There are rumours that Fr. Malachi Martin was a "double agent" but that has never been proven, nor is there even any evidence to suggest such.

Then there are claims that he was a liberal. That is actually true, but according to Traditional Catholic author Hugh Akins, who knew Fr. Martin personally, he converted. Here is what Akins had to say:

“Fr. Malachi Martin, whom this author had the honor of knowing personally, had come practically full circle from his earlier liberal days in the Vatican. It was a slow gradual transformation, but a certainty that the good Father became more and more traditional over the years, actually more traditional with the completion of each of his best selling books, which required of him extensive research study and prayer, until the final book, which he never got to complete, and which may have very well cost him his life. A work that was to shed light on Modernist Rome’s complicity in the building of the anti-Christian Judaic-Masonic nєω ωσrℓ∂ σr∂єr, was too much for the enemies of Christ. A book of that nature written by an author of his standing would have reached millions and had to be stopped. There were many indications that the cause of Fr. Martin’s death was assassination, including the disappearance of the unfinished manuscript and his own final words that he’d been pushed down a flight of stairs while in his wheelchair.He was not able to identify the assailant who attacked from behind. His murderer may have escaped justice in time, but not in eternity. God knows his identity and will exact His vengeance. Fr. Martin may your soul rest in peace.”

Mr. Bernard Janzen of Triumph Communications has done a good job of defending the works of Father Malachi Martin.

From his website:   Triumph Communications





Houses of Sand - A defense of Father Malachi Martin

Our Lord instructed His followers to build their house upon a rock, not on sand.  What does this admonition have to do with Malachi Martin?  To answer this question, it is first necessary to sketch an outline of the final phase of his life.  

     In the 1960’s, after leaving Rome and arriving in New York City, Malachi Martin began working in the field of communications.  He wrote many books and articles and was heavily involved with the media, doing interviews and fielding questions on phone-in shows.  

     The combination of two factors eventually caused Malachi Martin difficulty.  First, Fr. Martin’s primary thesis was that the Roman Catholic Church was going through a period of grave crisis and, in the words of Pope Paul VI, self-demolition.  This thesis contradicted the official party line of the Church’s ascendant liberal faction that after the Second Vatican Council the Church was enjoying a second Pentecost, a period of great renewal.  Secondly, Malachi Martin’s message resonated with the public.  Sales of his books and recordings were phenomenally successful.  Malachi Martin’s success in striking a chord with the public, combined with the fact that he was contradicting the party line of the liberal Church establishment, earned him the enmity of the liberals.

     It is not surprising that the liberals did not like Malachi Martin’s message.  However, a problem for the liberals was that Fr. Martin’s thesis was difficult to refute.  The facts upheld Fr. Martin’s thesis.  All of the statistical indicators of the Church’s vitality, such as seminary enrollment and church attendance, were in steep decline.  And these statistical indicators which were in a death spiral did not take into account qualitative factors, such as the loss of belief and the spread of heresy among the churchmen.  Liberals and moderate conservatives did attempt to refute Malachi Martin, but because his conclusions were based on the rock of reality, these attempts were not very successful in denting Fr. Martin’s popularity.  

     In an attempt to undermine the effectiveness of Malachi Martin’s communications, his opponents resorted to what are called “ad hominem” attacks, or attacks on the person.  In fact, it is the only effective strategy that Fr. Martin’s opponents could have used.  The focus of this article is to discuss these attempts at character assassination.

Denying Fr. Martin’s Priesthood

     A characteristic of the personal attacks on Malachi Martin is that they are built on sand, in the sense that they are continually shifting.  At first, many of the attacks on Fr. Martin focused on the premise of doubting his status as a priest.  There were rumors that Fr. Martin had left the priesthood and got married.  It was frequently stated that he no longer had the faculties to function as a priest.  The effectiveness of these attacks came to an end after Fr. Martin’s death, when Fr. Vincent O’Keefe, a former vicar-general of the Jesuit order, stated that Fr. Martin had received a dispensation to release him from his vows of poverty and obedience, but not chastity.  

