While the Legion and some media announce this a some great step in the right direction this blogger sees it as too little too late and more delay. Instead of putting victims through another humiliation of writing their abuse and requests, the Vatican should go into the Legion archives and depose leaders to get the necessary information. The Legion already has a good idea of who the victims are. The Vatican itself knows about some of the victims for decades. Let them start there immediately. Stop this Mickey Mouse work!
the abuses have been described many times in several books such as those by Jason Berry, Paul Lennon, and many others in Spanish
[see bibliography at end of Lennon's Our Father who art in bed.] Don't all Legion/Regnum leaders speak Spanish?
Should not the commission be much more impartial? The Legion and Vatican authorities have already been negligent and dishonest in prosecuting Maciel, other Legion sex abusers, and in reaching out to victims in real charity and justice.
Are the Legion and the Vatican waiting for more victims to die or become decrepit and thus save themselves dollars in pay outs?
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[News item from Fevruary 1, 2011]
Outreach Commission Created The papal delegate’s decisions will be based on listening to the victims and a detailed report on each case.
Rome, Italy. January 31, 2011. Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, the papal delegate for the congregation, has created the Outreach Commission, as announced in his October 19, 2010 letter.
The members of the commission will have two fundamental tasks. In the first place, they will listen to the people who are requesting a response from the Legionaries of Christ because of Fr Marcial Maciel or in relation to him. Then they will write a detailed report which they will submit to the papal delegate. With the help of his advisors, he will then make decisions about what the Legion of Christ should do in each case.
To ensure objectivity and impartiality in the commission’s work, Msgr. Mario Marchesi, one of the papal delegate’s personal advisors, will lead it. Four additional members will make up the commission: Fr Florencio Sánchez, LC (chaplain of the Francisco de Vitoria University in Madrid), Fr Eduardo Robles-Gil, LC (Regnum Christi section director in Mexico City), and two external experts: Fr Silverio Nieto Núñez, a priest from the archdiocese of Madrid, a former judge and magistrate who now directs the Civil Juridical Service of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference; and Dr Jorge Adame Goddard, a titular researcher at the UNAM Juridical Research Institute and a law professor at Panamerican University in Mexico City.
Those who wish to be heard by the commission can write to the following address, briefly explaining the situation they would like to present:
Mailing address:
Outreach Commission
c/o Legionari di Cristo
Via Aurelia, 677
I – 00165 Roma
E-mail: acercamiento@legionaries.org
The decree constituting the commission stated that it would deal only with cases having a direct relation to the person of Fr Marcial Maciel. It will not intervene in cases awaiting decisions from civil or ecclesiastical courts.
When he presented the Outreach Commission to the Legionaries of Christ, Fr Álvaro Corcuera, LC, emphasized that its purpose is to “continue facing with seriousness and responsibility our recent history as regards Fr Marcial Maciel’s conduct and the implications and consequences it has had on some people. Insofar as it is humanly possible, we want to close this chapter in its more painful aspects, seek reconciliation, and allow justice and charity to prevail.”
At the same time, the general director of the Legionaries of Christ encouraged everyone to pray for this commission’s work so that it may be sustained by God’s grace and truly do good to the affected people and their families.
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I say go to your local Church and civil authorities and sue the Legion's ass!
I get a strong suspicion that this "outreach"/"acercamiento" is a PASTORAL attempt to reach out and hold hands and pat the backs of the victims, offering them a hanky.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that they will offer justice, reparation or any contrition.
They will admit Maciel's guilt - but will they admit the Legion's own invovlement in disparaging the victims, covering up the abuse, protecting the Legion but not its members?
No, not at all. The Legion has shown sorrow, but never guilt.
crocodile tears
ReplyDeleteWell, that will muddy the waters a little more. No deadline, no specifications on what recomense, just a vague WHAT THE LEGION SHOULD DO IN EACH CASE..... From experience is this that they will do ?
ReplyDeleteThis all smells of the programme by the Vatican as devised for Ireland, still reeling from new revelations about a structured cover-up on Vatican instructions!.
