Speaking of Judgements…

Last week, while my router was down, all the sewage that was backed up and blocked by Fr. Maciel and his upper echelon sycophants was dislodged and came pouring out in a torrent. Basic narrative: the guy was a sexual predator who crushed and humiliated his victims with eager cooperation from suckups who knew what was happening and sided with him rather than the victims. I pretty much assumed this was so when Benedict sent him to ecclesial Siberia. Now we know.

Rather than rehash the by-now familiar details, I refer you to the bloggers who have been covering it, such as Ed Peters and American Papist. You know things are grim when George Weigel is calling for immediate intervention into the LCs by Rome. Seems sensible to me. The now-disgraced suckups are still issuing Happy Talk bulletins (abundantly chronicled at American Papist) instead of engaging with the reality they have been at war with for years. If the LCs are to survive, they need a purge post haste and the many good, decent and holy LCs need to get rid of these duplicitous and delusional leaders.

Some people have asked how I feel about it all, since I write a column for a paper (the National Catholic Register) that is run by the LCs. I’m not quite sure what they mean. I feel bad whenever the necessity of yet another enema for the Church is made manifest. But I don’t have any particular emotional investment in the LCs if that’s what you mean. I’m not, nor have I ever been, a member of the LCs, nor of Regnum Christi. I’m not really even quite sure what they do besides publish the Register. The LCs I’ve known have been lovely people, and are as appalled by this as anybody else. I suspect what some people mean by the “how do you feel?” question is “So what do you think of your Big Hero now, eh?” I can’t speak for anybody else, but Fr. Maciel was never my big hero. I wouldn’t recognize him if I saw him on the street and I couldn’t tell you five words he ever said beyond some variation on, “My accusers are all scoundrels.” My impression from reading those who did know him and who were genuinely shocked by these revelations is that he was what such sociopaths often are: very charming and no doubt very kind to the people he bamboozled. Satan himself is disguised as an angel of light.

I know of at least one person whose faith has been shaken by all this. To them I would say, “If you just noticed now that there are weeds with the wheat, you need to pay more attention.” We are a people who family tree includes guys like Jacob. That, by the way, is why I think it’s rubbish to say that the LCs are finished because of this. God writes straight with crooked lines all the time and I see not a reason in the world why he would take all the sincere faith, hope and love of the majority of LCs who joined the group in good faith and throw it all in the crapper. Israel’s father was a deciever too, but that doesn’t mean Israel’s faith was futile.

It does mean, though, that we cannot build the house on sand. Israel’s faith was not in Jacob, but in God. The LC’s ought to imitate that and, God willing, they do. And any other group that founds its faith on mere men should take heed of this and tremble.