[part of the article from her website] "The circus nevertheless threatens to distract from the issue more important than Father Maciel’s personal depravity, which, if not fully, we knew about already: accounting for the damage the Legionaries have done to the Church. What interests me is how the scandal now threatens to derail the legacy of Pope John Paul II.
Reportedly, John Paul gave Maciel’s daughter Norma Hilda Rivas her first Holy Communion at the Vatican. Bonilla claims that John Paul knew about the existence of Father Maciel’s children.
I will not believe that before I see evidence. Circumstantially I find it harder to believe that John Paul knew about Father Maciel’s children than that he was taken in by a randy trickster who would not have wished to destroy the illusion of his posture as a holy man. Father Maciel was endlessly introducing Regnum Christi members and others to John Paul.
The journalism of Jason Berry, from the ground-shaking 1997 Hartford Courant article (with Gerald Renner) through “Vows of Silence” in 2004 to his recent pieces in the GlobalPost, has been a crucial service that anyone interested in truth must thank him for. At the same time, he has used the scandal as a stick to beat John Paul over the head with.
What the Legionaries used to say in their vile and dishonest attempt to discredit Berry’s triumphantly vindicated journalism, that he is an enemy of the pope, was distortedly true insofar as Berry has expressed unsympathy for orthodox Catholic understanding in some matters. To have decoupled truth from Gospel witness in its members is one aspect of the disaster the Legionaries have inflicted on the Church. The National Catholic Register used the same voice both to proclaim pro-life and their loyalty to John Paul and to lie in defense of a serial child rapist.
Those of us who revere the writings of John Paul as prophetic for the new millennium must be willing to recognize his personal shortcomings as well as his holiness. We must appropriate, and not ignore and suppress, all negative Berry-esque material about the Legionaries and John Paul. We must live radically in the truth and nevermore cover anything up. It is simply a fact of history that John Paul the Great recommended to the Church a monstrous child abuser as “an efficacious guide to youth.” Shout it out and theologize it rather than let Jason Berry torment us with it.
John Paul himself acknowledged and apologized to many victims of injustice in the history of the Church. The Church may now acknowledge and apologize to the victims of John Paul’s credulity of Father Maciel and the Legionaries.
Let’s see these photographs that Jose Bonilla claims to have and know completely their circumstances, account for what John Paul was told and who said what to him and what he knew. Let the cause for John Paul’s canonization get to the bottom of all of it before plans move forward for his beatification on the fifth anniversary of his death next April 2.
The Legion is not the only new religious movement that John Paul promoted. Let’s not shrink from the implications of discovering that John Paul’s approval of a movement did not of itself protect its members from becoming uncritical zombie followers of a narcissist.
Father Maciel is now clearly recognized for the monster he was. The discovery of any more children, victims, or imposture will change little.
The Legion can be abolished and its priests dispersed to some more beneficial work. What is now at stake is the prophetic legacy of Pope John Paul, who in mistaken friendship gave his support to such a monster.
Is John Paul's temporal administration of the Church, which included his championing of the Legionaries, immune from a John Pauline purification of memory? It would be unworthy of John Paul's courageous legacy to say so."
9 comments:
"We must appropriate, and not ignore and suppress, all negative Berry-esque material about the Legionaries and John Paul. We must live radically in the truth and nevermore cover anything up. It is simply a fact of history that John Paul the Great recommended to the Church a monstrous child abuser as “an efficacious guide to youth.” Shout it out and theologize it rather than let Jason Berry torment us with it."
I hate to be so cynical, but I can't help but think that it will be a cold day in hell before the Vatican starts proclaiming it from the rooftops. I don't see any evidence to believe that the Vatican has advanced much from its thinking that it's better to keep things quiet, lest people be "scandalized". We keep hearing that we won't hear any details about the visitation, because it all must be kept secret (is that because of some canon?). Similarly, when Maciel was "discliplined" (am I the only one who is curious about what evils he was perpetrating during those years? and to marvel at the strength of his hold on people that nobody has come forth to describe this pervert's last days?), none of the reasons for it were made public, giving the Legion the perfect "out"----maintaining this monster's innocence. Nobody in the Vatican tried to correct that as the Legion was proclaiming it, at least that I am aware of.
When will our Church realize that keeping quiet about these things only scandalizes so much more in the end??!! The vast majority of us are mature enough to understand that people sin. What many of us cannot wrap our minds around is that the hierarchy of the Church we love has covered up these sins (most likely to cover their hides) and in the process allowed child molesters to have free rein over their prey.
I find it very unpalatable to think that the Vicar of Christ was too naive to realize what was going on right under his nose. I find his lack of awareness of this not to be much of an excuse in light of the fact that so many people knew what this monster was.
The term Pope John Paul the Great tends to make me feel a bit ill, the same way I'd feel if a mother who had ignored and consequently allowed the sexual abuse of her children to continue unchecked under her watch was called "great" because of all the other wonderful things she had done for the Church. Perhaps I shouldn't feel that way, but the idea of somebody who's imprudence facilitated the abuse of thousands of people for decades being fondly referred to as "Great" is extremely offensive to me. I suppose it's because I am a mother myself and can only imagine how I'd feel if JPII had continually ignored the cries of my sexually molested children and continued to hold up their molester as a man to be admired and respected---to hear him referred to as "great" would be too much for this mother to bear under those circumstances.
Yes, I am truly outraged by the destruction of so much innocence, facilitated by the machinations of our Church hierarchy.
And what about the bishops? Where were they in all this? Their vacuous statements, muttered excuses, begging the respect and patience of the faithful, and so on.
And by no means am I some voice-of-the-faithful-democratize-the-church loser. Au contraire. But I fell for this group hook line and sinker, and gave them 8 years of my life because "the Church loved them." It is a great shame that they were able to perpetrate this sham for so long with dickheads like Rode saying how great they were. Nauseating.
And now my life is stilted, as I continue on as best I know how. God have mercy on them all, and let the truth be told in full and openly. Let no one think he is big enough to stand as a filter of truth for another person. He only stands between me and God.
Now the truth is evident, that thousands and thousands of vocations were held captive in an organization that had no oversight, no responsibility, and no consequences for its shocking appropriation of "God's Will" under the Catholic mantle.
Rev. 12:4 talks about the dragon sweeping one third of the stars to earth and standing before the woman giving birth about to devour her children......
If the stars in Revelation are our priests..... God help us...... if the woman in labor pain is our Mother Church ...... God help us...... if the children about to be devoured are we...... God help us.....
I wonder if the undisclosed part of the 3rd secret of Fatima also reveals some of this mess, that everyone seems so intent on covering up, which might be the reason why it remains undisclosed....
Mercy!!!
Mum26
Ah, and regarding JPII ----- he certainly did amazing things. Simply his tenure as Pope for a quarter of a century is impressive.
But, please, slow down with the "Great" - I never liked this, never at all. It made me extremely uncomfortable when the likes of Fr. Niehaus and Ray Arroyo from EWTN upon coverage of the then hugely important events called him "The Great"...... "Santo subito?"
Hmm, maybe not so "subito", eh?
Mercy!
Mum26
I completely agree that there was something missing in the third secret of Fatima that pertains to this seemingly bottomless scandal in the Church. Didn't Cardinal Bertone recently write a book on the Third secret? Given his purported involvement in this scandal, doesn't that seem fishy to anyone?
JP2 will never be canonized because of the maciel mess.
Never say never. Nothing would surprise me anymore.
God can clarify everything with a miracle through the intercession of John Paul II. Let us hear your voice, Lord?
Edmond Ritter
Amen to that.
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