He stated that Fr. Martin remained a valid priest all of his life and had never married.  Fr. O’Keefe was vicar-general at the time that Fr. Martin left the Jesuits.  Thus, Fr. Martin left the Jesuits, but not the priesthood.  He was secularized, not laicized.  He continued to say Mass privately.  The information that Fr. O’Keefe released was exactly what Fr. Martin had told me during our interviews.  

Accusations of Robert Kaiser

     The attacks on Fr. Martin did not cease with the official confirmation that he had never left the priesthood.  The attacks since then have revolved around the accusation that Fr. Martin had affairs with women.  This, by the way, is one of the oldest attack lines in the book.  St. Athanasius, defender of orthodoxy at the time of the Arian heresy, was accused of having affairs with women.  St. Gerard Majella was falsely accused of having engaged in this behavior.

     The media sometimes reported that Fr. Martin was living with a female companion.  This “female companion” was Kakia Livanos, an elderly Greek woman who was his housekeeper.  She prepared his meals and did the tasks that housekeepers normally do.  It is very common for Catholic priests to have a housekeeper, so there is nothing unusual about this situation.  When Fr. Martin moved to New York, a cardinal advised him to find lodging with a family.  Fr. Martin followed this advice and moved in with the Livanos family.  At the time he moved in with them, they were what is called a nuclear family, consisting of mother, father, and children living at home.  As the decades passed, the number of people living in the household dwindled until only Kakia Livanos remained.  

     Robert Kaiser, a liberal journalist, has written a book, Clerical Error, which claims that Malachi Martin had an affair with his wife during the time of the Second Vatican Council.  This book was published in 2002, long after Malachi Martin’s death.  If these accusations were true, why did Kaiser wait so long to write this book?  Why did Kaiser wait until after Malachi Martin was dead and no longer around to defend himself?  To have waited until Malachi Martin was dead to raise these allegations was extraordinarily cowardly.  

     An important factor is that Kaiser is not a reliable source of information.  He has been described as a journalist who is incapable of distinguishing between fantasy and reality.  In the book, The Desolate City, Anne Roche Muggeridge wrote that Kaiser’s characterization of Cardinal Ottaviani and Cardinal Bea was false.  She wrote, “I recommend Kaiser to anyone planning to set up as a revisionist historian.”  Like many liberal journalists, Kaiser has a definite truth problem.  

     Malachi Martin has been accused more than once of having affairs with women, but what all of these accusations have in common is that they are built on the sands of rumor, gossip, and innuendo, not on provable facts.  None of these accusations would stand up in a court of law.  And in our justice system, the accused is innocent until proven guilty.  The burden of proof is on the accusers, not the accused.  And so far, the accusers have come up with no proof.    

     Let’s take a worst case scenario.  Even if one of these accusations were true, it wouldn’t mean that Malachi Martin’s arguments are false.  It wouldn’t even mean that Fr. Martin’s soul is destined for hell.  Fr. Martin went to confession regularly, so if he did have one of these affairs, he certainly would have confessed it and received absolution.  

Implicit in the line of argument of Fr. Martin’s accusers is the idea that if he had affairs with women, then we shouldn’t listen to what he has to say.  This line of argument is logically false.  According to this logic, St. Augustine of Hippo never should have been made a saint.  Before his conversion, St. Augustine lived with a woman outside of the bonds of marriage and sired a child out of wedlock.

Malachi Martin: Double Agent?

     Some traditional Catholics mistrust Malachi Martin, saying that he held liberal opinions in the 1960’s and 1970’s.  Some Catholics even suspect that he was a double agent and a member of some shadowy Jєωιѕн conspiracy.  

     It probably is true that Fr. Martin became more traditional as he grew older.  He even said so himself.  He once jokingly told me, “Bernard, I find that I am becoming more and more of an irredentist as I grow older.”  There is nothing unusual about this.  Many of the leaders of the traditional movement only became traditional after a period of soul searching.  The late Hamish Fraser, the editor of Approaches, a traditional journal based in Scotland, was at one time a communist.  Even the most prominent traditional leader, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, signed all but two of the sixteen Vatican II docuмents.  

Does it matter what Malachi Martin believed in 1960 or 1970?  God judges souls on the basis of where they end up, not where they were.  According to the logic of these critics of Malachi Martin, St. Paul never should have been made a saint.

