I will do a review of Ross Douthat’s Bad Religion, but I am certain the man is acute, perceptive, and discerning, because he said this:
As Leon Podles put it in Sacrilege (2007), his magisterial [yes!] and sickening [all too true] history of clerical sexual abuse, both “new errors” and “old errors” were at work in the Church’s scandal – relativism and clericalism, permissiveness and authoritarianism, the worst impulses of liberalizers and traditionalists intertwining in an awful tangle of corruption.
Some people told me that they began the book but couldn’t read it – what I was describing was too awful even to think about.
Father Richard Neuhaus hated the book.
George Weigel was sure I was grossly exaggerating – but it turned out it was even worse than I thought.
Archbishop Dolan was introduced to me at a reception; the name clicked, because as he turned away he said “I am familiar with your writings.” The tone, although I wouldn’t characterize it as hostile, was not exactly the friendly tone he had assumed with everyone else.
But at least Ross Douthat saw what I was trying to do.
Leon, the kind of reaction you got from Neuhaus, Weigel and Dolan isn’t surprising. It’s the kind of blind groupthink that clerics have demanded of the Catholic laity and lower clergy for centuries. It’s what motivates Bill Donahue. It places loyalty to the ecclesiastical instution about loyalty to truth — which basically is an idolatrous demand, given that God is the essence of Truth.
We’re seeing a resurgence of that kind of thinking when Catholics like Sen. Rick Santorum dismiss and reject JFK’s 1960 comments in Houston. What those Catholics are doing, ironically enough, is enforcing the kind of prejudices that Protestants at the time had concerning Catholics. Maybe it’s because those prejudices aren’t really prejudices but raw, badly formed perceptions of the truth that Catholic prelates demand the laity to bow to decisions that are fundamentally prudential in nature! Just look at the confusion w/in Catholicism regarding capital punishment.
This is why I say that Catholicism has neither appreciation nor respect for individual liberty (as opposed to license). This is why I no longer consider myself a Catholic.
Leon, perhaps you were a reminder to the Archbishop that it takes more than a bonhomme demeaner and personal charm to address the serious problems in the Church. As has so often been the case (the Arian crisis, the pre-Reformation era, the post Vatican II craziness, etc.), much of the hierarchy have left us in a sad state.
“Leon, the kind of reaction you got from Neuhaus, Weigel and Dolan isn’t surprising.”
Well let’s see Neuhaus and Wiegel were/are often both featured as Opus Dei writers and supporters and the Cardinal knows the PR lobbying is on for the next papacy. As far as Bill Donahue Joseph , perhaps the motivation is more tangible than you think?
“The Catholic League is registered as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. In 2009, according to its Form 990, its expenses were $2.9 million and it had $26.2 million in net assets. Donohue’s salary and benefits amounted to $399,156.[4]”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Anthony_Donohue
Leon, I think what you experienced was the direct result of all three men’s very deficient educations. Weigel claims to be a theologian on his website and has no PhD. Neuhaus dropped out of high school and then went to Lutheran seminary. He was ordained a priest only after being a Catholic for one year. Likewise, Dolan went through the clerical degree mill that is the Cath. Univ. of America. Wuerl’s CUA dissertation on priesthood is very available and is an example of the quality of thinking of our leadership. I think the radical suppression and restorationism we are seeing is the same reason we had the radical liberal era: failure to adequately educate our Church leadership to think critically. We’ve been in a dark age since Trent. If you read the conversations at Trent, they are actually wonderful conversations regarding widely divergent theological opinions. We need to get the dialectic back. But, I think it will be a long time before we see that happen. At least it survives in blogs. These may be shut down very soon too. You may be excommunicated for failure to honor the bishops.
We were taught that to make judgements on motivation is sinful. but not using one’s intellect is also sinful. If you combine the two ,examine your conscience and read the Scriptures prayerfully , you find the Catholic Hiearchy has acted very different from the teachings of Christ dating back to around the first millenium when the decision was made to become an earthly politically motivated kingdom.
Wuerl’s CUA dissertation on priesthood is very available and is an example of the quality of thinking of our leadership.
If it’s anything like Absp. Chaput’s critique of Justice Scalia views on capital punishment in First Things magazine several years ago, then the Church in the U.S. is in worse shape than anybody thinks.
Besides, Wuerl is the nimrod who refuses to enforce Canon 915 when it comes to politicians who support legalized abortion, yet reprimands a priest who refuses to give the Eucharist to a Buddhist lesbian.
He said “I am familiar with your writings” not ” I hate your writings and you”.
We don’t want to judge him rashly.
