Leon J. Podles :: DIALOGUE

The New Yorker has a long piece on the complicated world of art forgeries, “The Mark of a Masterpiece.”  In it the author, David Grann observes,

When a forgery is exposed, people in the art world generally have the same reaction: how could anyone have been fooled by something so obviously phony, so artless? Few connoisseurs [...]

[Read more →]

In his interview, Msgr. Scicluna, who was the Vatican investigator in the Maciel case, refers directly but not by name to Maciel. Spanish-language newspapers have picked this up, but the English-language press may have missed it: 

Only with the 2001 “Motu Proprio” did the crime of paedophilia again become our exclusive remit. From that moment Cardinal [...]

[Read more →]

Commonweal has a discussion of the Vatican’s decision to place Pius XII and John Paul II on the path to canonization.
 
I share the concerns. Canonization is supposed to provide a role model for Catholics to follow, but how can you imitate even a good pope? For centuries almost all saints have been priests and religious, [...]

[Read more →]

Maciel molested seminarians, fathered children, and stole Legion money to support them.  
 
The spiritual writings that he gave to the Legion to form its members turn out to have been written by someone else.
 
Catholic News  Agency reports:
 

In an effort to distance itself from the wrongdoings of its founder, the Legion of Christ has recently circulated an internal [...]

[Read more →]

Ireland been shaken by the revelation of the tens of thousands of children physically and sexually abused by Catholic priests, brothers, and nuns.
Archbishop Cousins of Milwaukee knew that the Rev. Lawrence Murphy, the head of St. John’s School for the Deaf, was an abuser. In 1993 victims came to Archbishop Cousins, but Cousins defended Murphy [...]

[Read more →]

The Vatican and the Legion of Christ have decided to maintain a discrete silence about Maciel. Perhaps a further statement will be forthcoming, as promised, or perhaps the Vatican and the Legion count on the short attention span of the public.

The Legion has admitted that Maciel fathered a child in his old age and was [...]

[Read more →]

As heresy fanciers will remember, Donatism was a North African heresy that denied that sacraments administered by serious sinful priests were valid.

Some bishops were accused of handing over (tradere) the Scriptures to pagan authorities during the last great persecution. These bishops were called traditores, handers-over, or traitors.

The Donatists set up their own hierarchy and rebaptized [...]

[Read more →]

Like many abusers, Maciel was very charismatic and had many achievements.

Maciel targeted the wealthy, but he also used their money to also help the poor. One report about Maciel’s home town:

The Legion, according to religious observers, was founded with practically nothing in 1941, but flourished as Maciel courted the wealthy — a group that was [...]

[Read more →]

The Piarists were suppressed during the lifetime of the founder because of pederasty by the head of the order. It is the closest parallel I know of in Church history to the Legion. Joseph Calasanctius founded the Piarists, and made a fatal and culpable error of tolerating a child abuser who had high political connections.
Until [...]

[Read more →]

Because of a lack of public outcry, it looks like the Legion is going to finesse and survive the revelation that Maciel has a daughter. See the report of the talk given by the current head of the Legion here.

They are ascribing the conception of the daughter to a moment of human weakness (at [...]

[Read more →]

Macaulay remarks in his historical essays that a man can have a serious vice and otherwise be of upright character if his vice is one that is accepted and countenanced in his milieu. Slaveholders at one time could be otherwise decent people; but if someone enslaved another person today, he would be a monster. Judicial [...]

[Read more →]

When I awake at 5 A.M. and cannot get back to sleep, I meditate on my sins, mortality, whether the alarm system is turned on, and whether we have enough milk for breakfast. Sometimes my mind has been chewing on a problem while I sleep and comes up with some interesting reflections. Last night was [...]

[Read more →]

There is, entirely understandably, a lot of bitterness about Maciel.

The problem is not in understanding a scoundrel (history is full of them) but in understanding his enablers.

The Vatican and John Paul II are among the most culpable, in approving constitutions that focus far too much on the personality of the founder, and [...]

[Read more →]