Vatican Pandora Pedophile Box and “The Myth of the Pedophile Priest” in Zenit.org in 2002

The catchy words of “celibacy, homosexuality, pornography” etc. that are now surfacing, which the Vatican and its papal media army are using for their media spin to divert attention away from Benedict XVI and the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army, are adapted from a manifesto published early in March 2002 by Zenit.org shortly after the eruption of priest pedophilia here in Boston. It was called “The Myth of the Pedophile Priest” which was published online and sent to Zenit’s daily 200,000 email subscribers worldwide (today there are more than 350,000 email subscribers). The article defended Catholic priests and gave the reasons why they must not be labeled as “pedophile priests” because pedophile is a psychiatry clinical term and there are only one or two such rare cases priests which it cited -- those two priests are from Boston, Massachusetts, way to go Boston! Today the Vatican are still reiterating and using this outdated and invalid “Myth of the Pedophile Priest” in their defense of Benedict XVI as his head is wanted by the secular media guillotine and Benedict XVI is as elusive as Osama bin Laden. It’s 2010, we in Boston and throughout the United States, thanks to SNAP and Bishops Accountability, have proven that there are more than 6,000 real -- not myth -- pedophile priests and their victims surpassed those of September 11 in New York. And Ireland, Germany and many countries are erupting with their own legitimate members of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army appropriately named after the pope with the longest papacy who did absolutely nothing to stop 6,000 pedophile priests when he came to USA 5 times, for what really, but for his narcissistic papal self-glory as John Paul II the Great.


Zenit.org is founded and operated by the Legion of Christ and since 2002, when priest pedophilia first exploded here in Boston (and before John Paul II’s final trip to North America for his last World Youth Day in Toronto in July 2002) Zenit tried everything to cover-up their founder Fr. Marcial Maciel from being known as a pedophile priest. Well, obviously they failed because Fr. Maciel is now the most famous member the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army. From 2002 to 2010, it took 8 years for Zenit and the Legionaries to finally concede that Fr. Maciel was their immoral Holy Father and abominable pedophile priest who sodomized his own biological son. His criminal body has no right to be interred inside a basilica. All those delicious theology online in Zenit.org and John Paul II the Great theology books and doctrinal writings could not keep Fr. Maciel and the (JPIIPPA) John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army from coming out of the Vatican Pandora Pedophile Box… yes, the JPIIPPA flew out first from here in Boston in 2002. Go, Boston, Go! See our article “Theology and John Paul II are heartless..."

Zenit.org is really impressive and is the best make-up artist on the planet; they can make criminal Ratzinger appear as the holiest Holy Father Benedict XVI just like they venerate the remains of their founder the immoral abominable Fr. Marcial Maciel at their basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Rome (that’s tantamount to venerating the serial rapist Ted Bundy, yak).

Take a look at Zenit’s sweet holy coverage of Benedict XVI this week and their focus on children, they make the Vatican seems like Heaven on Earth and make all the abused victims of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army like Dust in the Wind (song). No wonder it must take atheists like Dawkins and Hitchens to point out that Benedict XVI is really a criminal and must be arrested for his crimes against humanity should he land in England this September. See our earlier articles in http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/


Zenit’s articles for Sunday May 9, 2010

Vatican Statement on the “Murphy Case”

Vatican: Abuse Scandal a Problem for Society

Vatican Note on Sexual Abuse of Minors

Church's Smallest Members "Playing" Mass

US Prelate: Church Doing More to Keep Children Safe

Italian Priest Uncovers 100 Pedophile Networks

Dublin Child Abuse Report Coming Soon

Benedict XVI to Pray for Abused Children

Pope Unites to UN Appeal for Children

Benedict XVI to Children: Learn Forgiveness

Papal Address on Caring for Sick Children

Vatican Worried for Kids in Tragic Situations

A Million Children to Ask God for Peace


Note that one of them is “Benedict prays for abused children” and Zenit makes their 350,000 email subscribers forget the crimes of Benedict XVI, just like they made the world forget the pedophile priest Fr. Marcial Maciel, see our earlier article “Sins and crimes are not synonymous".

During Holy Week, Benedict XVI and Cardinal Sodano used the card of “Cheap Gossip” to blame the media and on Holy Thursday, the Papal Preacher Cantalamessa used the wild card of Anti-Semitism to defend Benedict, see our earlier article “Anti-Semitism and 3 billion dollars Cheap Change for Cheap Gossip in http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/

Cardinal Levada recently pulled out the trump card of celibacy while a Mexican Bishop used the enticing card of pornography. Cardinal Levada & Mexican Bishop divert attention away from Benedict XVI to celibacy and pornography

“The myth of the pedophile priests” was written by conveniently by a “non-Catholic” which is the modus operandi of Opus Dei who always keep their members secret and use others to perpetuate their propaganda -- like the Jesuits such as the Jesuit Fr. Fessio of Ave Maria University in Naples Florida and Fr. Federico Lombardi of the Vatican Radio who now have to face the world for all the cover-up of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army which his predecessor Dr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls committed during the 26 years as papal spokesperson and porter of John Paul II.


Opus Dei always wear ‘holy’ masks and you never know if you are talking to a secret member. Opus Dei have two personalities like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde that is why the worst American spy is an Opus Dei member, the double agent Robert Hanssen . Opus Dei destroy their enemies and critiques like the way they silenced the Jesuit Jon Sobrino of El Salvador and they get their critics fired from their secular jobs like Tom Doyle and other ex-Opus Dei members..

