Three things to understand about the Legionaries of Christ
Print Friendly Version| All Things Catholic by John L. Allen, Jr. | |
| Friday, June 20, 2008 - Vol. 7, No. 40 | |
Last week I published a lengthy, and remarkably candid, interview with Archbishop Edwin O’Brien of Baltimore about a set of directives he’s issued for the Legionaries of Christ and their lay movement, Regnum Christi. Specifically, O’Brien demanded an accounting of all personnel and activities in his archdiocese from both groups, and he barred Legionaries and Regnum Christi members from one-on-one spiritual counseling with anyone under 18.
In our interview, O’Brien had some tough things to say, including his fear that the problems he sees in both groups are so “endemic” as to be essentially beyond correction. O’Brien said he hopes he’s wrong, but revealed that he had walked up to the brink of expelling the Legionaries and Regnum Christi from the archdiocese altogether, only to pull back after three Vatican cardinals asked him to give them another chance.
The full text of that interview can be found here: Baltimore archbishop demands greater accountability from religious order.
In the meantime, the Legionaries have issued a statement on O’Brien’s directives. Here is the full text of the statement, which comes from Communications Director Jim Fair:
“Father Alvaro Corcuera [Superior of the Legion of Christ] met June 6 with Archbishop Edwin O’Brien. They had a fruitful and substantive discussion that laid down the groundwork for the Legion’s continued ministry in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. They were able to clarify issues and came up with concrete points that we will work on. We would hope that all Regnum Christi members will also see this as an occasion to love and serve the Church.“We look forward to supporting the Archbishop’s efforts to spread the Gospel in this great and historic Archdiocese. We pray for Archbishop O’Brien and Fr Alvaro that the Lord may bless them abundantly for the tremendous leadership they give to us. As you can see from the archbishop’s published letter, there have been serious issues regarding the Legion’s work. We are grateful for the opportunity to address these matters.”
Since my interview with O’Brien appeared, I’ve had a high volume of responses, much of it from people who long ago made up their minds about the Legionaries. There were, however, a number of other reactions that weren’t quite so according-to-script. One prominent American Catholic commentator, for example, who has a number of friends in the Legion of Christ, called to say that he hopes the O’Brien interview will “jar loose” what he sees as a taboo within the group concerning discussion of charges of sexual abuse leveled against the late founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado.
For the record, those charges were widely publicized in the 1990s, and the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith opened an investigation in 1998. In 2006, the Vatican released a communiqué stating that on the basis of that inquest, it had decided to invite Maciel “to a reserved life of prayer and penance, renouncing every public ministry.” Many observers took the decision as tantamount to a finding of guilt.
Here’s what O’Brien told me about the response within the Legionaries to the charges against Maciel: “They really have to face it. They need to be able to say, ‘The evidence seems to be that this man engaged in some activities that were less than honorable, and maybe even sinful.’ … Without facing that, I think it casts a pall over any other objectivity, any other integrity, they claim to put forth as their qualifications to deal with lay people and with the Catholic church in general.”
What’s new in O’Brien’s case, as well as the commentator mentioned above, is that the drumbeat is coming not from liberal Catholics hostile to the Legionaries on ideological or theological grounds, or from veteran activists on the sexual abuse issue, but rather from figures who otherwise think of themselves as friends of the Legion.
All this prompts a question that may seem obvious particularly to Americans, in the wake of the sexual abuse crisis: As so many dioceses and orders have been forced to do, why don’t the Legionaries simply take the hit and move on?
For the Legionaries themselves, undoubtedly the largest single reason is also the simplest: many don’t believe the charges are true. They see the Vatican’s action as a tragic mistake, which they pray will be rectified with time. Critics of the Legion, on the other hand, often suggest that structures of secrecy and deceit in the order run so deep as to make an honest accounting of Maciel’s past virtually impossible.
