Drawing the right answers

By Tony Staley
Compass Editor

Earlier this year, Pope Benedict XVI removed Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, from all public ministry. The pope made the decision after receiving several allegations of sexual abuse against Fr. Maciel and deciding that his age - he's 86 - and poor health made a trial unfeasible.

The decision means Fr. Maciel must lead "a life restricted to prayer and penitence." It is the same penalty given to U.S. priests the church finds guilty of sexually abusing a minor.

Reactions to the verdict have been critical. His accusers say he got off easy and his supporters say he is being unfairly punished. Both sides wanted a trial.

Fr. Maciel's supporters have included some of the country's most prominent conservative Catholics - Fr. John Neuhaus, Mary Ann Glendon, William Bennett and William Donahue. At least some of them have been especially outspoken on the clerical sexual abuse issue, attributing most of the blame to homosexual priests, liberals and the sexual revolution.

Fr. Maciel, a staunch conservative, whose alleged incidents of abuse against seminarians date back to the 1940s, would appear to shred at least two of their arguments.

That is an important lesson for us from the Fr. Maciel case. Rather than jumping to reformulated conclusions, we need to learn, as the U.S. Bishops are seeking to do through various John Jay studies, the real causes for the abuse. The issue is too important to respond to by just rounding up the usual suspects.