Leon J. Podles :: DIALOGUE

I have been reading Augustine’s letters. They reveal a lot of how his mind works; they also contain the good and bad things that he embedded in the Western Church.

Augustine interpreted all Scriptures passages and Church practices so as to narrow the scope of salvation. Humanity was a massa damnata, from which a few of [...]

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Boys have a hard time in school. Teachers like the way girls sit still in school and don’t fool around. Boys are much too fidgety. My son Charles tried out school for one day; he complained for a week that his legs hurt him from sitting all day in class. When the principal asked [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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As I noted in my book The Church Impotent, the Christian churches and the schools are both female oriented, and boys, especially blue-collar boys, do not like to go to them.

In Quebec, the Montréal Gazette reports
It is mainly boys who drop out and in Quebec, they are mostly French-speaking. Before coming to power [...]

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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 [...]

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When we Anglos see the dances of the Pueblos, we do not understand the songs. For the dancers, the song is primary. The dance is not a raw expression of emotion or instinct, but a rational action, one fully formed by intelligence and reason. The words of the song are therefore primary; the [...]

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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 [...]

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Like many of those who have fallen under the spell of the Southwest, I have become fascinated by kachinas. In June (deo volente) we are going on a Kachina tour of the Hopi villages sponsored by the Crow Canyon Archeological center. It may depending, on the auspices, include a kachina dance.

The kachinas are [...]

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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 [...]

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In 1945-46, U. S. Officer Heinzmann was stationed in Germany. He made lps and sent them to his mother in California. The lps were discovered in 2003, and Der Spiegel has put them on line with photos. It puts whatever economic problems we have into perspective.

Stunde Null is the German phrase for the post-war period, [...]

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According to this article, “Money Motivated the Legion to Admit that Maciel Had a Child,” the Legion was concerned that Maciel’s child would demand a part of his inheritance. His grip on the Legion was so tight that it was difficult to distinguish between his property and the Legion’s property, the heir might demand a [...]

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According to El Sendero de Peje, Juan Vaca, a former Legionary who has supplied much of the details of Maciel’s abuse of boys, reports that the mother of the daughter whose existence the Legion admits was 15 years old when Maciel, then age 68, got her pregnant. Maciel always knew of the existence of [...]

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We have been warned about false Messiahs. As ordinary laity we must to some extent rely on the judgment of those most responsible for the Church, that is, the clergy. They have the time to investigate matters.

When I first heard of Medjugorje, I relied upon the Rev. Rene Laurentin’s favorable judgment. He was a [...]

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The Legion of Christ is apparently admitting that its founder, Marcial Maciel, led a double life and fathered a child by his mistress. They have not admitted the truth of the accusations of sexual abuse of boys that led Benedict XVI to discipline Maciel.

I have nothing personal against the Legion, but I wonder [...]

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