spy

Newsweek|March 2001|WASHINGTON’S QUIET CLUB

factfreehLeave a comment

by Evan Thomas

“We are here to keep Catholics from living double lives,” says Father C. John McCloskey, an Opus Dei priest. In the case of Robert Hanssen, the FBI agent accused of spying for the Russians, Opus Dei apparently failed spectacularly.

During the 15 years he was allegedly working for the Kremlin, Hanssen was a devout member of Opus Dei, a superorthodox and deeply anti-Communist order. It may be years, if ever, before Hanssen’s soul and psyche reveal the true nature of his perfidy. In the meantime, his case has put a spotlight on Opus Dei and the role played by conservative Catholics in Washington.

Unlike Pat Robertsen, Jerry Falwell and the evangelical religious right, Washington’s conservative Catholics are reticent and low-key. “Our faith is personal, not political,” says McCloskey. But Catholic conservatives (and reputed Opus Dei members) like FBI Director Louis Freeh and Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas are nonetheless an intriguing and sometimes misunderstood spiritual force in the deeply secular capital.

…

It’s not surprising that the FBI’s Hanssen, who had a longtime fascination with wiretapping and avidly read Orwell’s “1984” and Huxley’s “Brave New World,” would have been drawn to an organization that permits superiors to open the mail of new “numeraries.” Hanssen’s haughty attitude, expressed in his letters to his KGB handlers, was characteristic of Opus Dei’s sense of superiority, say the Opus Dei bashers, who note that the order is the only one in the Catholic Church that reports directly to the Pope.

At the Opus Dei-run Catholic Information Center two blocks from the White House, McCloskey dismisses these conspiracy theories. “Opus Dei is the most open order in the Catholic Church,” he says. Of Hannsen’s connection, he says, “Only a very twisted mind would join Opus Dei seeing it as a cover or a mysterious secret organization, because it isn’t.” He dismisses the rumors that Freeh and Scalia are secret Opus Dei members as “completely false.” Indeed, he says, “I can’t think of any Opus Dei members in government.”

Nonetheless, he says, “we are interested in people who can have an influence.” He numbers as his personal friends the widely read conservative columnist Robert Novak, who converted to Catholicism three years ago, and supply-side economic guru Lawrence Kudlow. Describing McCloskey as a “very engaging man,” Kudlow recently detailed how the priest helped him discover Christ. Smooth and handsome, ascetic but worldly, McCloskey (who declined to have his photo taken) says he plays squash at the University Club with Washington Post reporters and regularly appears on MSNBC. McCloskey is familiar with wealth and power: an Ivy Leaguer (Columbia), he worked for Merrill Lynch and Citibank before becoming a priest.

…

Read the story

Washington Post|March 2001|FBI Spy Case Arrest Blows Parish’s Cover

factfreehLeave a comment

By Bill Broadway and David Cho

For 20 years, St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church has attracted some of the area’s most influential people to a secluded sanctuary in a grove of evergreen trees on Springvale Road in Great Falls.

Doctors, lawyers, bureaucrats, technology executives, politicians, artists and intelligence operatives have found solace and unity in traditional Masses and in the deep-seated piety of the church’s 4,000 members. They also have enjoyed the anonymity of worshiping in a quiet parish 20 miles from downtown Washington.

St. Catherine’s, one of 66 parishes in the Diocese of Arlington, is an intensely private congregation, said its pastor, the Rev. Franklyn McAfee. “Everybody supports [the work of the church], but nobody stands out.”

Or so it was until last week, when parishioner and FBI Special Agent Robert P. Hanssen was arrested on espionage charges. Suddenly, the church came under public scrutiny, and the names of its most famous members became widely known.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and his wife attend regularly, as do Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and FBI Director Louis J. Freeh and their families. So does Kate O’Beirne, the National Review’s Washington editor.

…

Scalia, Freeh and Santorum declined, through spokesmen, to be interviewed about St. Catherine’s or the worship experience that brings them and their families back. But other members spoke freely of their appreciation of the church’s colorful services and orthodox Catholic teachings.

They said they like to hear Bach and Mozart played by a classically trained organist and sung by an 18-member choir dressed in bright red robes. They like the 10:30 Latin Mass every Sunday, which the priests celebrate the old-fashioned way — with their backs to the congregation, facing the cross. They like the monthly services where everyone sings Gregorian chants.

…

Several Catholic lay organizations meet at St. Catherine’s, including the Knights of Columbus, Opus Dei and the Third Order of Dominicans. McAfee is confessor to two D.C. convents run by the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa’s order, and the parish is the regional base for the order and its lay missionaries.

…

McAfee noted the irony of the missile site’s proximity in an interview this week, but otherwise he had little to say about the Hanssen case, explaining that he does not know Hanssen well. Hanssen, the third FBI agent ever charged with espionage, has been accused of selling secrets to the Soviets and Russians since 1985.

The revelation has been an embarrassment for some of St. Catherine’s parishioners. But foremost, it’s a sad moment for the church, they say.

Heron, the parishioner who found a spiritual home on his first visit to the church, began crying when asked what effect Hanssen’s arrest has had on the parish. He said that he didn’t know Hanssen but that hearing about the charges against him was an emotional blow, almost like the death of a family member.

…

Read the story