Randy Engel and her unsubstantiated accusations and questionable scholarship (1)
Who do so many mental Randy Engel’s word as gospel when she passes on a nasty rumor as a likely fact?
Here she is in “Rite of Sodomy” killing the character of Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val
How comes she doesn’t understand what she did in print by this rumor-mongering is a serious sin?
Rafael Merry del Val y Zulueta, was born in London, England on October 10, 1865. He was six years younger than O’Connell. His distinguished father’s ancestral roots went back to 17th century Ireland and England and later to Seville, Spain, and his beautiful mother was of Dutch, Scottish, and Spanish blood, the daughter of the founder of the famous banking firm of Zulueta and Company in London.25
In 1885, after the young del Val had graduated from the Jesuit College of St. Michel in Brussels and completed minor orders at Ushaw Seminary in England, he had planned on enrolling at Scots College in Rome. But a providential audience of the del Vals with Pope Leo XIII arranged by the Spanish Ambassador to the Holy See changed the course of Rafael’s life. The Holy Father ordered his entrance into the Accademia dei Nobili Ecclesiastici and waived the requirement of noble birth.26 After his ordination on December 30, 1888, he remained at the Accademia to complete his courses in theology and canon law at the Gregorian University. It was at this period in his life that del Val developed a special interest in the welfare of working-class boys from the slums of the Trastevere.
It was the tradition of the time that a spiritual director from the Accademia be assigned to the Pontifical Mastai School for the poor under the direction of the Christian Brothers. On January 25, 1889, del Val was formally assigned to the post by Lucido Maria Cardinal Parocchi of Bologna, the pope’s vicar. Del Val said Mass, heard confessions and administered the rite of Confirmation for the young boys and young men of the neighborhood.27
In 1890, he established the Pius Association of the Sacred Heart of Jesus for the youth of the neighborhood and a recreational area for boys of all ages just outside the Porta Portese. Some of the neediest boys’ families he aided with money to pay rent. For others he secured medical help or found them jobs.28 In later life, the walls of his room would be filled with pictures of his family and of his boys of the Trastevere some of whom died in the Great War.
It was about the time that he began to minister to the boys of the Trastevere, that del Val met Msgr. William O’Connell at the American College and he soon began to visit O’Connell on a regular basis. The friendship grew through the years with each man aiding the other in the advancement of their ecclesial careers.
Del Val’s ecclesiastical career was a meteoric one.
Following the death of Pope Leo XIII in 1903, del Val was chosen Pro- Secretary to oversee the election that would bring Giuseppe Sarto, Patriarch of Venice to the throne of Saint Peter as Pope Pius X. Even though del Val favored the election of Cardinal Rampolla, a fellow graduate of the Accademia, over Sarto, the new pontiff was impressed with the 38-year-old Spanish cleric. On November 9, 1903, Pope Pius X made del Val a cardinal and three days later appointed him his Secretary of State. Del Val took up residence in the Borgia Apartments of the Palazzi Pontifici in the Vatican resplendent with the magnificent 15th century frescoes of Bernardino Pinturicchio.29
Physically, del Val and O’Connell were a study in contrasts. O’Connell was large boned and burley and looked taller than his five foot eight frame. Del Val was also of medium height but delicate of frame and face and graceful and genteel in his carriage and mannerisms. On the other hand, both men saw themselves as cosmopolitans—men of the world. They were both multilingual and accomplished pianists and men of ambition. The two shared a number of common interests including a love of music especially Gregorian chant, travel and high culture including the theater and the arts.
Ironically, both men were also the subject of controversy for much of their ecclesiastical careers and each was tainted with the charge of sodomitical practices during his lifetime. In the case of del Val, the particular charge was a singular reference made public in a March 1911 issue of the German scholarly literary journal Nord und Sud.30
The short article titled “The Homosexual Scandal at the Papal Court,” charged Cardinal Merry del Val with corresponding with his fellow sodomites who allegedly held homosexual orgies in del Val’s Borgia apartments. The charge was made by a Mr. Patrick MacSweeney, said to hold an important post at the Vatican, (um, what post was that?) who invited del Val to issue a writ of libel against the paper so he could produce his evidence against the cardinal.
According to MacSweeney, by the time del Val informed the Irishman that he would not in any case respond to the charge against him, the statute of limitations had run out on his “evidence,” some 38 letters, making them worthless in court. The article ended with a final note that del Val had asked MacSweeney to destroy all letters bearing his signature that had been written to religious leaders.
The reference to the Nord und Sud article was contained in Charlotte Wolff’s 1986 biography of Magnus Hirschfeld.
Wolff admitted that she did not know if the charge was “more fiction than fact,” but she believed that so important a journal would not have published so libelous a story without some foundation for the charge against If the story was true, then there would appear to have been a darker side to del Val’s interest in the boys of the Trastevere.
Who do so many mental Randy Engel’s word as gospel when she passes on a nasty rumor as a likely fact?
