Pope John Paul failed to investigate the charges against Maciel. He let Cardinal Sodano block Cardinal Ratzimger’s attempt to investigate.
In November 2002 a letter was sent to John Paul by the Rev. Antonio Roqueñí, the lawyer of Maciel’s victims, via (now Cardinal ) Stanislaw Dziwisz.
El Milenio reports.
In the letter the victims state that they know Maciel is maintaining his innocence therefore they ask for the opportunity to present their testimony and evidence before civil and ecclesiastical courts.
In the letter the lawyer states of his clients:
They love and respect the person of the Roman Pontiff, John Paul II… They do not want a media commotion or scandals. They seek justice from the Church as from a mother…My clients do not want to persecute the church, only that father Marcial Maciel submit himself, as every Catholic does, to the imperatives of ecclesiastical justice…One of the sinful acts committed with one of the ex-seminarian plaintiffs took place on Holy Saturday. Another was “aiding” Maciel more than 40 times to satisfy his base passions.
Monsignor, the case is becoming every day more serious,…There have been threats of death and physical harm made by the same Father Maciel Degollado and his friends for the act of having defended and shaving showed solidarity with my clients. They are not unaware that in the Roman Curia there are cardinals and prelates who are well known to use automobiles and other objects of value given, or caused to be given, by Maciel.
The advocate asked to submit this case formally under Canon Law. He got nowhere, and it was all true – and even worse than he stated.
John Paul refused to act. Did his subordinates, including his secretary Dziwisz, intercept letters and keep matters from him. If they did, they did it because they knew he didn’t want to hear such things. If Dziwisz intercepted mail, why is he an archbishop, why is he a cardinal?
Or did John Paul know all this, and still refuse to act? These questions should be answered before his beatification – and they won’t be. The cult of celebrity has triumphed in the Church. Truth is irrelevant.
As to the death threats – would an incestuous child molester drug addict and thief draw back from murder? I have found numerous murders connected with sexual abuse, and am trying to get up the nerve to write a book about them. See one example of how a priest abuser dealt with men who got in his way: The Rev. Ryan Erickson.
Leon, if JPII knew specifically about Fr. Erickson (an open question, I admit) and others like him, I wonder if that influenced his thinking on capital punishment? Just thinking out loud.
Heartfelt gratitude to you, Mr. Podles, for continuing on this quest for the Truth. My prayer is that you will write that book on clergy murderers. Serial sexual predators were hiding in rectories all over our country and were never even suspected of the murders of missing children.
Aw
You might want to find a nice retirement home deep in the forest and arm yourself to the teeth before writing such a book. It would be of great service to the Church and the truth, but I would fear for your safety. Dark, dark times we live in.
Maranatha!
Just change the names of people and places (easy for me to say!). Father Andrew Greely hinted at this kind of things years ago. It’s good to see another Father Michael visits this site.
And still bishops continue to look the other way when the evindences r clear.
Malachi Martin did that, Fr. Michael, (changed the names in a roman a clef). It is ignored or treated as sensationalism. You know, when all the dirt comes out gradually , it just makes people used to dirt. We have become as a society what we were scandalized about only a short while ago.