A Good Reporter

Gerald Renner has died. He co-wrote with Jason Berry the book entitled Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II. His book showed how sexual abuse within the Legionaries of Christ was allowed to flourish because that order was pleasing to the Vatican in its conservatism.

I had a few conversations with Mr. Renner. I found him to be one of the few non-clergymen to really understand all the components of pressure on the mind of a priest that will make him decide on one course of action or another. He got it. He also had a disarming way of leading a conversation into unexpected terrain. The mark of a good reporter.

The Legionaries of Christ have my 84 year old mother on their mailing list. They constantly bother her with requests for money.

I remember them from Rome. They were extremely handsome in an identical way as if they had all been recruited by the same man who had a particular taste, and that was indeed the case.