The Response of the Opus Dei to
the Priestly Sex Abuse Scandal
A Guest Document
by Lee Penn
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NOTE: The following
is an excerpt from an article by Lee Penn, "Opus Dei & the Da Vinci
Code, part II", published in the Journal
of the Spiritual Counterfeits Project [SCP] (Vol. 29:4-30:1,
2006, pp. 42-67.) (*)
(**) (***)
Second, there is the Opus Dei
response to the revelation of priestly sex abuse (and hierarchical
cover-up) in the Catholic Church. It’s true that activists and
researchers who investigate the scandal have found little evidence that
Opus Dei members have sexually abused children and teenagers. [1] That’s a
remarkable finding – and is in contrast with the Legionaries of Christ,
a conservative Catholic “new ecclesial movement” whose founder has been
publicly accused of molesting seminarians. [2] When Bishop Kurt
Krenn of Austria became embroiled in scandal in 2004 after it was
revealed that his seminary students were hoarding child pornography and
groping each other for the camera, it was an Opus Dei bishop, Klaus
Küng, whom John Paul II sent to the diocese to clean up the mess. [3]
Nevertheless, the response of several Opus Dei spokesmen to the victims
could be summarized as “let them eat cake.” The mind-set that
Opus Dei brings to Vatican policy-makers would ensure the continuation
of the cover-up into the indefinite future.
In August 2002, the conservative Catholic journalist Rod Dreher wrote
in a column for the Wall Street
Journal that unless John Paul II took “dramatic action to
restore the church to holiness – starting with deposing this legion of
bad bishops – his [the Pope’s] criticism of modern society will ring
hollow in the heart of this faithful American Catholic.” [4] The prominent Opus
Dei priest Fr. John McCloskey replied to the Journal that a “minuscule
proportion” of “Catholic priests and bishops” were implicated in the
scandal, and that “remedies are already being put into effect. I would
hope that Mr. Dreher would be more patient in terms of the remedy. The
church has a pretty good track record. Check in again in about another
thousand years.” [5]
Other Opus Dei members and supporters have said likewise. In
March 2002, an Italian priest, Fr. Vimpari, relied on Escrivá’s
maxims to attack “Diogenes,” a Catholic
World News columnist, for his criticism of scandal-tainted
priests. The priest also blamed parents for not teaching children
to respect the Church hierarchy: “Unfortunately not all priests live in
full harmony with the Church and with their sacred commitments. One of
the prominent figures of the Church of the last century, Blessed
Josemaría Escrivá, reminds us accurately of the fact that
any priest—whoever he might be—is however always another Christ (The Way, 66). … Yes,
there is a crisis in the Church in many countries. And yes, many
priests continue to contribute to it, but this should inspire us to
pray more for the priests and for their sanctification, rather than to
publicly ridicule them as a group or even under pseudonyms. After all,
even more responsible for the present crises are those parents who
educate their children to all, but not Gospel values, including the
lack of respect and devotion to the hierarchical structure given to the
Church by Our Lord.” [6]
Fr. Vimpari’s Escrivá-inspired admonition is the opposite of what Christ
taught. Far from assigning privileges and “devotion to the
hierarchical structure” to His apostles, Christ called the leaders of
his Church to accountability and to childlike humility. When the
apostles asked Christ, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven,”
He replied, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like
children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles
himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; but whoever
causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be
better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to
be drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Matt. 18:1-6) After another
squabble among the disciples, as they vied for position, Jesus rebuked
them: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and
their great men exercise authority over them. It shall not be so
among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant,
and whoever would be first among you must be your slave; even as the
Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as
a ransom for many.” (Matt. 20:25-28)
In April 2002, Cardinal Julián Herranz, an Opus Dei member whom
Vatican reporter John Allen has described as “the Vatican’s attorney
general,” criticized “a climate of ‘exaggeration, financial
exploitation and nervousness’ in the United States. Herranz also
complained of a ‘tenacious scandalistic style’ in the American press.” [7] He denounced
requirements to report abuse allegations to civil authorities, saying:
“The rapport of trust and the secrecy of the office inherent to the
relationship between the bishop and his priest collaborators, and
between priests and the faithful, must be respected. … We
must oppose efforts to impede the necessary pastoral work of priests
with young children and adolescents, or to discourage vocations or
entrance into seminaries that have been generically and unjustly
defamed.” [8]
In 2003, the Cardinal said, “pedophilia is only minimally identified
with the Church, touching scarcely one percent of priests. Meanwhile
for other categories of persons, the percentages are much higher.” [9]
Ratzinger, who is now Pope, said the same in December 2002. [10] Reality soon
intervened. A research report issued in early 2004 at the behest
of the Catholic bishops in the US found 4% of Catholic priests serving
since 1950 in the US have been accused of sexually molesting minors. [11]
At a March 2004 conference on “Justice and Penal Processes in the
Church,” sponsored by Santa Croce University (an Opus Dei institution
in Rome), a Spanish Opus Dei priest set out the party line: more leniency for priests accused
of abuse, and more rigor
against artificial contraception and abortion. [12] Fr.
