«ME QUEDO CON ELLAS»
"I WILL STAY WITH THESE WOMEN"
En el hospital de Miami estuvo tres días ingresado. Al segundo día, se presentaron las Normas en su habitación y permanecieron a su cabecera, cuidándolo, con el beneplácito de Maciel y para escándalo de los legionarios.
He was in the Miami hospital for three days. On the second day, the Normas appeared in his room and stayed by his bed, taking care of him, much to Maciel's pleasure and creating scandal for the Legionaries.
-Padre, tiene que venir con nosotros- le dijeron éstos cuando le dieron el alta.
-Father, you have to come with us- they told him when he was to be discharged.
Pero, para entonces, Maciel estaba más cerca de ser Raúl Rivas que el fundador de una congregación religiosa y, señalando a las dos mujeres, respondió tajante: «Quiero quedarme con ellas».
But, by then, Maciel was much closer to being Raul Rivas than the founder of a religious congregation and he indicated the two women, responding firmly: "I want to stay with them".
Los sacerdotes legionarios, alarmados por la actitud de Maciel, llamaron inmediatamente a Roma. El entonces número tres de la institución, Luis Garza, supo al instante que les rondaba un grave problema. Lo consultó con el máximo responsable, Álvaro Corcuera, subió al primer avión con destino a Miami y fue directo al hospital.
The Legionary priests, alarmed by Maciel's attitude, immediately called Rome. The then number three person of the institution, Luis Garza, knew right away that this was a grave problem. He consulted with the highest authority, Alvaro Corcuera, hopped on the first plane to Miami and when directly to the hospital.
La indignación podía leerse en su rostro. Allí se presentó ante el otrora todopoderoso fundador y le conminó: «Le doy dos horas para venirse con nosotros o llamo a todos los medios para que todo el mundo se entere de quién es usted de verdad». Y Maciel dio su brazo a torcer.
His indignation could be read on his face. He faced the once all-powerful founder and threatened him: "I will give you two hours to come with us or I will call all the press and the whole world will find out who you really are". And Maciel let his arm be twisted.
Su estado físico se había deteriorado mucho desde 2005. «No caminaba bien. Tenía afecciones propias de la edad avanzada. En los últimos meses le fueron fallando varios órganos vitales. Imagino que un informe médico diría que murió de parada cardiorrespiratoria. Tenía 87 años: era un ancianito», detalla a Crónica un portavoz de la Legión de Cristo.
His physical stature had been deteriorating a lot since 2005. "He did not walk well. He had the illnesses of old age. In the last months, he experienced various organ failures. I imagine that a medical report could say that he died of cardio respiratory failure. He was 87 years old: he was an old man", a Legion of Christ spokesman told the Cronica.
Pero a los pocos elegidos que lo acompañaron al final de su vida les costaba verlo como un ancianito. Para ellos, las últimas horas del fundador fueron un verdadero calvario. Marcial Maciel se negaba a confesar sus pecados. No deseaba o no creía en el perdón de Dios. Quizá llevaba demasiados años acostumbrado a engañar al representante divino en el confesionario. Cómo declarar de golpe que fue pederasta, mantuvo relaciones con mujeres y hombres, tuvo al menos seis hijos de los que nunca se encargó como un verdadero padre, abusó de las drogas, deseó y obtuvo grandes cantidades de dinero, plagió la guía espiritual de su congregación, mintió e hizo daño a centenares de personas sin alterarse en lo más mínimo, y Dios sabe qué más. Eso, Dios lo sabe. Entonces, ¿para qué confesarse? «¡Qué no!», espetaba a Álvaro Corcuera, empeñado en ungir al moribundo con los óleos sagrados.
But the few elect who were with him at the end of his life had a hard time seeing him as an old man. For them, the last hours of the founder were a real calvary. Marcial Maciel refused to confess his sins. He did not want to and did not believe in God's pardon. Maybe he had spent too many years accostomed to fooling the divine representative in the confessional. How to suddenly declare him a pederast, he has relations with both men and women, he had at least six children who he never took care of like a real father, the abused drugs, he coveted and obtained great quantities of money, he plagerized the spiritual guidelines of his congregation, he lied and damaged hundreds of people without it bothering him in the least way, and God knows what more. This, God does know. So, why confess his sins? "I said no!" he blurted out to Alvaro Corcuera, who was trying to anoint the dying man with holy oils.