He might want you to be his Chancellor. There is precedent; one thinks of Cardinal Antonelli.
Best,
Joe
Mary, why is it sinful to make judgments on motivation? It seems to me that motivations cause both good and bad behaviors and knowing good from bad motivations can help us avoid occasions of sin.
That said, I have a few ideas about what motivated Fr. Neuhaus and Archbishop Dolan in their treatment of Leon.
In my lifetime I have made extended visits to several mainline denominations and have noticed certain things in common. First, most people like to think that their religion/denomination is superior to all the others. I call these people the holier than thou/smarter than thou/better than thou group. This is especially true of people who convert. Why bother to convert to a church if you do not think that it is better than the one you are leaving? Pleasing influential family members is also a reason for many conversions, but this does not apply to the gentlemen mentioned above. Their business is religion, and they need to think that they have chosen or were lucky enough to have been raised in the better denomination. Whenever someone writes a whistleblowing book which says hey, look here, there is terrible corruption afoot, the first reaction is to attack the writer. In Leon’s case, the facts were substantiated and no one can dare call him anticatholic. Therefore, all Father Neuhaus could do was hate the book because it showed that he had not chosen anything significantly better after all. Archbishop Dolan is probably just angry that someone went public with the situation and embarrassed the church and gave aid and comfort to victims who were bringing expensive lawsuits, not to mention reducing donations from the people who actually got angry.
The second thing I have noticed is that just about every denomination has persecution stories. They tell how they were persecuted, but usually neglect to mention any persecution that they have historically done. That feeds everyone’s sense of superiority.
I myself get turned off by the superiority trip. I think it is the sin of excessive pride. I know that all groups of people have some corruption. It is incumbent for people to face corruption and decide just what level of it they can tolerate and just want can be done to minimize the corrupt situations. But as long as a congregation has money or influence, the criminal element will not go away.
In any case AB Dolan has too much self control to show any contempt he might be harboring for Leon to Leon’s face, but to feign affection for Leon; well that is further than he was prepared to go. And I am glad of it. People who feign affection for others are very very deceptive indeed.
If anyone thinks this evaluation is sinful on my part, they are free to publicly scold me. I will humbly accept correction.
Well, I for one like your book very much Mr. Podles.
joe lowrey, I’m guessing that Dolan’s tone was accurate. That might be how he personally expresses disgust or dislike.
Neuhaus and Weigel, who had both defended Maciel, were not happy when the truth came out. No one wants to have fallen for a con man – especially one of such surpassing evil as Maciel.
I was surprised (and a little pleased) that Dolan had heard of me; but his tone had changed from geniality to neutrality (at best). I have never received any communication from a bishop or priest about the book, not even a complaint. But now I know that some of them are aware of its existence. That provides a little satisfaction – now if they would only change their ways…
Janice , The point I was trying to make, albeit too brief, was that according to Catholic teaching judging “motivation” implies the reading of hearts which is reserved for Christ alone, but using one’s intellect is certainly not sinful. As a means of defense, many clerics and their ” apologists” acuse writers, reporters and authors of making sinful rash judegements, when in fact they have studied both the words and actions to derive their conclusions.
Joseph, spot on with Wuerl! I find it frightening to say the least, that this Cardinal is Secretary for the New Dicastery of the New Evangelization. It appears that almost every sect comes under this Office. That includes Miles Jesu ( pederast founder), LC ( pederast founder)
http://irishmexican43.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-jesu-another-legion-of-christ-in.html
,Neo Catechumems ( strange Liturgical rite)
http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1350149?eng=y , and every other sect including Opus Dei.
.IMHO , All of this further divides the unity of the Catholic Church under the guise of evangelization .
Mary, if Benedict appointed Wuerl to that position, either Benedict doesn’t know what’s going on among his own bishops or, worse, doesn’t care. Frankly, I think both are in play, considering that he failed to reprimand publicly a German bishop who questioned the idea that Jesus bore God’s wrath against sin on the cross, and an Austrian bishop who tolerates direct disobedience to Church doctrines.
With Catholics like these — and I include Benedict — who needs atheists?
So, Mary, you are saying Wuerl is supervisor of pederasts….
; )
Mary Ann , if the mitre fits………
Why a New Evangelization?
Didn’t Jesus fast and pray for forty days before He began to publicly Evangelize ?
Didn’t Our Lady and the Apostles fast and pray for forty days before the Descent of the Holy Ghost and then the Apostles and Disciples began to evangelize the world?
If it worked then why not NOW? Perhaps because we have experienced a dimishing of Sanctifying Grace?
