LEAVING THE LEGION: THE HORNS OF THE DILEMMA - #14 "How to get a Loved one Out of the Legion & Regnum

In "Parsing Fr. Berg", @ Life After RC, Giselle has some very strong comments on his Adieu to Regnum Christi members, to the Legion, and to Catholics interested in the Legion and Regnum

LINK

As a Former Legionary Priest, now laicized, I can empathize with Fr. Berg and even admire him while at the same time agreeing with Giselle's trenchant reasoning regarding how Father is still under the spell of Legion sirens.

Harkening back to my own departure from the Legion I admire Fr Berg's presence of mind and his attempt to think through his leaving and to do it the best possible way. This is an admirable effort on his part. For some reason he has been able to preserve some sense of self as a separate entity from the Legion, the superiors, and the "mystique". He has some separate moral conscience. With his limited autonomy and self individuation he has been able to extricate himself from the Legion thicket.

The departing Legionary and Regnum Christ member faces a terrible dilemma: to leave or to stay BUT in reality

S/HE MUST LEAVE, OR AT LEAST STEP OUTSIDE, the institition in order to

- gain the objectivity that will help him/her see more clearly WHY s/he left; to

- understand the HOLD the institution still has on him/her; and to

- be able to see that same institution in a more OBJECTIVE light.
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Fr. Thomas Berg, former LC priest, Leaves--- #13 in the series "How to Get a Loved One out of the Legion of Christ"

LINK

New York City, N.Y., May 7, 2009 / 06:06 am (CNA).- Fr. Thomas Berg, Executive Director of the New York-based Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person, announced today that he will be leaving the Legion of Christ to join the Archdiocese of New York and will continue his ministry as the head of the institute.

Fr. Berg released a brief statement explaining his decision and his motivations for the change:

“After nearly 23 years of life as a Legionary of Christ, I have discerned that it is time for me to continue following Christ in the diocesan priesthood. Although the recent revelations about the Legion’s founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel, were profoundly disturbing, my decision has actually been in the making for nearly three years.

Like so many, I have personally experienced again and again the vast amount of good which God has accomplished through Legionary priests and the congregation’s works of apostolate over the past six decades of its existence. I leave with a heart grateful to Christ who I know accepted and blessed the oblation of my years of religious consecration in the Legion.

In my opinion, the serious issues within the congregation will require its thorough reformation if not a complete re-foundation. I am hopeful that the upcoming Apostolic Visitation of the Legion will be a first step toward a new beginning for the Legionaries and members of Regnum Christi. I trust that God in his providence will lead them to holiness and enable them to do great things for Christ and his Church. For my part, I remain their friend and brother in the Lord.

My work as executive director of the Westchester Institute will continue under the direction of a new Board and no longer under the Legion’s sponsorship. By this means and through a very active ministry in the Archdiocese of New York, under our new Archbishop Timothy Dolan, I look forward to continuing to live my total consecration to Christ in his priesthood.

My hope is that this brief statement would preclude unnecessary and unwarranted speculation about the reasons for my decision. Having released it to the press, I do not plan to make any further comment on the matter at this time.”

As Shrewd as Serpents ---# 12 "How to get a Loved one Out of the Legion of Christ

Too many Catholics have been sheep in the midst of Legion/Regnum wolves.

A propos visitor's comment:

I believe it is not necessarily guile that helped release us from the RC grip but a certain shrewdness. We were beguiled because we were naive and the RC/LC program promotes naivete as a virtue.

Blogger supports with the words of Jesus, the Founder of Christianity, Our Savior:

International Standard Version (©2008)
"See, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. So be as cunning as serpents and as innocent as doves.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
"I'm sending you out like sheep among wolves. So be as cunning as snakes but as innocent as doves.

King James Bible
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

American King James Version
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the middle of wolves: be you therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

American Standard Version
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

Bible in Basic English
See, I send you out as sheep among wolves. Be then as wise as snakes, and as gentle as doves.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and simple as doves.

Darby Bible Translation
Behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves; be therefore prudent as the serpents, and guileless as the doves.

English Revised Version
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

Webster's Bible Translation
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

Weymouth New Testament
"Remember it is I who am sending you out, as sheep into the midst of wolves; prove yourselves as sagacious as serpents, and as innocent as doves.

World English Bible
"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

Young's Literal Translation
'Lo, I do send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves, be ye therefore wise as the serpents, and simple as the doves

Coping with Cult Involvement #11 in the series How to get a Loved one Out of the Legion/Regnum of Christ

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People are BEGUILED into joining the Legion of Christ and the Regnum Christi.
And, for the most part, only by guile can they get themselves out and only by guile can parents, relatives and friends help them.