     It is possible to exaggerate the extent of Malachi Martin’s liberalism at the time of the Second Vatican Council.  Some Catholics mistrust Fr. Martin because he was an assistant to Cardinal Bea, the former head of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity.  Yet, in The Desolate City, Anne Roche Muggeridge points out that Cardinal Bea was orthodox in his beliefs.  He was horrified when he found out that two liberal theologians, Hans Kung and Edward Schillebeeckx, were using the Second Vatican Council to revolutionize the Church’s beliefs and practises.  Of course, Cardinal Bea did have liberal tendencies, but why would we assume that Malachi Martin agreed, even at that time, with all of the opinions of his boss?

     As for the suspicion that Malachi Martin was a double agent and a member of a shadowy Jєωιѕн conspiracy; there really is no solid foundation for this kind of suspicion.  Fr. Martin adhered to the doctrine of outside the Church there is no salvation, even to the point of being supportive of Fr. Leonard Feeney.  

Fr. Martin was critical of John Paul II’s policy of ecuмenism towards the Jєωιѕн religion.  In the books Windswept House and The Deserted Vineyard, he was critical of the Pope’s handling of a concert organized to commemorate the h0Ɩ0cαųst.  Fr. Martin supported the traditional Church’s position on the need of the Jєωs to convert and accept Jesus as the Messiah.  

     This article has discussed the most commonly cited accusations against Malachi Martin and suspicions about him.  Their common thread is that they lack substance.  Based on rumors and not provable facts, they are houses built on sand.  We shall now see that the case for Malachi Martin is built on a stronger foundation.

The Fruits of Malachi Martin’s Work

     Because Malachi Martin was controversial and successful, it was inevitable that he would draw attacks.  As Fr. Martin once told me, “If you are not receiving any criticism, then you are not saying anything worthwhile.”  Ultimately, Fr. Martin must be judged on the results of his work.  “By their fruits you shall know them.”  (Matthew 7:16).  The effect of Fr. Martin’s books and recordings has been to sustain the faith of numerous souls.  In our files, we have numerous testimonials from people who have written to us, stating that Fr. Martin’s words have been a great help to them.  Some souls, who lapsed in the practise of the Faith, have been led back to the Church by Malachi Martin.  Other souls, who have had their confidence in the Catholic religion shattered by the crisis in the Church and the malfeasance of churchmen, have gained the strength to persevere during what is perhaps the greatest crisis in the history of Catholicism.

 They have stated that by gaining an understanding of the crisis of the Church, they are better able to cope with it.  Many, many souls have been led to traditional Catholicism by Malachi Martin.  The webmaster of one of the leading traditional Catholic websites told me that many people have started attending the Traditional Latin Mass through Malachi Martin.  The conclusion that Fr. Martin’s work has helped the faith of numerous Catholics is based on real evidence, solidly based on the hard rock of reality.        

Malachi Martin’s Profile: Saint or Scoundrel?

     A man’s work generally corresponds with his character.  I would invite anyone who has doubts about Malachi Martin to listen to the twenty-two hours of recorded interviews that we conducted with him.  Would a scoundrel be able to deliver such a message of genuine spiritual inspiration?  The real experiences that people have had in their encounters with Malachi Martin produce a far different picture than that of a scoundrel.  On one occasion, Fr. Martin arrived late for one of my interviews because he had gone out to buy food for a hungry family.  On another occasion, he interrupted our interviews so that he could go to confession to a ninety year old priest.  On another occasion, Fr. Paul Wickens and I expressed mutual amazement at the number of people that we had encountered who had received spiritual assistance of some kind from Fr. Martin.  During the last decade of his life, Fr. Martin worked himself to exhaustion for the cause of the Faith, despite being in frail health.  

Fr. Martin appeared to have the gift of prophecy.  He foresaw many events, such as the coming of the nєω ωσrℓ∂ σr∂єr and the institution of ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ marriage, long before they became a reality.  He saw the gravity of the situation in the Church and the world clearly, perhaps because he had encounters with the supernatural realm, primarily through his work as an exorcist.  Fr. Martin was one of those rare individuals, even among the clergy, who seemed to live partly on the eternal side of reality.  He was unusually conscious of his mortality and was continually striving for his salvation and the salvation of the souls he encountered.  

