuse is at same level as everyone else'
There is no other 'everyone else' who paid $3 billion in claims.
Philip Jenkins is right. So
Philip Jenkins is right.
So why the $2-$3 billion but not for "everyone else"?
Records are kept, higher ups to blame, remote authority, etc. No protection like government agencies with soverign immunity.
The Church is a big target.
What is happening is just a return to the a modern version of 19th century paradign of when priests build underground tunnels to convents to snatch nums for trysts and burial grounds for aborted babies. Alse supposedly they had dungeon basements under the rectory to rape boys and girls.
Cardinal Newman was reluctant to make some modifications to his residence since it would be seen as plans to build a "rapatory".
Catholics used to vote Democratic in mass, and during the 1960's and 1970's it was common knowledge that Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular (at least the classical type) was heading to extinction. Nobody gave any attention to the significant levels of abuse at this time period for these reasons.
However now that has changed, Catholic are as likely to vote Republican as well as democrat, the Church is a force in the issue of abortion and same-sex marriage. So we pay the consequences of what happened 40 years ago. That is all.
"Despite the negative
"Despite the negative implications of John Paul's reputation that some of [his] critics quickly drew," Weigel writes, "what was at work in this scandalous affair was deception in the service of the mysterium iniquitatis" —the mystery of evil.
And so we are left to believe that one of the great moral leaders of the last century was deceived by the "mystery of evil."
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These quotes are in reference to Pope John Paul II. If the pope himself was victimized by the "mystery of evil", how could JP or any pope claim infallibility in matters of faith and morals? Perhaps popes are human and fallible at all times and in all ways just like the rest of us.
Mr Weigel has done himself a
Mr Weigel has done himself a disservice.
You can't separate the evil of one from the contributing fact of another.
Benedict could only have done so much as Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Even Nuncios are leaned on ie; "After attentive study of the case ,... the evident danger of scandal... Your Excellency's understanding ie requested".
Past popes and "We", had the final say then, including John Paul and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit it leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
Whatever Benedict does now with his "We", is entirely up to him.
It Takes courage to be a Catholic.
L.Newington on Dec. 30,
L.Newington on Dec. 30, 2010.
You stated:
"Mr Weigel has done himself a disservice.
You can't separate the evil of one from the contributing fact of another.
Benedict could only have done so much as Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Even Nuncios are leaned on ie; "After attentive study of the case ,... the evident danger of scandal... Your Excellency's understanding ie requested".
Past popes and "We", had the final say then, including John Paul and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit it leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
Whatever Benedict does now with his "We", is entirely up to him.
It Takes courage to be a Catholic."
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It takes courage to be---what kind of a Catholic? It takes no courage at all to keep oneself on a political fast-track (and the higher echelons of the Church are, and have always been, raceways).
It takes no courage to bow to the old reasoning uttered such terms as "the evident danger of scandal" (when transparency is REALLY needed}, or we need to "protect the faith of the little people" {leprechauns?}---when respecting the 'sense of the faithful' and complete honesty is required.
Rather, it takes courage to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, to be willing to die, if need be, rather than relinquish that discipleship.
The "We's" and all the other pomp---belong in the courts of earthly kings. They have nothing to do with being a true Christian.
Weigel, apologist and
Weigel, apologist and tool.
Weigel is so compromised by his sycophantic obsession with all things hierarchal, we will never hear the truth from him.
If you want to know why Weigel is so blind to the hierarchy's corruption, take a look at the board of directors and donor lists for his Ethics and Public Policy Center (now that name is really putting lipstick on a pig!) to see just who is controlling the leash that he is on.
Weigel is nothing more than a shill for reactionary right-wing corporate interests who feel more moral and ethical when they have such an a**-kisser like Weigel on the payroll.