Opus Dei use the Eucharist as a means of terror by depriving Catholics from receiving “It” if they do not follow Opus Dei’s political WORLD DOMINATION Agenda, see our article “The Eucharist as a terrorist”

The Opus Dei controls the Vatican and the papacy and the Legion of Christ is under them. The Opus Dei controls the Vatican Bank and only Opus Dei male eunuch members called numeraries can live in the papal quarters. We have been exposing the Opus Dei throughout our weblogs.


Compare the crimes - Victims - criminals - Responsible Leaders

Pearl Harbor - 3,000 victims - 170 planes - Admiral Yamamoto

WTC & 9/11 attacks - 5,000 victims - 19 Muslims - Osama bin Laden

USA Priest Pedophilia - 12,000 victims - 6,000 pedophile priests - John Paul II & Benedict XVI & Opus Dei, the new Vatican Trinity


The Opus Dei female symbol for the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2010/04/opus-dei-female-symbol-for-john-paul-ii.html

-------

· ZENIT - "The Myth of the Pedophile Priest"

ZE02031121 - 2002-03-11
Permalink: http://www.zenit.org/article-3922?l=english

"The Myth of the Pedophile Priest"

A Researcher Puts Scandals in Context

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania, MARCH 11, 2002 (Zenit.org).- Philip Jenkins, a Penn State University professor of history and religious studies, is author of "Pedophiles and Priests: Anatomy of a Contemporary Crisis" (Oxford University Press, 1996). He wrote this article for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, which published it March 3 under the headline "The Myth of the Pedophile Priest."

* * *

By Philip Jenkins

Every day, the news media have a new horror story to report, under some sensational headline: Newsweek, typically, is devoting its current front cover to "Sex, Shame and the Catholic Church: 80 Priests Accused of Child Abuse in Boston." Though the sex abuse cases have deep roots, the most recent scandals were detonated by the affair of Boston priest John J. Geoghan.

Though his superiors had known for years of Geoghan´s pedophile activities, he kept being transferred from parish to parish, regardless of the safety of the children in his care. The stigma of the Geoghan affair could last for decades, and some Catholics are declaring in their outrage that they can never trust their church again.

No one can deny that Boston church authorities committed dreadful errors, but at the same time, the story is not quite the simple tale of good and evil that it sometime appears. Hard though it may be to believe right now, the "pedophile priest" scandal is nothing like as sinister as it has been painted -- or at least, it should not be used to launch blanket accusations against the Catholic Church as a whole.

We have often heard the phrase "pedophile priest" in recent weeks. Such individuals can exist: Father Geoghan was one, as was the notorious Father James Porter a decade or so back. But as a description of a social problem, the term is wildly misleading. Crucially, Catholic priests and other clergy have nothing like a monopoly on sexual misconduct with minors.

My research of cases over the past 20 years indicates no evidence whatever that Catholic or other celibate clergy are any more likely to be involved in misconduct or abuse than clergy of any other denomination -- or indeed, than nonclergy. However determined news media may be to see this affair as a crisis of celibacy, the charge is just unsupported.

Literally every denomination and faith tradition has its share of abuse cases, and some of the worst involve non-Catholics. Every mainline Protestant denomination has had scandals aplenty, as have Pentecostals, Mormons, Jehovah´s Witnesses, Jews, Buddhists, Hare Krishnas -- and the list goes on. One Canadian Anglican (Episcopal) diocese is currently on the verge of bankruptcy as a result of massive lawsuits caused by decades of systematic abuse, yet the Anglican church does not demand celibacy of its clergy.

However much this statement contradicts conventional wisdom, the "pedophile priest" is not a Catholic specialty. Yet when did we ever hear about "pedophile pastors"?

Just to find some solid numbers, how many Catholic clergy are involved in misconduct? We actually have some good information on this issue, since in the early 1990s, the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago undertook a bold and thorough self-study. The survey examined every priest who had served in the archdiocese over the previous 40 years, some 2,200 individuals, and reopened every internal complaint ever made against these men. The standard of evidence applied was not legal proof that would stand up in a court of law, but just the consensus that a particular charge was probably justified.

By this low standard, the survey found that about 40 priests, about 1.8 percent of the whole, were probably guilty of misconduct with minors at some point in their careers. Put another way, no evidence existed against about 98 percent of parish clergy, the overwhelming majority of the group.

Since other organizations dealing with children have not undertaken such comprehensive studies, we have no idea whether the Catholic figure is better or worse than the rate for schoolteachers, residential home counselors, social workers or scout masters.

The Chicago study also found that of the 2,200 priests, just one was a pedophile. Now, many people are confused about the distinction between a pedophile and a person guilty of sex with a minor. The difference is very significant. The phrase "pedophile priests" conjures up images of the worst violation of innocence, callous molesters like Father Porter who assault children 7 years old. "Pedophilia" is a psychiatric term meaning sexual interest in children below the age of puberty.

But the vast majority of clergy misconduct cases are nothing like this. The vast majority of instances involve priests who have been sexually active with a person below the age of sexual consent, often 16 or 17 years old, or even older. An act of this sort is wrong on multiple counts: It is probably criminal, and by common consent it is immoral and sinful; yet it does not have the utterly ruthless, exploitative character of child molestation. In almost all cases too, with the older teen-agers, there is an element of consent.

Also, the definition of "childhood" varies enormously between different societies. If an act of this sort occurred in most European countries, it would probably be legal, since the age of consent for boys is usually around 15. To take a specific example, when newspapers review recent cases of "pedophile priests," they commonly cite a case that occurred in California´s Orange County, when a priest was charged with having consensual sex with a 17-year-old boy. Whatever the moral quality of such an act, most of us would not apply the term "child abuse" or "pedophilia." For this reason alone, we need to be cautious when we read about scores of priests being "accused of child abuse."

