Faces of Rapists-Priests: from Father Marcial Maciel covered-up by John Paul II and the Eucharist. JOIN Signatories` protest against JP2 beatification
The worldwide appearances of John Paul II during his 27 years papacy with his papal blessings, his thousands of speeches and writings, with the WYD World Youth Day chanting of “JP2 we love you” and “Santo Subito” at John Paul II’s funeral in Rome -- never protected children then and therefore cannot protect children now. John Paul II is the same yesterday and today and forever JP2 is heartless and powerless to safeguard children from predator rapists-priests. Praying to a false god and FALSE SAINT John Paul II cannot protect children from crimes on this earth in this life (or from eternal damnation in Hell in the after-life). Venerating John Paul II’s coffin or blood vial and JP2 statues, medals and relics or reading his thousands of writings cannot protect children – because in his lifetime as Pope John Paul II for 27 years he (wilfully) never protected children from rapists-priests and therefore in death he cannot protect children (or anyone) either. The biggest evidences of this are how he covered-up and promoted the serial rapist-priest Father Marcial Maciel and Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston who confessed to aiding and abetting 80 rapists-priests in Boston.
The Eucharist enshrouds and harbours rapists-priests and the Eucharist never (ever) protects children. That daily Mass of 9-seconds magical transubstantiation and chimerical re-incarnation of Christ’s flesh never did and never can and never will protect children (and women). History has proven that the Sacrament of the Eucharist within holy Catholic churches never sheltered or protected altar boys but rather aided and abetted the Priestly Sodomy of Biblical Proportions committed by the John Paul II Pedophiles Rapists-Priests Army. The Eucharist is the charm and holy guise of predator priests and the Eucharist lures and entraps children (and women) to be easy preys of the lust of these rapists-priests, an all-male hierarchy inherently evil (like the Nazis) who were born out of the Devil’s bowels. The Theology of the Body doctrine of John Paul II (celebrated every year with a worldwide conference) does not mention at all the “theology of the body of children” and how to protect them from theology experts predator priests. The Eucharist and the Theology of the Body and especially a false “saint” John Paul II are all of no use for the safety of children then and now.
The Eucharist was the sceptre of John Paul II to justify the existence of his beloved companion to Guadalupe, Father Marcial Maciel, and the protection of all rapists-priests and he ruled that “priests are forever” and must not be laicized under his 27 years regime as John Paul II the Great. To John Paul II, Eucharistic priests are the highest and noblest of men regardless of their past crimes as exemplified par excellence by Father Marcial Maciel and women and children are subordinates and mere silent followers to priests. Priests are now required by the Vatican to recite blindly John Paul II’s writings to be considered as “All Things Catholic” but how can they force children to blindly pray to John Paul II because it is proven by history and history does not lie: that John Paul II never protected children during his lifetime as a 27 years Pope and therefore he cannot protect children now after his death. So Benedict XVI will fool and ensnare children to pray to a “Saint John Paul II” by hastily beatifying and canonizing him with all the spectacle of a Hollywood movie production at the Vatican. John Paul II’s beatification is really Benedict XVI abusing his papal totalitarian power since he is the last standing “absolute supreme monarch” as the Arab countries topple down their despot kings and dictators, oh when will Catholics ever learn?) Benedict XVI’s supreme powers include condemning people to Hell for all eternity (just like Hitler condemned Jews to the gas chambers) hence there is now a lawsuit against him at the Hague for his “crimes against humanity”. Read our related article below with the list of recent signatories from around the world protesting Benedict XVI’s speedy beatification of John Paul II.
The holiest and most prestigious rapist-priest was Father Marcial Maciel who was personally covered-up and promoted to the holiest offices at the Vatican by John Paul II himself during his 27 years papacy -- that’s quarter of a century of personal cover-up by the holiest of men - John Paul II. Father Maciel was the founder of the Legion of Christ and was called as the "Holy Father" by thousands of followers. Father Marcial Maciel was the apple of John Paul II's eye because he was very obedient, very conservative and brought in 35 billions dollars to the Vatican Swiss Banks (all trillions of dollars are tucked away safe in the mountains of the Alps at the Vatican owned Swiss Banks. His Legion of Christ was the fastest religious congregation in the world with priests ordained annually outnumbering all others (the Opus Dei trailing in as second). All Legion priests are ordained only in Rome (just like the Opus Dei). All Legion priests wear the traditional black robe, they say their Mass in Latin (like the Opus Dei), all are strictly educated in Rome (like the Opus Dei), and most of all they are 'slaves' of John Paul II and the Vatican (like the Opus Dei). The Legion’s “center of the universe” is John Paul II (like the Opus Dei) as most evident in Zenit.org, the Legion's daily only-about-the-Pope online news at the Vatican.
The Eucharist and their absolute obedience to Pope John Paul II are what separate all priests from all Catholics and people in the world, hence the hasty need for the beatification and canonization of John Paul II so that all priests worldwide will simply parrot out his writings in their Sunday homilies…but what a perpetual deception. John Paul II was the empty clashing cymbal of St. Paul, a mere pope preacher and world traveler who never performed acts of charity like Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Bill (and Melinda) Gates has performed more charitable acts than John Paul II who never dirtied his hands and rarely visited the sick and the poor because he only lived as the majestic pope in the gilded Vatican Palace in Rome and walked only in red carpets in his world travels. Instead JP2 used the poor peoples as mere political photo props for his state visits and then he silenced all Liberation Theology theologians especially Jon Sobrino who spoke out against his JP2 papal hypocrisy during his papal travels - read an excerpt here http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2006/11/john-paul-ii-shirked-el-salvador.html
Read the vision of Paris Arrow at the last WYD World Youth Day of John Paul II in 2002 as St. Michael tied the largest millstone around his neck because he refused to stop his John Paul II Pedophiles Rapists-Priests Army http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2006/08/john-paul-ii-pope-of-sodomy.html
August 2004 image of John Paul II in his last voyage to Lourdes. Clad in majestic papal robes, JP2 was an Emperor with no clothes and with no conscience for the plight of thousands of little boys and girls raped by his John Paul II Pedophiles Rapists-Priests Army
To the writers and followers of Totus Tuus Marie of John Paul II:
We compose this blog today, feast of the Annunciation of Mary. If Mary is the purest of all creatures and she needed an Archangel to make her conceive Jesus the Son of God -- and then carry him full term for 9 months -- how can Christ cheapen himself and be reincarnated in the Eucharist by sinful men like Father Marcial Maciel, Cardinal Bernard Law and Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles and all rapists priests, 6,000 in the USA alone, plus thousands more across Europe and around the world? See the images of an embryo in a woman's womb in our sister blog Mary versus John Paul II : Magisterium Benedict VERSUS Holy Mary: Priests' transubstantiation instant reincarnation of Christ VERSUS Mary’s 9 months pregnancy& child birth http://stella0maris.blogspot.com/2010/01/magisterium-benedict-versus-holy-mary.html
Father Marcial Maciel was the beloved companion of John Paul II in his many papal voyages especially to Guadalupe in Mexico. This special companionship proved that John Paul II smelled the Devil's Bowels as if they were roses - read our related article: The Nazis and of Hitler and the John Paul II Pedophiles Rapists-Priests Army were both an inherently evil all-male hierarchy born out of the Devil's bowels http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2011/01/nazis-and-john-paul-ii-pedophiles.html. John Paul II slept in peace as the most powerful pope for 27 years knowing that Father Marcial Maciel was one of his most notorious rapists-priests in his JP2 Army and for the record, as pope he did nothing to chastise Father Maciel except through the Sacraments of Confession and the Eucharist. That is why the sacraments are tools of injustice. The Sacrament of Penance mocks our justice system and priests demean our court judges. The confessional booth is the very antithesis of our court houses because priests pardon and let sinners or criminals go scot-free without redress for their victims, priests pardon murderers and rapists again and again while their victims are not redressed and their crimes are not reported to the police and these criminals are not tried in our courts of law and jailed for the safety of society. That is why up to this date there is no Catholic Registry of Pedophiles Rapists-Priests because priests are above the law just like the Pope is above the law. But Benedict XVI’s days are numbered as charges have been laid against him at the International Court of Law at the Hague for his “crimes against humanity” http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2011/02/criminal-charges-against-dr-joseph.html
To John Paul II, Father Marcial Maciel and all Catholic priests are the highest and noblest of all men because they alone can transform the host into the flesh of Christ. Therefore all priests are above all human laws because priests are supernatural men reincarnating the supernatural Christ the son of God -- and John Paul II is next to Christ as the most powerful supernatural man and he too is above all human laws. The myth of the Eucharist and the magical powers of the priests are what differentiate priests from other secular pedophiles and laymen rapists. Pedophiles rapists-priests continue to be free to roam and go on raping boys and girls. Rapists-Priests are protected by the pathological lies of the infallibility of the Pope and the sorcery of the Eucharist. Children and their parents are afraid to speak and bring to secular courts and jail these rapists-priests because they have god-like powers of reincarnating Christ’s flesh. That is why Benedict XVI is in a hurry to beatify John Paul II the Great so that his face would be venerated in ALL Catholic churches and Catholic Tabernacles where there is the Eucharist. If he is not called a Blessed or Saint, then John Paul II would be a mere pope with thousands of writings about All Things Catholic.
