Call Me Jorge...: Michael Serafian

Showing posts with label Michael Serafian. Show all posts

Friday, August 22, 2014

slippery as a snake, Malachi Martin

We at Call Me Jorge... will make the assumption the reader is familiar with Rev. Hans Kung. If they are not, please do a quick search for the revolutionary priest on the internet. Hans mentions Malachi Martin in his memoirs titled, My Struggle for Freedom, on pages 382-3, 412 & 415. We include the surrounding pages so the reader can get a sense of the context Martin was being mentioned in by Kung.

On page 382, Kung refers to Martin as, "a knowledgeable and perceptive author," working, "under the pseudonym Michael Serafian (The Pilgrim, New York 1964)." This book written by Malachi Martin under the nom de plume of Michael Serafian was arranged to be published between the 2nd and 3rd sessions of the Second Vatican Council by Rabbi Abraham Heschel. It was hoped the book would influence the deliberation of the draft of Nostra Aetate. One of Martin's theses in The Pilgrim was that Roman Catholicism was in need of reform or fixing because an integral part of Catholicism was antisemitism which had led ultimately to Auschwitz. For more on this see Maurice Pinay's, The Final Nail in Malachi Martin's Coffin. Kung then speculates, on page 383, as to either the publication of this book or to Martin's affair with the pregnant wife of Robert Kaiser for being the reason of Martin leaving the priesthood.

The final two mentions of Martin in My Struggle for Freedom are on pages 412 & 415. Kung mentions Martin is correct about Paul VI wanting to modernize the Church but not in an aggressive enough manner to suit the modernist Kung. Lastly, Kung hopes the Curia of the Church will be rapidly reformed as promised and the theses in Martin's book, The Pilgrim, can only be refuted by the actions of Paul VI.

It is telling that Malachi Martin never came clean about his appalling past behaviors with his readers and listeners. Instead, he promoted himself as a kind grandfatherly-like character, a charming Irishman, a traditional Catholic, one who was still connected at the Vatican, one who performed exorcisms on the side, and as one who was still a valid priest & a secret bishop consecrated by Pius XII to go on a super top-secret mission behind the Iron Curtain. Martin was certainly a snake and trickster who loved to tell whoppers.