The age of the young person involved is also so important because different kinds of sexual misconduct respond differently to treatment, and church authorities need to respond differently. If a diocese knows a man is a pedophile, and ever again places him in a position where he has access to more children, that decision is simply wrong, and probably amounts to criminal neglect. But a priest who has a relationship with an older teen-ager is much more likely to respond to treatment, and it would be more understandable if some day the church placed him in a new parish, under careful supervision.

The fact that Cardinal Law´s regime in Boston seems to have blundered time and again does not mean that this is standard practice for all Catholic dioceses, still less that the church is engaged in some kind of conspiracy of silence to hide dangerous perverts.

I am in no sense soft on the issue of child abuse. Recently, I published an expose of the trade in electronic child pornography, one of the absolute worst forms of exploitation, and my argument was that the police and FBI need to be pressured to act more strictly against this awful thing.

My concern over the "pedophile priest" issue is not to defend evil clergy, or a sinful church (I cannot be called a Catholic apologist, since I am not even a Catholic). But I am worried that justified anger over a few awful cases might be turned into ill-focused attacks against innocent clergy.

The story of clerical misconduct is bad enough without turning into an unjustifiable outbreak of religious bigotry against the Catholic Church.

Theology and John Paul II are heartless and together they made the immoral Fr. Marcial Maciel thrive

History does not lie and history has proven that John Paul II had more than 26 years as pope in which he neither defended not protected Catholic children from thousands of pedophile priests, hence they are now called John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army.

In this Nov. 30, 2004 photo, Pope John Paul II gives his blessing to late father Marcial Maciel, founder of Christ's Legionaries, during a special audience the pontiff granted to about four thousand participants of the Regnum Christi movement, at the Vatican.


The face of one of the most abominable serial pedophile priest of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army who sodomized even his own biological son - see the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army http://jp2army.blogspot.com/ .





The Eucharist is the fairy tale reincarnation of Christ's flesh in 9 seconds versus Mary's 9 months pregnancy - see our article http://stella0maris.blogspot.com/

Picture from the official site of the Legionaries of Christ shows Mexican catholic Father Marcial Maciel (centre) celebrating the solemn Mass, in 2005, in Rome.



Seminarians and priests of Legion of Christ

Seminarians and priests of the Legion of Christ attend an audience with Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 at the Vatican. The Legion of Christ, which won Vatican recognition in 1965, is one of the largest and wealthiest of the Church's dozens of orders, and the founder Marcial Maciel was a prodigious fundraiser and recruiter of priests.



The interior of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Basilica in Rome of the Legion of Christ where the body of the Legionaries'Holy Father Fr. Marcial Maciel is interred and glorifed.

Theology and John Paul II are heartless and together they made the immoral Fr. Marcial Maciel thrive

John Paul II the Great wrote the most number of theology books and articles but he was heartless and had neither compassion nor compunction for tens of thousands of boys sodomized within Catholic churches worldwide by his John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army. What good were his papal travels when he did not even bother to protect children by defrocking at least one pedophile priest? John Paul II elevated Cardinal Bernard Law as Archpriest in Rome after Law resigned in disgrace after he admitted to his cover-up of more than 100 pedophile priests in Boston. This was one of his last papal acts before he died to prove to the laity and to us Bostonians that he is Pope and he is almighty and we are at the bottom of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, that we are the worthless non-ordained laity who cannot transform the Host into the Body of Christ, and therefore we cannot dethrone any Prince of the Church. John Paul II wrote the encyclical the Eucharist is the summit and source of the Catholic Church and that priests are the most important members of the Catholic Church. So whether they are pedophile priests or not, what mattered was that priests could go on re-incarnating the flesh of Christ in 9 seconds (versus Mary’s 9-months pregnancy, see http://stella0maris.blogspot.com/) History does not lie and history shows that John Paul II was obsessed with his narcissistic legacy through his theology books; he wrote the Theology of the Body, but all his doctrines and papal homilies proved that Theology and John Paul II are heartless and together they made pedophile priests thrive, especially the immoral Fr. Marcial Maciel. See Spiritual healing, the Eucharist and the Rosary bring NEITHER JUSTICE NOR SAFETY FOR CHILDREN, the preys of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2010/05/spiritual-healing-eucharist-and-rosary.html


In hindsight, we can now see that before Cardinal Bernard Law, John Paul II’s penchant for pedophile priests had its roots in one of the most abominable pedophiles, Fr. Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legion of Christ. John Paul II profusely praised Fr. Marcial Maciel in spite of knowing that he was an abysmal criminal who was a serial pedophile who sodomized even his own biological son. Maciel’s double life and sexual crimes easily surpassed the adultery of Herod the Great and the sodomy of Sodom and Gomorrah.

But how can Catholics stomach it and pray to an immoral 'Holy Father’?

