A reader comment on California Catholic Daily:
Posted Thursday, January 22, 2009 5:35 PM By Penny In 2006, in The Tidings, Rev. Richard P. McBrien said, "The Legion is said to have a dozen universities, including one in Rome and its newest in the United States, the University of Sacramento. In every instance, the Legion has secured the permission of the local bishop, but its relations with other bishops have been rocky, to say the least. The Legionaries were expelled from the diocese of Columbus, Ohio, in 2002 for allegedly disruptive activities in a parish school, and later from the archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis for operating what Archbishop Harry Flynn has called a "parallel church"... What makes the Vatican's action against Father Maciel so devastating for the Legion is that he was not simply its founder. According to the full-length exposé by reporters Jason Berry and Gerald Renner, 'Vows of Silence' (Free Press, 2004), Legionaries take vows never to speak ill of Father Maciel or their other superiors, and to report any member who does. As Father James Martin, associate editor of the Jesuit weekly, America, has pointed out, 'The distinctive [spirit] of the order comes from the founder. His life is studied, his words are quoted, his picture and statues are everywhere' (May 19, 2006)... Father Neuhaus has refused to change his opinion. 'It wouldn't be the first time that an innocent and indeed holy person was unfairly treated by church authority' (New York Times, May 20)." Sounds scary. Today, on the University of Sacramento's website, I didn't see Fr. Maciel mentioned even once. Have they changed?
1 comment:
Unfortunately, given the Legion's extensive, even obsessive focus on appearances, one must ask if they have actually changed, as opposed to creating the illusion of change.
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