Without entering into that debate, it’s important to observe that the truth or falsehood of the charges is almost certainly not the only variable shaping the Legionary response. There are at least three other factors that cannot help but affect how the Legion, or any group facing a similar crisis, might react. To understand those forces is an important step towards understanding why things happen as they do in the church.
- The centrality of the founder: The Vatican’s communiqué two years ago took pains to distinguish its conclusion about Maciel from any indictment of the Legionaries as a whole: “Independently of the person of the founder,” it said, “the worthy apostolate of the Legionaries of Christ and the Regnum Christi Association is recognized with gratitude.” Many Legionaries and other experts on religious life, however, warn that things aren’t that simple. The identity and spirituality of a religious order is deeply tied to the personality of its founder, and there aren’t many ready examples of orders which have flourished despite compelling evidence of moral corruption on the part of the founder. To acknowledge merit to the charges against Maciel, at least in the eyes of some, would therefore be tantamount to jeopardizing the viability of the communities he founded. It could also, of course, jeopardize the vocations of Legionaries intensely devoted to the figure of Maciel.
- Mixed signals from the Vatican: Prior to the action from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith two years ago, there were clear divisions in the Vatican about how to proceed in the Maciel case, and those divisions have not disappeared. Last March, Cardinal Franc Rodé, prefect of the Congregation for Religious, celebrated Mass for the Legionaries on the anniversary of Maciel’s birth. In his homily, Rodé praised the “genius” of Maciel, saying that he was one of the few figures after the Second Vatican Council who managed to avoid the “traps of secularization.” Rodé urged the Legionaries to “walk in the footsteps of Father Maciel, who loved the Church, who loved the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe: how can we not name her on this occasion! He loved the Pope.” Such language hardly suggests to many Legionaries or Regnum Christi members that some senior figures in the Vatican regard “coming to grips” with the charges against Maciel as an urgent priority.
- Accusations of a cover-up: As painful as it would be for members of the Legionaries or Regnum Christi to accept that Maciel was guilty, doing so might actually prove less problematic in the long run than dealing with the fallout from such an admission. Many observers contend that if the charges against Maciel are true, it strains credibility to believe that no one else in the Legion of Christ knew about what was happening. Inevitably, therefore, to admit Maciel’s guilt would be to invite awkward questions about who was aware of his behavior, and what their role may have been in either facilitating it or covering it up. Such questions would be especially explosive given that some of Maciel’s closest friends and aides, who would be the most obvious targets of those questions, now occupy positions of leadership in the Legion of Christ.
Given the cumulative impact of these factors, it’s likely that the Legionaries would struggle to face the charges against Maciel under any circumstances -- even if their truth were established beyond all doubt. As I noted above, this is an insight with broader applications than just the Legionaries or the Maciel case.
Perhaps as proof of the point, so far the O’Brien interview does not seem to have dislodged the taboo these forces help to sustain. After I received the statement quoted above from Fair, the communications director, I asked if the Legion wished to respond to O’Brien’s statements about the issues surrounding the founder.
His answer: “We don’t have any further comment on the charges about Father Maciel.”
* * *
Last week’s column was devoted to the spring meeting of the U.S. bishops in Orlando. Among other things, I touched upon a behind-the-scenes discussion concerning materials on HIV/AIDS prevention prepared by Catholic Relief Services, the official overseas relief and development agency of the U.S. bishops.
Recently, noted Catholic ethicist Germain Grisez charged that those materials promote the use of condoms. I reported that the Committees on Doctrine and Pro-Life Activities of the bishops’ conference have completed a review of the CRS materials, which will be sent to Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee, chair of the CRS board.
That item brought the following clarification from John Rivera of CRS, which I’m happy to pass along:
“Your report on Dr. Grisez’ critique of CRS’ HIV educational materials was essentially correct. I’d just like to clarify one matter. It was CRS who proactively requested that our documents be reviewed by the Committees on Doctrine and Pro-Life Activities. They did not independently initiate the review. As you accurately reported, we will take any necessary action based on the results of that review.”