As their founder, the face of ‘Holy Father’ - as Fr. Marcial Maciel is religiously called - is hung prominently in every room and house of every member of Legionaries of Christ. The Legion of Christ is worth 30 billion dollars, a big chunk of the trillion dollar Vatican Bank and therefore Benedict XVI is not ready to dissolve it. Legally, the Legion of Christ are part owner of the Vatican Bank and are baptized permanent members of the Catholic Church. The Legionaries boast as the fastest growing Catholic priestly order, with the most number of priests ordained every year (more than Opus Dei and the Jesuits), ordained in Rome only and recorded well by Zenit.org. As members by 2010, there are 1,000 Legion priests in 22 countries and over 2,500 seminarians. They run very traditional Catholic schools and charities with its lay movement, Regnum Christi, who has about 70,000 members (competing with Opus Dei 80,000 members). Like the Swiss Guard Army and Opus Dei, only tall, handsome and educated men are chosen for the priesthood and must be educated only in their own university in Rome. The Legion’s Zenit.org is the most subscribed to daily Catholic website with more than 350,000 subscribers worldwide and it presents the most detailed and complete coverage of the Pope’s daily activity at the Vatican. See our earlier article Zenit.org http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2010/03/zenitorg-should-shut-down-its-operated.html

John Paul II (and Opus Dei) knew personally Fr. Marcial Maciel as much as he knew Cardinal Ratzinger now Benedict XVI. Maciel was ordained at the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico in 1944 that’s why the church of the Legion of Christ in Rome is named after Our lady of Guadalupe. Maciel arranged and accompanied John Paul II’s historic papal trips to the Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico in 1979, 1990, and 1993. There, the poor Mexicans were used as backdrops as in the papal visit in El Salvador as the Jesuit Jon Sobrino described it which caused him to be silenced by Benedict XVI and the Opus Dei - see our related articles below

John Paul II met Maciel many times at the Vatican and praised him almost as much as he did Opus Dei’s St. Josemaria Escriva. John Paul II loved these two Spanish founders who were the wealthiest contributors to the Vatican Bank and founders of the fastest growing orders -- in as much as he abhorred the Jesuits thus kicking them all out of the Vatican and the Vatican Radio, and surrounding himself only with the Opus Dei with his powerful Opus Dei papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, who recently explained the reasons why John Paul II was mute on priest pedophilia - see our related articles below.

These two papal favourites have a nice partnership, the Opus Dei controls the papacy, theology and doctrines, and all selections of Cardinals and Bishops, while the Legion of Christ reports in the Internet about the daily life at the Vatican in Zenit.org called also The World Seen from Rome (John L. Allen Jr was The Word from Rome, now it is All Things Catholic -see oure related articles below.) The Opus Dei also controls the Vatican Radio and the Vatican TV and the staffs are provided by the Opus Dei Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. Together with John Paul II, the Opus Dei knew well Fr. Marcial Maciel and his past crimes; it was a complicit of the worst kind at the Vatican and it is children who paid for it this time. During the Inquisition, it was women who were tortured and burned, today it is children Catholic children at that, innocent altar boys which prove that the Eucharist, the Rosary and Theology are heartless just like John Paul II was heartless and was absorbed only with his narcissistic self-glory as John Paul II the Great.


Compare the CRIMES and their VICTIMS in America

Victims - Attackers - Responsible Leaders

Pearl Harbor - 3,000 victims - 170 planes - Admiral Yamamoto

WTC & 9/11 attacks - 5,000 victims - 19 Muslims - Osama bin Laden

USA Priest Pedophilia - 12,000 victims - 6,000 priests - John Paul II & Benedict XVI & Opus Dei, the new Vatican Trinity

Witnesses to the Kingdom: The Martyrs of El Salvador and the Crucified Peoples
http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2007/11/john-paul-ii-oppressed-ignacio.html

Page 141. Important ecclesial events, like a papal visit, are often organized in such a way that they too produce a feeling of unreality. In the Pope’s 1996 visit to El Salvador, it is true that most of the people who attended were poor. But all one could see of their reality was their religious enthusiasm, more or less effectively organized. One didn’t see their poverty, their fears, their discouragement and helplessness, not even their true faith and hope; one didn’t see their reality. As the event was organized, the poor served more as a backdrop than as the reality of the country; in the foreground were minorities that do not represent the reality: the government, legislators and politicians, the rich and powerful, and the Church beside them. The Pope’s visit neither reflected reality nor, to judge from the consequences, had any important effect on it.

See our related articles:

Benedict XVI has no power 'to heal' victims of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army & has no power to command God-to-become flesh in the Mass http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2009/12/benedict-xvi-has-no-power-to-heal.html

Reasons why Opus Dei covered-up the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army for decades: Words of Opus Dei Joaquin Navarro-Valls http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2010/04/reasons-why-opus-dei-covered-up-john.html

Opus Dei female symbol for John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2010/04/opus-dei-female-symbol-for-john-paul-ii.html

Benedict XVI to beatify John Paul II is “brought to nothing” by St. Paul http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2009/11/benedict-xvi-to-beatify-john-paul-ii-is.html

Benedict XVI and Jon Sobrino http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2007/08/benedict-xvi-vicar-of-christ-and-jon.html

John L. Allen Jr the Pied Piper of Benedict XVI toots “Will Ratzinger's past trump Benedict's present?” http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2010/04/john-allen-of-ncr-pied-piper-of.html

John Allen (defender of the Vatican Trinity,i.e. John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Opus Dei) surreptitiously undermine SNAP's financial campaign http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2009/12/john-allen-defender-of-vatican.html

Tracking John L. Allen Jr, the highest paid professional journalist paid both by NCR and the Vatican trillion dollar Bank http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/04/tracking-john-l-allen-jr-of-ncr-highest.html


‘Forgiveness’ is a gizmo of injustice to victims of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army. To Vaticanista chiesa.espresso Sandro Magister, Baloney! http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2010/03/forgiveness-is-gizmo-of-injustice-to.html

John Paul II miraculously cures his German barber of hernia in Rome… as the John Paul II Pedophile Priest Army jolts Germany http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2010/03/john-paul-ii-miraculously-cures-his.html

Petty Cash for “Petty Gossip”: 3 billion dollars paid by American Catholic Church for the crimes of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army in USA http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2010/04/petty-cash-for-petty-gossip-3-billion.html

