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	Cardinal Sodano, Dean of the College of Cardinals, Implicated in Legionaries Scandal By Damian Thompson Telegraph April 12, 2010 http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100034047/cardinal-sodano-dean-of-the-college-of-cardinals-implicated-in-legionaries-scandal/ The National Catholic Reporter has published part two of Jason Berry’s report into the Legionaries of Christ, the hugely wealthy Mexican order founded by a paedophile priest which exerted major influence in the Vatican during the reign of John Paul II. The second half of the investigation contains allegations relating to Cardinal Angelo Sodano, former Vatican Secretary of State, which I think will force him to resign as Dean of the College of Cardinals. Sodano is accused by Berry of exerting improper influence on behalf of the Legionaries, who allegedly entered into a professional relationship with the cardinal’s nephew, Andrea Sodano. You can read part two of the investigation here and part one, published last week, here. One sad and grubby detail: Fr Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries and until his death in 2008 revered by them as a saint, apparently took his illegitimate children to meet Pope John Paul and had them photographed with them. The Pope was completely unaware that they were the old man’s children, of course. It’s the sort of high-risk stunt one associates with paedophiles. (Incidentally, I have been rebuked by a victim of the Legionaries for once writing that Maciel was an abuser of seminarians and women but not a paedophile. I stand well and truly corrected.) But I must reiterate what I wrote last week: that the future Pope Benedict XVI refused to touch the Legionaries’ money when other cardinals were apparently stuffing their pockets for “charitable causes” – and he also ignored John Paul’s wishes and moved against Maciel, to the fury of the latter’s allies, who included Sodano and the late Pope’s secretary, Mgr Stanislaw Dziwisz, now Cardinal Archbishop of Krakow. Dziwisz emerges very badly from this story: Berry accuses him of acting as “gatekeeper” to Pope John Paul’s private Masses, ensuring that fat donations from the Legion did not go unrecognised. Fr Tim Finigan has written wisely about this miserable business here. A shocking Vatican scandal, then – but I’d be surprised if it captured the imaginations of hysterical journalists in New York and London, because it doesn’t help them in their campaign to “get Ratzinger”. And nor do their attempted hit jobs help the Holy Father deal with the almost insurmountable problems that he faces – with a clear conscience but, alas, not enough loyal or competent lieutenants to enact his reforms.
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