Selling the sizzle cuz the steak is putrid.

Yesterday's blogpost was written about heterosexual pedophile Catholic priests.

Today, it's all about the Vatican Taliban cranking up its propaganda machine.

First, go watch "Catholics Come Home" advert at Feminist christian socialist and read what Luna has to say. She nailguns the propagandists to the wall.

Then, consider Pope Maledict's dilemma regarding the Legion of Christ:

As sex abuse scandals rock the Vatican, the results of an investigation into a rich, ultra-conservative and secretive Roman Catholic order founded by a priest accused of pedophilia and incest are due to be filed in Rome on Monday.The sordid story of the Legion of Christ, whose late founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, was a close ally of Pope John Paul II before being forcibly retired by the Vatican in 2006, is a microcosm of the crisis currently enveloping the church.

Rich and ultra-conservative. Key words. Do you think a poor and progressive faith movement within the Catholic Church would have been allowed to thrive? Would its leader have been praised and anointed by the previous pope?

"Maciel was a sexual criminal of epic proportions who gained the trust of John Paul II and created a movement that is as close to a cult as anything we've seen in the church," said author Jason Berry, one of two reporters who broke the Maciel story in 1997 [...]

Interviews with former members of the Legion and Regnum Christi paint a chilling picture of Maciel as a sociopathic master salesman who knew how to charm the upper echelon at the Vatican as well as enlist the wealthy and elite to his fast-growing order, all while using cult-like techniques. Two of the most visible priests in America are Father Thomas Williams, a movie-star-handsome CBS News analyst, and Father Jonathan Morris, who is sometimes referred to as "Father Knows Best" on the Fox News Channel. They belong to the Legion of Christ but rarely identify themselves as such on camera.

"Dan Brown got the wrong group," said Genevieve Kineke, an orthodox Catholic who was a member of Regnum Christi, the legion's lay movement, from 1992 to 2000 and writes a blog about her experiences. "The Legion of Christ is the scary cult embedded in the bosom of the mother church. Not Opus Dei." [...]

That misuse of sex and power was an undercurrent that helped fuel the growth of the order, according to several former members of the Legion and Regnum Christi. "Maciel always told me to recruit the most handsome boys from the best families," said Vaca. "They were trained to approach rich women. I'm not saying they had sexual relationships with these women but they did know how to charm them." Kineke and others also said Legion priests are notoriously successful in winning over women to the church.

"They are spiritual seducers," said another former Regnum Christi member. "They are the only priests I've seen who have swept people off their feet. These men woo women because they want access to our children and our husbands' wallets."

That is very strong language from someone who will be monitoring how the Vatican Taliban deals with the findings of the investigation into the Legion. More here about that, and also here.

What kind of reception did Maciel receive in heaven when he died? Surely someone who masterminded such a MASSIVE grift in the name of Jesus deserves to be seated to the right of Lucifer? Oh ... wait.