John Paul II’s moral conscience was never bothered by his intimacy with Father Marcial Maciel (as evident in this photo below taken November 2004, only 4 months before his death in April 2, 2005) and the presences of rapists-priests everywhere which were always before him as he traveled around the world as the most travelled pope in history. His narcissistic self-glory as John Paul II the Great numbed his moral conscience and prevented him to unravel the evil stench of Priestly Sodomy of Biblical Proportions following him everywhere he went in the Vatican and in the world. Instead he meditated passively before the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe at the Vatican and everywhere he went because he carried this image wherever he prayed. Ironically, the Guadalupe miraculous image of Maciel's Mexico was John Paul II's favorite and is also revered by the Opus Dei and it was the last image St. Josemaria saw when he had his heart attack -- read it here Opus Dei Pope John Paul II insult Our Lady of Guadalupe causes St. Josemaria Escriva's heart attack http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2008/07/opus-dei-pope-john-paul-ii-insult-our.html. The Legion of Christ basilica in Rome is named after Our Lady of Guadalupe and Father Marcial Maciel had planned he would be buried at the main altar just like the coffin is under the main altar of the Opus Dei basilica in Rome.
The Legion of Christ basilica in Rome was named after Our Lady of Guadalupe because it is considered to be the most miraculous and it originated in Mexico, Father Marcial Maciel’s country of origin. Father Maciel had planned he would be buried at the main altar just like the coffin is under the main altar of the Opus Dei basilica in Rome. But shortly after Father Maciel's death, more revelations came out from Mexico that he had fathered several children. Two of them revealed that he repeatedly raped them, their own biological father a holy priest and a holy founder of thousands of holy priests. So to hurry up John Paul II's beatification, Pope Benedict XVI has instructed that all photos of Fr. Maciel with John Paul II must be removed from all Legion of Christ houses. Criminal investigations, including investigations at the Vatican, are being carried out to dig out the complete criminal past Father Marcial Maciel.
Father Marcial Maciel being blessed by John Paul II November 2004 at the Vatican - 4 months before John Paul II died on April 2, 2005...History does not lie.
This real photograph of Father Marcial Maciel being blessed by John Paul II proves that the fantasy and sorcery of the Eucharist is the foremost tool of crimes because it enshrouds criminals with the odor of godliness and therefore can never (ever) protect children and women in our society. There is no “real presence of Chirst” in the Eucharist or He would be the very tool of evil crimes in the hands of rapists-priests. The Eucharist is the sorcery of feel-good fanstasy like Harry Potter magic.
Benedict XVI's haste (abuse of his papal power) to beatify John Paul II has been met with God-sent road blocks again and again. But of course the Pope is a supernatural infallible man—the ultimate despot on the planet earth. Nonetheless God's hands seem to strike at every turn Benedict XVI makes (and we pray for God to strike his hand and mouth to stop the beatification of John Paul II on May 1, 2011 at the Vatican… if there is realy a true God in the 21st Century). When Benedict announced that he had approved John Paul II's miracle, the John Paul II Pedophiles Rapists-Priests Army erupted in Ireland. When the Vatican announced a second miracle of John Paul II on his German barber in Rome, the JP2PRAPA erupted in Germany. Read our related articles below.
Fr. Marcial Maciel, the poster boy of all the tens of thousands of victims of John Paul II Pedophiles Rapists-Priests Army, has come back to haunt and disprove the "heroic virtue" John Paul II. There was nothing heroic or virtues in the life of John Paul II who, as recorded in history, was a coward pope who never dared speak up against the most heinous crime against children in the 20th century, the Priestly Sodomy of Biblical Proportions committed by his John Paul II Pedophiles Rapists-Priests Army. He spoke against the communism in Poland while he sat in glory at far away Vatican and travelled by pope-mobile – no it wasn’t John Paul II who liberated Poland from communism but the people of Poland who dared march in the streets of Poland and get them shot. Another pope to be beatified, Pope Pius XII was afraid to speak against the Nazis and as an excuse it was for fear of his life, but John Paul II was a narcissistic coward who refused to speak against rapists-priests -- for fear of losing his title as John Paul II the Great -- and for fear of losing the chants of WYD World Youth Day youths chanting “JP2 we love you”…but at last St. Michael tied a giant millstone around JP2’s neck and dragged him until his papal neck broke and then cast him into a raging sea of fire …as seen in the vision of Paris Arrow at JP2’s last WYD in Toronto in July 2002 (artists are welcome to depict it and donate proceeds to Jon Sobrino in el Salvador ) read it here John Paul II the Pope of Sodomy: Vision of St. Michael the Archangel tying a giant millstone to John Paul II at World Youth Day in 2002 http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2006/08/john-paul-ii-pope-of-sodomy.html
Read Benedict XVI angers Jewish groups for declaring “Venerable” Pius XII who did nothing during Holocaust… like John Paul II did nothing for clergy abuse http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2009/12/benedict-xvi-angers-jewish-groups-for.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
Opus Dei controlled the 27 years papacy of John Paul II and is therefore the foremost guilty party who aided and abetted and covered-up the John Paul II Pedophiles Rapists-Priests Army. Opus Dei wrote most of John Paul II’s books and writings and to ensure their perpetuity as “All things Catholic”, they want JP2 to be beatified and canonized now by Benedict XVI so as not to take any chances on other future popes. The FACE of Opus Dei is John Paul II and the PHANTOM Spirit of Opus Dei is their founder St. Josemaria Escriva. John Paul II followed the Spirituality of St. Josemaria Escriva (so does Benedict XVI). Opus Dei is the most secretive cult of the Catholic Church and they now control the Vatican bank and the Vatican Swiss Banks. There is a strict hierarchy in Opus Dei: the Pope and St. Josemaria on top, second are Opus Dei appointed Cardinals and Bishops, Opus Dei priests, Opus Dei numeraries (celibates like religious brothers and nuns) lay men and lay women and children are subordinates, non-Opus Dei laity are the lowest rank and mere blind followers to Opus Dei. That is why women can never become priests, NEVER in the Opus Dei Vatican all-male hierarchy. Opus Dei is the most violent of all groups because they physically harm their critics and enemies. They are the ones who ordered that Jon Sobrino be silenced.