No amount of ‘historic apology’ Benedict makes will matter -- unless he fires the first criminals Cardinal Bernard Law & Cardinal Roger Mahony http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/04/no-amount-of-historic-apology-benedict.html

More on the Legionaries of Christ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legion_of_Christ


-----

By Punishing Legionaries of Christ Leader, Pope Benedict Finally Grabs Some Good PR

Newsweek

By Lisa Miller

A new culprit in the sex-abuse scandal now rocking the Roman Catholic Church is emerging from the shadows. In this line of thought, one powerful man inside the church knew about all of it—including the atrocities committed upon legions of children (he drugged them in order to rape them) by the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the conservative and powerful Legionaries of Christ. The cleric with the inside dope—a special friend of Maciel's—couldn't be bothered to investigate complaints of sex abuse; he "trusted those who cheered him and tried to crush those who questioned his ideas or actions," writes the Rev. Thomas Reese, S.J., senior fellow at Georgetown's Woodstock Theological Center, in a recent blog post. This latest scapegoat in the scandal is none other than Pope John Paul II.

The calls for Benedict's resignation—or even, as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens recommend, his arrest—are growing louder. But now, whether as an organized PR effort or a grassroots movement, the late pope John Paul II is posthumously being tarred by the scandal as well. In the annals of blame-shifting, this is pretty extraordinary. John Paul, pope for more than a quarter century, from 1978 to 2005, remains the most beloved and revered pontiff of our time, a lion and celebrity who contributed to the fall of communism and has been put on the "fast track" to sainthood. And yet, it seems, he is not too untouchable to escape being thrown under the bus. In an editorial last month, Ross Douthat argued convincingly that John Paul was a great man, but he was also "a weak administrator, a poor delegator, and sometimes a dreadful judge of character." Benedict, on the other hand, "may yet deserve to be remembered as the better pope."

SNAP Press Statement

For immediate release: Saturday, May 1, 2010

Vatican refuses to admit complicity in concealing predator's crimes

By David Clohessy, SNAP Executive Director, 314 566 9790

We’re disappointed that the Vatican refuses to admit its own complicity in concealing Maciel’s crimes, which have been well-documented for more than 12 years. Just like a desperate politician at election time, Vatican officials are ‘talking tough’ about a child molester because it’s safe and popular. But the church hierarchy is again pretending that somehow it too was duped by Maciel, when in fact, it helped hide Maciel’s child sex abuse for years. In fact, almost 20 years ago, a number of his victims – very devout and accomplished men – reported Maciel’s child sex abuse to several high ranking church officials, through the ‘proper’ church channels. One of those who knew of their credible allegations was then-Cardinal Ratzinger.

The Vatican’s lengthy cover-up and foot-dragging, and now its disingenuous denunciation of Maciel, is every bit as ‘immoral’ as the horrific child sex crimes by Maciel himself.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36885351/ns/world_news-europe/

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 22 years and have more than 9,000 members across the globe. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contacts: David Clohessy 314 566 9790,
Barbara Blaine 312 399 4747
Peter Isely, 414 429 7259
Barbara Dorris 314 503 0003

Pope names envoy, commission to reform Legionaries

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press Writer

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican denounced the "immoral" double life led by the late founder of the Legionaries of Christ on Saturday and said a papal envoy and special commission would be named to overhaul the conservative order following revelations its founder sexually abused seminarians and fathered at least one child.

In a statement, the Vatican excoriated the Rev. Marciel Maciel for creating a "system of power" built on silence and obedience that enabled him to lead a double life "devoid of scruples and authentic religious sentiment" and allowed him to abuse young boys for decades unchecked.

"By pushing away and casting doubt upon all those who questioned his behavior, and the false belief that he wasn't doing harm to the good of the Legion, he created around him a defense mechanism that made him unassailable for a long period, making it difficult to know his true life," the Vatican said.

The Vatican assured the Legion's current members that it would help them "purify" what good remains in the order and would not be left alone as they undergo the "profound revision" necessary to carry on.

The Vatican issued the statement after Pope Benedict XVI met with five bishops who investigated the Legion for the past eight months, met with over 1,000 members around the world to determine its future after its founder was so thoroughly discredited.

The pope's response is being closely watched because the Vatican is facing mounting pressure to aggressively confront abuse and provide pastoral care to victims. The Maciel case has long been seen as emblematic of Vatican inaction on abuse complaints, since Maciel's victims had tried in the 1990s to bring a canonical trial against Maciel but were shut down by his supporters at the Vatican.

In the end, it was only in 2006 — a year into Pope Benedict XVI's papacy — that the Vatican ordered Maciel to lead a "reserved life of penance and prayer," making him a priest in name only.

The Vatican statement was remarkable in its tough denunciation of Maciel's crimes and deception. It said the system of power, obedience and silence he created had kept "a large part" of the Legionaries in the dark about his double life. That raised questions about what would become of the current Legionaries leadership since many have questioned how they couldn't have known of Maciel's misdeeds.

The Vatican ordered an investigation in 2009 after the Legionaries acknowledged that Maciel, who died in 2008 at age 87, had fathered a daughter who is now in her 20s and lives in Spain. But it was only in March of this year that the Legionaries acknowledged that Maciel had also sexually abused seminarians and that two men are claiming to be his sons.

The late Pope John Paul II had long championed the Legionaries for their orthodoxy and ability to bring in vocations and money.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Pope to name envoy to lead discredited Legionaries

By Nicole Winfield, 05.01.10, 02:05 PM EDT

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2010/05/01/general-eu-church-abuse_7567373.html

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI cracked down Saturday on the scandal-plagued Legionaries of Christ, announcing that a papal envoy would take over and reform the conservative order that has been discredited by revelations that its founder sexually abused seminarians and fathered at least one child.