A certain amount of people leave CULTS because they are kicked out, "throw aways", or because they leave one way or another, "walk aways". You are worried about the vast majority that stays.

To be successful as you struggle with a loved one who has drunk the Koolaid, and at the same time not totally lose your Peace of Soul, you must use GUILE

By this I mean that besides prayer, sacrifice, and almsgiving, kicking up a ruckus and giving the superiors hell, this demon will only be cast out by using our God- given intelligence and by hard work. Some parents and loved ones resort to Exit Counseling, but this, too, has its limitation. You realize that the Legion/Regnum is one of the most astute Hight Demand groups around. It is shrouded in a cloud of Catholic Orthodoxy and Conservativism and it is astute and subtle.

Livia Bardin's Handbook is about the hard work involved when your loved one is in a cult like the Legion/Regnum and you are at your wit's end.
LINK

Contact your Local Bishop ---#10 in the Series How to get your Loved One out of the LoC

Fellow Catholics and Friends,

Do not dismiss or overlook your local bishop [called "Ordinary" in canon law and in official Church documents, we should not give him "ordinary" treatment but respect him as Vicar of Christ in the diocese]

For too long we have allowed ourselves to be estranged from our local bishop. As members of the Legion and Regnum Christ we were conditioned to give lip service to the bishop and to speak of respect and charity. But inwardly we knew that they were only as important insofar as they did not prevent us from founding the Movement in their dioceses and giving us free rein to recruit and fundraise.
We had our own interpretation of the Second Vatican Council and the New Catholic Catechism casting the bishops always in a dimmer light, as second best to the Vatican, to Rome and to the Pope.

[Please be aware that High Power and High Demand Groups tend to isolate their followers from family, friends, and other sources of authority so that their control can be stronger and more extensive]

But now as the bandages fall from our eyes we realize that the bishops are the guardians of the faith in their dioceses and the guardians of their flock -us. They are now implementing policies to protect children from abuse and to protect all Catholics from deceit and manipulation by High Pressure Groups no matter what their avowed ideology, beliefs or apparent Orthodoxy.

Get in touch with your bishop
through his office secretary
through his personal secretary
through the chancery when you have concerns about abuse of church law
through his ombudsman for Child Protection
through the Vicar General for Priests

Insist respectfully.
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Breaking through to your Loved One---------#9 in the Series

The Legion like other High Control Groups is controled by "Groupthink", see a description on my other blog
LINK

As such your Loved One is impervious to your influence; you might as well be talking to the wall, for the most part.

What can break through "Groupthink"?

1- God appears to them
2- They fall in love
3- They find a Spiritual Director or Confessor who has good discernment and pastoral tact and, of course, is not part of "Groupthink"!, NOT a member of the High Demand and High Control Group
4- They have a nervous breakdown, find good therapists/counselors who are NOT members of the High Demand Group
5- Find themselves Providentially in some place that is spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically safe, where they are free from the influence of the High Demand Group
6- A major scandal rocks them out of complacency, smugness and denial; such as "Macielito's Baby"
7- The Holy Spirit breaks through glass, brick and steel, through avoidance, denial, self-complacency and Groupthink
8- A well planned, clever, and perspicacious Apostolic Visitation that puts away the controlling superiors and enforcers thus creating that safe space we described above where the members will be really free to find themselves and find their way.
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Waiting for Chaput to Free the Captives! #8 How to get a Loved one Out of the Legion of Christ

Mons Charles Chaput heads Vatican Visitation-Intervention-Investigation of the Legion.

Archbishop of Denver
Most Reverend Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
303-715-3129
shepherd@archden.org

Legion bosses continue to sugarcoat the Vatican "Visit" as if it were a romp on the beach. Noway Jose! Chaput knows the Legion and all about the Legion.
He has received several exLegionary priests into his diocese
Why does a bishop accept departing religious into his diocese?
Because he can benefit from their pastoral expertise [Spanish Language and Hispanic Cultural Sensitivity], and because he believes that they are good men who have been mistreated by their mother system, or by "the mother of all systems".

Hopefully the Archbishop will see through all the phoney obedience and false charity that is talked by the Legion and reach the rank and file

Members need to be free in conscience and free from intimidation and manipulation of any kind in discerning their vocation. Let us hope and PRAY that the visitation will create a life-space for members where they can freely pray, discern and decide about their futures.

"I have come to Free the Captives!" as in the Mission Proclamation of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke
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