Fr. JC Maximilian

Satan is surely prowling the earth, and his most recent instrument of attack is the New York Times.  The New York Times has not been a friend of Christ Jesus nor His Church for quite sometime.  It has long abandoned its vocation to report the news.  It instead focuses on attacking goodness; it builds up the idolatry of secular humanism, while trying to convince the masses that God does not exist.  Its works have become more and more evil; lacking of the good that God intends to be present.

Several months ago, the Times, as well as much of the leftist, media elite spent a lot of time defending Roman Polanski.  Roman Polanski is a famous, and well acclaimed movie director, who has experience great tragedy in his life, namely the infamous murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, by members of the Charlie Mason family.  Mr. Polanski is also infamous for having sex with children.  He was convicted of having sex with a 13 year-old girl, but instead of taking responsibility for his actions, he fled to Europe.  He also had a romantic, sexual relationship with the actress Nastassja Kinski when she was only 15 years old.  In September 2009, after years of avoiding deportation to the United States to serve his sentence for sexual assault, he was arrested in Switzerland and is awaiting extradition to the the United States.

I do not recount this history of Mr. Polanski to demonize him.  Yes, his actions were wrong, and he should take responsibility for his crime.  I mention Mr. Polanski’s case to contrast it with the liberal, media elite’s obsession with trying to link Pope Benedict XVI to inappropriate handling of sexual abuse cases; both while archbishop of Munich, and as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The liberal, media elite have bent over backwards defending Mr. Polanski.  They tell us that what he did happened so long ago (the act that he was convicted for was in 1977, whereas his relationship with the minor Ms. Kinski ended in 1979), and that he really is a marvelous director, who has directed such wonderful movies.  Mr. Polanski apparently reached some kind of financial settlement with the woman he victimized when she was 13, and understandably she would like to put that painful memory behind her.  As far as the leftist, like the New York Times, are concern, we should just leave Mr. Polanski alone.  He should be allowed to continue to make movies, live — well, like a rich elitist — avoiding responsibility for his crime.

The Church, and Pope Benedict in particular, on the other hand should be dragged through the mud, have the facts distorted, and in general be persecuted.  Fact: sadly there have been a number of priests who have failed to live the grace of their priesthood and have used the sacred trust given to them to sexually abuse children.  Personally, that fact sickens me.  There is a part of me that supports the idea a priest back in the 1940s or 50s had of getting an island and turning it into an ecclesiastical prison where these priests would live out their days offering sacrifices and prayers for their victims and working in manual labor.  No TV, no movie nights — just prayer, work, and penance.  St. Alphonsus Ligouri said that priests who commit such crimes should be punished with 10 years of fasting on bread and water; and of course they would be removed from public ministry.  Perhaps that is a bit too strict; perhaps.

Fact: there have been bishops and dioceses who have acted more like corporations trying to control damages and manage the “spin”, than like pastors caring for their sheep who had been abused by some wicked shepherds (read the Prophet Ezekiel on that one).  I have a bit more sympathy for them, because at the time when many of these cases were occurring, it was very unclear what to do.  Often the police and District Attorneys thought it would be in the best interest of the child not to further traumatize them by “making a big deal” about it.  They just wanted the abuser removed from the victim.  In the medical/psychological professionals tended to view these matters in terms of something that could be “cured”.  A lot of mistakes were made; some innocently, others with more culpability.  Too many children were victimized, and worse, not cared for by the Church once the abuse was brought to light.

Recently there seems to be an effort to target the Pope in these matters.  Oh, no one is accusing him of sexually abusing children, but rather of not doing enough with offending priests.  First there is the case of the priest from Essen, who was reported for sexually abusing children.  His bishop asked then Archbishop Ratzinger if there was a place for this priest to stay when he received treatment.  The archbishop turned the matter over to one of his officials, with the instruction that the priest should have no public ministry, especially with children.  The official acknowledges that he then gave the priest an assignment at a parish in Munich were he was later convicted of child abuse.  It is alleged that the archbishop should have prevented this.  I am not sure how large the Archdiocese of Munich is, but I guess it is large with a lot of personnel.  The archbishop gave the responsibility for the matter to one of his officials, with proper instruction, and that official has admitted that he did not follow the instructions.

Now there is the horrific case of the priest who abused up towards 200 deaf children.  Personally, even that island I mentioned seems too good for him.  The diocese of Milwaukee learned of his crimes in 1974 (I believe).  They could have turned the matter over to the police (and it looks like they did, but the police/DA filed no charges).  He was re-assigned, but probably not supervised by the diocese as he should have been (in fact he was sent to another diocese to basically live with his mother).  There is evidence that the diocese of Milwaukee and its former archbishop (Weakland) covered up the matter for years.  For some reason, 20 years later they refer the case to Rome, to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), which was then headed by Cardinal Ratzinger.  It took the CDF 8 months to give its initial response.  Sounds like a long time, but not when you look at even criminal and civil cases here in the US to get to trial.  Myself, I wrote to a different Congregation in the Vatican (on a liturgical matter) and it took nearly 18 months to hear back (and even then I thought that was fast for the UNIVERSAL CHURCH to get back to lowly me).  The CDF directed the diocese of Milwaukee to remove the priest from public ministry and start official proceedings.  There were problems, procedurally, namely the statues of limitations (even Canon or Church law has those) had expired.  The priest, himself, however, wrote Cardinal Ratzinger asking for mercy.  He took responsibility for his crimes, asked forgiveness, pointed out that he was very sick and likely to die soon (which he did, a few months later).  Cardinal Ratzinger probably looked a Crucifix, the sign of God’s great mercy towards all of us, and considering the procedural problems, told the diocese to stop the canonical proceedings.  He did not try to shield the priest from criminal and/or civil liability.  He directed that the priest NOT be allowed to engage in public ministry, and that he not work with minors in any way.  Basically that he be allowed to die with the very little dignity that he had (which really was not much, if any).  He was a terribly broken clay vessel, that had been given a great treasure/grace, and had instead sinned greatly.  Hopefully he asked God for mercy before he died.

This, however, is not enough for the New York Times and the rest of the liberal media elite.  They want the Pope to be disgraced.  They want the Church discredited.  Mercy seems to enrage them.  The fact that while at the CDF then Cardinal Ratzinger did so much to expedite these cases so to rid the Church of these abusers; more than just about anyone, goes unmentioned by the Times.  Pope Benedict is not perfect.  I am sure he looks back on his life and sees times when he would do things differently.  That is human.  But he seems to have lived most of his life trying his best to follow Christ Jesus, to be an instrument of truth and mercy.

Satan is prowling.  The Cross is always present.  Jesus is Victor!