What's the point of this
What's the point of this article? Admittedly, George Weigel was late to see the evil of Maciel, blinded it seems by the goodness of some Legionary seminarians and priests, but when it became apparent, he has been brutal in condemning not only Maciel's abominations but the legionary structures that abetted them. I would have anticipated that a long-time crusader against all aspects of clerical sex abuse like Jason Berry would be happy to have a more-than-capable convert now on his side, rather than write a critical piece about what Weigel said prior to becoming aware of the full info on Maciel. Berry makes some fair points of what Weigel should have realized before, but none of us — not even Berry — would long stand if the criterion of judging past actions on what we know now and should have known then…
This column portrays Weigel as if he's part of the problem; he's actually been one of the fiercest voices about the biggest part of the clerical sexual abuse scandals: the part played by misfeasant bishops. From 2002 in his Courage to be Catholic onward, he has been calling for a detailed reform of the episcopacy, including the criteria for the selection of bishops, holding them and their office to a very demanding standard.
In the last year, there have been some who have been pretending as if the problem should be laid at the door of the Apostolic Palace, whereas, at a practical level, the popes knew very little about what those who had been victimized were saying about Gauthe, Porter, Geoghan, Shanley, etc. Their bishops did. And their bishops clearly didn't do enough, didn't have enough hatred for the sins being committed against the innocent, didn't have enough love for the victims and their families, and simply didn't have enough common sense.
There's no question that Pope John Paul II and the Vatican during his watch could have done more and better, and there's also no question that some in the Vatican abetted the likes of Maciel, but the real blame for the lack of oversight that allowed the abuse to reach epic proportions — something that Weigel seems to get more than Berry — rests with the local bishops, who had enough power in canon law to do what they needed to do, but just failed to use it, preferring instead to push for administrative procedures that the Vatican worried (justly) didn't really respect the rights of the accused.
When it comes to working for reforms with regard to the sexual abuse of minors, Weigel and Berry — even though they'd have various disagreements on the share of blame and the way forward — are both heroes.
Quote He (Weigel) called for
Quote He (Weigel) called for a "root-and-branch examination" and "a brutally frank analysis of the institutional culture" BY the Vatican. Unquote
What may be even more fruitful and instructive is a "root-and-branch examination" OF the Vatican.
The attached is food for
The attached is food for thought for Catholics who defend the direction we're going in as a Church, and those who believe it is now time for the "presbyterate of the laity" to take charge and cleanse the Temple:
http://theswag.org.au/2010/12/reflections-on-an-ordination-golden-annive...
The right's feelings for JPII
The right's feelings for JPII border on idolatry. Of course, they cannot admit that JPII was on the take and took Marcel's moola for his work in Poland defeating the commies. Let me see, is there not something about a good end does not justify a bad means. Seems like JPII should have known that. A saint? No indeed. Not even close. A mean man with a smile to cover the truth of what he was. Just look at how he treated those who had the temerity to disagree with him. Like Reagan a showman to the nth degree hiding what he did with a smile.
Jason Berry has once again
Jason Berry has once again done the Catholic church a great service. Considering how cult-like the structure of the church (both clerical and lay) has become, we may be sure that Berry will be vilified for this service, irrespective of how worthwhile it is. Fortunately, it seems that Berry is up to the task. And, it's a task that needs doing, for Mr. Weigel has much to answer for.
One need look no further than the episode in Florida a few months ago when Weigel had the nerve to take Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times to task for practicing journalism in her articles. Goodstein has been brilliant in exposing the incoherence of the papal response to priestly abuse, which has been so inadequate in so many ways. More and more, Weigel looks like an apologist. Berry is right to demand more of him.
Perhaps Weigel will reform and begin finding truth in other quarters than the bowels of chanceries and the Curia. What prominent lay people write and say is more important than ever, now that clerical authority is at such a low ebb.
It would be nice to hear something — anything — on the subject of the Legion and Regnum Christi from Mary Ann Glendon, for example, who has maintained a Sphinx-like silence ever since Maciel was unmasked once and for all. To this day you can go to EWTV web site and read how the LAITY is to blame for the abuse crisis, which both Glendon and Weigel situate very precisely in the year 2002, due to (they say) media bias.
http://www.ewtn.com/library/ISSUES/ZLAITY.HTM
I await the day that Weigel and Glendon appreciate what many pew-people already know: the incorruptible body is the greatest legacy that Catholics possess; we must strive to preserve it and enhance it and learn about it ever more as we go forward.
I am not speaking of the so-called incorruptible body of JPII. I am speaking of the incorruptible body of the truth.
Weigel is nothing more than a
Weigel is nothing more than a Catholic opportunist who grovels for favor at the papal throne.
