Future Archbishop Joseph Tobin, New Vatican Appointee on the Legion of Christ/Maciel

Please note that Our Father... and Our Father Maciel.. have identical content; only the title was changed to avoid offending some potential readers

excerpts of Q/A with John Allen NCR

Another high-profile project in which the congregation has been involved is the visitation of the Legionaries, which led to the appointment of an apostolic visitor. Do you expect to play a role in that?


The visitor has a pretty complete set of faculties to deal with the situation, but I imagine that at some point he’ll make recommendations to the congregation. I’m sure the dicastery will want to stay informed.

As you know, a house of cards has been constructed in the media and elsewhere to portray Benedict XVI as somehow uncaring or soft on clerical sexual misconduct, but it has to answer the point that one of the first things he did as pope was to deal with Maciel. That action spoke volumes, because I had been in Rome and I saw the incredible clout Maciel had. The fact that Benedict did it, and did it quickly, was a clear signal that the pope is serious about correcting this thing.

Theologically and spiritually, I think the Legionaries face enormous challenges, given how much religious life tends to stress the person and the inspiration of the founder.

Are you aware of any precedent for these kinds of revelations about a founder?

No, I know of no other experience like this. Theologically and even affectively, it’s a massive blow, given the regard that people in religious communities have for their founder. In the Redemptorists, we often talk about St. Alphonsus Liguori as "Our Holy Father," and I know the Dominicans talk the same way about Dominic, or the Brothers of the Christian Schools the same way about Jean-Baptiste de La Salle. I honestly don’t know what you do about it. I know there’s support for the Legionaries in Rome, so it will be interesting to see how this is done. I certainly don’t feel any schadenfreude about what’s happening ... I know it’s terribly painful.

Get my loved one out of the Legion/Regnum: THE WHY

Get my loved one out of the Legion/Regnum: THE WHY

Dear Reader,

Relatives and Friends of young people in the Controversial Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi Movement are desperately trying to get their loved ones out.

The present urge stems from hearing about Fr. Maciel's secretly fathering a young woman who is now in her 20s and living in Spain, as well as furtively using large amounts of cash for his "personal expenses". Catholic blogs have been screaming for more information and appropriate measures from Legion leadership. The news, leaked from the inside by Movement Leaders, is the last straw for Parents who were growing increasingly dissatisfied with the Movement's excessive control of their children. Many observers have seen a connection between the Founder's breach of celibacy and previous credible accusations of pedophilia leveled at this figure, venerated and "idolized" by the members.

Relatives, friends, and members wonder how far the Founder's secretive "double-life" reached and how it may have affected the Movement's "Charism", that is, its specific spiritual gift to the members, the Church and the World. Under the gun, Legion leaders are coming up short. They seems to be at a loss to explain what the Movement's specific charism is in the first place.

Despite the Movement's intensive campaign of minimization and information control, the Media, Catholics and concerned public will not let Legion leadership off the hook. "Questions and Answers" posted here on Feb 24 appear to me the mechanism the Leadership has been using to control the damage inside the ranks. These measures are meant to minimize Maciel's behavior, protect his image as founder, placate members and outsiders, and explain away his unacceptable behaviors. Members are told to "Apologize, apologize, apologize" in order to placate those who are rightly indignant and in disagreement with the leaders's reading of the events. The Movement attempts to re-write recent history just as it re wrote the Founder's previous separation from the order by the Vatican 1956-59. At the time it was called "The War" [Sp., La Guerra, meaning a war waged against the founder and the legion by forces out to destroy them]; later it was rebaptized as "The Great Blessing"...

Of particular importance in the present debate is the very strong statement -see LINK- by the Archbishop of Baltimore expressing his reservations about the Legion/Regnum Movement and the withdrawl of his pastoral support, saying that he "cannot in good conscience" recommend the order or the Movement.

"Our Father", who art in bed

LINK

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"Our Father" Maciel had women in bed

Father Maciel fathered two children according to rumors circulating widely in the Catholic underground:

According to Life after RC blog Link

Clamouring for details

Folks, I am writing with as much charity and integrity as I can as another bizarre chapter unfolds in the Land of the Legion. Rumblings began last week about how the Legionaries were gathered in bits and bobs to inform them that the founder was indeed guilty of "certain accusations." The rank and file were told in various places -- some on retreat, others in special meetings. There are some consistent details about the Official Explanation that are trickling in:

Maciel fathered a child who is now in her early 20's;

Maciel offered some money illicitly to his own family;

The current head, Alvaro Corcuera, entertaining his own suspicions, demanded that the case be reopened several years ago;

The health of the Legion depends on denouncing him as founder and moving on.



So what to make of this? What do we already know?

Maciel had numerous accusations against him for paedophilia, beginning with his earliest recruits (none of whome were ever ordained);

Early companions of Maciel recount several affairs with women with details reaching back to the 1950's;

Maciel has been accused of extensive drug problems;

The Methodology was evidently an effective tool for isolating and neutralising all criticism;

The rank and file were recruited for their connexions, money, and sincere zeal for souls.

Whatever their select recruits brought with them to the Movement would redound to the success of the Methodology.


Holy boldness seemed to be a clever mask for very unholy activity and it has confused wide swaths within the Church. The complete innocence of the rank-and-file has led many to dismiss troubling claims, and to this day folks think that their sincere efforts to "build the Kingdom" should cause the sad details of years past to be effectively swept under the rug.

If these new revelations are to be believed (and we still await a Legion announcement) then we must conclude that the upper echelon is comprised of pathological liars. Why would they say something so obviously untrue about the investigation?

It was Cardinal Ratzinger himself who reopened the investigation while he was head of the CDF. We await a clarification about the Legion putting forth this stunning claim in the impending announcement -- but realise also a feeble attempt to do two things simultaneously:

1. to minimise the defects of the founder to something more palatable. (I think the nicely-heeled ladies in any suburban bridge club wouldn't mind discussing a little indiscretion of the sort admitted, and even admit to dropping a few cheques in the mail for the sake of the cherubic young seminarian who asked.)

2. to then take that sordid little tale and send it off into the wilderness as a convenient scapegoat.

The first problem is that the founder's persona has been central to all seminarians and priests since the inception of the Legion. One cannot underestimate the damage to those who were inspired by the heroic sagas -- whether true or not. Can you just snip him out of the family photo and carry one?

The second problem is that the Legion's continuing efforts at damage control indicate that they are complicit in constructing a set of smoke and mirrors that cannot be sustained. Their obfuscation and manic control of the members' minds over this manner is beyond unhealthy. It has all the markings of a cult.