     When you add together the factors of his life such as his generosity, gift of prophecy, and spiritual awareness, the overall profile that emerges is that of a man with the characteristics of a saint.  Is it possible to square this profile of Malachi Martin, which is based on the reality of real-life experiences, with the profile of him as a scoundrel?  Answer: It isn’t possible!  Then where does the information of those who portray him as a scoundrel come from?  This question can be answered in one word: Lies.

     It is very possible that the spread of misinformation is behind the attempts to destroy Malachi Martin’s reputation.  It has been docuмented that during the Cold War the KGB conducted operations to disseminate misinformation.  In his autobiography, advertising guru David Ogilvy mentions that during the Second World War, the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) (David Ogilvy worked for the SIS during World War II) conducted operations in South America to ruin the reputations of pro-German businessmen.

One of Malachi Martin’s bestsellers, The Jesuits, is highly critical of the post-Vatican II Jesuit establishment.  Would it not then be surprising if some of the Jesuits would attempt to tarnish Malachi Martin’s reputation?  Since the picture of Malachi Martin as a scoundrel is so out of line with the real man, it cannot be ruled out that an exercise of misinformation is at work.    

Importance of the Battle over Malachi Martin’s Reputation

     Why is the battle over Malachi Martin’s reputation so important?  This battle is important because Fr. Martin’s books and recordings have been an effective means of reaching souls and working for the restoration of traditional Catholicism.  In the English-speaking world, Malachi Martin is the traditional Catholic author who has reached the widest audience.  Even after his death, Fr. Martin’s words are still bringing the traditional Catholic message to the public and getting results.  The attempt to ruin Fr. Martin’s reputation is an attempt by liberals to sabotage this good work.  

     Shame on you, traditional Catholics, who spread these nasty rumors about Malachi Martin!  Why are you doing the liberals’ dirty work for them?  You are harming the Church, perhaps even jeopardizing the salvation of some people’s souls.  And by spreading these rumors, you may even be jeopardizing your own soul.  Do you not know that calumny is a sin?

     The works of Malachi Martin have been described as the most complete and accurate assessment of the situation of the Church since Vatican II.  On the other hand, critics of Fr. Martin have disputed his conclusions.  It is important to discuss and debate his conclusions so that an accurate assessment of the period in Church history following Vatican II can be established.  In the debate over this vital question, the attempt to ruin Fr. Martin’s reputation is nothing more than a pathetic sideshow, equivalent to attack ads in an election campaign.  

The attempt to ruin Fr. Martin’s reputation is an attempt to sidetrack the debate away from the vital issues.  This attempt will fail, falling into the dustbin of history, because it is a house built on the sands of rumor, gossip, innuendo, and lies.  Traditional Catholics must rally around and support the defenders of the Faith.  We must also stay on message, focusing our efforts on defending the truth, while resisting the temptation to stoop to the level of spreading gossip about the personal lives of our liberal opponents.  

In this battle of battles to rebuild the Church in the hour of its greatest crisis ever, let us always remember the words of Our Lord, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  (John 8:32).

Note:  Triumph Communications is defending Malachi Martin, whose message is so vital in these times when the traditions of our faith are being eroded.  We are continuing to publish and promote the works of Malachi Martin and other authors who defend the traditions of the Faith.  Please support us in these endeavors.

 

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This is a talk by Malachi about the role of JP11 in the nєω ωσrℓ∂ σr∂єr

Thus, we should ignore such ridiculous assertions and rumours and trust the words of the man who knew him personally. May Fr. Martin’s soul rest in peace.

The docuмentary record of Malachi Martin's very own treacherous words and deeds (outrageously dismissed as "rumors") trumps any witness testimony. What is it about Malachi Martin that compels people to turn this fundamental truth on its head? Moreover, Martin's death and 'inability to defend himself' entitles him and his deeds to no more protection from scrutiny than any other dead scoundrel. The dead John XXIII, Paul VI, and JPII are unable to defend themselves. When do we hear Martin devotees declare criticism of these POPES and their treacherous deeds as out of bounds? We're clearly seeing the worst form of guruism here.

