Patheos blog
January 8, 2019
By Mary Pezzulo
It was only a matter of time before the defenses started.
Yesterday it was brought to light that Father C. John McCloskey, the famous Opus Dei priest who brough Newt Gingrich and others into the Catholic Church, groped woman who came to him for spiritual direction several times in 2005. Opus Dei quietly paid the woman $977,000 and “curtailed” his ministry, telling him to only give spiritual direction to women in a confessional with a physical barrier between himself and his directee. Words cannot express how inadequate this response was.
And right on queue, people began defending the priest’s misconduct. It did not escape my notice that two public Catholics who defended and coddled McCloskey are known for condemnation of “effeminacy” in the Church and fixation on conspiracies involving homosexuals in the priesthood. But when a priest’s victim is female, they rise to his defense.
Father Dwight Longenecker, who thinks the Works of Mercy are pelagianism and that the Fruit of the Holy Ghost known as gentleness is for sissies, has risen to the pervert’s defense. Today he tweeted, “Fr. McCloskey was a good priest who befriended, helped and encouraged me when I was very down. He prophesied my future and helped me move forward to the priesthood. When someone stumbles may we have the grace and mercy to remember the good we did not just their weakness.”
Molesting a woman, is a “stumble.”
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