Separating Legion from the founder, Fr. Maciel

LINK



Neo Conservative [?] George Weigel weighs in on how to save the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi Movement.

"Our Father", who art in bed

LINK

to Amazon.com to buy

"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.

My Review of "OUR FATHER" MACIEL, WHO ART IN BED

Originally submitted at Chaos.com

"OUR FATHER" MACIEL, WHO ART IN BED

Putting his life on the line

By irishmexican from San Miguel, Mexico on 1/27/2009

 

5out of 5

Pros: Deserves Multiple Readings, Well Written, Lyrical life, Informative

Best Uses: Vocation, Gift, Younger Readers, Reference, Ireland, Catholic priest abuse, Mexico

Describe Yourself: Everyday Reader

First English-language memoir by an ex member of this secretive Catholic Religious Order; since its conception it has been shrouded in mystery and the founder, Mexican priest Fr. Maciel, surrounded by accusation of sexually abusing his seminarians. As he finished his memoir the author was sued by the Legion for his work in exposing them on www.regainnetwork.org; book also contains first hand experience of growing up in Dublin in the 50s and being recruited at an early age for these high-powered Catholic Marines and assimilating Mexican and Hispanic culture, life as a missionary in Mexico, city and province; surviving depression and a nervous breakdown "with a little help from my friends"

(legalese)

Fr. Maciel makes Newsweek!

FALLS FROM GRACE

Link

Fr. Maciel, Founder of the Legion of Christ and Legion Christi Movement is number 10

New Oxford Review of "Our Father" Maciel

Link

3rd review from top

Our Father, Who Art in Bed: A Naïve and Sentimental Dubliner in the Legion of Christ. By J. Paul Lennon. Book Surge Publishing. 379 pages. $15.

Irishman J. Paul Lennon, author of this autobiographical work, was a priest of the now much-embattled Legion of Christ for 23 years. Having left it behind in 1984, he went on to found the ReGAIN Network (www.regainnetwork.org), which provides documentation about the Legion and Regnum Christi, its lay branch.

The Mexican founder of the Legion, Fr. Marcial Maciel (1920-2008), was "invited" to retire to a life of prayer and penance by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006 after years of being investigated for sexual abuse. Until that time, Fr. Maciel was convinced that he would one day be canonized.

Through the aid of James Cardinal Hickey, former Archbishop of Washington, D.C., Lennon was able to function as a diocesan priest until 1989 when, a broken man, he left the priesthood to seek recovery from the wounds of his Legionary experience. He credits Cardinal Hickey with showing him kindness and understanding, in contrast to Fr. Maciel, who was known within the order as Nuestro Padre ("Our Father").

To those who were alienated from Fr. Maciel, the secretive and hypochondriac founder was known as El Puma. Lennon's book is one of the few sources in English (others are written in Spanish) that reveal the predatory nature of the highly regarded Maciel. Lennon, who entered the Legion at the age of seventeen, writes that he knew nothing of Maciel's sexual activity with young men until years after he left the order.

The title of Lennon's work refers both to the hypochondriacal and sexual proclivities of Fr. Maciel. Such a title may inhibit some readers from opening the book. Some readers may turn instead to the Legion's own uncritical and adulatory self-history, The Legion of Christ: A History by Angeles Conde and David J.P. Murray (2008), which, Lennon says, is far from a truthful account. Lennon is far less graphic than the DVD documentary produced by Jason Berry (co-author of Vows of Silence, a 2004 exposé on Maciel and the Legion), which premiered in April 2008 at the Fifth New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival.

In contrast to Berry, Lennon writes dispassionately of his subject. He has found solace in therapy to deal with the trauma suffered by the stifling Legionary life. He claims that one chief scar inflicted by this distorted "religious life" is an infan­tilizing of the personality. An unhealthy view of human sexuality is inculcated by Legionary training, which can only be described as prudishness, or what Lennon calls "angelism." How far this is from Pope John Paul II's theology of the body!

In violation of universal Catholic tradition for seminaries and religious communities, the Legion breaks the boundary between the internal forum and the external forum: A confessor or spiritual director may also be an administrator or religious superior to the same members. This is unimaginable in a normal seminary or religious order, but for the Legion it is common practice. The Founder even heard the confessions of his own subjects!

Paul Lennon was put in charge of a Legionary institution in Mexico soon after ordination to the priesthood. He makes the point that a Legionary school is a base for recruitment to the Legion's novitiate or Regnum Christi. Schools are "fronts" for recruitment, not centers of study or the intellectual life. In fact, all Legionary apostolates exist for recruiting and fundraising, no matter their alleged purpose. This agenda leads to the creation of numerous "front" apostolates. Instead of thinking "with" the Church, the Legion wishes to think "for" the Church, especially in its attempt to dominate Catholic publishing and media.

The Church approved the constitutions of the Legion and Regnum Christi. Will history judge the Church harshly? Paul Lennon is by no means the only victim of this organization. He mentions other names in this book, Mexicans and Irishmen, including his friend Peter Cronin. Fr. Cronin, who initialized the concept of the ReGAIN website, was sued by the Legion's lawyers. These tragedies should have been avoided. Innocent lives were "tossed away" by Fr. Maciel's heartlessness. Lennon describes himself as a survivor, but others have not fared as well.

In recent years, several American dioceses have restricted or banned the Legion and Regnum Christi, including the Archdiocese of Minneapolis-St. Paul. More recently, the Archdiocese of Baltimore has moved against the Legion. But in an interview on June 11, 2008, Baltimore Archbishop Edward O'Brien said ominously, "I got a call 20 minutes before my meeting with [Legionary] Fr. Raymond [Cosgrave] two months ago. Then I got a letter from another cardinal, and a phone call from a third cardinal the day before I met with Fr. Alvaro." Fr. Alvaro Corcuera is the Superior General of the Legion. In other words, three curial cardinals in Rome protected the Legion from an American archbishop who was doing his duty and safeguarding his people, especially the youth.

While it is possible to oppose the Legion for the wrong reasons, the truth is served by administrative decisions such as that of Archbishop O'Brien. Paul Lennon would argue that such efforts are only a beginning.


- Brian Van Hove, S.J.

Clergy Abuse Documentary in DC, Sunday 9 at AU

Friends,

A SNAP member's video has moved to the third round of the Pulitzer Utube contest and will be shown in Washington, DC

Video Contest


Project: Report Awards Ceremony & Screening

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Putting media in the hands of the people

An evening of films from Project: Report - Telling the Untold Stories
YouTube's first-ever reporting contest for aspiring journalists!

7 p.m.- 9 p.m. (doors open at 6:30 p.m.)
Reception to follow

American University's Harold and Sylvia Greenberg Theatre
4200 Wisconsin Avenue NW
Washington, DC
(nearest Metro Red Line/Tenleytown)

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
RSVP appreciated: rsvp@pulitzercenter.org