I agree that Pope John Paul was affected by the culture in which accusations of homosexuality were the standard for taking down any celibate. I was talking with a couple of our other homeschool mothers just the other day (30 children between the 3 of us) and we agreed that once a culture rejects covenant marriage based on procreation, there is no moral line to be drawn short of physical force-rape. I’ve proposed this idea on FR, and nobody has given a counter-argument.
One of the ladies has a son in the Legionaries of Christ and is involved in Regnum Cristo (sp?). It’s unfortunate that good people have to deal with a crazy like Maciel, and it’s hard ... impossible ... to sort out the good fruits from the bad tree. I see something similar in the ongoing controversy over Medjugorie: was there a legitimate apparition? What about the visionaries? What about the spiritual fruits that people have experienced for decades?
It reminds me of the controversy in Thomas More's time about the Holy Maid of Kent. It seems she confessed to being a fraud (although how would we know? All the info about her confession is from Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII's henchmen). She did speak the truth that Henry's divorce of Queen Catherine and marriage to Anne Boleyn was a sin. Some of her prophecies turned out true; some not.