Read our related articles
Holy Heist! John Paul II WYD had no role with Arab youths who liberated Egypt from Mubarak who stole then deposited billions into Vatican Swiss Banks http://society-culture.segnalafeed.com/john-paul-ii-millstone-holy-heist-john-paul-ii-wyd-had-no-role/
Saint? John Paul II slept in peace at the Vatican knowing that Fr. Marcial Maciel plus thousands of pedophile priests were raping thousands of boys http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2011/02/saint-john-paul-ii-slept-in-peace-at.html
Mexico mounts a worldwide campaign against the beatification of John Paul II, they should for they are the people of Our Lady of Guadalupe http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2011/01/mexico-mounts-worldwide-campaign.html
Beloved companions John Paul II and Fr. Marcial Maciel together in their journeys to Guadalupe: Both were great founders and great deceivers alike http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2011/01/beloved-companions-john-paul-ii-and-fr.html
Canon Law and John Paul II, the Vatican & Benedict XVI never saved children nor excommunicated pedophile priests during last quarter of 20th Century http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=31954140&postID=2704275348461502442
Theology and John Paul II are heartless and together they made the immoral Fr. Marcial Maciel thrive http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2010/05/theology-and-john-paul-ii-are-heartless.html
Cardinal Bernard Law must resign following Irish Clergy Abuse report http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2010/02/cardinal-bernard-law-must-resign.html
John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army expands into Ireland &John Paul is elevated as "Venerable"... only in the Catholic Church are criminals glorified http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2009/12/john-paul-ii-pedophile-priests-army.html
John Paul II the Great clashing cymbal of St. Paul http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2009/11/john-paul-ii-great-clashing-cymbal-of.html
John Paul II did not have the charity of Mother Teresa http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2009/11/john-paul-ii-did-not-have-charity-of.html
Faith, BLESSED NEWMAN, prayers, Christ-CRUCIFIX never protected children and can never bring justice to victims of John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/09/blessed-newmanprayers-crucifix-of.html
The Vatican is not a Country as other European Countries. It’s an artificial State created by Mussolini in 1929. It now wants power in European Union http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/08/vatican-is-not-country-as-other.html
The Nazis of Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church of Benedict XVI are similar: They both burn human beings in Auschwitz and in Hell http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2011/02/nazis-of-hitler-and-roman-catholic.html
Benedict XVI's endless pathological lies: John Paul II sainthood and "Child abuse won't happen again"...but he could not buy Fr. Maciel's victims http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2011/01/benedict-xvis-endless-pathological-lies.html
The Roman Catholic Church is no longer « Holy ». All Catholic churches, sacristies, rectories are not «holy» but potential priestly pedophile places http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2010/07/roman-catholic-church-is-no-longer-holy.html
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
Sins and crimes are not synonymous. Sinners and criminals are not one and the same http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/05/sins-and-crimes-are-not-synonymous.html
Who’s responsible & to blame: The Devil or Benedict XVI-Cardinal Ratzinger? Satan as scapegoat for Vatican's chaotic sex scandals http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/03/whos-responsible-to-blame-devil-or.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
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
The French Revolution at the Vatican might start in England with the arrest of Benedict XVI led by the British Dawkins and Hitchens http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/04/french-revolution-at-vatican-might.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
John L. Allen Jr of NCR is the Pied Piper of Benedict XVI toots “Will Ratzinger's past trump Benedict's present?” http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/03/john-allen-pied-piper-of-benedict-xvi_25.html
Penance is not justice; penitence is inequality to the lifetime suffering of victims of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/04/penance-is-not-justice-penitence-is.html
From Fatima, Jacinta would throw the first stone at John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army to defend her little brothers and sisters http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2010/04/from-fatima-jacinta-would-throw-first.html
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FACES of RAPISTS-PRIESTS
Father Marcial Maciel and John Paul II
The New York Times
Philadelphia Priests Accused by Grand Jury of Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/us/11priest.html?_r=1
Philadelphia District Attorneys Office, via Associated Press
Rev. Edward V. Avery
Philadelphia District Attorneys Office, via Associated Press
Bernard G. Shero
Philadelphia District Attorneys Office, via Associated Press
Rev. Charles F. Engelhardt
Philadelphia District Attorneys Office, via Associated Press
Msgr. William Lynn
Philadelphia District Attorneys Office, via Associated Press
Rev. James J. Brennan
Philadelphia Priests Accused by Grand Jury of Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up
By JON HURDLE
Published: February 10, 2011
The new report said a senior church official charged with investigating allegations of sexual abuse by priests had in fact allowed some of those accused to remain in posts that gave them continued access to children. It charged him with endangering the welfare of minors and accused three priests and a teacher of raping two boys between 1996 and 1999.
“By no means do we believe that these were the only two parishioners who were abused during this period,” the report said.
At least 37 priests who are subject to “substantial evidence of abuse” are still in roles that bring them into contact with children, the new report said, and 10 of those have been in place since before 2005, when the last grand jury made its allegations.
The Rev. Edward Avery, 68, and the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, 64, were charged with the rape and indecent assault of a 10-year-old boy in St. Jerome Parish in Northeast Philadelphia in 1998 and 1999. The teacher, Bernard Shero, 48, was accused of assaulting the same boy in 2000.
The Rev. James Brennan, 47, was accused of assaulting a 14-year-old boy in 1996. All three priests were under arrest on Thursday.
The report also charged Msgr. William Lynn, secretary of clergy in the archdiocese under former Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, with endangering the welfare of children by allowing “dangerous” priests to remain in place. Monsignor Lynn was responsible for investigating abuse allegations from 1992 to 2004.
“The rapist priests we accuse were well known to the Secretary of Clergy, but he cloaked their conduct and put them in place to do it again,” the grand jury said.
Monsignor Lynn faces a maximum of 14 years in prison if convicted on all charges.
In a statement issued late on Thursday, Cardinal Justin Rigali, the archbishop of Philadelphia, rejected the report’s assertion that there were active priests who had been credibly accused of abuse.
“I assure all the faithful that there are no archdiocesan priests in ministry today who have an admitted or established allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against them,” he said.
The report accused the archdiocese of lacking urgency in its efforts to eradicate sexual abuse by its priests.
It said a panel looking into the allegations dismissed charges against a priest by two independent victims, saying their evidence lacked credibility.
“These are simply not the actions of an institution that is serious about ending sexual abuse of children,” the report said.
The 124-page report, which contains graphic descriptions of abuse of the 9- and 10-year-old boys, said the grand jury decided “reluctantly” not to press charges against Cardinal Bevilacqua, who stepped down in 2003 after 15 years as archbishop, even though he worked closely with Monsignor Lynn, because it did not have enough evidence.
In 2005, a grand jury report accused the church of an “immoral cover-up” that had exposed hundreds of children to sexual assault. That report recommended no criminal charges.
If convicted on all charges, the priests and the teacher each face a maximum sentence of 67 years in prison, the Philadelphia district attorney’s office said.
Burton A. Rose, a lawyer for the teacher, Mr. Shero, declined to comment on the case. Lawyers for the other defendants did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.
A version of this article appeared in print on February 11, 2011, on page A16 of the New York edition.
