Not long ago, on April 25 to be exact, we published a small piece, “Seeking Better Public Relations? Take a Tip from the Legion of Christ: Buy a Newspaper,” in which we pointed out that the National Catholic Register had posted on its web site an article by Father Richard John Neuhaus, editor of First Things, called “Feathers of Scandal.”
Fr. Neuhaus’s article is a lengthy defense of Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legion of Christ, against charges of sexually abusing teenage seminarians in Mexico going back some 40 years.
What disturbed us, other than the highly intelligent Fr. Neuhaus’s gullibility on matters pertaining to the Legion, was that the National Catholic Register is owned by the Legion of Christ and that fact was not mentioned in Fr. Neuhaus’s article or noted anywhere on the Register’s web site.
The same article now appears at Catholic.net, a web site owned and operated by…the Legion of Christ. And just as at the Register‘s web site, the connection between the Legion and Catholic.net is not mentioned in the article or anywhere on the web site.
This secrecy, this lurking, this hiding is dishonest and strange. We would welcome an explanation.