Joaquín Llobell, a professor of canon law and a member of a
Vatican appeals court, criticized the U. S. Catholic bishops’ “one
strike and you’re out” policy adopted in 2002. He said that that
“canon law has a bias in favor of rehabilitation of the offender, and
that it seeks proportionality between offense and punishment – meaning
that ‘one size fits all’ penalties are foreign to canonical
tradition.” Additionally, he “criticized the American Charter for
the Protection of Children and Young People for asking bishops to
inform civil authorities of any accusation against a priest, ‘perhaps
without distinguishing sufficiently the origin of the report and its
credibility’.” Llobell also criticized the Vatican for “revisions
to sex abuse norms … approved by John Paul II in February 2003, which
removed the statute of limitations, allowed the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith [CDF] to defrock a priest using non-judicial
means, and prevented appeal” of a CDF decision. The Opus Dei
canon lawyer opposed recent reforms in the US and in Rome that aim to
root out abusive priests – but “wonders aloud why bishops don’t
prosecute priests who tolerate birth control in the confessional, and
he applauds American Archbishop Raymond Burke’s denial of communion to
pro-choice Catholic politicians.”
For some leading Catholics – including Opus Dei members – Americans’
public outrage at the abuse scandal heralds the beginning of a
persecution of the Catholic Church and (as a deserved consequence of
persecuting the Church) the downfall of the US. In 2002, Cardinal
Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga of Honduras, who is not a member of
Opus Dei, decried “media ‘persecution’ of the Catholic church in the
United States, comparing it to the times of Nero and Diocletian, and
more recently, Stalin and Hitler.” [13] Another non-Opus
Dei cardinal, Norberto Rivera Carrera (from Mexico City) supported
Maradiaga, saying that Rodriguez “expresses well in this regard the
common sentiment of many of us, cardinals and bishops, in Latin
America, in the context of what appears to us to be a generalized and
ungenerous attack on the U.S. Church. … Reviewing church
history, one can see that many persecutions started precisely with the
moral delegitimization of its members and of its hierarchy, with the
aim of disqualifying the Church and dismantling its prestige. This is
what happened in the early centuries of Christian history, with Nero
for example. This is what happened in the past century with the
persecutions in Mexico, in Spain, in Nazi Germany and in communist
countries. It is this that seems to be happening today in the United
States.” [14]
That same year, a lay canon lawyer associated with Opus Dei said (in
response to the then-emerging abuse scandal in Boston), “something will
happen to America to protect the Church. This is tried and true
historically. … any country that has historically persecuted the Church
at the height of its power collapsed.” [15] Such is the voice
of “God’s mafia” to America: lay off the priests and bishops, or “God”
will ensure that America takes a long walk off a short pier.
Third, there is one instance
that has come to light so far of sexual allegations against an Opus Dei
bishop – charges made by Alberto Jaimes Berti, a Caracas lawyer (and
critic of Opus Dei) who had been legal counsel for the Apostolic
Nunciature (the Vatican embassy) in that country. As reported in Their Kingdom Come, in 1970, “the
nuncio in Caracas received a complaint from the parents of two teenaged
boys in the diocese of Margarita, a group of islands off the Venezuelan
coast. The parents were threatening criminal action against the
local bishop for molesting their sons and the nuncio feared a
scandal. He asked Berti to intervene. The Bishop of
Margarita was Francisco de Guruceaga, Opus Dei’s first vocation in
Venezuela. Berti flew to La Asunción on the Isla de
Margarita and through the help of a woman prosecutor in the sexual
offences department got hold of and shredded the Guruceaga file.
He then negotiated a $160,000 payment for the parents. The nuncio
sent Guruceaga to London on an extended sabbatical, where he lived a
secular existence for the next three years, traveling
extensively. In 1973 the new nuncio, Monsignor Antonio del
Giudice, gave Guruceaga another chance and appointed him Bishop of La
Guaira, a small diocese and port city in the federal district of
Caracas. According to Berti, Guruceaga considered himself a
mercantile prelate, licensed to make money for God’s work. One of
Guruceaga’s deals had been the 1975 sale for $2.5 million of a tract of
land belonging to the diocese of La Guaira. The money
disappeared.” [16]
The next nuncio asked Berti to investigate – which was done, and the
documentation went to Rome. Nothing happened thereafter; he
retained his post until 2001, when he resigned at age 73. In this
Opus Dei bishop’s case, the lust for boys seemed to go with the lust
for money – and he benefited from the usual ecclesiastical cover-up.
