Eideard

One more ultra-conservative charlatan
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Pope Benedict has ordered an investigation of an influential Roman Catholic priestly order whose founder was discovered to be a sexual molester and to have had at least one child with a mistress.

The Legionaries of Christ announced the inspection, known in Church language as an “Apostolic Visitation,” this week.

Hey, it only took 68 years for someone to notice.

The conservative Legionaries, have been shaken over the past several years by a string of scandals tied to their founder, Father Marcial Maciel, who died last year at the age of 87…

While running an order of priests who take vows of celibacy, he had a mistress with whom he fathered at least one child.

In 2006, Pope Benedict told Maciel to retire to a life of “prayer and penitence” after accusations that he had molested boy and men seminarians decades earlier.

The order had denied the molestation charges for years but the Vatican moved against Maciel after new evidence emerged. At the time, the sanctions against Maciel made him one of the most prominent persons to be disciplined for sexual abuse.

As often as we accuse our politicians of hypocrisy, the Christian churches must have invented it. They certainly have perfected the practice.