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This is the image of the woman as the sun Our Lady of Guadalupe defending and protecting children and holding a child up high away from the snares and snatches of the Serpent but John Paul II gave countless thousands of little boys to the Serpent of Sodomy to be sodomized and raped by his John Paul II Pedophiles Rapists-Priests Army for over 27 years during his glorious papacy as John Paul II the Great
The Danish cartoonist of the prophet Mohammed portrayed John Paul II as the Pope of Pedophilia with the inscription "I am not for homosexuality but for pedophilia".
John Paul II is the Sun as the Infallible Most Powerful Pope of the Catholics with seven rays of the 7 Sacraments, he is in his white papal uniform and his two papal hands pulls up the children`s robes because he enabled and allowed thousands of pedophiles rapists-priests to go on freely sodomizing and raping little boys (and girls) during his longest reigning papacy of 27 years, together with Cardinal Josef Ratzinger his right-hand man as Head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2007/10/john-paul-ii-portrait-by-danish-artist.html.
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Sign your names and join the protest against John-Paul II’s beatification.
Attention WYD World Youth Day young men and women!!!
Below is the complete Statement of Reservations (with our bold emphasis added)
As of March 23, several hundred persons have signed this Statement. Please send us an email if you wish to have your name added -- editor@remnantnewspaper.com SUBJECT: Beatification of John Paul II. The list of original signatories as well as this brief sampling of support received from around the world will remain posted here at RemnantOnline and be published in The Remnant's March 31st print edition. All additional signatories will be attached to the Statement of Reservations and sent to the Vatican in early April.
If you're having trouble with this email link, please use admin@RemnantNewspaper.com
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Bold emphasis added --- we agree on most of the content except on one part where we put our comment in parenthesis; it’s in the 9th paragraph under “A Troubling Legacy”
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A Statement of Reservations Concerningthe Impending Beatification of Pope John Paul II
http://www.remnantnewspaper.com/2011-0331-statement-of-reservations-beatification.htm
Feast of St. Benedict
The impending beatification of Pope John Paul II on May 1, 2011 has aroused serious concern among not a few Catholics around the world, who are concerned about the condition of the Church and the scandals that have afflicted her in recent years—scandals that prompted the future Benedict XVI to exclaim on Good Friday 2005: “How much filth there is in the Church, even among those who, in the priesthood, should belong entirely to Him.” We give voice to our own concern in this public way in keeping with the law of the Church, which provides:
In accord with the knowledge, competence and preeminence which they possess, the Christian faithful have the right and even at times a duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church, and they have a right to make their opinion known to the other Christian faithful, with due regard for the integrity of faith and morals and reverence towards their pastors, and with consideration for the common good and the dignity of persons. [CIC (1983), Can. 212, § 3.]
We are compelled by what we believe in conscience to be the common good of the Church to express our reservations concerning this beatification. We do so on the following grounds, among others that could be brought forth.
The Real Question
We stress at the outset that we do not present these considerations as an argument against the personal piety or integrity of John Paul II, which ought to be presumed. The question is not personal piety or integrity as such, but rather whether there is, objectively speaking, a basis for the claim that John Paul exhibited such heroic virtue in the exercise of his exalted office as Pope that he should be placed immediately on the road to sainthood as a Pope to be emulated by all his successors.
The Church has always recognized that the matter of heroic virtue involved in a beatification is inextricably bound up with whether the candidate performed heroically the duties of his station in life. As Pope Benedict XIV (1675-1758) explained in his teaching on beatification, the heroic performance of duties involves acts so difficult they are “above the common strength of man,” are “accomplished promptly, easily,” “with holy joy” and “quite frequently, when the occasion to do so presents itself.” [Cf. De servorum Dei beatificatione, Bk. III, chap. 21 in Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of Interior Life, Vol. 2, p. 443].
Suppose the father of a large family were a candidate for beatification. One would hardly expect his cause to advance if it were the case that, while pious, he consistently failed to discipline and properly form his children, who habitually disobeyed him and fomented disorder in the home, even openly opposing the Faith while living under his roof; or if, while attentive to his prayers and spiritual duties, he neglected the industrious support of his family and allowed his household to fall into disarray.
When the candidate for beatification is a Pope—the Holy Father of the universal Church—the question is not simply his personal piety and holiness, but also his care of the vast household of the Faith that God has entrusted to him, for which purpose God grants the Pope extraordinary graces of state. This is the real question: Did John Paul II perform heroically his duties as Supreme Pontiff in the manner of the sainted predecessors we will mention here: opposing error, swiftly and courageously defending the flock from the ravening wolves who spread it, and protecting the integrity of the Church’s doctrine and sacred worship? We fear that under the circumstances surrounding this “fast track” beatification the real question has not received the careful and unhurried consideration it deserves
Undue Popular Pressure
Among the circumstances that concern us is the unseemly pressure of “popular demand” for this beatification as manifested by the slogan “Santo Subito!”—“Saint Immediately!” It is precisely in order to avoid the influence of ephemeral popular sentiment, and to allow the perspective of a sober historical judgment to form, that the law of the Church wisely prescribes a five-year waiting period before a process for beatification can even begin. Yet in this case that prudent waiting period has been dispensed with. Thus a process that should barely have commenced by now is already nearly at an end, as if to provide immediate gratification of the popular will, even if that is not the intention.
We are aware of the role of popular acclamation even in the canonization of saints in exceptional cases. Pope Saint Gregory the Great, for example, was canonized by popular acclamation almost immediately after his death. But that towering Roman Pontiff was nothing less than a builder of Christian civilization, laying down both spiritual and organizational foundations for the Church and Christendom that endured for century upon century.
Likewise, Pope Saint Nicholas I, the last of the Popes the Church has denominated “Great,” was instrumental in the reform of the Church during a great crisis of faith and discipline, afflicting especially the upper hierarchy whose corrupt members he fearlessly opposed, and is rightly regarded as a veritable savior of Christian civilization at a time when its very survival was in doubt.
Further, the popular acclamation of beati and saints belongs to a time when the people were overwhelmingly faithful and submissive to the Church. We must ask: Of what value is popular demand for this beatification in an epoch when the vast majority of nominal Catholics simply reject any teaching on faith and morals they deem unacceptable—above all the infallible teaching of the Magisterium on marriage and procreation?
A Troubling Legacy
In all candor we are constrained to observe by way of comparison that, given the condition of the Church as he left it, the pontificate of John Paul II objectively does not warrant any role for popular acclaim in his beatification, much less the immediate sainthood for which the large crowds have clamored. An honest assessment of the facts compels the conclusion that John Paul’s pontificate was marked, not by the renewal and restoration we see during the pontificates of his most eminent predecessors, but rather, as the former Cardinal Ratzinger so famously remarked [Cf. L’Osservatore Romano, November 9, 1984], an acceleration of the “continuing process of decay,” above all in the traditionally Christian Western nations of Europe, the Americas, and the Pacific.
This objective reality is all the more apparent when one considers that the late Pope himself, very near the end of his pontificate, lamented the “silent apostasy” throughout a once-Christian Europe. [Cf. Ecclesia In Europa (2003), n. 9.] Moreover, his successor has since publicly decried the “process of secularization” that “has produced a grave crisis of the sense of the Christian faith and of belonging to the Church.” On this occasion Pope Benedict XVI announced the creation of a new pontifical council whose specific task will be “promoting a renewed evangelization in countries where the first proclamation of the faith already resounded... but which are going through a progressive secularization of society and a sort of ‘eclipse of the sense of God’...” (Cf. Vespers Homily, June 28, 2010).
The permeation of the human element of the Church itself by this “silent apostasy” has become ever more evident since the Second Vatican Council. Before the Council the world at large was in precipitous decline, as Pope after Pope had warned, but within the commonwealth of the Church the faith was still strong, the liturgy was intact, vocations were many, and families were large—until the great conciliar “opening to the world.”