I wouldn't waste my money on
I wouldn't waste my money on buying a copy of a JPII biography. Especially since it is obvious that Weigel himself is "susceptible to misreading personalities."
Maciel got away with a lot
Maciel got away with a lot because of a number of things. Firstly most if not all of his "abuse" was in the distant past. This of course is typical of the situation today in this entire sex abuse panorama. And secondly some of the claims against him were indeed fradulant or over-reached thus making the more credible ones seem less credible.
What happens to the Legion? I do not know. If it were up to me it would merge with the Jesuits as they seem to have an Ignatian sprituality on several aspects. I know that sounds incredible in our polarized policital and eccesial worlds, but that is what I think.
As a Jesuit, I resent your
As a Jesuit, I resent your comment. We are not being suppressed by the Vatican for our conservative philosophy, In case you didn't understand, that last sentence is sarcasm! From this and your previous posts, Mike, I suspect that you are extremely naive about the workings of the Vatican.
Thanks for the sarcasm, but
Thanks for the sarcasm, but my comment did not intend any. I can be very serious when I suggest that the Legion could merge with the Jesuits, or be absorbed by the Jesuits.
But what do I know, being extremely naive about the workings of the Vatican?
gut check 1/8/2011 priests,
gut check 1/8/2011
priests, politicians,
people all are complicit
in parlaying lies.
let’s stop it.
To excuse Pope John Paul II
To excuse Pope John Paul II from any culpability is intellectually dishonest. There are a number of people, George Weigel being one, who seek to clothe John Paul with the mantle of plausible deniability asking us to believe that for the entire 27 years of his papacy he saw nothing, knew nothing, and was totally unaware of the problems within the Legion and the dictatorial ways of Maciel.
This in spite of the fact that for nearly his entire papacy, reports and complaints about Maciel and the Legion were sent to the Vatican by credible sources including former members, both lay and clerical. He is not entitled to a defense which claims plausible deniability. If in fact he did not know, it was because he did not want to know and this is not only no excuse, it is a tragic failure of leadership and of his pastoral responsibility.
While he was a desperately ill man during the final 3-5 years of his papacy, for the first 20 years he possessed a brilliant, alert, and inquisitive mind.
It is indeed unfortunate that the name of John Paul II will always be linked with the sexual abuse scandal, because this was a good, decent, and truly holy man who suffered greatly during his life and gave so much to the Church.
His one and only flaw was that he could not face up to evil within the priesthood and especially within the hierarchy when it presented itself.
James, these day's I don't
James, these day's I don't know how your view would be accepted by law, but your one hundred percent correct. John Paul was no fool.
Heaven alone knows how his predecessor would have dealt with all the Vatican intrique and deceptions; Could he have stood against it I wonder.
His book Illustrissimi gave a small insight into his inner man who would surely have walked in the shoes of the Fisherman.
What a loss for us all.
"It is indeed unfortunate
"It is indeed unfortunate that the name of John Paul II will always be linked with the sexual abuse scandal, because this was a good, decent, and truly holy man who suffered greatly during his life and gave so much to the Church."
The name of John Paul II will always be associated with the collapse of the Soviet Union because this was a good, decent, and truly holy man who suffered greatly during his life and gave so much to the Church
Benedict XVI has stated that
Benedict XVI has stated that the sexual abuse crisis has theological roots. He states that it is the moral relativism or proportionality of contemporary social ethics, that is its primary cause. By this, I think he means that by the exchanging of absolute "prohibitiva" or "thou shalt nots" for a relativism that speaks of lesser and greater evils such things became accepted by some. Although I totally disagree with Benedict`s conclusion, I do think another kind of proportionality was at work in the crisis, encapsulated in the question of what is most destructive to the church: the sacrificing of the priests and bishops involved in the abuse and its cover up -- or justice to the victims of the abuse. Sadly the powers that be chose against the victims; and as far as I can tell they are still doing so.
Nobody ever has been able to
Nobody ever has been able to refute either Jason Perry, Father Tom Doyle, Richard Sipe, or Patrick Wall in their documented writings on sexual abuse by clergy and the disgusting cover up by the hierarchy. Neither have the facts in WOWS OF SILENCE, and PRIEST, SEX AND SECRET CODES nor these authors published articles and court testimony been dis-proven. In contrast Weigel looks like a fool. Nevertheless, he is a regular guest at "The World Over" on EWTN. What does that say about the credibility of that network???
