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Wednesday, July 27, 2005 Is Judge Roberts Opus Dei?
From Pat: Posted on Salon: Is Roberts Opus Dei? All indicators point to "yes" -- Roberts & wife left their DC parish to follow their pastor when he was re-assigned: Msgr. Peter Vaghi, who has been pastor of St. Patrick Church downtown for nine years, has been appointed pastor of Church of the Little Flower, Bethesda. He will replace Msgr. William Kane, who is retiring. Born in 1948, Msgr. Vaghi attended Gonzaga College High School here; Holy Cross College in Worcester, Mass.; the University of Salzburg, Austria, where he studied as a Fulbright Scholar; the University of Virginia School of Law, Charlottesville; and the Gregorian University, Rome. Ordained in 1985, he was later appointed assistant pastor of St. Patrick's and became pastor there in 1995, the same year he was named a monsignor. He has been active in numerous Catholic organizations such as the John Carroll Society of which he is chaplain and the Downtown Washington Serra Club. While a practicing attorney before ordination, he was an associate in the Washington firm of Sidley & Austin and legal consultant to Sen. Pete Domenici (R.-N.M.). Read more. 7/22/03 Judge Bork, baptized at 76 It may be a little late to start for most, but Robert Bork, the former Supreme Court nominee who has written books decrying the decline of Western culture, has just been baptized. Rev. C. John McCloskey, who represents the conservative and activist Opus Dei arm of the Roman Catholic Church and oversaw the baptism, said, "I can confirm that he was received in the Catholic Church." Bork, a scholar with the conservative American Enterprise Institute, was raised a Protestant and had called himself a "generic Protestant." He was known more for his conservative legal views, which some Democrats used to shoot down his court nomination during the Reagan administration. In a brief interview, he said that years of "conversations and reading" led him to baptism at McCloskey's small Catholic Information Center chapel on K Street near the White House. "There's more to talk about than you can put in a brief story." He called himself a regular Catholic who attends Sunday mass, not an Opus Dei member. He said talks with and recommendations from the priest, as well as attending church with his wife, Mary Ellen Bork, a former nun, helped pave the way to the ceremony. Bork's sponsors were Kate O'Beirne, a conservative media star, and John O'Sullivan, head of UPI. Lots of other prominent Catholics were there, such as columnist and speechwriter Peggy Noonan, herself a convert. McCloskey has made several other high-level conversions of conservatives, bringing into the Catholic Church conservative columnist Robert Novak and Republican Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas. The best part of getting baptized at 76, said Bork: "If you get baptized at my age, all of your sins are forgiven. And that's very helpful." According to Archdiocese of Washington Communications Director Susan Gibbs, Msgr. William Awalt, the longtime pastor of the Borks, baptized the judge, confirmed him and gave him First Communion. Father McCloskey celebrated the Mass, along with Msgr. Peter Vaghi, pastor of St. Patrick's. Fr. McCloskey is the priest who has converted so many Washingtonians, including Justice Scalia, to Opus Dei-style Catholicism. The Federalist Society is crawling with them. I am getting seriously creeped out by this. Where are all the people who were so afraid to vote for Kennedy because the Pope might tell him what to do? Read more
posted by MCM at 11:49 AM Permalink
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