Jadot.
It took a long time but finally Archbishop Jean Jadot (pronounced zha-DOH) has died at age 99…an act of almighty charity, giving him a decent time during which he could repent—although odds are he never did. He was the papal nuncio assigned to the U. S. appointed such in the `70s by Paul VI who was responsible for the naming of a string of liberal Catholic bishops…not a few of whom were involved in homosexuality, ultra-tolerance of pedophilia and free-form liturgical excesses that prompted widespread disillusion with the church in America because of much carefree acceptance of scandal. All of which Jadot fostered. Pray for him if you wish so that he is turning on the rotisserie is in Purgatory and not worse. If he is in Purgatory, somebody turn him on his side because he’s frying unevenly.
Jadot was the only apostolic delegate to the U. S. who following his service here was NOT elevated to the cardinalate. And for good reason. “It is a slap to my face,” the Belgian-born prelate said not long before his death. He got THAT right. Pope Paul VI who righted his previous “spirit of Vatican II” drift by courageously writing Humanae Vitae had been for a long time a Hamlet about excessive changes in the Church. Toward the end he said he sniffed the smoke of Satan in the sanctuaries but it took a regrettably long time for the diabolic incense to water his eyes.
One of Paul’s mistakes was not seeing through Jadot…which can be explained by referring to infallibility in the papacy which doesn’t involve personal failings at all or even the choosing of matching socks from the drawer—but literally immunity from doctrinal error…not preservation from sin, God knows, which is impeccability—not particularly known in the papacy as there have been popes who have been colorful sinners. Nor is infallibility inspiration which implies God is the principal author of the word or work inspired. Infallibility thus is a negative—because it keeps the pope from making a doctrinal mistake on matters of faith and morals when promulgated “from the Chair.”
Paul, as were all his predecessors (and successors), was infallible when speaking “ex-cathedra” on faith or morals. But that power didn’t carry through to his choice of friends of whom Jadot was a very bad apple. The pope picked him from relative obscurity to go to the United States in 1973 because Paul, in his fallible ascertainment of conditions, was worried that the Church in the U.S. was resistant to some aspects of Vatican II—known as the “spirit.” Right he was and right important segments of the Church was—and is—to be resistant.
Once over here, Jadot termed his mission one of pushing the American church to “welcome minorities.” That was a stunning bit of subterfuge because for many years prelates like George Cardinal Mundelein here in Chicago and Bishop Bernard J. Sheil were leaders in civil rights work long before it became a media fad. Jadot’s real skullduggery was to relax the strings of authority so as to welcome divergent liturgies and liberalize the marriage laws, relaxing the penalty of excommunication for divorced Catholics who remarry. He was a great pal of Benedictine monk Godfrey Diekmann of my old university of Saint John’s…Diekmann flaunting great theological knowledge but becoming a heretic and dissenter on “Humanae Vitae.” Jadot was part and parcel of the whispering cabal that put Diekmann up to it…for Jadot was known to be a subtle pusher for contraception.
(Turn up the heat as he revolves on the spit, guys).
The most negatively important thing Jadot did…which caused the American church much anguish…was to recommend men who were as bad apples as he to bishoprics. He forwarded the names of 100 to Rome and the Pope with full reliance on Jadot named almost all of them. They became known as “Jadot’s boys.” Among them were either homosexuals or pro-gay rights advocates such as Walter Sullivan of Richmond, Va,, the aptly-named Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee who ingeniously managed to pay off a an angered male lover despite the fact that Weakland was—and is—a Benedictine embracing the vow of poverty.
Others named by Jadot include Roger Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles who is forever being questioned by authorities for clamming up about erring priest molesters. Also Bishop Matthew Clark of Rochester, N.Y.;, Albany’s Howard Hubbard; former Santa Fe archbishop Roberto Sanchez who resigned after disclosure of a sex scandal, Bishop Joseph Imesch of Joliet, Illinois; Bernard Cardinal Law of Boston, an authenticist, actually, on church doctrine but still notorious for his laxity with erring priests—Law being finally airlifted out of the U.S. when the heat came on and parachuted into Rome where he serves on some ecclesial boards and Atlanta’ Oscar Lipscomb. Chicago’s Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, a man with ingenious Italianate mastery of church and secular politics…plus a gift for capturing the national news media…was a close advisor to Jadot.
When finally the criticism about Jadot burned up the wires to Rome, Paul VI was importuned to fire Jadot. “Oh, I cannot do that,” said the pontiff, “as he is a friend.” But after Paul died the string of friendships ran out and though Jadot waited in vain for the red hat, he was justifiably passed up by John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
Still the secular media continues to play Jadot as a kind of progressive who paid the price the Curia exacted for welcoming “minorities.” Jadot helped this along by saying, piously, “I was not to be the pope’s eyhes and ears but his heart.” Spare us. Right on cue the “Washington Post,” not noted for its rigorous understanding of Catholic theology or morals, rhapsodized about the bishops Jadot named: “Whatever their background, the new breed of bishops were less concerned with ring-kissing and watered-silk vestments that went with the office and more with getting to know their people.”
Some of them sure did get to know their people—particularly men and young boys. Continued the sacrosanct “Post”: “They moved out of Episcopal mansions and into a couple of rooms in a rectory or seminary.
Moved out to rooms only temporarily, “Post.”
Hey, that flame’s running low, boys. Shake the grate a few times, will you?
Archbishop Jadot outlived his successor, Pio Cardinal Laghi by a few weeks. You are right: He was never made a Cardinal. However, Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo also died without being made a Cardinal. He died within a year of the appointment of Archbishop Pietro Zambi.
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