The men in Rome have lived
The men in Rome have lived away from normal life for so long that they truly believe that protecting "image" at all costs is protecting the Church. Unfortunately they are living the worst kind of dualism. Proclaiming Christ to the world while living the life of the Sadducee and the Pharisee. Sad really - they have become so irrelevant to the real world except to their victims.
Brilliant expose of Weigel's
Brilliant expose of Weigel's blindness and worse; the arrogance is also hard to take.
The incomparable Jason Berry does it again.
The Legion needs to be suppressed, period. The idea that you can reform such a cult is naive at best. But all that money and those super-obedient priests are too tempting to forgo.
Thank you, Jason, and to Eugene Kennedy and A.W. Richard Sipe for speaking out as the Weigels of this world spin, parse, and rationalize.
Mr. Weigel claims he is a
Mr. Weigel claims he is a theologian on his official website resume. He only has a masters degree in theology. This does not qualify him as a theologian. Neither does it give him academic credentials as a biographer/journalist either. Abuse of power isn't just happening in the hierarchy. Anyone claiming this kind of authority and working outside their areas of competence breaks the public trust. Many good people rely on his supposed expert opinion.
If the same deep pockets that keep him in his job would devote themselves to funding research into the intricacies of this abuse, the truth would be far better served. Ideology, on the left and right, and well placed money in the hands of police and prosecutors, are what have kept the hard, sad facts at bay in all this, and powerful pederasts in power.
There were massive numbers of priests, bishops and cardinals involved in an international pederast ring. These are known documented facts. The next step is asking who knew whom, who gave what jobs to whom, who is still operating. Time to connect all the dots. A cleansed church is one no longer soiled by the scandal Mr. Weigel has been trying to downplay, and the which he is keeping in smow motion free fall because of it.
but Raymond Arroyo thinks
but Raymond Arroyo thinks Weigel's an "expert" along with Cardinal Burke?
I found your succinct
I found your succinct commentary very helpful regarding character and credentials ie: those of Mr. Weigel. I'd also say that you have found your 'voice' in terms of writing. Neither knowing you nor having met you I thought that I had done both after reading your brief comment. Thanks again, I'm feeling less crazy and alone. The TRUTH sets me free.
The one value conservatives
The one value conservatives place above all others is money. Maciel had money, lots of money. jp11 loved money as much as any other wingnut and Maciel gave him cold hard cash. A truly interesting study would focus on how much money the talking heads and writers you note in the article got.
A very simple truth about the
A very simple truth about the papacy is that the actual history is very short on sanctity and very long on vice and corruption. The history is marred with
every vice you can imagine. Once the myth is stripped away you realize we have a relict of the Feudal System still being held up in our modern age.
Feudalism is Dead and Spiritual Feudalism is the worst sort. Its time for
Catholics to wake up and take charge of their church.
Happy New Year.
TomC.
What is pathetic is that so
What is pathetic is that so few members of the hierarchy seem to think that the image of a feudal lord with all the trappings should not apply to them. This nonsense begins in the seminaries, especially when naive young men are seduced by the blandishments of Roman life, the ever supportive petty nobility while they attend a local seminary.
These carefully inculcated delusions are reinforced by generally fawning and obsequious laity back home ready to throw their cloaks upon the puddle over which monsignore will step.
The time is long over due when the Constantinian imperial dignities were consigned once and for all to a museum. The pope could set the example himself by moving back to the Patriarchium at St. John Lateran (his home for 1200 years). Then turn the present papal headquarters in the Vatican palace into an art and music academy for the talented, but disadvantaged, an orphanage, a home for Rome's prostitutes, a clinic for Rome's notoriously perverted clergy, and a hotel for the aged.
WOW! What an incredibly
WOW! What an incredibly exciting bunch of possibilities for use of the Vatican!
I feel genuinely sad that I will never see anything so edifying actually come to pass.