Malachi Martin was at the very center of the Judaic machinations within Vatican II and he never admitted it. What a benefit it would have been to Catholics for him to tell what he knew about the AJC and Rabbi Heschel, inter alia subverting Vatican II instead of peddling storybooks. He never said a word about his work with Heschel and the AJC. He feigned that he was opposed to their ajenda even up to the year he died which was a bare faced lie according to his own writing. He spent his 'post-conversion' years telling his followers 'the Church is collapsing and there's nothing we can do about it but pray.' When he was working with Rabbi Heschel, on the other hand, he was a man of bold action.

The contortions involved in defending this rabbis' helper are a wonder to behold.

Read Malachi Martin's very own philojudaic words of hatred for the Gospel and the Church (likening it to nαzι exterminationism) that were not meant for his traditionalist audience to see:

     From the 6th century onwards, we find that anti-Semitism is an integral part of Christianity. And down to our own day, it has taken various forms. It may assume the form of an accepted radicalism with sociological overtones, in business, in social life, at the club, on the beach: one does not marry into Jєωιѕн circles or consort with Jєωs, for they are a different race with different customs and differing mentality. It may take the form of mere isolationism: the Jєω is somebody apart, somebody irrevocably separate from the truth. Here there is an instant refusal to treat them like others, a blind feeling that this person, the Jєω, is marked out by divine decision as untouchable. It may, though, take on a more mobile form: the Jєωs are to be reckoned with as active enemies of the Faith, and therefore they must be restricted, watched warily. It may, finally, go further and translate such feelings into action: the Jєωs must be expelled, must be warned, must be punished, must be dispossessed, must be liquidated.

    In these extremest forms, we meet some phantasmagoric developments: the Protocols of Sion, The nαzι Final Solution, the massacres by their Catholic Majesties of Spain, the so-called ʝʊdɛօ-Communist world plot against Christianity, and the unholy alliance between the Grand Lodge and the ѕуηαgσgυє to subvert Christian principles. In whatever form or shade or colouring we meet this anti-Semitism, its peculiarly Christian characteristic is clear.

    ...  Between the burning and plundering of all Jєωιѕн ѕуηαgσgυєs in Mesopotamia in 388 A.D. ... and the destruction and desecration of all ѕуηαgσgυєs under the recent nαzι regime, we cannot but see a relationship of origin. And no one conscious of what has made modern Europe can deny that the pyres and the crematoria, the mephitic smoke and stench of the extermination camps in nαzι Germany, were, if not the logical conclusion, at least one extremist consequence of the normal Christian attitude to the Jєωs. Here we see Christianity standing at the thin edge of self-destruction due to this admitted tension, moving to what Laurence Dobie has called aptly the anus mundi [i.e. anus of the world], the ultimate in excretion of the badness which Christianity never undertook to extirpate. (Malachi Martin aka. "Michael Serafian," The Pilgrim, pp.49-50)

MP, Hugh Akins knew Fr. Martin personally, you didn't. So why should anyone take your word over his?

Those quotes still don't change the fact that he converted.

Rabbi Heschel explained that by comparing Christians to nαzιs he was attacking their souls. Malachi Martin did the very same thing, but to a far worse degree. When did he confess and make repair for this?

  ...  Between the burning and plundering of all Jєωιѕн ѕуηαgσgυєs in Mesopotamia in 388 A.D. ... and the destruction and desecration of all ѕуηαgσgυєs under the recent nαzι regime, we cannot but see a relationship of origin. And no one conscious of what has made modern Europe can deny that the pyres and the crematoria, the mephitic smoke and stench of the extermination camps in nαzι Germany, were, if not the logical conclusion, at least one extremist consequence of the normal Christian attitude to the Jєωs. Here we see Christianity standing at the thin edge of self-destruction due to this admitted tension, moving to what Laurence Dobie has called aptly the anus mundi [i.e. anus of the world], the ultimate in excretion of the badness which Christianity never undertook to extirpate. (Malachi Martin aka. "Michael Serafian," The Pilgrim, pp.49-50)