VATICAN CITY
GlobalPost
Jason Berry
Analysis: In a new book, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz absolves John Paul of blame for praising a priest accused of pedophilia, claiming that the pope was unaware of the accusations at the time.
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In a new book, John Paul II’s longtime secretary claims that the former pope is not to blame for his support and praise of a disgraced power broker accused of pedophilia and bribery, according to a Catholic News Service report.
The book, written in Italian by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz and titled Ho Vissuto con un Santo (I Lived with a Saint), has apparently changed certain memories of factual inconvenience — creating a sort of performance piece that sings truths people never knew.
Pope Francis has ordered the canonization of John Paul II despite his failure to act on 1998 pedophilia charges lodged by nine ex-seminarians at the Vatican against Legion of Christ founder Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, a native of Mexico.
During a 1993 speech in St. Peter’s Square, John Paul said, “You are all sons and daughters of Father Maciel!” In 1994, he called Maciel “an efficacious guide to youth.” John Paul continued to praise him after the allegations were filed against Maciel at the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — where they gathered dust for six years.
“When the Holy Father met him, he knew nothing, absolutely nothing,” Catholic News Service quotes Dziwisz. “For him, [Maciel] was still the founder of a great religious order and that’s it. No one had told him anything, not even about the rumors going around.”
These allegations certainly weren’t ‘rumors.’ In 1997, nine victims gave sworn statements for an investigation Gerald Renner and this writer led for the Hartford Courant. Maciel claimed innocence. The Vatican would not comment. Jose Barba, a Mexico City college professor, led the victims’ 1998 canon law request to ex-communicate Maciel in Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s tribunal.
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