Benedict also ordered a special commission to study the Legionaries constitutions and said a Vatican expert would investigate its lay arm, Regnum Christi.

The decisions were made after five Vatican investigators reported back to Benedict and other Vatican officials about an eight-month global inquiry into the order to determine its future after its founder was so thoroughly discredited by revelations of his double life.

In a statement, the Vatican excoriated the Rev. Marciel Maciel for creating a "system of power" built on silence, deceit and obedience that enabled him to lead a double life "devoid of any scruples and authentic sense of religion" and allowed him to abuse young boys unchecked.

"By pushing away and casting doubt upon all those who questioned his behavior, and the false belief that he wasn't doing harm to the good of the Legion, he created around him a defense mechanism that made him unassailable for a long period, making it difficult to know his true life," the Vatican said.

But rather than closing the order down, which some critics had called for, the Vatican assured the Legion's current members that it would help them "purify" what good remains in the order and would not be left alone as they undergo the "profound revision" necessary to carry on.

The pope's response to the Maciel scandal is being closely watched because the Vatican is facing mounting pressure to aggressively confront clerical abuse. The Maciel case has long been seen as emblematic of Vatican inaction on abuse complaints, since Maciel's victims had tried in the 1990s to bring a canonical trial against him but were shut down by his supporters at the Vatican.

In the end, it was only in 2006 - a year into Pope Benedict XVI's papacy - that the Vatican ordered Maciel to lead a "reserved life of penance and prayer," making him a priest in name only. He died in 2008 at age 87.

The Vatican statement was remarkable in its tough denunciation of Maciel's crimes and deception, but it placed the blame almost entirely on him. It made no mention of any complicity on the part of Vatican officials who had held up Maciel as a model for the faithful.

The Vatican said the system of power, obedience and silence Maciel created had kept "a large part" of the Legionaries in the dark about his double life. That did raise questions about what would become of the current Legionaries leadership since many have questioned how they couldn't have known of his misdeeds.

Jason Berry, who co-authored the initial reports in 1997 in Connecticut's Hartford Courant detailing the allegations of abuse against Maciel, said the statement was strong but left unresolved whether Benedict would eventually confront Vatican complicity in Maciel's misdeeds.

In addition, he said, "The Legion is riddled with materialism and disinformation. Preserving the organization is clearly a risk," he said.

The Vatican ordered an investigation into the order in 2009 after the Legionaries acknowledged that Maciel had fathered a daughter who is now in her 20s and lives in Spain. But it was only in March of this year that the Legionaries acknowledged that Maciel had also sexually abused seminarians and that two men are claiming to be his sons.

The late Pope John Paul II had long championed the Legionaries for their orthodoxy and ability to bring in vocations and money. Berry has recently written in the U.S. Catholic publication National Catholic Reporter of how the late pope's secretary and No. 2 allegedly intervened to protect Maciel and accept donations on his behalf.

The main U.S. clerical abuse victim's group expressed disappointment that "the Vatican refused to admit its own complicity in concealing Maciel's crimes, which have been well-documented for more than 12 years."

"The Vatican's lengthy cover-up and foot-dragging, and now its disingenuous denunciation of Maciel, is every bit as 'immoral' as the horrific child sex crimes by Maciel himself," said David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

The Vatican set out an initial course of action: the pope would name a personal delegate to lead the order and a commission of study to review the order's founding constitutions. In addition, the Vatican said the pope would name a special investigator to look into the order's lay arm, Regnum Christi, at the lay members' request.

It wasn't clear what powers the delegate would have, however, and what would become of the current leadership.

Maciel founded the Legion in his native Mexico in 1941 and the order's culture was built around Maciel. His photo adorned every Legion building, his biography and writings were studied, and his birthday was celebrated as a feast day. Until recently, Legion members took a vow not to criticize their superiors, including Maciel.

The order now claims a membership of more than 800 priests and 2,500 seminarians in 22 countries, along with 70,000 members in Regnum Christi. It runs schools, charities, Catholic news outlets, seminaries for young boys, and universities in Mexico, Italy, Spain and elsewhere. Its U.S. headquarters are in Orange, Connecticut.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

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Mexico: Revelations of Crimes by Father Maciel

Posted 16 May 2010

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2010/05/16/mexico-revelations-of-crimes-by-father-maciel/

Recent investigations have brought about controversy regarding the crimes of Mexican priest Father Marcial Maciel, founder of the Roman Catholic Order the Legion of Christ, who received multiple accusations for child abuse from the mid 1990s up until his death in 2008. Despite the crimes, the priest was known to have been protected by important religious leaders close to Pope John Paul II and figures of the Mexican economy and politics, according to a series of articles of The New York Times.

Although Maciel died in 2008, his victims have continued to search for public acknowledgment of the crimes and for justice. Without the protection of Pope John Paul II, new details of Maciel's crimes have reached mainstream media and have helped make up a comprehensive panorama of the depth of the damage caused by the priest. In March of 2010, two supposed sons of Maciel talked to a journalist [es] about how they were abused as children by his father for 8 years, with explicit details.

When the news broke, it was already reported that Maciel had a daughter and that he had at least 9 accusations of sexual abuse from former seminarians of the Legion. In March, the lawyer of Maciel’s sons assured [es] that the Mexican priest had passports, bank accounts, and credit cards under three different names, and that he utilized the the millionaire fundraising activity of the Legion [es] to “buy” Vatican leaders and friendships. These facts complemented the investigations of the past year that documented the connections between the religious leader and the drugtrafficking groups [es] and even Maciel's plagiarism of the primary book of the Legion [es] El salterio de mis días (The psalmbook of my days).