* * *
When I file my weekly column with the home office at NCR, I slug them in the following manner: “Allen.ATC.1,” with the number changing each time. That’s how I know that this week’s entry is the 100th column since its name changed from “The Word from Rome” to “All Things Catholic” in 2006, in tandem with my shift from being stationed full-time in Rome to dividing my time between the Eternal City and the United States.
My thanks go to all those readers who have made this milestone possible.
Since this week marks an anniversary of sorts, it’s perhaps a good time to share one bit of news regarding my latest GPS coordinates. For the last two years, my American base has been in New York. In July, however, my wife Shannon and I are moving to Denver, allowing us to be closer to both my family (in western Kansas) and hers (in Arizona).
In journalistic terms, readers of “All Things Catholic” probably won’t notice any difference. I’ll maintain my base in Rome in order to keep an eye on the Vatican, and as always, much of the rest of my reporting will come from travelling the highways and byways of the Catholic world. In practical terms, however, the move to Denver allows us to do something that’s virtually impossible in today’s real estate market in the Big Apple, which is to buy a house.
My e-mail address will remain the same after the move, and this time around there’s no need to revise the name of the column -- so look for the 101st “All Things Catholic” to roll out next week as usual.
| Archives | Signup for Weekly E-mail |
My God, is it possible? The
My God, is it possible? The Legion high schools website has a link to information about the founder.
See
http://www.legionariesofchrist.org/eng/articulos/seccion.phtml?lc=se-240&width=1024&height=768&width=1024&height=768
with numerous sections on Maciel's glorious history. There is NO separating the Legion's spirituality from Maciel's influence, judging by this site. Allen's point about the centrality of the founder is apt.
This is monstrous deception.
On rereading Allen’s
On rereading Allen’s article, I come to the disquieting conclusion that the truth of Maciel’s sexual abuse is not the core issue it should be. Risk management is.
Why is the truth peripheral to anything, I ask? It alone sets us free, even if it is incriminating. These “other factors” that affect how the Legion responds should not hold integrity hostage.
Keeping up appearances, la bella figura, the Legion’s viability, its vocations, any cover-up by the leadership, these are allowed to be “managed” by underwriting falsehood if necessary. Protecting the institution at all cost is a familiar but failed strategy.
Hasn’t anything been learned? Pope Benedict has the power to say, regretfully, all evidence indicates the charges are true. If the Legion wants to continue, Maciel’s abuse must be acknowledged openly, and all involved in any cover-up removed.
I want to meet the survivors, reach out, thank them for their courage, apologize, and build a community based on truth, and Truth alone. The process may be painful, with effective counseling and spiritual direction to assist, but it will be redemptive. The cross cannot be avoided, dismissed, or rejected. God will be with you in a profound way. The Legion cannot survive based on lies, evasions, denials, dissembling, or practiced indirection.
Actually, Oprah Winfrey of all people provides a template for how to respond. When her Leadership Academy in South Africa was involved in abuse, she did not agonize over its reputation, or the fallout from who might have covered up, how her investment might be threatened, how to keep the secrets, or anything other than ACTING forcefully, openly, immediately. Heads rolled, experts were consulted, counseling arranged, and every student given a satellite phone to reach her directly in case of a problem.
No sense of Romanita – “is there a problem?” – or secrecy, or nuanced opaqueness, just forthright, transparent action people can respect, because it recognizes the real as it exists in God.
I expect that the culture of clerical narcissism more likely means a response marked by blind loyalty and obfuscation. But I believe the scriptural warning still pertains that what is done in darkness will inevitably come to light. Put your trust in God, not in princes.
Karen Liebreich’s book
Karen Liebreich’s book Fallen Order chronicles child abuse in the early Piarist order. St. John Calasanctius, the patron of Catholic education, although himself an austere man, tolerated a child abuser, Stefano Cherubini, so as not to lose political support for his order. The abusers took over the order, and the rebellion of good Piarists against the pederastic clique at the top destroyed the Piarists and led to its suppression. It was restored decades later but was a shadow of itself.
