My friend Mons Brian Farrell, one of Vatican Commissioners to Legion; Blazquez to Reform Consecrated RCs

My other friend, Jack Keogh, passed on the news that Brian, who joined the Legion the same day as myself, July 1st, 1961 -see the Our Father Maciel, who art in bed bestseller- has been named one of the 4 commissioners to reform the Legion. Another is Jesuit, and the other two canon lawyers familiar with the Legion.

bishop Blasquez of Valladolid, Spain, who did such a good job during the investigation, has been named to lead reform of the Regnum Christi Movement. [all their leaders speak Spanish, the Legion's official language -Maciel spoke only Spanish]. 

Farrell's appointment could be key. Nobody like insider Brian would know the Modus Operandi of the Legion.

It is this blogger's opinion that the Legion and Regnum will not be reformed by decrees but by reform of the Modus Operandi [PRAXIS] inherent and ingrained into Legionaries of Christ from the moment they are recruited. There is a obtuseness and ruthlessness about the leadership that will not go away with Chapter Generals -they've had them under Maciel to rubber stamp his plans, to circle the wagons, to stifle dissent, and to keep the cronies in place -Corcuera, Sada, and Garza being notorious examples...

Apostolic Delegate has Not yet Begun -Beware of LC Pre-emptive Strikes!

According to this recent article -translated/paraphrased/commented by and courtesy of A.L- the Apostolic Delegate has not really begun his work.

He has only been in the preliminary stages, meeting and getting to know the key players.

http://sdpnoticias.com/sdp/contenido/2010/09/22/4/1121308#new

This article in Spanish appeared 09/22/10. It says the pope greeted the legionary theology and philosophy studnets who were at the general audience in St. Peters square and said he was praying for them. He used the term "mis amigos legionarios" - my legionary friends, and encouraged them in their studies.
The article says that a high-ranking LC has explained to them that De Paolis has not begun to exercise his authority yet. It confirms that he has met the LC superiors a handful of times since July and indicated he allowed the vocational campaign and ordinations for this year to continue as normal. Besides that he has only given general guidelines to the LC cupula and has not yet entered into specifics.

De Paolis has announced (no source given beyond LCs speaking to the newspaper) that he will take up his position in full at some point this month of September, and this has not yet happened - at least not up until a few days ago. I suppose that is when the paper last spoke to their insider source.

It goes on to mention the frustration of LC members and cites Fr. Peter Byrne's letter. It thinks that the frustration is because De Paolis has not taken stepped into his role quite yet.

This would explain the recent campaign for control: business as usual - which has been shown in the talk by Luis Garza in Monterrey and the thing written by Kramarz in the LC internal "magazine". I believe this to be a pre-emptive strike

It also mentions something startling - a high ranking LC has revealed that they are removing all public images of maciel and that this is an order from above to all legionary centres and colleges etc but they CANNOT make members remove personal photos or pictures of maciel by decree. He admitted a tolerance towards simple pictures and photos of maciel because they are part of the history and cannot be denied.

I am not sure if he means photos of LCs with Maciel or who the "they" are that referred to - the LCs or the photos?

Ironically the Legion can decree that they have no photos as part of LC poverty also they don't need to decree it - surely LC obedience was not based on decrees?!

Legion Schools in Mexico experience Financial Crisis

Monterrey, Mexico - Schools run by the Legionaries of Christ in cities such as Monterrey, Guadalajara and Mexico City are in a state of economic crisis due to a lack of students according to Fernando González, a researcher and religious affairs expert.

Adding to the student enrolment crisis, these institutions have been freed from centralized control, leaving it up to each school to try to survive by its own means.

“I have heard here and there that in some areas of the country the schools have begun to suffer financially, and they have even begun to talk of establishing a policy in which each legionary school would have to be self-supporting.”

The researcher and psychologist reports that previously all the schools operated under a centralized administration, but that now this system has been abandoned in a attempt to allow eacheducational institution to control its own finances in an effort to survive.

“The crisis stems from parents’ fears about the wager that legionary schools presented in the past - that if you bring me your children, I will give them a formation which would place them among the country’s economic and political elite. Suspicions quickly began to arise that this was not true,” according the the researcher from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). 

When expectations of having prestigious social connections as a result of being in a legionary school were shattered, says the author of the book “Marcial Maciel and the Legionaries of Christ; Unpublished Documents and Testimonies,” the order’s schools  began to experience a crisis. 

Fernando González claims that, despite the credibilty problem the Legionaries of Christ are experiencing as a result of the scandals involving pedophilia and children secretly conceived by the order’s founder, the late Marcial Maciel, there is still a affluent segment of the population that continues sending its children to these schools “as if nothing had happened.”

He adds that the removal from power of the so-called “legionary leadership” continues apace after the decision by Pope Benedict XVI last January naming a commissioner to be in charge of the congregation’s finances.

Fernando González, who was in Monterrey giving a seminar on research and psychoanalysis in the department of psychology at UANL, adds that the Legionaries of Christ have embarked on a sort of “refounding” which will be reflected in a “reduction of personnel” in the top leadership.

He indicates that, after the forceful measures taken by the pope to reorganize the congregation, prominent Mexicans such as Lorenzo Servitje and Ricardo Salinas Pliego have radically changed their attitude in regards to the level of respect they previously lavished on the order’s founder.

The fact that Servitje would acknowledge that one of his daughters drafted a letter offering apologies for her initial stance of unconditional support for Maciel  will have repercussions in the business community because it deals with one of Mexican Catholicism’s most emblematic figures from the private sector,” says the academic.

This stance, he adds, indicates a search for a “politically correct position” after the decisions taken by Pope Benedict XVI to reinstate discipline in the order, and to remove from power the top leadership inherited from Marcial Maciel.
Javier Sepúlveda