Wow. Skinback by priest-publisher of a national Catholic newspaper, naming two writers, the late Gerry Renner and Jason Berry, for defending the disgraced founder of his religious community:
Fr. Owen Kearns, L.C., the publisher of the National Catholic Register, has published an apology for defending the disgraced Legionaries of Christ founder Fr. Marcel Maciel. He specifically apologized to victims of Maciel’s abuse, investigative journalists who helped expose the crimes and to readers of the Register.
The two, who collaborated on the book that has Maciel down as cold as reporting can make it:
He expressed regret that he “took to task” journalists Gerald Renner and Jason Berry and their Hartford Courant editors.
“They didn’t get everything about the Legion right but they were fundamentally correct about Father Maciel’s sexual abuse and I ask forgiveness — too late for Gerald Renner, who is deceased.”
The book is Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II. It’s become a movie, with footage of then-Cardinal Ratzinger (now pope) visibly irritated at being stopped and asked about Maciel — as told in the book, of course.
Blithe Spirit 