If the Legion suffers the same fate and survives, it will be lucky.
The problem with most of the
The problem with most of the Legion leadership, membership and supporters --- much less Allen himself who wrote before he could not make up his mind about the allegations against Maciel --- is that there was no canonical trial to rule up or down one way or the other.
An "invitation" to a life of prayer and penance is hardly dispositive. The church never adjudicated the case, leaving Maciel’s survivors in limbo. Justice foreclosed, much less delayed for decades after being reported initially, is certainly justice denied. And so the fallout.
Ratzinger himself had questioned in 1999 if it was “prudent” to pursue a case against someone who had done so much for the church, that it was a “delicate” matter. His slap on reporter Brian Ross’ wrist indicating that 2002 was not the time to come to him about the matter was apt, since it took four more years for Ratzinger, then pope, to dispense what was essentially a slap on the wrist for Maciel.
That this is seen as a major event in curial circles highlights their disconnect with reality outside the walls. Yes, by all means, acknowledge and welcome Benedict’s (belated) change of course, but the torturous road to action is a sad commentary on clerical insularity.
Vows of Silence by Jason Berry and the late Gerald Renner makes an exhaustive, meticulously-researched case for Maciel's guilt. The DVD is available at www.vowsofsilencefilm.com , in case readers want to see as well as read the evidence for themselves.
It is a gripping account of innocence lost, and the ravages of money and power at the service of evil. The truth will not be silent forever, and if even some Legionaries are waking up to the reality about Maciel, maybe a priest perpetrator’s threat that “No one will believe you” can finally be nullified.
Even Msgr. Charles Scicluna, sent from the Vatican after Benedict's election to interview survivors, apologized to them.
And, just who are the survivors left hanging? They include a Mexico City university professor with a doctorate from Harvard; a faculty member at the US Defense Languages Institute in Monterey, CA; a retired priest in Madrid; a professor of psychology and sociology in Westchester County, New York; and also in Mexico, a lawyer, rancher, former university president, and private school professor.
All wanted to forget what happened and get on with their lives after leaving the Legion. It took many decades of chance encounters for them to find each other, gradually share their abuse histories, and only as Maciel continued gallingly to reap high praise from Pope John Paul II did they finally galvanize and file a canon law case in Rome.
None wanted money; they only wanted justice, racked as they were by horrific memories, and fear for other victims after them. How many might there be? Allen himself reported “more than 20 but less than 100” victims, according to Vatican sources. At what point does clerical deference get challenged effectively? How many victims does it take?
I have the privilege of knowing Juan Vaca, the professor in Westchester, and his wife and daughter. Taken by Maciel at the age of 10 in Mexico and brought to Spain, where at 12 years Maciel began abusing him, Juan was confused and scared. His heart-rending story opens “Vows of Silence.” Maciel’s success for decades in fooling elites and good people everywhere shows how vulnerable children had little chance of escaping his manipulations.
Berry and Renner chronicle how the victims were trained to believe that leaving the Legion meant going to hell; the mantra they learned was “lost vocation, sure damnation.” All were required to take additional vows never to say anything against Maciel or the Legion, and report any who did. (Those vows were just abolished recently by Pope Benedict XVI.)
And contrary to all other religious orders, regulations specifically mandated by canon law, and sound formation principles, your spiritual director in the Legion also was your supervisor.
Boys approaching puberty were given whips for self-flagellation to ward off impure thoughts or acts. All in all, it was an ugly business, made more bizarre by Maciel’s disgusting molestations. Forty years after being abused, Juan’s wife told me of his waking in terror from nightmares, calling Maciel’s name to stop.