Part of the diagnosis of the sudden onset of a post-conciliar ecclesial crisis without parallel was given by the currently reigning Roman Pontiff, writing as Cardinal Ratzinger in the very midst of the 27-year-long pontificate of his predecessor: “I am convinced that the ecclesiastical crisis in which we find ourselves today depends in a great part upon the collapse of the liturgy...” [La Mia Vita (1997), p. 113: “Sono convinto che la crisi ecclesiale in cui oggi ci troviamo dipende in gran parte dal crollo della liturgia...”)
It hardly needs to be demonstrated that a “collapse of the liturgy” is something the Church had absolutely never witnessed before Vatican II and the “reforms” undertaken in its name. Only fifteen years after the Council, during the second year of his pontificate, John Paul II himself publicly asked forgiveness for the sudden and dramatic loss of Eucharistic faith and reverence following the “liturgical reforms” approved by Paul VI:
I would like to ask forgiveness—in my own name and in the name of all of you, venerable and dear brothers in the episcopate—for everything which, for whatever reason, through whatever human weakness, impatience or negligence, and also through the at times partial, one-sided and erroneous application of the directives of the Second Vatican Council, may have caused scandal and disturbance concerning the interpretation of the doctrine and the veneration due to this great sacrament. And I pray the Lord Jesus that in the future we may avoid in our manner of dealing with this sacred mystery anything which could weaken or disorient in any way the sense of reverence and love that exists in our faithful people. (Dominicae Cenae (1980), n.12)
But John Paul’s stunning apology was never followed by any decisive action to stem the continuing collapse of the liturgy over the next twenty-five years of his reign. Quite the contrary, in 1988, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Pope hailed the “reforms which it has made possible” as “the most visible fruit of the whole work of the Council,” noting that for “many people the message of the Second Vatican Council has been experienced principally through the liturgical reform.” Indeed it has! Concerning the self-evident collapse of the liturgy, however, the Pope merely made note of various abuses that occur “on occasion,” while insisting nonetheless that “the vast majority of the pastors and the Christian people have accepted the liturgical reform in a spirit of obedience and indeed joyful fervour.” (Vicesimus Quintus Annus (1988), n. 12.)
Yet today the majority of the Christian people do not even believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, which they receive in the hand from the unconsecrated hands of lay ministers as if it were a mere wafer of bread, which is exactly how they treat it. Moreover, in keeping with a nearly universal selective obedience to the Magisterium, the practice of contraception is widespread among Catholics, whose view on contraception differs little from that of Protestants, according to innumerable polls and surveys. This is also evidenced by the plummeting and now abysmally low birthrates among the Catholic populations of the Western world, which are not even producing enough children to replace themselves. Hence John Paul himself noted “the widespread fear of giving life to new children” in the midst of the “silent apostasy” he decried in Ecclesia in Europa. In fact, it cannot be disputed that the highest rate of births in the Catholic world is seen among “traditionalists” who do not take part in the reformed liturgy or who, having no alternative, endure it with anything but “joyful fervor.”
Moreover, it is manifest that John Paul contributed to the liturgical collapse by his own acts. For the first time in her history the Church witnessed during his pontificate the scandalous novelty of “altar girls,” (we disagree with this statement ‘scandalous novelty of “altar girls” – because the holiest creature God created was a girl, Mary, and not a boy, hence the all-male priesthood is the contradiction to God’s presence only-in-woman as evident in his personal choice of his personal presence and affiliation in women when God was attached within the womb of Mary and thus God was never personally physically united with a man, and therefore, the most fitting creatures to reincarnate Christ should be women, not the all-male priesthood) concerning which the Pope reversed his own prior decision forbidding the innovation as incompatible with the bimillennial tradition of the Church. Then there were the “inculturated” papal liturgies incorporating rock music and frankly pagan elements, including such shocking spectacles as a bare-breasted woman reading the Epistles in New Guinea, gyrating, feathered Aztec dancers shaking rattles and a “purification rite” in Mexico, and an aboriginal “Smoking Ceremony” replacing the prescribed penitential rite in Australia. The excuse that the Pope knew nothing of these liturgical aberrations beforehand is belied by his own choice and retention of their very author and orchestrator: Piero Marini, who served as John Paul’s Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations for nearly twenty years, despite worldwide protests against his truly grotesque abuses of the Roman liturgy. Marini was finally, and mercifully, replaced by Pope Benedict in 2007.
Honesty compels one to admit that if the great preconciliar Popes had witnessed these papal liturgies of John Paul II, or indeed the general state of the Roman Rite throughout his pontificate, they would have reacted with a mixture of outrage and terrified incredulity.
But not only the liturgy was in a state of collapse by the end of the last pontificate. As we noted at the beginning of this Statement, on Good Friday 2005, just before ascending to the Chair of Peter himself, the former Cardinal Ratzinger remarked: “How much filth there is in the Church, even among those who, in the priesthood, should belong entirely to Him.” [Cf. “Homily for Good Friday Mass,” 2005]. The “filth” to which the Cardinal referred was of course an unbelievable number of sexual scandals involving unspeakable acts by Catholic priests, erupting in nations around the globe—the harvest of decades of “conciliar renewal” in the seminaries.
Instead of disciplining the bishops who fostered this filth in their seminaries, covered it up by moving sexual predators from place to place, and then bankrupted their dioceses by paying civil settlements, John Paul II provided safe haven for several of the most egregiously negligent prelates. Perhaps the most notable example is Cardinal Bernard Law (see photo).
And what of Archbishop Weakland, the notorious theological dissenter who admitted in a deposition that he deliberately returned homosexual predators in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee to active priestly ministry without warning parishioners or notifying the police of their crimes? Having driven the Archdiocese into bankruptcy court on account of the resulting civil suits, Weakland ended his long career of undermining the integrity of faith and morals—to worldwide fawning publicity—only after the revelation that he misappropriated $450,000 in archdiocesan funds to pay off a man with whom he had had a homosexual affair. John Paul II allowed this thieving wolf of a bishop to retire with the full dignity of his high office in the Church, after which a Protestant publishing company published his memoirs: “A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church: Memoirs of a Catholic Archbishop.” An admiring reviewer writes that the book “portrays a man imbued with the values of the Second Vatican Council [who] had the courage to carry them forward both as Benedictine Abbot Primate and as Archbishop of Milwaukee.”
The “filth” that afflicted the Church during the last pontificate includes the long history of sexual predation by Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado (being blessed by Pope John Paul in photo to the left), founder of the “Legionaries of Christ,” supposedly the very exemplar of the “renewal” in action. John Paul II refused to initiate any investigation into Maciel’s conduct despite mounting evidence of abominable crimes which, thanks to worldwide publicity, are now the most notorious ever committed by a Catholic cleric. Paying no heed to the long-pending and widely known canonical charges against Maciel by eight of the Legionary seminarians he had sexually molested, John Paul lavishly honored him in a public ceremony at the Vatican in November 2004. Days later, however, then Cardinal Ratzinger “took it on himself to authorize an investigation of Maciel.” [Jason Berry, “Money Paved the Way for Maciel’s Influence in the Vatican,” National Catholic Reporter, April 6, 2010].
