Search Results for: marcial maciel

A reader writes: I am disturbed by your interpretation of Pope Benedict’s line “subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith.” You make it sound like all the rapid changes in this world are toward the good, and hidebound conservatives like B16 just can’t handle … Continue reading Dissents Of The Day

Since it's pay-walled, my thoughts on the long conversation Hitch and I had over the decades about Christianity:

For me, his finest moment was when he went on Fox News, the propaganda channel for the American far right, and went after Jerry Falwell as a charlatan, a cynic, a money-grubber and a hater of people he didn't know. And yes: on the day after Falwell's death. He was utterly unintimidatable, drily dressing down the interviewer and finally rebelling against the whole charade with a rallying last retort: "If you gave Jerry Falwell an enema, you could bury him in a matchbox!"

Too much? For most. But we need the man or woman who says these things in public without fear. Freedom demands it. I'm a life-long believer in God and Jesus Christ, a dogged Catholic who, despite profound alienation within the current institution, cannot find a way to stop believing. Hitch knew all this from the get-go and teased me about my Catholicism with the same mischief he did my sexual orientation. He got extremely excited when I wrote an op-ed saying I was withdrawing from communion because of the sex abuse crisis and the Vatican homophobia that blamed it on gays in general. "I hear you've abandoned Mother Church!" he exclaimed, and then sank into despond when I told him the more complicated reality.

One night, we talked like college students about the Big Things, and my faith, and his hostility to faith. And it is my belief that he was a tonic for today's Christianity.

The Vatican is downplaying the latest piece of evidence in the abuse crisis - a 1997 letter from late Archbishop Luciano Storero to Ireland’s bishops instructing the bishops not to report sexual abuse cases to secular authorities but to keep it in the Church. Jerry Coyne has a pdf of the letter. His analysis: [W]hy shouldn’t the bishops report abuse … Continue reading Santo Not So Subito

We now know that this Pope was personally involved in enabling the rape of children rather than confronting criminal priests during his time as an archbishop in Munich. We know that while he had jurisdiction as head of the CDF, child-rapists were often allowed to carry on their crimes, and the most powerful rapist, abuser … Continue reading The Real Benedict XVI

There's a major rift inside the Catholic hierarchy, with the corrupt old guard epitomized by Angelo Sodano finally being pushed back on by reformists like Christoph Schoenborn. If you have any doubts which side Benedict is on, set them to rest: The Vatican on Monday admonished a leading cardinal for having publicly criticized the former … Continue reading Schoenborn vs Sodano

A reader notes a detail in the biography of the theocon fanatic featured in the official newspaper of the Archidocese of Boston: Michael Pakaluk is Professor of Philosophy at the Institute for the Psychological Sciences in Arlington, VA, where he teaches courses on ethics and the philosophy of marriage and the family. The Institute is … Continue reading Theocon Watch, Ctd

The NYT does due diligence on the current Pope’s acquiescence in the monstrous crimes of Marcial Maciel for years and years and places John Paul II (rightly) at the center of the scandal. Longtime readers of the Dish will not learn much new from the piece but it’s a helpful, if understated, summary. In a … Continue reading “It Isn’t Prudent.”