Here she is in “Rite of Sodomy” killing the character of Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val
How comes she doesn’t understand what she did in print by this rumor-mongering is a serious sin?
Rafael Merry del Val y Zulueta, was born in London, England on
October 10, 1865. He was six years younger than O’Connell. His distinguished
father’s ancestral roots went back to 17th century Ireland and
England and later to Seville, Spain, and his beautiful mother was of Dutch,
Scottish, and Spanish blood, the daughter of the founder of the famous
banking firm of Zulueta and Company in London.25
In 1885, after the young del Val had graduated from the Jesuit College
of St. Michel in Brussels and completed minor orders at Ushaw Seminary
in England, he had planned on enrolling at Scots College in Rome. But a
providential audience of the del Vals with Pope Leo XIII arranged by the
Spanish Ambassador to the Holy See changed the course of Rafael’s life.
The Holy Father ordered his entrance into the Accademia dei Nobili Ecclesiastici
and waived the requirement of noble birth.26 After his ordination on
December 30, 1888, he remained at the Accademia to complete his courses
in theology and canon law at the Gregorian University. It was at this
period in his life that del Val developed a special interest in the welfare of
working-class boys from the slums of the Trastevere.
It was the tradition of the time that a spiritual director from the Accademia
be assigned to the Pontifical Mastai School for the poor under the
direction of the Christian Brothers. On January 25, 1889, del Val was formally
assigned to the post by Lucido Maria Cardinal Parocchi of Bologna, the
pope’s vicar. Del Val said Mass, heard confessions and administered the rite
of Confirmation for the young boys and young men of the neighborhood.27
In 1890, he established the Pius Association of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
for the youth of the neighborhood and a recreational area for boys of all
ages just outside the Porta Portese. Some of the neediest boys’ families he
aided with money to pay rent. For others he secured medical help or found
them jobs.28 In later life, the walls of his room would be filled with pictures
of his family and of his boys of the Trastevere some of whom died in the
Great War.
It was about the time that he began to minister to the boys of the
Trastevere, that del Val met Msgr. William O’Connell at the American College
and he soon began to visit O’Connell on a regular basis. The friendship
grew through the years with each man aiding the other in the advancement
of their ecclesial careers.
Del Val’s ecclesiastical career was a meteoric one.
Following the death of Pope Leo XIII in 1903, del Val was chosen Pro-
Secretary to oversee the election that would bring Giuseppe Sarto, Patriarch
of Venice to the throne of Saint Peter as Pope Pius X. Even though del
Val favored the election of Cardinal Rampolla, a fellow graduate of the
Accademia, over Sarto, the new pontiff was impressed with the 38-year-old
Spanish cleric. On November 9, 1903, Pope Pius X made del Val a cardinal
and three days later appointed him his Secretary of State. Del Val took up
residence in the Borgia Apartments of the Palazzi Pontifici in the Vatican
resplendent with the magnificent 15th century frescoes of Bernardino
Pinturicchio.29
Physically, del Val and O’Connell were a study in contrasts. O’Connell
was large boned and burley and looked taller than his five foot eight frame.
Del Val was also of medium height but delicate of frame and face and graceful
and genteel in his carriage and mannerisms. On the other hand, both
men saw themselves as cosmopolitans—men of the world. They were
both multilingual and accomplished pianists and men of ambition. The two
shared a number of common interests including a love of music especially
Gregorian chant, travel and high culture including the theater and the arts.
Ironically, both men were also the subject of controversy for much of
their ecclesiastical careers and each was tainted with the charge of
sodomitical practices during his lifetime. In the case of del Val, the particular
charge was a singular reference made public in a March 1911 issue of
the German scholarly literary journal Nord und Sud.30
The short article titled “The Homosexual Scandal at the Papal Court,”
charged Cardinal Merry del Val with corresponding with his fellow sodomites
who allegedly held homosexual orgies in del Val’s Borgia apartments.
The charge was made by a Mr. Patrick MacSweeney, said to hold
an important post at the Vatican, (um, what post was that?) who invited del Val to issue a writ of libel against the paper so he could produce his evidence against the cardinal.
According to MacSweeney, by the time del Val informed the Irishman that
he would not in any case respond to the charge against him, the statute of
limitations had run out on his “evidence,” some 38 letters, making them
worthless in court. The article ended with a final note that del Val had
asked MacSweeney to destroy all letters bearing his signature that had
been written to religious leaders.
The reference to the Nord und Sud article was contained in Charlotte
Wolff’s 1986 biography of Magnus Hirschfeld.
Wolff admitted that she did
not know if the charge was “more fiction than fact,” but she believed that
so important a journal would not have published so libelous a story without
some foundation for the charge against If the story was true, then
there would appear to have been a darker side to del Val’s interest in the
boys of the Trastevere.
OK, who is Magnus Hirschfeld?
https://monthlyreview.org/product/magnus_hirschfeld/