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13 comments:
I have been present at quite a few deaths (work in the healthcare profession), but I have to say I have never been present at a death that was so obviously unholy. I wonder what it feels like to be one of the "elect" present when a man guilty of such cruelty and blasphemy all his life rejects God to the very end.
I hope to God I am never present at such a thing, for I would hate to be in the presence of that kind of evil and despair.
Thank you so much for the translation. I had plugged this into an online translator to get the gist of it, but those translators leave much to be desired!
I laughed at the thought of Garza threatening to call the press. Truly, Maciel must have been losing his edge, otherwise I am sure he would have thrown that empty threat right back in Garza's face.
Isn't final impenitence considered to be blasphemy against the Holy Spirit - that's the unforgivable sin. We don't know if MM was truly non-penitent till the final moment before death but the evidence does seem to point in that direction. It's a horrible thing to conclude someone is very, very likely to be in hell, but that conclusion is consistent with the evidence.
It seems the Legion was more concerned with image than with souls in the final years of their founder's life. In the two years that he had apparently lost his faith and was repulsed by religion, wouldn't this have been a good time to rally the LCs and RCs to storm the heavens and pray for him? Nope, they reeled off lie after lie about MM accepting his fate like Jesus persecuted, they continued to promote him as a living saint, etc. Even though they had lavished a cultish adoration on MM, in the end, they actually showed no real love for his soul at all. Their biggest concern was for the survival of the Legion, the movement, the image, the reputation. It was more important to keep the myth of the holy founder alive than to help MM to actually BE holy.
They have so much to answer for.
You are so right - where is true love? If we all really loved Maciel - we would have publicly denounced his double life and begged him to repent before death and loved him thru that. Who cares about an institution when so many souls - including Maciel's - have been ripped to shreds?
This is so very sad.
I do not know if this account is factual or not. But if it is, it accounts for a lot. Malachi Martin, in his book, "Hostage to the Devil", distinguishes "perfect possession" from "imperfect possession". In the perfect possession, the possessed is so subservient to the possessing spirit that he can commit sacrileges with perfect ease, nonchalance, and spontaneity. A priest perfectly possessed can celebrate mass and even put on an good appearance without blinking an eye. But a priest who is not perfectly possessed cannot. Martin in fact presents a case of an imperfectly possessed priest in his book, and this priest could not get through the mass without contortions and violent gestures and utterances. But Maciel celebrated perfectly "devout" masses...
Of course, Malachi Martin may not be the most credible source. However, I've read something similar and related in St John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church in Mystical Theology. He says that both a person who is perfectly possessed by the Spirit of God and the person who is perfectly possessed instead by the Devil do not suffer "ecstasies" or violent contortions, because their spirits have become one thing with these spirits. (I read this long ago, but I am quite certain that I express correctly the thought of the Saint.) Now, if these reports are true, then Maciel did indeed suffer from "multiple personalities", except that they were the work and mask of demonic spirits. This I have suspected, and this then would be confirmation (if the accounts reported are factual).
The demonic possession accounts for the strangeness of the whole case. The truth is that Maciel is not very intelligent, and I have wondered how he could have engineered so perfectly a sect as this, how he could have deceived so many for so long, how could he have recruited to his cause so many people, who I think were good at least initially. The answer to these questions is that Maciel had at his beckoning the father of lies himself, with his restless, evil intelligence. Now it all starts to make sense.
I think I have pointed to this theory months back, but is seemed too outlandish to pursue. Now, it is less outlandish and may turn out to be the only way to explain the demonic case study "Maciel".
ER
I do know that demonic possession strictly speaking refers to a corporeal possession of the body, not the person. It is not imputable to the subject; he looses no merit, but can actually gain it.(Review the background of the "Exorcism of Emily Rose."- nb. the real account, not the butchered version in the movie.) Demonic influence similarly is corporeal not a moral influence.
The moral influence of the Devil only comes through consent of the subject. The preternatural co-acting upon the spiritual faculties of any individual have to occur through human freedom and willfulness. This type of 'possession' is figurative in its expression, since the person is fundamentally free to accept or reject evil influence with due exception to effects of any perverse habits in the will.
The final element to be considered is dementia and other organic factors in mental illness which in itself can simulate the demonic in the aging. In one case, I recall a woman of 90 who began cursing and swearing in the most vile of terms, when through all her life she was the most sweet spoken lady who ever lived.
IMO, At the most one could speak of here is a demonic influence on the corporeal side; yet the perversity of will and how it was influenced morally by evil would be very hard to note once one tied it into a real dementia most say was present in this moment of his life. Once again, while it is all very disturbing, one may really never know the cause of all this.