It was literally the case that John Paul had to die before Maciel could be disciplined. He was finally removed from active ministry and exiled to a monastery almost immediately after Cardinal Ratzinger became Pope Benedict. But this was only part of a pattern described by a prominent Catholic commentator: “[T]he high-flying John Paul let scandals spread beneath his feet, and the uncharismatic Ratzinger was left to clean them up. This pattern extends to other fraught issues that the last Pope tended to avoid—the debasement of the Catholic liturgy, or the rise of Islam in a once-Christian Europe.” [Ross Douthat, “The Better Pope,” New York Times, April 11, 2010].
Another reason for reservation concerning this beatification is that throughout John Paul’s long pontificate faithful Catholics were bewildered and scandalized by numerous manifestly imprudent papal statements and gestures the likes of which the Church has never witnessed in 2000 years. To recall just a few of the more well-known examples:
The numerous theologically dubious apologies for the presumed sins of Catholics in prior epochs of Church history.
Of course the world did not view the Pope’s unprecedented mea culpas as a great demonstration of the Church’s humility. Rather, quite predictably, they were construed as admissions of the Church’s historic guilt for all manner of offenses against humanity. With the exception of the apparently forgotten apology in Dominicae Cenae, however, there were no apologies for the catastrophic failure of living members of the hierarchy to preserve faith and discipline in the midst of the “continuing process of decay” and “silent apostasy.”
The Assisi gatherings of October 1986 and January 2002.
During Assisi 2002, John Paul provided places in the very Convent of Saint Francis for the practitioners of “the great world religions,” from Animism to Zoroastrianism, to enact their assorted cultic rituals in that sacred Catholic shrine. Referring with emphasis to “the arranged places,” the Pope declared to a motley assembly that included practitioners of Voodoo: “we will pray in different ways, respecting one another’s religious traditions.” Cf. “Address Of His Holiness Pope John Paul II to the Representatives of the World Religions,” January 24, 2002, and List of Participants, vatican.va.
The inevitable public impression left by the Assisi event, especially when filtered through the prism of the secular media, was that all religions are more or less pleasing to God—the very thesis rejected as false by Pope Pius XI in his 1928 Encyclical Mortalium Animos. Why else would the Pope have summoned all their “representatives” to Assisi to offer their “prayers for peace”? Can it honestly be denied that every single one of the Pope’s preconciliar predecessors would have condemned these spectacles?
The Pope’s public kissing of the Koran during the 1999 visit to Rome of a group of Iraqi Christians and Muslims.
The Chaldean-rite Catholic Patriarch of Iraq hailed this act as a “gesture of respect” for a religion whose essence is a denial of the Trinity and the divinity of Christ and whose entire history is marked by the persecution of Christians, as we see at this very moment in Iraq and the Islamic “republics” of the Arabic world.
The astonishing exclamation of March 21, 2000 in the Holy Land: “May St. John the Baptist protect Islam and all the people of Jordan...” (Cf. “Papal Homily in the Holy Land,” vatican.va).
The bestowal of pectoral crosses – symbols of episcopal authority – on George Carey and Rowan Williams.
These Anglican so-called Archbishops of Canterbury, the validity of whose priestly and episcopal ordinations was definitively ruled out by Pope Leo XIII’s 1896 Bull Apostolicae Curae, do not even adhere to the teaching of the Catholic Church on matters of basic morality rooted in the divine and natural law. (Cf. John Allen, “Papal Deeds Speak Louder,” National Catholic Register, November 8, 2002)
Pope John Paul’s active participation in pagan worship at a “sacred forest” in Togo.
The Pope’s own newspaper reported how, upon his arrival at this place, “a sorcerer began to invoke the spirits: ‘Power of water, I invoke you. Ancestors, I invoke you.’” Following this invocation of “spirits,” the Pope was presented “with a receptacle full of water and flour. (He) first made a slight bow and then dispersed the mixture in all directions. In the morning he had performed the same action before Mass. That pagan rite [!] signifies that he who receives the water, symbol of prosperity, shares it with his ancestors by throwing it on the ground.” L’Osservatore Romano, Italian edn., August 11, 1985, p. 5.
Shortly after his return to Rome, the Pope expressed satisfaction with his public participation in the prayer and ritual of animists: “The prayer meeting in the sanctuary at Lake Togo was particularly striking. There I prayed for the first time with animists.” [La Croix, August 23, 1985]. One would think that even this one instance—not only unrepented, but publicly vaunted—should be sufficient reason for terminating the cause for John Paul’s canonization. For by the Pope’s own admission, he “prayed . . . with animists.” And that kind of action – direct and formal participation in pagan worship – is something the Church has always judged to be objectively gravely sinful. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, pagan idolatry occurs not only when man worships false gods or idols as such, but also when he “honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods or demons (for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors... Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God; it is therefore incompatible with communion with God.” (CCC § 2113).
But this was only the most egregious (arguably) of many similar incidents during John Paul’s pontificate. It is instructive to note the Church’s posthumous verdict on the 4th-century Pope, Liberius, the first Bishop of Rome not to be declared a saint. Liberius earned this dubious distinction because—while in exile and under great duress from a persecuting emperor—he endorsed an ambiguous doctrinal statement favorable to Arianism and then excommunicated Athanasius, the champion of Trinitarian orthodoxy. Even though after his liberation and return to Rome he promptly retracted these lamentable actions and once again upheld orthodoxy for the rest of his pontificate, he was still denied canonization.
· The “ecumenical” vespers service in Saint Peter’s Basilica, the very heart of the visible Church, in which the Pope consented to pray together with Lutheran “bishops”, including women claiming to be successors of the Apostles.
This spectacle of course invited questions about whether the Pope was undermining his own teaching against women’s ordination. [Cf. Allen, loc. cit.]
In sum, by any objective assessment of the facts, John Paul II presided over and left behind a Church that remained in a state of crisis following the turmoil that erupted immediately after Vatican Council II. It is true that his pontificate included some decidedly positive achievements, including an admirable and forthright defense of human life in the face of the growing “culture of death,” valuable teaching in several weighty social encyclicals, an infallible pronouncement against any possibility of women’s ordination, and the motu proprio (Ecclesia Dei) that at least set the stage for the “liberation” of the traditional Latin Mass by Pope Benedict. Nor do we mean to question the personal piety and prayerfulness that were evident to those who knew him, and which we acknowledged at the beginning of this Statement.
Nevertheless, it can scarcely be denied that every one of John Paul’s predecessors would have been shocked and dismayed by the disastrously widespread disobedience, doctrinal dissent, liturgical decay, moral scandals, and declining Mass attendance that continued to the end of his pontificate – all exacerbated by frequently poor episcopal appointments and the sorts of highly questionable papal words and deeds we have recalled above. Even the reformist Paul VI, whose own ecumenical and interreligious initiatives were far more cautious than those of John Paul, would have been appalled by the state of the Church at the end of John Paul’s long reign. And it was Pope Paul himself who described the already-developing postconciliar debacle with some of the most shocking words ever uttered by a Roman Pontiff:
By some fissure the smoke of Satan has entered into the temple of God: there is doubt, uncertainty, problems, unrest. Doubt has entered our consciences, and it has entered through the windows which were meant to have been opened to the light. This state of uncertainty reigns even in the Church. It was hoped that after the Council there would be a day of sunlight in the history of the Church. Instead, there came a day of clouds, of darkness, of groping, of uncertainty. How did this happen? We will confide Our thoughts to you: there has been interference from an adverse power: his name is the devil... [Paul VI, Insegnamenti, Ed. Vaticana, Vol. X, 1972, p. 707]
Like John Paul after him, however, Paul failed to take any effective measures to address a debacle that the Pope—and only the Pope—could have prevented, or at least greatly curtailed.
