Fr. Maciel had dual personality, says Cardinal

In a story circulating South American and European media, Santiago's Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz appeared nationally on Chilean TV and said: "Los médicos cercanos al padre Maciel han dicho que tenía dos personalidades distintas. No solamente un tema de doble vida. En un momento era el fundador y en otro era un pobre hombre."

Here's how a Spanish-speaking reader translates His Imminence's words: "Doctors close to Father Maciel have said that he had two distinct personalities. [....] In one moment he was a founder, and in another he was a poor man."

The article also states that Fr. Maciel injected himself with Demerol, my translator tells me, adding that seminarians ran the pharmacy for him. Coincidentally, Demerol is believed to have been Michael Jackson's pain-killer of choice. This begs the question whether Fr. Maciel apologists, attempting to gain sympathy for the founder, are now shifting from the Clinton strategy to the Michael Jackson strategy. (Maciel and Michael are both reported to have suffered a stormy childhood at the hands of abusive fathers, both attracted millions of followers making noise that people wanted to hear, both faced legal investigations over allegations of sexual abuse involving minors, and now the addiction to Demerol allegations.)

That being said, there's serious questions to be asked if the dual-personality explanation is taken at face value. Why do no one in the Legion notice Fr. Maciel was switching back and forth between personalities? If it's because he was never the "hombre" when around the Legion, then how was he able to switch so conveniently between personalities? And how sure is the Legion leadership that the Hombre Maciel personality never played a role int eh founding of the Legion of Christi/ Regnum Christi movement?

I'm afraid this attempt at an explanation raises more questions than it resolves.

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Speaking about cardinals and Fr. Maciel, Cassandra has just posted another blog entry on who knew what in the Holy See. Cassandra speculates that recent news reports implicating Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone in the coverup may have confused Pope Benedict's longtime loyal supporter with previous secretary of state Cardinal Sodano. Not only is Sodano a close friend of the Legion, but his relationship with the current pope has often been stormy, and he has reportedly tried to undermine Pope Benedict's papal authority in the past.

As Cassandra states:

Sanjuana Martínez reported in CIMAC that one of the babymommies alleges that Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, is implicated in the payment of hush money. That would make for a stupendous scandal if the churchman organizing the apostolic visitation had been previously involved in silencing witnesses, especially after calling for "transparency" in the letter announcing the visitation.

I do not and will not believe that allegation without further evidence. But I wondered if either she or Martínez could have meant to name rather the emeritus Secretary of State, Angelo Sodano, whom we know to have been at the service of the Legionaries in the past.