I could definitely see the Legion grasping onto "possession" of Maciel as a way of absolving themselves for their inability to see the evil.
I don't believe you have to be "possessed"--at least in the way we typically think of possession--to be evil or to be a conduit for evil. There have been many evil people in this world who have cruelly abused and defrauded those under their rule, but we don't refer to all of them as "possessed".
I am one of those who argued vigorously with you about the multiple personality defense, ER. Now it looks like you are grasping onto demonic possession as a way to bolster your beliefs about MM's multiple personalities.
He may or may not have been "possessed", and this we will never know. But I will not stand by and let Legion supporters (I have no idea if you fall into the category of "Legion supporter"--I simply can see Legion supporters using this kind of thinking) use this as a way of excusing or absolving anybody involved.
I don't believe Maciel ever believed in God, so it is not at all surprising to me that at the end of his life he wouldn't even bother pretending anymore. The elderly often get to a point where they really don't care what anybody thinks anymore---what does it matter?? This is probably what happened to Maciel---once he was put out to pasture, there was no compelling reason for him to even act like he cared about a God. He was living in luxury, surrounded by sycophants who apparently cared so little for his soul that they would continue to cover up for this monster. Why would he act any OTHER way than to toss the religion that was once so useful to him right out the door. He was probably cackling with glee that he no longer had to pretend. He could have his Normas, his adorers, and his life of luxury, knowing full well nobody was going to blow his cover because the powers-that-be were up to their eyeballs in corruption themselves.
Yes, Maciel was evil. He chose evil. He probably chose evil from as early as his teen years. We will never know the reasons why, and therefore cannot judge his culpability or the final state of his soul (I happily leave that to God), but to start throwing the word "possession" around as an explanation for his misdeeds, smells a bit too much like Legion spin at work.
If he indeed was "possessed", it was because he chose to be. And those around him chose to cooperate.
LCs probably desperately wanted to believe that Maciel was suffering from dementia because it would be too painful to realize that the way he was behaving was simply the true Maciel who no longer gave a crap what anybody thought.
He may or may not have suffered from dementia. I do know that we heard from local Legion priests that Alvaro had declared Maciel was sharp as a tack up till his moment of death. Which means nothing, of course, as nothing from the mouth of Alvaro has any connection to reality or truth.
I can totally see the LCs using dementia to explain and excuse the true Maciel who started to come out once he was retired and no longer had any reason to pretend.
When I am old, I plan on not pretending in any way, shape, or form, and will say whatever I think (I hope I can retain some tact). Why not? What do you have to lose? (I will be a feisty old lady, watch out!)
The sad truth is more likely that Maciel probably WAS pretty sharp to the end. He just didn't give a flying hoot what anybody thought anymore. He had nothing to lose and knew his reputation would be protected by Alvaro and Co, because their skins depended on it.
There are some cases of demonic possession that are culpable in the person possessed. Examples: someone who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for power and success in this life; a satanist who worships the devil; persons intentionally engaging in witchcraft and "astral projection".
Then there are some cases that are without personal sin. Examples: someone who falls under a curse; children who without knowing what they are doing "play" at the ouija board or cast spells from a dungeons and dragons "fantasy" game book, etc..
In which of thes categories would a perfectly demonically possessed Maciel belong? I have no idea. I do not inculpate or excuse. I do not know. He could easily have come under demonic possession without his fault. On the other hand, for power and success, he may have done what many servants of the devil have done before...
My observations above are purely objective and do not intend to accuse or excuse anyone. They only look to explain real difficulties in the Maciel case.
ER
One has to wonder who were the sources for this story. Is it the Legionary superiors themselves? Why would they speak now? Was it Fr Alfonso Corona? Or perhaps relatives of Maciel? The story is not flattering to anyone and does strain ones credulity. On the other hand, it does fit with the sheer diabolism of the case. Nothing is obvious about Maciel and the Legionaries!
ER
The devil is a spirit of deciet and confusion. The Lord is truth. The more I ponder this whole thing - one thing is clear and not confusing. The deciet, lies, confusion, pain that has been caused by Maciel and those who chose to cover the lie is not of God. That is why it was so easy to discern to leave - I had to get out from under the lie.
I read somewhere that the anti Christ would enter into the heart of the Church through deception and flattery...
Reminds me of the Transitus of Saint Frances...oh, wait...no it doesn't. At all.
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