A question readers keep asking is whether Maciel was excommunicated for allegedly absolving in the confessional accomplices in sins against the Sixth Commandment. As most of us are aware, the expression “sins against the Sixth Commandment” covers serious sins of sexual nature. The question comes from canon 977 which prohibits a priest from absolving his accomplice in a sin against the Sixth Commandment, except in danger of death, combined with canon 1378, paragraph 1 which automatically excommunicates a priest who violates canon 977. I don’t have access to the 1917 code right now, but I believe it too excommunicated a priest for absolving in the confessional an accomplice in sins against the Sixth Commandment.
Regardless, we don’t know the answer to this question. Here is what we do know:
- The case against Maciel was introduced before the CDF during the 90’s, alleging Maciel had violated canon 1378 or its equivalent found in the 1917 code.
- During the investigation the CDF invited Maciel to retire to life of prayer and penance in exchange for not pursuing the case.
From this we can conclude that the evidence was serious enough for the CDF to act upon. In which case, I believe it probable the Holy See, either through the CDF or the Apostolic Penitentiary, would have removed any potential censures incurred by Fr. Maciel. So in all probability Maciel did not die under censure.
Pete, I’m losing faith in the Catholic Church. I know our Lord didn’t promise justice in this life…but seriously, come on. A man like MM dying in the good graces of the Church? Given a Catholic funeral? Surrounded by his precious apostolics? It’s all so nauseating. It’s hard just to get myself to mass.
So disillusioned…
Pete, are you telling us that MM escaped excommunication and got away with those crimes with a simple slap on the wrist from the CDF?
I certainly don’t wish hell for MM or anybody else, but for the CDF to let it go at that is truly scandalous. They might as well should have not made any pronouncements and leave Maciel’s eternal fate in the hands of God’s mercy. Maybe this was the case?
If Maciel accepted Rome’s offer, then he has the right, like any other Catholic, to have any censures against him lifted. His sins may horrify us, however, this is testimony of unlimited grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
I agree with Pete 100%. Our Lord’s mercy is limitless. However, if there was an excommunication at some point, wouldn’t this have a bearing on whether there was a charism or not in the first place?
But so is His justice, and I like to think that a pervert such as Maciel will reap his just reward.
I am tempted to speculate what this might be, but I won’t. Knowing that God is both infinitely just as well as merciful gives me hope for retribution for all those who suffered under this pervert.
+J.M.J+
The way I like to look at situations like this is: If there’s hope for a sinner like MM, there’s hope for me, too.
Besides, who knows what kind of Purgatory he might have to endure because of all his crimes/sins. Even if he was saved in the end, that doesn’t necessarily mean he won’t suffer.
In Jesu et Maria,
Anon,
Never put your faith in man, including the men who run our Church. There have been MANY victims of various heinous crimes and abuses who have died over the centuries without ever seeing justice here on this earth. And yes, that includes people who endured great injustice at the hands of the priests and hierarchy in our Church.
Put your faith in God, and you won’t be disappointed. God’s time is not our time, and His ways are not our ways. But we do know He is a just as well as merciful God, and I believe there is final justice in God’s good time.
I can’t help but believe that if we mere humans are horrified and nauseated at the thought of what has been done by Maciel and covered by the Legion and various members of the Church hierarchy, how much more must our all-loving God be sickened by it.
Maciel never publicly repented or tried to make restitution for his heinous crimes and sickening acts of sexual molestation. He went to his deathbed still maintaining his innocence and allowing himself to be adored as a saint. Unless he had a last minute conversion (and it must have been REALLY last minute, because if he had repented even hours before death, you’d think he would have been required by his confessor to make a statement vindicating all the men he calumnized all those years—although, come to think of it, his confessor would probably have been a fellow scammer LOL), we have no reason to believe he made his peace with God.
While I would never willingly wish Hell on anybody, I am not going to spend any time fretting about Maciel suffering there, either. You know what God had to say about his type—millstone and all that. I’ll leave it to God to judge him and feel confident He will do just that!
I guess my beef isn’t with God, it’s with the Church.
These types of things really tests your faith not in the God we can’t see, but in the institution of the Church, which we can see and have to put up with.
You know, we are supposed to listen to the Church and follow her counsels, even when they are hard, and we feel bad for fudging just a little here and there. And we feel bad for, say, not going to daily Mass.
Then MM abuses boys in the seminary, and he tells them it’s God’s will, and we are supposed to think it’s OK that the Church, in her mercy, forgives him, although he never asked for an apology, never told the victims he was sorry, never repented in any public way that we know about. And now, the Legion can’t talk about him b/c we have to be charitable toward the dead???
It’s ridiculous. I don’t know how much more I can take.
God is good and fine; it’s his Church I’m starting to rebel against.
Anon,
St. Theresa of Avila said, “Compared to heaven, even the most miserable life will look like one bad night in an inconvenient hotel.”
I’ve always found those words comforting. Believe me, I am no fan of Fr. Maciel. It is my wife’s involvement in his RC movement that has driven our marriage to the brink of divorce at times. However, I’ll leave MM’s eternal reward – good or bad – to the Just Judge.
We will all suffer here in this life. Some at the hands of others, some because of their own decisions. Let’s set our sights on seeing God face-to-face. No matter what suffering we endure, there was a saint who endured more and remained faithful. Please don’t lose faith in the Church – the Bride of Christ.
“Not excommunicated” isn’t the same thing as “forgiven.”
This is the error the media made during the SSPX flap earlier this year, when it interpreted the papal lifting of the excommunication of the society’s clergy as a “rehabilitation.”
Excommunication is a specific canonical penalty that places a person outside the ordinary ministry of the Church in order to provoke repentence. It is NOT a declaration that the person in question is damned to hell, because the Church has no authority to declare that about any person, no matter how heinous his actions. “Judge not, lest you be judged.”
An excommunicated person may be saved. A person whose excommunication has been lifted may be condemned. In either case it’s solely up to God, the Father of Mercies.
In Maciel’s case, the specific allegations of abusing the confessional were very old and would have been difficult if not impossible to prove in a canonical trial (a trial that could also have been short-circuited by Maciel’s death).
So if the Pope were going to act against Maciel at all, he pretty much had to act the way he did — imposing on him the usual penalty meted out to elderly sex abusers, requiring him to end his life in exile and disgrace, and doing it in a very public way.