Jason Berry was right about
Jason Berry was right about Maciel and the Legion; Pope John Paul II was wrong. A layman had far more spiritual discernment than the pope. If we cannot trust the pope to make a simple discernment that a person who is accused of serious crimes should be investigated before he is praised and held up as an example, what can we trust the pope to do?
Nor was this the only failure of John Paul II. Against the advice of all the Austrian bishops, he appointed an obscure priest, Hans Herman Groer, as archbishop of Vienna because Groer preached Fatima. Groer also molested almost every student and seminarian (over a thousand) he came into contact with during his life – but he stopped short of penetration, so he had a good conscience and John Paul II continued to protect him.
The dogma of papal infallibility means simply that the pope as supreme teacher of the Church cannot teach error – it does not mean he cannot screw up the Church far worse than its enemies could. The follies and blindnesses of popes throughout history should give us pause – we can’t turn off our brains because the pope has expressed an opinion about something.
Benedict would in fact be willing to admit this. He makes it clear that he is simply expressing his opinions (say about the use of condoms) and wants to start a discussion. He admits that John Paul approved a “false prophet,” an extraordinary admission.
John Paul II let himself be misled by a false prophet – this fact should play a major part in this discussion of his possible canonization. It does no good to ignore or minimize this fact. Weigel has a vast knowledge of the pope and the papacy – he, having himself been deceived, should be at the forefront of trying to understand this failure.
I think your comment is spot
I think your comment is spot on, especially when you question the trustworthiness of JPII when it comes to anything meaningful. I have always contended that the greatest positive of this scandal will be the conclusion that every one of us is responsible for forming his own conscience. The superstitious, fearful days of asking "Father" what to do or of looking for answers to life's serious questions in an encyclical from a Pope are over! The whole concept of "Papal Infallibility" is most certainly drawn into question when one looks at the historical details of how that "doctrine" was reached! Yes, we are each responsible for who we are and what we believe, but we must make the effort to think and study and research and no longer just listen to clerics and hierarchs telling us what to do. Thank God for that progression and evolution of understanding!
Thank you, Mr. Berry, and
Thank you, Mr. Berry, and thanks to the NCR for the ongoing reporting about Maciel and the Legion. Though I often disagree with the NCR, I appreciate that it has been one of the only voices to do any in-depth analysis of the culture and dymanics within the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi.
Sadly, most of the orthodox Catholic media have been very quiet on the issue. As well, most of the orthdox Catholic rock stars like the late Fr. Neuhaus, George Weigel, Maryann Glendon, & Deal Hudson have either been very late to the ballgame, or as silent as a cigar store indian on this issue.
Mr. Berry makes a compelling case regarding George Weigel. If Mr. Weigel chooses to respond, it would only be fair and just to print his response in its entirely.
Weighl's rants are not worth
Weighl's rants are not worth the paper they are written on. He makes excuses for Child molesters as well the Bishops coverin up and current Pope who was the mastermind of the cover up.
That pope John Paul 2 had
That pope John Paul 2 had failings in dealing with Clerical abuse is a already accepted factor.No one is going to buy Weigel's version. But said so,
I don't understand why you have to write an elaborate article on the failings and bias of Weigel other than that you seem to have some sort of animosity or vendetta to this man probably because he is a conservative(the official teaching of the Church)and loyal son of the Church who has some partiality towards JP2.
Well dear Jason Berry, you have been an extra-ordinary reporter and should be proud of your role in exposing Maciel and having a certain amount of balanced reporting.Well to be as respected as John Allen you need to shed some of your bias. Also you still seem to have that liberal's bias on Joseph Ratzinger and don't seem willing to give him some credit in punishing Maciel.Well dear all punishment cannot be done with a naive sort of idealism which you seem to have in mind.
KJ, it looks to me like the
KJ, it looks to me like the truth is getting under your skin and your first response is to critique the messenger instead of the previous people in your life who told you that JP2 was a walking, breathing saint, and infallible to boot. Could those people have not only been wrong about JP2 but a number of other things as well?
Using the same logic might I
Using the same logic might I ask you the same question, could those people you believe in might have been wrong in many other things.Don't tell me that they have not made mistakes.Including your assumption that Vatican 2 has been repealed.
"No one is going to buy
"No one is going to buy Weigel's version."
Really?! No one?! Not anybody?! Not any one?! Nobody?
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