Pope Paul’s devastating admissions were quoted by no less than Msgr. Guido Pozzo, Secretary of the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei,” in his address to the European priests of the Fraternity of St. Peter on July 2, 2010 at Wigratzbad. As Msgr. Pozzo admitted on that occasion: “Unfortunately, the effects as enumerated by Paul VI have not disappeared. A foreign way of thinking has entered into the Catholic world, stirring up confusion, seducing many souls, and disorienting the faithful. There is a ‘spirit of self-demolition’ that pervades modernism...” The post-conciliar crisis, he observed, involves a “para-Conciliar ideology” that “proposes once more the idea of Modernism, condemned at the beginning of the 20th century by St. Pius X.”
But who, if not the last Pope—and the one before him—bears partial responsibility for the spread of this para-Conciliar, heterodox ideology throughout the Catholic world? Certainly, John Paul II, like Paul VI, promulgated a number of doctrinally traditional magisterial documents that were directed against such heterodoxy. But the question before us now is this: Was his witness strong enough, and consistent enough, to qualify him as an heroic defender of orthodox faith and morals? Or rather, did his own many questionable novelties in word and deed - together with his omissions and his lack of firm ecclesiastical governance - have the overall effect of taking away with his left hand much of what he gave with his right?
In this connection we note the supreme irony that while a resurgent Modernist heresy was causing chaos throughout the Church, John Paul II saw fit to announce personally the excommunication of only five persons during his twenty-seven years as Pope: the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and the four bishops he consecrated in 1988 for the Society of Saint Pius X, whose very aim (whether or not one agrees with their approach) was precisely to oppose the “para-Conciliar ideology” remarked by Msgr. Pozzo according to the program of the sainted Pope for whom their association is named. (Note: John Paul did not personally announce the excommunication of Tissa Balasuriya, who at any rate was “unexcommunicated” within a year.)
As the whole world knows, in early 2009 Pope Benedict revoked the excommunications of the four Society bishops. He has since observed that “[f]rom the moment in which these four bishops recognized the Primacy of the Pope, juridically they had to be liberated from excommunication...” [Luce del Mondo, p. 43] But they always had recognized the papal primacy, unlike the legions of Catholics—laity, priests, nuns, theologians, and even certain bishops—who effectively negated it with their open dissent from the most basic teachings of the Magisterium, while the Vatican did nothing or next to nothing for more than a quarter-century.
Likewise, the ill-starred Paul VI, in the midst of the mounting “self-demolition” of the Church he himself decried, reserved his harshest discipline for the Society and Archbishop Lefebvre, whom he publicly rebuked by name and then ordered suspended from the exercise of Holy Orders while theological and liturgical rebels were sacking the Church with impunity all over the world.
Today very few seriously propose the beatification of Paul VI, who rued the debacle over which he presided while not doing nearly enough about it. In fact, there was no process for Pope Paul’s beatification at all until John Paul II commenced it at the diocesan level in 1993. It has not advanced since then, having apparently been stopped cold by grave objections not unlike some of those suggested here. And so we must ask: Why the rush to beatify John Paul II, given that he persevered unswervingly in the imprudent reformist program of his predecessor, adding to it a long series of novelties not even Pope Paul, that supremely tragic figure, would have dared to venture? At least Paul had the candor to admit that he saw the smoke of Satan entering the Church, not a “new springtime of Christian life which will be revealed by the Great Jubilee, if Christians are docile to the action of the Holy Spirit.” [Tertio Millennio Adveniente (1994), n. 18]
For the sake of truth we must be frank in stating the obvious conclusion: No blessed or sainted Pope in Church history has a legacy as troubling as that of John Paul II, and perhaps no Pope at all aside from Paul VI.
A Miracle Open to Doubt
Finally, we cannot fail to note that the lone miracle on which the entire beatification is premised—the reported cure of a French nun, Sister Marie Simon-Pierre (see photo), said to be suffering from Parkinson’s disease—is open to question.
For one thing, the very diagnosis of Parkinson’s leaves room for doubt absent the only definitive test known to medical science: an autopsy of the brain. Other conditions subject to spontaneous remission can mimic Parkinson’s. For another, the nexus between the purported cure of the nun and a “night of prayers to John Paul II” seems dubious. Did the prayers for this nun exclude the invocation of any and all recognized saints?
Compare the two miracles—it was John Paul himself who reduced the requirement to only one—that Pius XII deemed sufficient for the beatification of Pius X. The first involved a nun who had bone cancer and was cured instantaneously after a relic of Pius X was placed on her chest. The second involved a nun whose cancer disappeared when she touched a relic statue of Pius. No such indisputable connection exists between the purported cure in this case and any putative relic of John Paul II.
There is no question here of the infallible teaching authority of the Church; the assessment of this lone miracle is a judgment of medical fact subject to the possibility of error. Imagine the damage to the Church’s credibility should this nun eventually suffer a return of her symptoms. In fact, in March of last year the Rzeczpospolita daily, one of Poland’s most respected newspapers, reported that there had been some return of symptoms and that one of the two medical consultants had expressed doubts about the purported miracle. This report prompted the former head of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, to reveal to press that “It could be that one of the two medical consultants perhaps had some doubts. And this, unfortunately, leaked out.” Martins further revealed that “the doubts would require further investigation. In such cases, he said, the Congregation would ask more doctors to come in and offer an opinion.” (Nicole Winfield, Associated Press, “John Paul II ‘Miracle’ Further Scrutinized,” March 28, 2010)
One doctor doubted the miracle, and when his doubts “leaked out” unexpectedly other doctors were brought in—and this less than a year ago! Have we really been presented with the kind of indubitably miraculous cures recognized by Pius XII in the beatification of Pius X?
The Probable Consequences of this Act
Again, the real question concerning this beatification is not whether John Paul II was a good or holy man, but rather what his beatification would signify to the masses that will pay no heed to the distinction between beatification and canonization. It would signify that the Church views as a saint, and even great among Roman Pontiffs, a Pope whose stewardship of the Church cannot withstand the least comparison with the examples of his sainted and blessed predecessors.
Consider the next-to-last of the sainted Roman Pontiffs: St. Pius V, a model of fortitude in his reform of the clergy according to the decrees of the Council of Trent, his stern measures against the spread of error in the Church, and his defense of all of Christendom against the threat of Islam—which John Paul II implored Saint John the Baptist to protect! Consider also the last Pope to be raised to the altars: St. Pius X, likewise remembered for his courageous governance of the Church in suppressing precisely that Modernist heresy which erupted anew after the Vatican II and spread throughout the Catholic world during John Paul’s pontificate, as Msgr. Pozzo so candidly observed only a few months ago (but without seeming to consider any responsibility of the head of the Church for this catastrophe).
Does not this beatification, therefore, incur the risk of reducing beatification and even canonization to the level of a token of popular esteem bestowed upon a beloved figure in the Church, a kind of ecclesiastical Academy Award? Here we note that, in one of his many innovations, John Paul “streamlined” the process for both beatification and canonization, allowing him to conduct an incredible 1,338 beatifications and 482 canonizations—more than all of his predecessors combined. Is it prudent for the very Pope who put this “saint factory” into operation (a development widely belittled in the press) to be judged according to its relaxed standards?
We must also express our deep concern over the predictable exploitation of this beatification by the cunning forces of world opinion. We notice that they are observing a curious silence where one would expect clamorous opposition if this beatification really represented an offense to the prevailing liberal zeitgeist—as does the proposed beatification of Pius XII, which has been met with a relentless publicity campaign to stop it at all costs. It would appear that world opinion views the beatification of John Paul II with favor insofar as it would serve to validate the “reforms of Vatican II” the world has hailed as a long overdue accommodation of a hidebound Church to the “modern world” of “liberty” and “human rights.”
