Another weekend update: I blogged some weeks back about Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the current Dean of the College of Cardinals and formerly the Vatican Secretary of State. As this posting notes, abundant credible evidence indicates that Sodano (who interrupted this year’s Easter liturgy at the Vatican to make a statement of praise of Pope Benedict) thwarted Rome’s investigation of the sexual improprieties of the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, Father Marcial Maciel, for years.
Sodano was for many years one of Maciel’s top supporters in Rome, and in the view of author Jason Berry, who has exhaustively researched the Legionaries and the Maciel scandal, he was among those chiefly responsible for leaning on Pope John Paul II to protect Maciel and not to proceed with Vatican investigation of his ethical lapses. Berry has also uncovered extremely troubling information about sensational business connections between Maciel and Sodano’s nephew Andrea Sodano, who was indicted in New York in 2008 for fraud and money-laundering.
Sodano was for many years one of Maciel’s top supporters in Rome, and in the view of author Jason Berry, who has exhaustively researched the Legionaries and the Maciel scandal, he was among those chiefly responsible for leaning on Pope John Paul II to protect Maciel and not to proceed with Vatican investigation of his ethical lapses. Berry has also uncovered extremely troubling information about sensational business connections between Maciel and Sodano’s nephew Andrea Sodano, who was indicted in New York in 2008 for fraud and money-laundering.
Because Sodano has been in the news recently with his fulsome praise of Pope Benedict this Easter and as the Legionaries are placed under direct Vatican supervision, it’s interesting to note that another top-ranking Catholic official, Vienna’s archbishop Christoph Schönborn, has just publicly criticized Sodano for his handling of the sex-abuse crisis.
Fr. Jim Martin and David Gibson have posted good summaries of Schönborn’s remarks on the blogs of America and Commonweal. Both note that in an interview with the editors of Austria’s main newspapers last week, Cardinal Schönborn stated that the Vatican Curia is “urgently in need of reform.”
Schönborn also stated that the Catholic church needs to reassess its pastoral treatment of those who are divorced and remarry, as well as of gay and lesbian Catholics. Re: the latter, Cardinal Schönborn apparently stated, “We should give more consideration to the quality of homosexual relationships. A stable relationship is certainly better than if someone chooses to be promiscuous.”
Cardinal Schönborn studied under and is a longtime friend of the current pope. As Fr. Martin notes, it will be interesting to see how long it takes for Schönborn to say that he was misquoted and/or for the Vatican to distance itself from Schönborn’s conclusions.
Fr. Jim Martin and David Gibson have posted good summaries of Schönborn’s remarks on the blogs of America and Commonweal. Both note that in an interview with the editors of Austria’s main newspapers last week, Cardinal Schönborn stated that the Vatican Curia is “urgently in need of reform.”
Schönborn also stated that the Catholic church needs to reassess its pastoral treatment of those who are divorced and remarry, as well as of gay and lesbian Catholics. Re: the latter, Cardinal Schönborn apparently stated, “We should give more consideration to the quality of homosexual relationships. A stable relationship is certainly better than if someone chooses to be promiscuous.”
Cardinal Schönborn studied under and is a longtime friend of the current pope. As Fr. Martin notes, it will be interesting to see how long it takes for Schönborn to say that he was misquoted and/or for the Vatican to distance itself from Schönborn’s conclusions.
