Praising Evil

"The fruit is good. The fruit is extraordinarily good. It is excellent."
"Can we say the tree is bad then? Purely from a logical standpoint, I would say no. I absolve Father Maciel. I do not judge him."
Cardinal Franc Rode, prefect, Congregation for Religious, Vatican City

Pope John Paul II gives his blessing to father Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legion of Christ order, in this file photo. John Paul and his top advisers, like a succession of papacies beforehand, turned a blind eye to evidence that Maciel was a con artist, drug addict, pedophile and religious fraud. Sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church mar John Paul's reputation.  Photograph by: Plinio Lepri, The Associated Press

 

This was Pope John Paul's prefect in 2008, of the Congregation for Religious, speaking to Legion priests of a man he had absolved of his sins. That man who was so glowingly praised was revered as the founder of the Legion of Christ order, a pious man, an exemplary organizer, an astute businessman on behalf of the Roman Catholicism. This man was Father Marcial Maciel.

Who also incidentally was a well-known drug addict, child molester, a man of faith in good standing in the Vatican who was known to sexually abuse his seminarians, and a man who fathered three children; so much for the valour of celibacy. He founded the order in 1941, and seven years later the Holy See was in receipt of documentation from Vatican-appointed envoys and bishops in Mexico and Spain perturbed by the legitimacy given his ordination.

The documents spoke to Marcial Maciel's "totalitarian" characteristics, and of the 'spiritual violations' of the young seminarians in his care. The documents make clear that the Holy See was well advanced in its awareness of the man's drug, sexual abuse, and financial improprieties by 1956, when an investigation was ordered and he was suspended for a two-year period to give him the opportunity to seek drug-abuse counselling.

Still, the Vatican did nothing to remove him from office. He had had ample time and inclination to manoeuvre trusted Legion priests loyal to him into key Vatican offices, and he cultivated close relations with Vatican cardinals, Mexican bishops and Catholics of the wealthy social set. The orthodoxy of the Legion priests and Marcial Maciel's own capability in attracting new vocations and donations cemented the Holy See's patience with the man.

In 1994, John Paul gave praise to Maciel, describing him as an "efficacious guide to youth". John Paul's elite advisers were fierce in their support of the man, comfortable in believing that accusations levelled against him were "calumnies" attempting to blemish a saintly man. The Vatican archives are rife with documents citing praise of Maciel from influential bishops; they were leaked online in 2012 by some of his Mexican victims.

Two years from the time the Vatican eventually sentenced Marcial Maciel to a lifetime of penance and prayer for his sexual abuse forced on his seminarians, he was still being praised; when Cardinal Angelo Sodano in 2008 second in authority to the Pope, gave high praise to his spirit and the "humility" he had graced the situation with, in stepping aside.