Or so the
Vatican Insider says;
the site quotes González Nieves saying this:
Exonerado
de toda culpa. El Vaticano confirmó que el arzobispo de San Juan de Puerto
Rico, Roberto González Nieves, no es rebelde y que las denuncias en su contra
nunca tuvieron fundamento. Lo confirmó él mismo, hace unos días durante una
conferencia de prensa en su país. Ahora sus seguidores piden que se limpie su
nombre.
Rough
translation: Exonerated of all guilt. The Vatican confirmed that the archbishop
of San Juan de Puerto Rico, Roberto González Nieves, is no rebel and that the
denunciations against him never had a base. He himself confirmed it, some days
ago during a press conference in his country. Now, his followers request that
his name be cleared.
You may
remember the case. The archbishop, born in New Jersey but raised in San Juan,
arrived on the island after serving in New York, Boston, and Corpus Christi. He
soon ruffled feathers of the statehood flock by more or less openly being an independentista. He spearheaded efforts to get the navy
out of Vieques—OK, we were all pretty much on that page—and brokered a deal
when the government shut down in 2006.
Then, he
got it into his head to create the Altar de la Patria.
“What
actually is “patria?” I asked Mr. Fernández, those many years ago before
I was sufficiently politicized.
He gave me
an explanation that made no sense. So I asked my friend Tony, who gave me the
story. Loosely, it runs like this: there was a politician who was ostensibly
for the commonwealth, our current status. But he referred constantly to the
“patria,” which became a code word to indicate independence. So if you want to
talk about independence without talking about independence, you talk about the
patria.
See?
Actually,
González Nieves threw a bit more salt into the wound by setting up, as well,
what he called, “Capilla del Santísimo Cristo de toda la nación
puertorriqueña.” This is guaranteed to set statehood mouths frothing, since it
translates into “The Chapel of the most holy Christ of all the Puerto Rican
nation.”
The
opposition pushed back, charging that the archbishop was inserting politics
into the church. And certainly the last
governor—rumored to have ties to Opus Dei, and very much
pro-statehood—was no particular fan of the archbishop.
Hence the
apostolic visit, which, according to González Nieves, found nothing. But there
were four charges:
1.
Sheltering
pederast priests
2.
Supporting
a bill that would allow roommates of either sex health benefits
3.
Selling a
parish school without authorization
4.
Creating
the famous Alta de la Patria
Things got
a little hot for the archbishop, but he’s a fighter. On May 8 of this year, he
organized 100 religious groups to come and see him celebrate mass, on the
anniversary of his entering the priesthood. He passed the word to send letters
to the Vatican, and then came out and said, “please, please, don’t send
letters to the Vatican. I beg your prayers instead.”
Smart,
hunh?
Then a
letter got leaked, in which the archbishop expressed his horror at the gravity
of the charges against him, and the hurt that the strong suggestion that he
should resign caused him. Never, he said, would he resign. The charges against
him were lies and defamations.
Unafraid of
pushing any more buttons, González Nieves then decided to get a great Puerto Rican
patriot,
who had died in Spain and had been buried in Cádiz, back home and re-interrate him, presumably, in the Capilla del Santísimo Cristo de toda la nación puertorriqueña.
There, his remains would rest in heavenly harmony with those of his great
friend, the first
Puerto Rican bishop.
“Ridiculous,”
said Mr. Fernández, “The guy was buried in a mass grave during an outbreak of
yellow fever. Of course they don’t have DNA evidence—how could they? Nah—they
scooped up some bones, conjured up a lab result, and shipped it off to Puerto
Rico, probably laughing their heads off. You know the Spanish.”
Right—so
the remains of somebody arrived on the island, and were greeted with great
Caribbean formality and enthusiasm. Now the question—what to do with them?
Well, they
lay around in the State Department for a while, and then, González Nieves
announced that he had received authorization from the Vatican to place the
remains in the capilla. This they did, on 10 June, in an elaborate celebration,
marked by the very finest vestments, incense, altar boys, and the 100-strong Mita choir, singing
nationalistically or perhaps just patriotically.
González
Nieves announced it all several days before; The First Hour, or Primera Hora, published it all in an article
titled “I Survived the Storm” or He sobrevivido a la tormenta. He said:
“Le
pido a Dios la fuerza de perdonar porque no es fácil”, aseguró en una rueda de
prensa en referencia a quienes lo acusaron en Roma.
“La
visita apostólica entra ya a su fase final. Yo creo que puedo decir que el
visitador apostólico no encontró que yo hubiera protegido a sacerdotes
pedófilos y además hay un informe de la Congregación de Doctrina y Fe que
indica que he tratado esos casos con los debidos protocolos”, expresó.
“I
ask God for the strength to forgive because it’s not easy,” he stated in a
press conference referring to those who accused him in Rome.
“The
apostolic visit is now entering its final stage. I believe I can now say that
the apostolic visitor didn’t find that I had protected pederast priests and
that I had as well a report from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith
that indicated that I have treated the cases with the correct protocols,” he
said.
Note
carefully that phrase, “the apostolic visit is entering its final stage.” To
me, that means it’s still going on, and the jury’s still out. The Vatican, as
far as I can see, has not made an announcement on the matter.
Think
the archbishop is bluffing?
