By Catherine Pepinster
The Guardian
January 7, 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/jan/07/canonising-john-paul-marcial-maciel-degollado
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| Pope John Paul II gives his blessing to Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, who faced numerous allegations of sexual abuse. |
It was during the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005 that the campaign for his canonisation began. "Santo subito!" said Italian posters held up in the crowd. "Make him a saint straightaway!" Investigations into his cause have continued ever since and now, six years on, the veteran Vatican-watcher Andrea Tornelli has suggested that an alleged miracle linked to the intervention of the Polish pope has been confirmed as true by the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Tornielli, writing in the Milan paper Il Giornale, says that the congregation's medical panel has accepted that a French nun's recovery from Parkinson's disease was caused by John Paul's intercession. The miracle now has to be approved by a commission of bishops and cardinals before John Paul could be first beatified and then canonised.
There's always been unseemly haste about the canonisation of John Paul II. The church usually has a five-year "cooling-off" period following someone's death before they can be considered for sainthood – a sensible approach, given the emotions that surround someone's passing – but Pope Benedict waived this in the case of his predecessor.
Might he now rue the day? While John Paul's place in history is assured, given his role in the fall of communism, his remarkable efforts to improve the relationship between the Catholic church and Jews, his globetrotting showmanship and his ability to say sorry for past papal mistakes, there is one particular giant blot on his papacy which casts doubt for many, including Catholics, on his holiness: his relationship with Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, who founded the Legion of Christ movement for priests and its lay organisation Regnum Christi.
Maciel's work, which included founding many schools, universities and seminaries, brought him into constant contact with young people. His conservative approach to church teaching, his flair for both recruiting young men to the priesthood and the wealthy to become donors to the church made him particularly appealing to John Paul and others around him at the heart of the Vatican. For years there were allegations about his sexual abuse of young people. But Maciel retained a powerful position at the heart of the Catholic church, accompanying John Paul to visits to visits to Mexico on three occasions and being asked to join influential committees.
Could John Paul not have known about the rumours and allegations swirling around Maciel? It may well be that as his infirmity increased, his aides limited access to information. And plenty of people can now attest to how they have been duped by apparent good, kind and charming people who have turned out to lead double lives. But certainly, there was more than an inkling about Maciel, well before ill-health struck John Paul. Evidence has emerged of Maciel's abuse of seminarians as long ago as the 1940s. An American bishop sent detailed evidence from a former Legion priest to Rome through official channels on three occasions. Nothing happened. Meanwhile the cash flowed into the Vatican's coffers from Maciel's wealthy friends.
By 2004, Jason Berry and the late Gerald Renner had exposed his double life in their book and documentary Vows of Silence. The following year, Maciel stood down from running the Legionaries, and just days before the death of John Paul, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was speaking of the "filth in the church", widely interpreted as meaning child abusers in general and quite possibly Maciel in particular. It took Ratzinger just a year following his election as Pope Benedict XVI to discipline Maciel and invite him to a life of penitence and prayer.
Two years later, Maciel died, and since then further revelations have been made – of his rampant paedophilia, his drug taking, his financial scandals, his keeping of two mistresses, his fathering of several children, two of whom he abused. Last year Pope Benedict announced a commission to overhaul the Legionaries while the language used about Maciel himself by the Vatican – "immoral", "devoid of scruples" was notably tough in its denunciation.
This is the darkest chapter in the paedophilia scandal. But it's more than that: it's also a story of how money can gain you access and power in the church, and how fear of scandal continues to be one of the strongest sentiments in Rome, leading to cover-up. Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna has spoken of the then Cardinal Ratzinger struggling against the odds to tackle child abuse. Nothing speaks more loudly than how he was blocked by other powerful Vatican figures than the way he moved against Maciel as soon as he was in charge.
The Maciel saga is a distasteful backdrop to a canonisation that could well become another Vatican PR own goal.
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