NOTES
(*) Although we
appreciate the courtesy of the Journal
of the Spiritual Counterfeits Project [SCP Journal] in allowing
us to publish documents authored by Mr. Lee Penn, documents which have
appeared in their magazine, we do not in any form whatsoever endorse,
agree or recommend any other article or recommendation and/or promotion
which may appear the SCP Journal.
(**) The entire article, which describes the
track record of Opus Dei and its members, is available to those who
order a copy of this magazine. To do so, visit the magazine's web site
at http://www.scp-inc.org, or call their office in
Berkeley,California at 510-540-0300, between 9am and 5pm, Pacific time.
(***) The full text of Part 1 of Lee Penn's article about Opus Dei is
now available on-line, courtesy of SCP. To read the article go to http://www.scp-inc.org/publications/journals/J2902/index.php
[1] Based on
correspondence in 2005 between Lee Penn and activists associated with
SNAP, LINKUP, and Bishop Accountability.
[2] For details of these
allegations, see Jason Berry and Gerald Renner, Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the
Papacy of John Paul II, 2004, Free Press, pp. 209-221, 253, 290,
294-300.
[3] John Allen, “The Word From
Rome,” National Catholic Reporter,
July 30, 2004, http://nationalcatholicreporter.org/word/word073004.htm,
printed 09/26/05.
[4] Rod Dreher, “The Pope Has
Let Us Down,” The Wall Street Journal,
editorial page, August 25, 2002, http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110002177,
printed 06/08/04.
[5] Letter from Fr. McCloskey
to the Wall Street Journal,
as quoted in Amy Welborn’s blog, at http://www.amywelborn.blogspot.com/2002_08_01_amywelborn_archive.html,
viewed 06/08/04.
[6] Fr. Tuomo Vimpari, Letters
to the Editor, “Criticizing priests,” Catholic World Report, March
2003, http://www.catholic.net/rcc/Periodicals/Igpress/2002-03/letters.html,
printed 06/09/04.
[7] John Allen, “The Word From
Rome,” “A Look at the New Cardinals,” National
Catholic Reporter, October 3, 2003, http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/word/word100303.htm,
viewed 06/09/04.
[8] John Allen, “Curia official
blasts U.S. media coverage,” National
Catholic Reporter, May 17, 2002, http://www.natcath.com/crisis/051702e.htm,
printed 09/14/05.
[9] John Allen, “Vatican
official comments on Geoghan murder,” National
Catholic Reporter, August 25, 2003, http://nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/bn082503.htm,
viewed 06/09/03.
[10] Cardinal Ratzinger said,
“I am personally convinced that the constant presence in the press of
the sins of Catholic priests, especially in the United States, is a
planned campaign, as the percentage of these offenses among priests is
not higher than in other categories, and perhaps it is even lower.
… Less than 1% of priests are guilty of acts of this type.
… Therefore, one comes to the conclusion that it is intentional,
manipulated, that there is a desire to discredit the Church.”
(Zenit News Agency, “Cardinal Ratzinger Sees a Media Campaign Against
Church,” December 3, 2002, http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=28487,
printed 09/06/05.
[11] Agostino Bono, “John Jay
Study Reveals Extent of Abuse Problem,” Catholic News Service, http://www.americancatholic.org/News/ClergySexAbuse,
printed 09/06/05.
[12] Information in this
paragraph is from John Allen, “The Word From Rome,” National Catholic Reporter, March
26, 2004, http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/word/word032604.htm,
printed 09/06/05.
[13] John Allen, “The Word From
Rome,” “Cardinal Schotte’s views on Dallas,” National Catholic Reporter, June
14, 2002, http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/word/word0614.htm,
viewed 06/09/04.
[14] John Allen, “U.S. media in
anti-church plot says Mexican prelate,” National Catholic Reporter, July
19, 2002, http://www.natcath.com/crisis/071902g.htm,
printed 09/24/04.
[15] From the printout of an
on-line conversation between Lee Penn and an Opus Dei cooperator (and a
canon lawyer), 02/04/02.
[16] Robert Hutchison, Their Kingdom Come: Inside the Secret
World of Opus Dei, St. Martin’s Press, 1997, pp. 313-314.
Document Published on leepenn.info on
October 13, 2007
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