FXFrancis X. Maier

1. Article · Sep 3, 2026 · Francis X. Maier

   Government’s Sex Abuse Hypocrisy Comes Due - First Things (opens the original)

   Excerpt · Critical tone · English

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   I worked in senior staff positions in Catholic dioceses for twenty-seven years. For nearly all of them my duties included, in part, dealing with the legal, political, and media fallout of clergy sex abuse. A favorite theme of those years, from plaintiffs’ attorneys to the mainstream press, was the hypocrisy of a Church that preached sexual purity while harboring a tribe of sex predators. It was an ugly experience, but not an unwarranted one. As a parent myself, I believed that the punishment of

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2. Article · Aug 10, 2026 · Francis X. Maier

   Have American Catholics Given Up on Evangelizing? - First Things (opens the original)

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   Here’s a simple, biblical truth: We’re never as smart as we think we are, and we’re never as wise as we need to be. The best intentions can have unintended consequences. I remembered this recently when a friend shared a chart posted on X by Ryan Burge. Burge is an interesting voice. He’s a talented political scientist, statistician, and former Baptist pastor. The data he highlights suggest that less than a third of American Catholic and mainline Protestant pastors have an authentic missionary ap

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