It was not until May of 2010 when the “double life” of Father Maciel was publicly acknowledged by the Vatican [es] and was labeled as “immoral”.

The crimes of the Mexican priest have been discussed thoroughly in citizen media for the last years. In the blog Atrio a discussion from 2006 can be found after Maciel was condemned by Pope Benedict XVI because of the child abuse. User Emilio commented on the post [es] regarding the safety of the children that are in the seminars:

quisiera recordar a los que somos familiares de Legionarios. Tenemos el derecho y queremos que la Iglesia nos garantice que no enviamos a un hijo, hermano… al seminario para ser violado por sinverguenzas. Si la investigación se cierra en falso, la perjudicada será la Iglesia misma, y la Legión misma. ¿Quién querrá ser sacerdote?

I would like to remember those who are related to Legionaries. We have the right and we want the Church to guarantee us that we did not send a son, a brother… to the seminary to be raped by crooks. If the investigation concludes without consequences, both the Legion and the Church will be affected. Who will want to become a priest?

In a more recent post, blogger immorfo noted the poor response [es] from the religious organizations when it comes to the victims of abuse:

Si a los esquemas de retribución para las víctimas agregáramos también la disolución de aquellas organizaciones que, de forma comprobada, sirven de soporte para la ejecución de delitos que parten del abuso de la confianza de los líderes entonces estaríamos hablando de verdadera justicia y no sólo de cuensuelos efectistas.

If we could consider the dissolution of those organizations that, with proof, function as support of the achievement of crimes that abuse the trust of leaders in the system of retributions to the victims, then we would be talking about real justice and not only comfort done for effect.

On the same line, Twitter user Jose Pablo (@pouch15) used sarcasm to criticize the choice of words [es] reserved for religious leaders who are not treated as criminals:

Me encanta q los violadores son animales, degenerados, pero M Maciel y los curas pederastas son solo pecadores

I love that rapists are animals, degenerates, but M Maciel and pedophile priests are only sinners

Catholic blogger Fray Nelson wrote about how time extends Maciel’s crime [es] to include the secrecy of authorities and blind following:

Por supuesto, ningún Papa tiene super-poderes, a la manera de la visión de rayos X de Supermán, y por eso los engaños pueden suceder en cuanto a las opiniones de comportamientos morales, buenos o malos, de personas específicas. Y sin embargo, ya vemos cómo el tiempo es juez de mirada más profunda.

Of course, no Pope has super powers, similar to the X-ray vision of Superman, and that is why deceiving can happen regarding opinions on moral behavior, good or bad, of specific persons. However, we can see how time is a judge of deeper appreciation.

On the other side of the story, in the blog Mera Defensa de la Fe, written by Eleuterio Fernández Guzmán, a discussion unfolded whether the organization Legionaries of Christ, which Maciel founded in 1941, should also be held accountable for the crimes. The author replied a comment distinguishing [es] Maciel’s actions from the ones of the organization:

Los legionarios de Cristo no son Marcial Macial. Eso, simplemente, no puede ser. De ser así, seguramente nada se salvaría de las instituciones creadas por el ser humano.

The Legionaries of Christ are not Marcial Maciel. That, simply, cannot be. If it was so, surely no one could be safe from the institutions created by human beings.

However, the Legion has been subject of investigations due to its relationship with businesses, education, and even politics: the order extends to more than 20 countries and has 70,000 members, as Mexican journalist Raymundo Riva Palacio mentioned in a column for Eje Central [es].

In the same column, the journalist detailed an investigation of Maciel made for television in the late 1990s that important businessmen and even politicians like the staff of then-Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo tried to impede its release through a series of threats of canceling advertisement on the transmitting station. Moreover on the subject, a recent NYTimes follow-up article exposed the strong connections of the Legion of Christ order with large Mexican corporations and business leaders, like Telcel (businessman and millionaire Carlos Slim used to appear publicly with Maciel), Coparmex, Grupo Alfa, among others organizations that helped actively to cover-up the crimes of the priest.

User Ivonne commented Riva Palacios’s column [es] with her experience as reporter ten years ago:

Recuerdo mis días de reportera en REFORMA, donde (…) tocar el caso Maciel era como clavarles un dardo en el corszón. (…) Era, por desgracia, un acto ideológico revestido de ceguera fe católica. (…) Diez años después de aquel agravio personal (…), me doy por bien servida al atestiguar que han perdido todas sus batallas de pretendido dominio ideológico.

I remember my days as reporter in [grupo] REFORMA, where (…) to talk about the Maciel case was like stabbing a dart to the heart. (…) It was, unfortunately, an ideological act dressed by blinding Catholic faith. (…) Ten years after that personal attack (…), I feel pleased to witness that they have lost all their battles of pretend ideological governance.

