VOWS OF SILENCE WINS MEXICO INTERNATIONAL DOCUFEST SEPT 08

Dr. Jose Barba [Maciel's accuser], Jason Berry [director], Paul Lennon [supporter], Jose de Cordoba [Walls Street Journal]

Dr. Barba interviewed by reporters after screening Sat 29th September at Cinemax Plaza Insurgentes, Mexico City.

Paul and fiance, Jose Barba standing, Saul Barrales, another accuser of Maciel





VOWS OF SILENCE, the documentary for TV, based on the Berry-Renner books of the same name won first prize at Mexico City's International Documentary Festival held during the last week of September this year.

There were several screenings of the documentary directed by Jason Berry. The main theme was the struggle of Maciel's sexual abuse victims to get the attention of the Vatican and the pope. The saga concluded in May of 2007 when the Vatican finally silenced Maciel but for the victims and those with a sense of justice and juridical procedure it was too little too late; but whatever was gained was due to the perseverance of the victims and of men like Berry with a strong sense of what is right and wrong and who are willing to swim up-river

Memoir, Me and [Fr.] Maciel, Founder Legion of Christ

here

YOU TUBE link

WHY I WROTE THE BOOK

8/29/08

I want to thank everyone for their generous praise and encouragement re the book. Some of the feedback prompted me to write the following tonight:

I wanted the story to be readable, straightforward to some degreee, but to have different themes and facets: me, vocation, Legion, its training system and methodology, the superiors' inadequacy, Maciel, Ireland, Mexico, conflict, suffering, recovery... Although the story is my story and written for myself and my own wellbeing/catharsis , some of its importance comes from Paul being one of the very first Irish-born cofounding legionaries, of being a contemporary of the founder, of interacting with him and finding him to be an absolute scoundrel. I believe that the critique of Maciel must go way beyond his pedophilia to his total sickness as a human being and his lack of moral, ethical, spiritual and religious values; and, of course, to his being the creator of one very sick and destructive 'formation' system and an order equivalent to a cult within the confines of the official Catholic Church.

************************************



THE COVER: Fr. Maciel and me

portrays me as a very young seminarian receiving a 'holy picture' from Fr. Marcial Maciel [deceased Jan 2008] in the Novitiate in Salamanca, Spain, circa 1962. He was the founder of this new [1941] Mexican religious order and I was one of the first Irish recruits. It turns out that -unbeknown to me during my Legion tenure- Fr M was also a rampant pedophile. What I did personally experience was his Narcissism and despotism as a superior/leader/ guru. I found him totally lacking in human compassion and therefore could never buy into him being a "saint" no matter how much the whole atmosphere fed into this. So i tell my story against that backdrop and centering the book on my critique of this organization as a cult. The latter paradigm I owe to Michael Langone and others at ICSA; it helped me to understand my overall experience in the group -big picture and context.


TITLE: "Our Father who art in bed"

Fr Maciel had himself called "Our Father" by the members and followers -although in Spanish it does not have the same blasphemous connotation it has for English speaking Christians, being as it is the first phrase of The Lord's Prayer: Our Father, who art in heaven...; it is, nevertheless, a lofty name to give oneself -in this he is guru-like-. Besides being a pedophile, Maciel was was a hypochondriac and did spend a lot of time "ill" and in bed where he had to be tended to hand and foot -mixing my metaphors? So he was not a father in heaven, or a loving father as fathers should be -and as my own father was!- but a selfish, loathsome and abusive father who does not deserve the name of such.

See YouTube**

Arturo and me in San Miguel

Yours truly took a little trip down Mexico way at the end of July, 2008.
One of the friends I spent 'quality time' with was Arturo Jurado [on the left of the photo], an early Legionary of Christ who filed charges against the founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel, which eventually led to the Vatican 'silencing' this sexually abusing charlatan.
Arturo is as good-natured as they come and I was pleased to spend time with him in San Miguel de Allende where he is now retired and involved in volunteer activities to benefit the local populace.

PS we are sitting in the main square, Plaza de la Conspiracion, -we continue to conspire and plot against that holy man and his holy -and rich!- followers!

Gracias, Arturo, for your hospitality and company!

Mormon-like Pure Fashion from Regnum Christi

"Accordingly, the clothing guidelines for the fashion shows are strict: Shirt necklines should be no lower than four fingers below the collarbone, no thin or sheer material, no strappy backs or halters, and no tank tops without overlaid shirt or jacket; pants should not be too tight, and the appropriate length for shorts is determined by putting arms straight at the side and measuring no higher than your longest finger; skirts should be no shorter than four fingers above the kneecap; and no exposed bra straps."

Reading the PURE FASHION RULES for this new generation of Chaste Catholic Virgins reminds one of the ritual purity rules of the Book of Leviticus and Christ's remonstration with the Pharisees in Matthew 23;
the writers of FASHION RULES must never have read the Letters of St Paul either, as these celebrate the Christian's freedom from the nit-picking Old Law...

**

Cults in our (Catholic) Midst

Oh, yes, those poor misguided cults out there! All those New Age Cults and those strange "Oriental" and Indian cults! But that could never happen to us Catholics because we have the true faith and the right doctrine, and we are with the Pope and approved by Rome!

But, what about the Opus Dei and its METHODS, and the LEGION OF CHRIST and its REGNUM CHRISTI MOVEMENT?

And Love Holy Trinity Mission?, another doctrinally Orthodox Catholic group **

International Cultic Studies Conference in Philadelphia, end June, 2008

Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

The FLDS temple at the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado, Texas

Formation 1930
Purpose/focus Church
Headquarters Hildale, Utah
Membership 10,000


JUST got back from the Conference on Cults here

Catholics think they are free of these because of Catholic groups' doctrinal orthodoxy; they forget a cult is a cult because of its METHODS: how it RECRUITS, RETAINS AND RELEASES -OR NOT!- MEMBERS; it is characterized by CHARISMATIC LEADER weilding limitless power over the members and absorbing more and more of their energies, devotion, love and life.

What the Bishop of Baltimore really wanted to say to the Legion of Christ & John Allen needles them

You must leave now, take what you need, you think will last.
But whatever you wish to keep, you better grab it fast.
Yonder stands your orphan with his gun,
Crying like a fire in the sun.
Look out the saints are comin' through
And it's all over now, Baby Blue.

The highway is for gamblers, better use your sense.
Take what you have gathered from coincidence.
The empty-handed painter from your streets
Is drawing crazy patterns on your sheets.
This sky, too, is folding under you
And it's all over now, Baby Blue.

All your seasick sailors, they are rowing home.
All your reindeer armies, are all going home.
The lover who just walked out your door
Has taken all his blankets from the floor.
The carpet, too, is moving under you
And it's all over now, Baby Blue.

Leave your stepping stones behind, something calls for you.
Forget the dead you've left, they will not follow you.
The vagabond who's rapping at your door
Is standing in the clothes that you once wore.
Strike another match, go start anew
And it's all over now, Baby Blue.

Allen rubs it in ***

"Three Things to Understand about the Legion of Christ"