Action now put on what is proverbially know as the long finger.
The matter is under review, with no deadline .
I am very indignant that the victims are being asked to jump through another loop.
ReplyDelete-The Vatican has the legal suit against Maciel from 1998 which is in the Vatican Tribunals
-Monsignor Scicluna has the 20 plus victims testimony from 2005.
Why not start there? Action has already been delayed 7 years and 5 years.
-If these well known victims were expeditiously compensated it would encourage other victims to make claims.
-How many times do they have to tell their stories to different people?
-Why tell your story to the organization that has already ignored you and stonewalled you?
Paul, IMHO, you should ask the victims with whom you are in touch to request that the Legion begins with making a public apology for the ignominious lawsuit that the order made against Regain, in order to silence the association.
ReplyDeleteThe Legion has to acknowledge having acted to prevent the truth being known; the trial has to be declared invalid and the Legion has to pay back you for expenses incurred for your defense.
Xavier,
ReplyDeletethe gag order put in place by the Legion in this case and others is a clear sign that they are not from the Gospel, not from Jesus, not from God. Their priorities are power and prestige, in contradiction with the Sermon on the Mount, which we know is the touchstone of Christ's real Kingdom.
You are right, as always!, paul - the commission should really start by saying: we are getting in touch with all the victims who we already know about to offer them a private and (with their permission) a public apology admitting our guilt and responsibility and offering them financial assistance in any counselling they may need and also offering them compensation for the losses and suffering occured.
ReplyDeleteWe will promise to do all of this before Easter and the commission will remain open for those who we are unaware of to contact us.
As the other John Lennon said: you may say Im a dreamer, but im not the only one!
There are certain things that only the Legion of Christ can offer the victims, there are other needs that the victim will get elsewhere. I think the legion will try to offer the things that victims don't need from it, and decline to offer those things which really the legion alone can and has to provide.
The Legion may want to be pastoral, but really - it is like the nazis trying to be pastoral to the jews: outrageous.
I wonder what the commission will deal with? How are they going to offer compensation?
ReplyDeleteAre they going to make a kind of scale for those compensations? This one, had anal sex, 5 times, he deserves this. This other one, oral sex, 3 times, he deserves that...
I am sorry for those exquisit details.
All that sounds so stupid.
Maybe the purpose of this commission is to create some sub-commissions, that will gather twice a year to elect a board and define new sub-sub-commissions, etc.?
Xavier,
ReplyDeletei think they will need another commission, perhaps a sub-comission, to deal with these details; probably head by a group of Vatican experts on sexual abuse, Jesuit psychiatrists -friendly to the Legion, and Legionary Psychologists from the Institute for Psychological Services in Arlington, Virginia, Moral Theology and Ethics experts from the the Legionary Mater Ecclesiae seminary in Rome, and
sexual abuse victims of Maciel still in the Legion who hold major posts, under the direct guidance of Superior General Fr. Alvaro Corcuera, a close friend of the deceased Founder...
They may indeed have to create a table of offences and multiplicands - this has been used in Ireland and in Canada and while it seems prescriptive and insensitive it has also been seen to be fair in practise.
ReplyDeleteOf course it is not for the LC perhaps to create this table - they are not qualified in any sense.
The other option is that each victim undergoes an assesment which will include medical and psychological evaluations to ascertain the level of damage etc
While that is a more intrusive option, it may be more tailored as people react differently to the same trauma.
A terrible thing to say:
ReplyDeleteFr Maciel was deeply disturbed person: he had serious deficits in the area of sexualit [Pedophilia and exploitation of both sexes] and human interactions; some say he suffered from Narcissistic Personality Disorder, other that he was a Psychopath...
There was something missing in him
Is there someting missing in the Legion/Regnum?
It seems there is someting missing in the area of emotions and humaneness; like there is a gene missing, the gene of understanding others, of compassion, empathy...which make victims feel that they "just dont get it"