………”The Gospel has lost it’s flavor” Cardinal Wuerl because those responsible for granting Impramaturs for many catechisms and catechetical programs in the past fifty years have dropped the ball and turned their interest more on worldly politics and image rather than on Christ’s Truths.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=279uxhZzjps
Leon and anyone else ,
I wish someone would explain the importance of Sanctifying Grace as explained by the Catholic Church. To date, I have not had my queries answered to satisfaction related to what we were originally taught that it meant to the life of every Christian and against the onslaught of evil in the world in general.
We were taught in Parochial school religion classes ( back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth) that Christ instituted the priesthood in order to convey Sanctifying Grace through the Sacraments so that we, as Christians, could better avoid temptations to sin and evil.
Is that your understanding also?
Mary, if Wuerl truly believes that “the Gospel has lost its flavor,” and if his thinking accurately reflects the thinking among Catholic leaders — including, apparently, the pope — then the Church never really understood what the Gospel was, in the first place.
If Wuerl really wants some guidelines concerning the “new evangelization,” then he should visit an evangelical church. I don’t think the pastors or congregations of such churches believe that the Gospel has “lost its flavor.”
Then again, St. Paul predicted that mass apostacy would become a hallmark of the “last days.” Wuerl’s statement merely testifies to that fact.
Leon, I read your book “Sacrilege” and it reminded me of my year with the pederast Father Alfonse Duran and “Miles Jesu”. I belonged to his community in Phoenix, AZ on Baseline Road and we worked everyday picking grapefruits and oranges in the 3 Kings Citrus Grove and gave our fruit to the poor. We lived a life of severe penance, self-flagellation and had no air conditioning. Our food was from the St. Mary’s Food Bank and was oftern spoiled and moldy. If we had any sexual thoughts, we had to describe them in detail to Father Duran and receive physical penance. Fr. Duran wrote a book “Why Apologize for the Inquisition?” and he supported the canonization of Queen Isabelle of Castile whom he considered the holiest woman who ever lived next to the Virgin Mary. I suffered heat stroke and was nursed back to health by the Franciscans on Camelback Road. I never went back to Miles Jesu and Father Duran. Later I found out that he was a pederast who had molested several of the young novices and was indeed a very sick and perverted man.
I’m sure a big part of the ignorance regarding Leon Podles’ book is the fact that he doesn’t whitewash the role of homosexuality in the scandals. The media don’t want to hear about homosexuality. Neither do the bishops, the neo-cons in the Church, or even SNAP. I agree that the extent of abuse is even worse than portrayed in Sacrilege. Abuse by nuns, for example, still hasn’t been exposed that much. Lately I have been reading about the Duplessis orphans. Incredibly terrible stuff.
No doubt Rome has been involved in all this. Corruption always has been in Rome. How it spread so far in the Church is not certain. I believe that modernism and psychology/psychiatry also played an important role in wearing down traditional but imperfect defenses in the Church. The rot in the Church that started to take off its mask at Vatican II was at work in secret for many decades before.
I have read Leon’s book and thought it was very good. However, I have to admit that there were parts I simply couldn’t read, as what they described was too disturbing.
Perhaps what disturbs some in the establishment the most is that Leon cannot be dismissed as a “dissenter” with an axe to grind. The book is written from the a very orthodox Catholic viewpoint.
There are many grateful admirers of Sacrilege, Dr. Podles, although I doubt that Dolan et al are among them.
We were all taught that the sacraments which priests provided to us were vehicles of Sanctifying Grace; indeed, we were taught that we could not get to heaven without Sanctifying Grace, or a priest.
And this is the crux of it..These bishops who passed pedophiles around allowed these men to not only destroy the bodies and souls of children, but they allowed these perverted men to remain on altars, pretending to dispense Sanctifying Grace. What kind of alchemy is created when men who rape children or enable the raping of children are still on altars?
No bishop anywhere can make a priest out of a pedophile, and no bishop anywhere can be a priest himself while he allows his pedophiles to roam the world in a roman collars.
The Holy Spirit has always called us from the inside out.
AW
Father Michael, you hit the nail right on the head. The Church is far more interested in loyalty to groupthink than to God, His Son or His Spirit, sadly.
Of course, other churches are tempted by the same thing. But the Catholic Church’s ecclesiology and view of itself makes the temptation far more likely and destructive.
Great point Augusta. And you are so right about the Holy Spirit working from the inside out,which is why Catholic practices like self flagellation, penances, and indulgences do little to change the heart.
Leon,
Neuhaus and Weigel, who had both defended Maciel, were not happy when the truth came out.