Spiritual healing, the Eucharist and the Rosary bring NEITHER JUSTICE NOR SAFETY FOR CHILDREN, the preys of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army

The Fifth Luminous Mystery
The Institution of the Eucharist

Benedict XVI will soon go to Fatima on May 13, 2010, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, and praise again the Venerable John Paul II as the ‘Pope of Fatima’ see Benedict XVI & Bertone, liars of Fatima? http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/04/cardinal-ratzinger-and-cardinal-bertone.html and http://jp2m.blogspot.com/ . When John Paul II was shot at St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981, Catholics immediately jumped on his assailant and captured him. Mehmet Ali Ağca was brought to court, was found guilty and jailed for almost 29 years. He was released from prison on January 18, 2010. Pope John Paul II asked Catholics to "pray for my brother, Ağca, whom I have sincerely forgiven”. But John Paul II’s spiritual healing and physical recovery, prayers in the Eucharist and the Rosary, sincere forgiveness did not prevent, stop or spare Ağca from going to jail for 29 years. John Paul II called his assailant his ‘brother’… but what did he call the tens of thousands of children sodomized by his own John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army http://jp2army.blogspot.com/? Nothing. In fact, as their ‘Holy Father, he was unsympathetic and utterly ignored them during his 26+ years papacy. And what did devout Catholics do to thousands of pedophile priests, 6,000 of them in the USA? Nothing. Did they jump on them, capture them and send them to trial and to jail like Mehmet Ali Ağca? No, and why not? Because Catholics choose to receive the Body of Christ from the sodomy-hands of these pedophile priests, and to believe in their perpetual priestly powers to command in 9 seconds the reincarnation of Christ’s flesh in the host...which is against Mary’s 9 months pregnancy of Jesus -- see our earlier article http://stella0maris.blogspot.com/

There was also a worldwide hunt for the hierarchical masterminds behind Mehmet Ali Ağca. In the Catholic Church, the guilty hierarchy of Cardinals and bishops who condoned and covered-up the pedophile priests were exposed; Cardinal Bernard Law and Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles proved as the guiltiest Cardinals. But what did John Paul II do to the guilty Catholic hierarchy? Nothing. In fact, after Cardinal Bernard Law resigned as our Archbishop of Boston, John Paul II elevated him as Archpriest to the mother of all basilicas in Rome, the St. Mary Major Basilica. And what are Catholics doing to the guilty Cardinals and bishops? They are kissing their rings and giving them more money to contribute to the trillion dollar Vatican Bank in order to maintain the wealthy lifestyle of Benedict XVI who lives out-of-touch with reality at the Vatican Palace that rivals the castles of royalties in Europe. http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2010/02/cardinal-bernard-law-must-resign.html








John Paul II had both spiritual healing and physical healing (very quickly) from his gun shot wounds. He was soon trotting around the globe and writing numerous books. He claimed to be the ‘Pope of Fatima’ and ‘Pope of the Rosary’ and went on to add 5 more mysteries to the Rosary, the Luminous Mysteries for the 24th anniversary of his papacy on October 16, 2002. But with all his titles, books and travels, John Paul II never defended one child and neither did he defrock one pedophile priest. John Paul II knew well and praised the famous serial pedophile priest Fr. Marcial Maciel the founder of the Legionaries of Christ. John Paul II intentionally did not protect children from the 6,000 pedophile priests in the USA alone (not counting other countries) when he was alive; therefore now that he is dead, he cannot protect children either. That is why John Paul II must never be called a saint by American children and in American soil. The same holds for Germany, Ireland and all Catholic countries he visited.

As we can see from the foremost example of John Paul II, he had spiritual healing, he celebrated the Eucharist everyday, he prayed the Rosary everyday and added the Luminous Mysteries, but he as Pope and Holy Father did not defend or protect any children who were preys of his John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army. John Paul II has proved it that spiritual healing, the Eucharist and the Rosary bring neither justice nor safety for children who are preys of pedophile priests – then and now. In fact, spiritual healing, the Eucharist and the Rosary are the very cloaks and shields which give clout to predatory pedophile priests to go on performing ES Eucharist and Sodomy of Biblical proportions http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2010/01/biggest-vatican-stories-of-decade-john.html.


Last April, when Benedict XVI went to Malta for his 83rd birthday, he met with 8 victims for 20 minutes, that’s barely 3 minutes for each one. He gave a rosary to each of them. One of the victims came out and told the world media that “Benedict is a ‘saint’, that he will pray the white rosary given by Benedict everyday, that he is now healed and a different man” -- see Vatican's archetype victim of pedophile priests http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/04/benedict-xvis-phony-sorrow-superficial.html But John Paul II who prayed the rosary healed no one when he was alive. Neither Benedict who prays the rosary can heal anyone. The Rosary can bring neither justice nor safety for children. It’s only by putting predator pedophile priests in jail like other criminals, like Mehmet Ali Ağca jailed for 29 years, can children have some form of justice and safety.

First Luminous Mystery, Baptism of Jesus


Opus Dei female symbol for John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2010/04/opus-dei-female-symbol-for-john-paul-ii.html


Compare the CRIMES and their VICTIMS in America

Victims - Attackers - Responsible Leaders

Pearl Harbor - 3,000 victims - 170 planes - Admiral Yamamoto

WTC & 9/11 attacks - 5,000 victims - 19 Muslims - Osama bin Laden

USA Priest Pedophilia - 12,000 victims - 6,000 priests - John Paul II & Benedict XVI & Opus Dei, the new Vatican Trinity

When it comes to justice, secularism trumps Catholicism. The Sacraments of Penance, Eucharist and Priesthood are worthless in our court houses and justice system http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2010/03/when-it-comes-to-justice-secularism.html

‘Forgiveness’ is a gizmo of injustice to victims of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army. To Vaticanista chiesa.espresso Sandro Magister, Baloney! http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2010/03/forgiveness-is-gizmo-of-injustice-to.html

The John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army is very much alive. Recently pedophile priests were found being shuffled around the world in different continents http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2010/04/updates-jp2-pedophile-priests-army.html. In spite of Benedict XVI’s ‘historic apology’ the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army continues to thrive because their safe house is the one holy apostolic Catholic Church.