Maciel was expelled from two seminaries in Mexico, and ordained only after private study with one of his three bishop uncles. Late in life, he pushed for his mother to be declared a saint, and told supporters not to start his canonization until 30 years after his death (such humility!). But it is the survivors of abuse, not Maciel, who should in some future generation find official sanctity for their courage, wrested from the depths of pain, to tell the truth.
The Vatican’s denial of a verdict is a searing injustice. At one point, the survivors’ canon lawyer made an astounding and uncharacteristic suggestion that it was “better for eight innocent men to suffer than thousands of people losing their faith.” Her clients believe firmly the lawyer was repeating a rationale by a Vatican official.
But absent canonical ruling, judgment is possible, at least in the court of public opinion: Guilty on all counts, by any and every reasonable standard of justice.
John, congratulations on the
John, congratulations on the 100th entry of All Things Catholic. I am looking forward to the next hundred.
As for the Legionnaires of Christ and Regnum Christi, I have met members of both of these groups. Their reaction to the findings on "the founder" are comparable to those of Bernard Law and priestly sex abuse of minors in his arch-diocese. It is pure, unmitigated denial. Legion of Christ priests tend to have 1950's haircuts. Just as they pretend all the hair styles of the last fifty years don't exist, they pretend the Vatican's findings against Fr. Maciel don't exist either.
Steve
Over the past several years
Over the past several years the sexual abuse crisis correctly directed a very large, pointed finger at the hierarchy and the systems which provided the opportunity and the cover over the scandal all the way up from pastors to vatican. The behavior and responses of the abusers, pastors, administrators, bishops on up fully merited the criticism yet hung with despairation to illusive strategies, resistance and demonizing victims. They would have been successful except for the s-e-c-u-l-a-r systems of justice, media and, for the most part, laity. The Legionaires of Christ issue demonstrates a compact, similarly definable issue where sexual abuse, dollars, questionable piety, secrecy, non-accountable clericalism, system and systemic issues converge along with strange but strong links directly to the highest ranks of the vatican. Rather than having learned the lesson, the institution allows this secrecy and subterranian power to continue with but few ripples.
Guilty or innocent, meriting serious scrutiny or not, the Legionaires of Christ issue exemplifies several points:
1. Thank you Jesus for the secularism which the current papacy and church policy world-wide decrys. Is it any wonder that secularism is pointed out as the evil of our time, by the current papacy?
2. The Legionaires of Christ issue constitute(d) a clear opportunity for the church to do the right thing: demonstrate transparancy, accountability and response that lets the world know that it had embarked upon a course correction that might warrant respect.
3. Right or wrong, the Legionaires issue seems to be more power person(s) specific. What I mean is that in the wider scandal all (some more some less but all implicated) bishops, archbishops,cardinals and the papacy itself was tarnished. In this instance the strings seem to be more specific and potentially identifiable. Whether as defenders of the just or wielders of unholy self-interest there is no justification for obscurity and inaction.
4. Traditional religious orders, Jesuit, Franciscan, Benedictine, etc., who engange in public ministries have a significant stake in the resolution or lack thereof, of the what, who and how of the Legionaires.
I often wonder that the
I often wonder that the bishops realize that there were two groups of victims with the sexual abuse crisis. The priests who were falsely accused were just as much the victims as the abused. I would like to suggest that in the future that Cardinal Bernardin would be made a saint as a martyr during the time of the sexual abuse crisis, and those many others can be his companions. After all didn't the Pope just canonize several hundred victims of the Spanish civil War.
When I celebrate the feast of the Martyrs, like Charles Llwanga and companions, I wonder who the companions were. I remember in the seminary meeting a bishop whose great uncle died with Charles Llwanga, and all of a sudden I was able to put a person and a face on "companion".
Maybe one day we can celebrate on Nov. 14th, the date of Cardinal Bernardin's death, The martyr Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, and his companions. Fr. Frank Vitus
The number of falsely
The number of falsely accused priests is really minuscule, so I concerned that this post gives a sense of widespread false allegations. My recollection is of reading through thousands of documents only to find many proclaiming innocence that were later found not so at all. Denial is a classic trait of accused priests, as even bishops found when investigating charges.