To their discredit. Recall too how Fr. Neuhaus reacted to Rod Dreher’s devastating coverage of the abuse scandal as it was unfolding. Not pretty.
IMHO…….and most catholics will probably disagree,especially the men who admire the Crusadeer thought and history, the church veered off course when it became a political and worldly entity.
Can anyone show me please where Our Lord Jesus, in His own words in the Gospels instructed anyone to establish and earthly Kingdom, as Maciel and others seem to have used as a rallying platform?
Thanks Augusta I presume I have not gone into dementia quite yet!
“We were all taught that the sacraments which priests provided to us were vehicles of Sanctifying Grace; indeed, we were taught that we could not get to heaven without Sanctifying Grace, or a priest.”
If ONLY Christianity could just stick to the Instructions given by God ,perhaps we would attract heaven and real Apostles ,” Thy Kingdom Come, THY Will be done”, in True UNITY.
One more question Leon….Christ’s quote so often used to affirm Catholicism…..”The gates of hell shall not prevail against it” ,when describing the Church that He was establishing.. most Catholics see this as Satan attacking them and the Papacy. Cities were surrounded by gates in those times to prevent invaders and the first weapons were designed to break down the gates in these walls.
It seems to me that Hell is the city that rules this world and we are being told to break down it’s walls and take the city over.
What then are the weapons we have been given?
Mary, you are absolutely right about the Catholic Church. I speak as someone who was baptized and raised as a Catholic.
This is why I believe Catholicism (as opposed to individual Catholics) is irredeemable. It has grown too accustomed to sacrificing its birthright on the altar of political influence, secular prestige, wealth and entitlement — and has done so for centuries. For all intents and purposes, the Catholic Church is of, by and for the bishops and their friends.
Your last comment about the “gates of Hell” is quite thought-provoking. Upon further immediate review, your interpretation makes more sense than the traditional Catholic one.
If you want to know more about the “weapons,” read Ephesians 5.
Dear Leon, When a rightous man articulates the truth he must expect both friends and enemies to turn their backs on him and walk away.
The author and Pulitzer Prize winner ,Chris Hedges articulates the truth with an intellectual clarity I envy.
I would love for you to watch this interview and comment on his expertise.He is the antithesis of the political economic views of both Frs Sirico and Trujillio of EWTN.How very interesting!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zotYU21qcU&feature=related
Very interesting video. I don’t agree with his theology but he makes many valid points. He’s very wrong to think that God doesn’t intervene. Whatever one thinks of Malachi Martin, there is a common thread in what Hedges, Martin, etc. have said. Corporations are the New World Order, which, in my opinion is satanic. I don’t believe trade is evil but freeflowing international capital is. That distinction is very rarely made. International capital flows distort trade and destroy industries. The only thing international capital does is create wealth for the Goldman Sachs of the world. Capital flows are invisible and not understood by the vast majority of people so that its ill-effects and gains to financiers go unnoticed. Satan’s working in this world through global finance and globalization.
Alton, MM said that ,”Satan walks in jackboots in the board rooms now.” That was back in the nineties.
What I am intrigued by is how history repeats itself. You will note that Hedges is/was also a college Proff as were both his parents at one time. He is an admitted Socialist also.He is a humanitarian in many ways and quite obviously very intellectual with the added gift of being able to communicate simply and clearly.
Whenever market segments , an elite ruling class, ( or multinational corporations ) are allowed to be unfettered by national governing regulations, fair market competition or any moral beneficence, the working class eventually rebels.
Now watch this video and tell me what you think might eventually happen to Chris Hedges
and his kind, no matter how sincere they are….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ2fMeer5Mw
Popes Pius XI and John Paul II spoke of the “international imperialism of money.”
There is an alternative to both capitalism and socialism known as Distributism. It is very consistent with Catholic teaching. There are some interesting sites on the web dedicated to the idea. It has been tried in local areas ( ie.Modrogan in Spain), but never in any country on a national level.
Father, if you read David Yallop’s “In God’s Name,” about the death of John Paul I, you will find that since the 1929 Concordat with Fascist Italy (under Pius XI), the Vatican has become one of the most vigorous financial speculators in the world, JPII even gave money secretly to Solidarity in Poland, and protected Absp. Marcinkus (head of IOR, colloquially known as the “Vatican Bank”) from being investigated for money laundering. When it comes to finance, don’t trust any platitudes coming from Rome — or anybody making them, even popes.
Correct Joseph!
There is financial gain to have your Movement’s curial sponsor elected Pope since a generous portion of IOR monies are made available to the Pope to be used at his discretion.