Yet we can be certain, should the beatification proceed as scheduled, that powerful sectors of the mass media will not waste a moment in holding it up as an example of the Church’s “hypocrisy,” ineptitude and cronyism in so honoring the Pope who presided over the pedophilia scandal and refused to discipline the evil founder of the Legionaries. On the latter subject there is already a book-length exposé and film: “Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II,” which documents how Maciel was protected by the Pope’s key advisors, including Cardinal Sodano, Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Martínez, Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and Cardinal Dziwisz, now Archbishop of Cracow, who was John Paul’s secretary and closest confidant.
Conclusion
In the midst of what Sister Lucia of Fatima rightly called “diabolical disorientation” in the Church we are especially mindful that beatification is not at all within the charism of infallibility. It does not establish an obligatory cult but merely permission to venerate the beatus if one wishes. In this case, therefore, we face the real possibility of a grave error in prudential judgment provoked by contingent circumstances, including popularity and affection, that ought not to influence the essential process of careful investigation and deliberation—especially in the case of this beatification, with all its implications for the universal Church.
Again we ask: Why the haste? Is there perhaps a fear that unless the act is performed immediately the more mature verdict of history might preclude beatification, as it surely did in the case of Paul VI? If so, why not let the verdict be rendered in keeping with the long view the Church has generally taken in the matter of beatification or canonization? If even a giant like Saint Pius V was not canonized until 140 years after his death, can we not wait at least a few more years in order to assess the pontifical legacy that ought to figure most prominently in the decision to beatify John Paul II? Can the Church not wait even the 37 years that elapsed between the death of Pius X and his beatification by Pius XII in 1951 (followed by the canonization of 1954)? Indeed, is it prudent to beatify now—without further assessment and on the basis of a lone miracle whose authenticity is open to doubt—a Pope whose legacy is admittedly marked by the rampant spread of the very evil St. Pius X heroically opposed and defeated in his time?
For all of these reasons, we believe it is just and appropriate to implore the Holy Father to defer the beatification of John Paul II to a time when the grounds for that solemn act may be assessed objectively and dispassionately in the light of history. The good of the Church can only be served by a prudent delay, whereas it can only be placed at risk by a hasty process not protected from error by the charism of the Church’s infallible Magisterium.
Our Lady, Queen of Wisdom, Virgo Prudentissima, pray for us!
If you would like to sign this statement, please send us an email to have your name added
Michael J. Matt
Editor/Publisher, The Remnant
USA
Rod Pead
Editor, Christian Order
UK
John Vennari
Editor, Catholic Family News
USA
Gary Scarrabelotti
Editor, Oriens
Journal of the Oriens Founation Inc.
Australia
Arnaud de Lassus
AFS, Versailles, France
Christopher J. Paulitz
Contributor, Rorate Caeli
USA
Erik van Goor
Editor/Publisher Catholica magazine
The Netherlands
Michael Buszewski
"Pro Fide Rege et Lege" co-editor
Warsaw, Poland
Richard Aleman
President
The Society for Distributism
Dr Stephen McInerney
Academic
Sydney, Australia
Christopher A. Ferrara, JD
American Catholic Lawyers Association, Inc.
USA
James Bogle Esq MA TD
Barrister of the Middle Temple, London
UK
John Rao, Ph.D. Oxford
St. John’s University, New York
USA
Brian M. McCall
Associate Professor
University of Oklahoma College of Law
USA
Fr. Brian W. Harrison, O.S., M.A., S.T.D.
Associate Professor (Emeritus) of Theology,
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico
USA
Fr Thomas Crean OP, MA (Oxon.), STL
Tutor in Pastoral Theology, Maryvale Institute, Birmingham
United Kingdom
R. J. Stove
Writer
Melbourne, Australia
Timothy J. Cullen
Columnist, The Remnant
Argentina
John F. Salza, Esq.
Catholic Author and Apologist
USA
Edwin C. Faust
Catholic Journalist
USA
Kenneth J. Wolfe
Catholic Writer
Washington, D.C.
Trond Urestad
Norway
Commander Sir CJMJ Wolfram Benedikt, USN (Ret), KHS, OOSB, MI, CNOUS, MA, ICO
Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem
Germany
David L. Sonnier
LTC (Retired), US ARMY
Kathleen Brady
Shramore, Roundwood
Republic of Ireland
Dr. Peter D. Wimberley, M.D.
Medical Doctor
Denmark
Michal Semin
St. Joseph Institute, Director
Czech Republic
Paul Bailes BSc PhD
University Professor
Australia
Dr. Rory Donnellan
Pathologist
Immaculata Pathology
Queensland, Australia
Laurie Myers
Christian Activist
Sydney, Australia
Frank Rega
Catholic Author
USA
Capt. Thomas J. Ryan
Remnant contributor
OHIO
Rodney Ham
Kent,
United Kingdom
Mortimer J. Howard
Major USMC Retired
James Bendell, Esq.
Litigation Counsel, American Catholic Lawyers Association
USA
Scott Jones
Our Lady of Victory Home Study, Lepanto Press, Director
USA
Dr. Charles P. Marino
Research Chemist
Philadelphia, PA
William J. Dowling
Attorney at Law
New York, NY
Francesco Neri BTh, LLB
Legal Counsel
Melbourne, Australia
Theodore D. Vicknair, Sr.
Attorney at Law
USA
Dr. Robert P. Banaugh
Retired Academic
USA
Dr Bogomir M Kuhar, PharmD, RPh, FASCP
Clinical Pharmacist Specialist
Founder, Catholic Pharmaceutical Society
Founder, Pharmacists For Life International
Joseph Bracewell
Lancashire England
Steven Mentele MSEE
Purdue University
Donatus Justin
Academic
Malaysia
Kevin Dias BCL, LLB
Legal Counsel
Canada
Camilo Araya Guerra
Santiago, Chile
Anthony Sciriha
B' Kara
Malta, Europe
Jeremiah Belocura
Ave Maria University, Class of 2010
Music Director for the EF Mass, San Juan Bautista Parish, El Paso, Texas
Dennis Cunningham
Melbourne, Australia
Therese Nally
Brisbane, Australia
Timotej H. Neubauer
Political Scientist and Translator
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Roberto Hope
Monterrey, Mexico
Father Brendan King SSPX
Preston, England
Joreen Siena R. Belocura
J.D. Candidate, May 2012
Ave Maria School of Law
Ave Maria University '08
William Devine
Preston, England
Anxo Sampedro
España
James Watt
Edinburgh, Scotland
John Valdéz
La Plata, Argentine
Nathan B. Allen
Captain, US Army
USA
Juan Manuel Soria Acuña
Lawyer
Argentina
A. Todd Wilson, Esq.
Lt. Cmdr., USNR (Ret.)
Grand Knight, KofC Woodlawn Council 2161
Pennsylvania, USA
Paula Aguirre Moltedo
Hijuelas, Chile
David V. Selby MBA, ME, BSc,
Civil Engineer
New Zealand
Mary W. Selby LL.M.
Barrister and Solicitor
New Zealand
Mary Antonia Selby
Student
New Zealand
Silvester Donald McLean
Publisher of the English edition of "Peter, Lovest Thou Me?"
Bunyip, Australia
Arata Nunobe
Tokyo, Japan
As of March 23, several hundred persons have signed this Statement. Please send us an email if you wish to have your name added. The list of original signatories as well as this brief sampling of support received from around the world will remain posted here at RemnantOnline and be published in The Remnant's March 31st print edition. All additional signatories will be attached to the Statement of Reservations and sent to the Vatican in early April.
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