TRANSCRIPT
Well, they’re at it again. The schismatic sex abusers over at the SSPX are once again victimizing children and then re-victimizing them as adults by lying and covering up their crimes.
It’s an odd position to take for the society of clergy that thinks themselves, and often declares themselves, to be holier than the rest of the Church to be so closely aligned in this area with the Church. Their leaders are no better and, in some cases, actually worse because of their ecclesiastical hubris than bishops and clergy who are not in schism.
Ever since Pope John Paul II declared them to be in schism in 1988, they have created a fortress of unaccountability and zero transparency around the issue of sex abuse by their priests and, more importantly, the enabling cover-up by the illicitly consecrated bishops.
The most recent case, a trial in France that begins this week, is a shocking example of this schismatic group’s flat-out arrogance. A priest of the Society has been accused of abusing not one, not two, not even a dozen, but 27 children. And, get this, Church Militant has confirmed that even though trials in France, like here in the United States, are public, this one will not be, ostensibly to protect the victim’s identities.
However, even though it was the attorneys for the victims who requested the closed proceedings, in a very strange and awkward legal twist, one of those two attorneys has represented the SSPX in past cases. This conflict of interests works out well for the SSPX, which gets to pretend it agrees on principle but actually benefits mightily from the secrecy.
We wonder if one of the two S’s in their initials actually stands for “secrecy.” It also told followers to stay away from the courthouse and not even discuss the case, practically under the pain of sin. Can’t let word get out now, can we?
The trial is taking place in the famed Vendée region of France, where Catholics held out against the notorious Reign of Terror until they were wiped out by the anti-Catholic revolutionary forces. It is expected the court proceedings will go on for two weeks.
The priest, Fr. Pierre de Maillard, was originally outed by Church Militant two years ago in one of our investigations by senior Special Projects producer Christine Niles. He is charged with “rape of a minor under 15 years of age, rape committed by a person abusing his authority, attempted rape, sexual aggression on a minor over 15 years of age and corruption of minors.”
This went on for 25 years in the Vendée as well as other regions of France. He was arrested two days after the Church Militant report in October of 2020. SSPX supporters, their clergy and their communications teams, including James Vogel here in the United States, circled the wagons and essentially accused Church Militant of lying, distorting, “having an axe to grind” and other such ridiculous claims.
For the record, Church Militant stands with the popes, as well as notable cardinals like Raymond Burke, who have said the Society is in schism. But that does not inform our reporting on their sex abuse. Two different issues. No one should look the other way on such crimes just because they support Mass being said in Latin and somehow think shining a light on these evils tarnishes their reputation.
Sex abuse is sex abuse, no matter what language or form of the Mass is being said. But that’s not how the Society and its more fanatical supporters see it.
A couple weeks back, a $42-million church was opened in St. Marys, Kansas, by the schismatic group, and leading the blessing and consecration was none other than Bp. Bernard Fellay, a virtual expert in sex abuse cover-up within his breakaway group.
As Church Militant has reported over the past 3 years, Fellay not only knew of various clergy and their crimes, he personally reassigned them to their posts, where they abused more children and even eventually promoted at least two of them — after their periods of prayer and penance, of course. We guess they haven’t “broken away” from Rome as much as they pretend to have.
To understand the even more galling situation here with the cover-up, remember that Fellay and his group declare themselves to be “Eternal Rome,” superior to the rest of the Church, calling the usual Mass that most Latin Rite Catholics around the world attend “evil” and saying they should not attend it.
They acknowledge the pope (sort of) when it’s convenient but simply ignore and disobey him, prompting Pope Benedict to have officially declared that their problems are “doctrinal,” not just that they prefer the Old Rite Mass. Lots of Catholics not in schism attend the Old Rite. Their followers could too, but they stick with cover-up clergy because they are “holier” and don’t have their hands stained by association with Rome.
They have set up their own marriage tribunals, frequently “re-ordain” any priests who come to them because they doubt the validity of some sacraments offered in the Church. They tell their followers that they are superior in every way and manner to the actual Church — well, every way except one: sex abuse and covering it up. In that regard, they may as well be the USCCB. They collect huge amounts of money from their flock — hence the $42-million facility just opened in Kansas—yet keep from them their filthy little secret.
And that not only includes the clergy but also the enabling support mechanism around them, their communications apparatus (read department of deception) both on this side of the Atlantic, headed up by James Vogel, as well as the other side of the Atlantic. They publish duplicitous misleading statements aimed at deceiving the public — and that’s when they actually deign to release a statement to the peasantry. Most of the time they just say nothing. We contacted Vogel and leadership inquiring about this case and, of course, crickets.
And then they count on their enabling U.S. Catholic internet personalities, some of whom were at the Church opening, to carry their water for them by keeping as quiet as possible on the abuse and cover-up — or even attacking other Catholic outfits who report on it. Those so-called media sites and personalities are in the tank for the SSPX, ignoring the schism, yes, but, something everyone should be able to agree on — ignoring the rape of children and, even more grotesquely, ignoring the cover-up orchestrated by Bp. Fellay and the leadership.
But hey, what’s a little child rape between Latin Mass friends, right? It’s one thing to rape a minor; it’s another thing to cover it up, and it’s an entirely different thing to enable it and deceive the public about it while pretending to be a “news outfit” in favor and support of “life.” What about the lives of those children? Why aren’t they ever talked about?
Why would big names in the traditional Catholic internet world be hobnobbing and rubbing elbows with the SSPX propagandists who refuse to answer media inquiries? Does the Latin Mass mean so much to them that they can simply overlook the rape of children and cover-up by the leadership?
You will search high and low on these sites, one in particular, as well as listen to others on their podcasts from their basements, and have extreme difficulty in finding any discussion or reporting on this, any of this. Yet these same figures and outfits will hammer nonstop on Francis and the awful stuff in Rome.
When an internet celebrity or a Catholic supposed media site supporting life refuses to talk about these things, they should lose your support. They cannot be trusted. This has nothing to do with schism. It has everything to do with integrity and protecting those children and bringing to justice the bishops and clergy who continue to lie and cover all this up every day of their lives.
Everyone involved in this evil, in any way, needs to be held accountable. Anyone out there who follows such sites and personalities needs to start demanding answers to why they will not report on these evils in the SSPX while they, on the other hand, celebrate them. The double standard is atrocious.
