God does this through his Prophets: Renner and Berry, Barba, Vaca and the other 8 accusers, Mons. Charles Scicluna, Vatican investigator, blogs and websites of former members and keen observers who are not swaying by the Legion's Glittering Image.
For the Legion of Christ is all about IMAGE/APPEARANCE. Susan Nowatch wrote "Glittering Images" about the episcopal clergy. Investigative reporters and witnesses in Spanish and in English have been taking us beyond the Appearances for decades. But it seems that many Catholics prefer the images, the appearances. They are thus taking a very dangerous stance -if we remember Matthew Chapter 23.
The Legion of Christ is all about image and God has recently been tearing that down. The Vatican won't do it, the Apostolic Delegate won't do it. So God does it through his instruments.
The Legion is all about Immaculate Priests,
Immaculately dressed handsome priests, complete with their hair parted to the left, and the gold cuff links
Immaculate Doctrine,
Immaculate Buildings
Immaculate Gardens
Immaculate Training Centers
Immaculate Priest Training Centers -they are the Trainers of Today Catholic Seminarians and Tomorrow's Priests
Immaculate Reputation [once they severed away old Marcial Maciel]
Immaculate Media Presence: Frs. Morris and Williams (Morris had the decency to leave)
Immaculate credentials: approval by Popes and Vatican
Immaculate support from the Catholic Intelligentsia: William Bennet, Mary Ann Glendon, etc
Immaculate books on Priest Training [Fr. Maciel's "The Integral Formation of the Priest"} and Catholic Morals
Immaculate News Agency, ZENIT
Immaculate [Conception] Schools
Immaculate images cultivated by Marcial Maciel from 1941 until his death; Maciel, "a king of shreds and patches" in the words of Hamlet referring to his adulterous uncle.
The latest image to fall is that of the Legion of Christ's Golden Boy, the poster boy, the "Legionary Type" that Maciel and the superiors continue to cultivate.
This critique is not about Fr. Thomas Williams who is just another priest with a very flawed "formation" who hits the dust. It could have been different:
If he had been in love with the woman and accepted HIS SON and realized that he had to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for his actions. Step down from the ministry... Maybe he was in love with her and accepted his son. But he was trained to believe that his Legionary Ministry was more important than anything else in this world. His superiors and "handlers" would have nothing of going public at that time, circa 2000. It would have been a great scandal; it would have jeopardized the Legion, University where he taught, the apostolates he carried out, the books he wrote, "the Catholic Priesthood". The Legion could not lose their Poster Boy.
Beside this supreme value human love paled and the woman had to be put away and out of his life. I was a Legionary and maybe I believed it too. I lived in holy dread of making a woman pregnant because I felt that would have spelled the end of my priestly "career". Not so Catholic Tradition, the practice of bishops and the Holy See who always opted for the priest continuing in ministry...
Until our day when it seems that for the first time in history a pope, Pope Benedict XVI, takes the WOMEN AND CHILDREN OF PRIESTS seriously; not just as things, temptresses, obstacles, scandals that have to be swept under the carpet.
This CLERICALISM so rampant in the Church was present in Richard John Neuhaus' defense of Fr. Maciel and other priests who had their "dalliances" with underage boys and girls. And that is what I attacked in "Fr. Marcial Maciel, Pedophile, Psychopath and Legion of Christ Founder, Ed. 2"
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