Multiple-Choice Question
On October 30, 1999, a prominent Catholic exhorted a gathering of approximately 8,000 people to “remember that woman is the greatest creature God has made.” Duh, we don’t remember that. So we checked around and found that no one else remembers either. Not even the Pope remembers. As recently as his November 24, 1999, General Audience he reiterated a favorite theme of his: “man and woman…. both are equally God’s masterpiece” (L’Osservatore Romano, Dec. 1, 1999). Anyhow, here’s the multiple-choice question:
Who made that woman-is-the-greatest statement? Fr. Richard McBrien, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Fr. Andrew Greeley, Fr. Hans Küng, Frances Kissling, Archbishop Rembert Weakland, Sr. Joan Chittister, or Fr. Marcial Maciel?
The correct answer is Fr. Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ and its lay arm Regnum Christi, both widely regarded as orthodox Catholic organizations. Where did he say it? In his keynote address at Regnum Christi’s International Youth and Family Encounter at the World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia.
How do we know this? It was unblushingly reported in the National Catholic Register (Nov. 28-Dec. 4), a paper controlled by the Legionaries of Christ, in an article by the Register’s own correspondent, Jay Dunlap.
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