In the same article below:
"He [the pope] was a great friend of Maciel," continues [the attorney, Jose] Bonilla. And he reveals: "John Paul II gave Norma [Hilda Rivas] her first communion in the Vatican."
Era un gran amigo de Maciel», sigue Bonilla. Y revela: «Juan Pablo II le dio la primera comunión a Norma en el Vaticano».
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10 comments:
I don't doubt that Maciel was close to the Pope. But even if it is true that JP2 gave her communion, that does not suggest that he knew Norma's relationship to Maciel.
I loved JP2 greatly, and it pains me to think that he allowed such evil to persist under his watch, but I wish the Spanish-speaking press would stop trying to insinuate something nefarious on his part. It is more likely that his greatest crime was in trusting Maciel. I think that as soon as he gained the Beatific Vision and knew the truth he became the greatest advocate for justice for the victims. Pope John Paul, pray for us!
I agree completely, Don.
You cannot expect reasonable people NOT to question the extent of JPII's knowledge of such a grave matter. It was years of not questioning that allowed Maciel to get away with his evil for so long. Catholics SHOULD question when things are fishy. The cult of personality that has protected and covered up so much evil for so long has GOT to stop. Just because somebody is "much loved" does not mean we can't or shouldn't question when things look fishy.
Even if his greatest crime was that of trusting Maciel, that alone is enough to give reason for Catholics to question the quality of his papacy. You cannot afford to stick your head in the sand when you are the very representative of Christ on earth. Many, many people have suffered horribly because of the Pope's unwillingness to see the truth (after all, the victims starting asking him for his help way back in the 70s). It's not like nobody ever gave him a clue that anything was wrong with Maciel. There were plenty of people trying to get the Pope's attention on this grave matter.
The whole thing is a terrible scandal, especially in light of the very poor handling of the sex abuse scandal by the Church in recent years. As a faithful Catholic, I am embarrassed and outraged.
I hope JPII IS in heaven and trying to right the wrongs he allowed to continue during his papacy. But given everything that is coming out recently, I don't blame the Spanish press for questioning his motives, either. Vatican and Church hierarchy credibility are pretty much nil at this point.
Well, I joined the Legion in great part because of the support that John Paul II gave Maciel and his group.
You bet, someone has some splaining to do to me.
Don I agree with you, much of the information may have never reached the JPII and may have been carefully filtered by a great friend of the Legion, JPII's personal secretary! I
Can't we all stop being silly?
JPII was extremely busy (and later extremely ill): LC was probably priority nº 724 on his list. Dead wrong? Perhaps, but normal. One funny-stupid feature of US Catholics is thinking their concerns are number one on the Vatican in-tray. THEY ARE NOT, THANK GOD. Please try to be slightly more humble: you represent less than 6% of the Catholic Church, which has many, many more serious problems worldwide, beyond your local obsessions (what about abortion in China or India?) or your funny church-hopping constituencies.
It was relatively easy to go to a very small, private Mass said by JPII. Practically every day he had 20 or more guests at his own private early morning Mass followed by breakfast. I know many people who had the honour of attending these Masses and breakfast. It would have been son easy for maciel to slip many people into these Masses and to arrange for a first communion.
Another irony in his scandalous life. The man who had his followers pray the litany of humility and promise not to pursue influence and positions of power used his own influence to do things for his children. It's a minor thing of course compared to the rest of his crimes, but it's one more reason to be disgusted at his antics.
"Please try to be slightly more humble: you represent less than 6% of the Catholic Church, which has many, many more serious problems worldwide, beyond your local obsessions (what about abortion in China or India?) or your funny church-hopping constituencies."
I do not find the molestation of even one child in this world to be silly. And getting to the root of why this evil was allowed to go on under the nose of the Vatican SHOULD be an obsession to those who care about the souls of innocents.
Seems to be I remember hearing something about it being better to have a millstone thrown around one's neck and tossed into the sea than to scandalize even ONE of the innocents.
Just because there are all sorts of other awful things happening in the church does not mean that we shouldn't be horrified by what happened under JPII's watch. If the Pope knew as little or cared as little about the Legion as you appear to suggest, then perhaps he should not have been holding Maciel up as an efficacious guide to youth, especially when it didn't take a rocket scientist to realize something was very much amiss with this organization.
We all have a responsibility to try to right wrongs that have been done due to incompetence or corruption on the part of our Church.
Anonymous 1:27 a.m. said: "JPII was extremely busy (and later extremely ill): LC was probably priority nº 724 on his list."
But this is where the truth becomes important. Many LC/RC defenders still present their movement (and their founder) as having a special relationship with Pope John Paul II, appealing to his authority to try and silence debate over LC practices and charism.
"One funny-stupid feature of US Catholics is thinking their concerns are number one on the Vatican in-tray."
And one funny-stupid feature of non-U.S. Catholics (and please note I am not a U.S. citizen) is to dismiss Americans as silly when they are raising serious concerns.
Hey Mr. Vere please check out this site http://howtostaycatholic.blogspot.com which has a lot of articles on Miles Jesu, another problem group. I am told by ex-members that your article on the ICSA site was instrumental in their waking up to what was going on in their group.
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