Bernardin's painful and tragic experience set back the cause of victims for a decade after the Porter case. It did not nullify the thousands of valid abuse charges that surfaced since 2001. Any false claim is a travesty, but it is far, far from the norm. Disturbed people are usually ferreted out fairly quickly, as with the charge against Mahony by a deranged woman.
In California, for example, for the 850 priests involved in the $660 million settlement last year, false claims were minimal. Tom Doyle, the noted Dominican advocate for survivors, spoke to every lawyer involved in those cases, and found only three false claims that were weeded out by the lawyers themselves at the outset. They were not even included in the total count. Further, the three priests involved were not new or different perpetrators; they had plenty of other claims against them.
More often, we find perpetrators defended or excused by parishioners who are blind to the manipulative natures of their former pastors. Bishop John Kinney, the first chairman of the USCCB committee on sexual abuse wrote, “We learned that even those priests who seem to their congregations, their fellow priests, and their superiors among the most dedicated and pastorally sensitive can be abusers. Their pathology enables them to develop highly effective strategies to conceal their desires and behaviors.”
I do not minimize the trauma of being falsely accused, and even one is way too many. Priests are vulnerable, no doubt about it. There can never be a perfect system, but we can do much to rule out fraud. Still, I find the idea of countless false allegations a terrible overstatement.
John Allen misses the point
John Allen misses the point completely; the real issue is not related to their founder but to the cult itself, it's mission, and it's tactics. It needs to be stopped.
John Chuchman
The controversy over the
The controversy over the Legionnaires of Christ shows the Achilles' heel of the "movements" that populate Catholicism. Archbishop O'Brien is right to call them to account. Catholics, while supporting new movements and organizations that focus on evangelization, etc., should also be quite critical in their demand for adherence to the Church and to orthodoxy. Just because some group says they're inspired by the "Spirit" doesn't mean that they are. There probably aren't enough hours in the day for bishops to supervise and oversee some of these groups, but simply affirming that you're "orthodox" shouldn't be enough.
When you say "orthodoxy",
When you say "orthodoxy", what do you mean?
Are you implying that we should all line up like good little soldiers
do what we are told, dont ask questions, and accept whatever the
papacy dishes out to us because the pope is infallable? Follow all
of the doctrines and catechisms no matter how ridiculous they may
be because the church says to and the church is infallible? Pretend
that we dont notice we are being lied to because the papacy is
infallible and we are supposed to do what we are told, not question
the papal authority no matter how criminal their behavior?
Is that is what you mean by "orthodoxy"?
Just because some group says
Just because some group says they're inspired by the "Spirit" doesn't mean that they are.
I agree with you totally. Especially if you include the magisterium in that group.
Carolyn, Your insights and
Carolyn,
Your insights and commentary are right on target. I took the time awhile back to read extensively the allegations of the 8 men objectively and with and open mind...I honestly did not have any opinion going into the matter--I was only seeking the truth, because at that time I had a friend who was heavily involved in the Legion and I wanted to know more about it.
What I read concerning the details of the child sex abuse by Fr. Marcial absolutely sicked and floored me. Of the many stories, each more disgusting and sickening than the other, one of the most deplorable stories was revealed by one of the men--how at the age of 12 he revealed that Fr. Marciel sexually abused him many times, but in particular he remembers how Father Marcial sexually abused him one Easter morning, right before Mass, and how he then proceeded to vest himself and hurried over to the Church and presided over the Easter Sunday Mass, to the delight of the vast crowd of faithful, who saw him as a living saint, while the boy watched the Mass with feelings of overwhelming confusion, shame and disgust.
-Know Legionaires, that your founder over the course of at least a decade sexually abused at least a dozen (some say dozens) of young boys, robbing them of their purity and innocence, and what's worse he remained unrepentant and denied it to the very end.