The Daugher of Marcial Maciel and Her Half Brothers file Suit, Part III

Consequences: re-found the order or eliminate

La hija de Marcial Maciel y sus medios hermanos demandan
Third and last part
Por (By) Sanjuana Martínez for CIMAC

Mexico City, August 14, 2009 (CIMAC).- Las denuncias de los abusos de Marcial Maciel remeció a la opinión pública y al andamiaje de la Iglesia Católica, pero un gran apoyo silencioso mantiene el un precario equilibrio a los Legionarios de Cristo, quienes se replantean un cambio que podría alejar a su feligresía.

The claims of Marcial Maciel's abuses rocked public opinion as well as the very framework of the Catholic Church, but a great and helpful silence maintains the fragile equilibrium of the Legionaries of Christ, who are rethinking a change which might chase away their faithful followers.

LOS HIJOS Y EL VATICANO THE CHILDREN AND THE VATICAN

Los comisión formada por el Papa Joseph Ratzinger para la inspección de los Legionarios de Cristo que deberá entregar su informa en octubre está formada por Watty Urquidi de Tepic, Ricardo Belázquez de Bilbao, Ricardo Ezzati Andrello de Chile, Charles Joseph Chaput de Denver y Giuseppe Versaldi de Alessandria, Italia.

The commission formed by Pope Joseph Ratzinger to investigate the Legionaries of Christ which must hand in their report in October is comprised of Watty Urquidi of Tepic, Ricardo Belázquez of Bilbao, Ricardo Ezzati Andrello of Chile, Charles Joseph Chaput of Denver y Giuseppe Versaldi of Alessandria, Italia.

“El equipo que ha elegido Ratizinger ya muestra claramente por dónde van ir los resultados. Roma tenía dos opciones: elegir un equipo que extendiese un tupido velo de silencio sobre el asunto o nombrando visitadores que en principio están todos en contra.

"The team that Ratizinger [sic] chose clearly shows where they want the results to go. Rome had two options: choose a team that would extend a shroud of silence over the whole thing or name visitors who in principle were against them.

Lo que sí me consta es que los Legionarios han iniciado una especie de chantaje con algunos, pero ellos aparentemente están dispuestos a presentar informes que obliguen a los Legionarios de Cristo a refundarse, a limpiarse profundamente como los Capuchinos. Tendrían que renunciar a la memoria del fundador, tendrían que condenar a Marcial Maciel. Además la actual cúpula legionaria: Corcuera, Garza y Cristóforo tienen que desaparecer junto con Maciel, porque fueron sus protectores”, dice el vaticanista Vidal.

What I do know is that the Legionaries are playing a kind of game with some, but they are apparently willing to present reports that oblige the Legion to re-found itself, to clean up deeply like the Capuchins. They will have to renounce the memory of the founder, they will have to condemn Marcial Maciel. Also, the actual Legionary command: Corcuera, Garza y Cristoforo [sic, should be Sada Derby] will have to disappear along with Maciel, because they were his protectors" says the vaticanist Vidal.

Los resultados de la inspección, sin embargo, no se harán públicos porque los visitadores están bajo secreto pontificio al igual que sus informes que deberán incluir el capítulo de los hijos de Maciel y las anomalías estructurales de la congregación.

The results of the investigation, however, will not be made public because the visitors are under pontifical secret and their reports should include a chapter on Maciel's children and the structural anomalies of the congregation.

La gran duda que surgirá entonces es por qué durante 50 años supuestamente nadie supo de las tropelías de Maciel: “Lo supieron y lo encubrieron. Ratzinger y el papa Wojtyla si sabían porque tenían informes de los primeros abusados. Tenían informes sobre cantidad de cosas. ¿Por qué Juan Pablo II lo siguió protegiendo hasta el final? ¿Por qué Ratzinger lo condena cuando Maciel ha muerto? El caso Maciel salpica directamente al Papa magno, al Papa que será Santo dentro de poco”.

The question in everyone's mind is why for 50 years did no one supposedly know about Maciel's turpitudes: "They knew about them and they covered them up. Ratzinger and Pope Wojtyla did know because they had reports of the first abuses. They had reports about many things. Whey did John Paul II continue to protect him to the very end? Why did Ratzinger only condemn him once Maciel had died? The Maciel case sullies the great Pope directly, the Pope who will be a Saint very soon."

Por eso es necesario, según José Barba, una comisión de laicos que investigue independiente el caso Maciel para informar a la sociedad en su conjunto: “La Iglesia no es inocente, es corresponsable o culpable de esta situación porque la permitió. Todas estas cosas que ha hecho Maciel estaban escritas en informes desde finales de los años cuarenta y cincuenta. El Vaticano encubrió a Marcial Maciel, pero el más culpable es el Papa Juan Pablo II”, comenta José Barba quien le envió personalmente una carta al pontífice en 1997 señalando puntualmente las aberraciones de Maciel.

Because of this it is necessary, according to Jose Barba, that a commission of laypeople independently investigate the Maciel case to inform the whole society: "The Church is not innocent, it is co-responsible and guilty in this situation because it allowed it to occur. All of this things that Maciel did were written in reports from the end of the '40s and '50s. The Vatican covered up for Marcial Maciel, but the man most responsible is Pope John Paul II," comments Jose Barba who sent a personal letter to the pontiff in 1997 detailing Maciel's aberrations.

Más aún, los encubridores como el cardenal Angelo Sodano siguen manejando los hilos dentro de El Vaticano: “A Maciel lo encubrieron la Secretaría de Estado dirigida por Sodano, la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe dirigida por Ratzinger, la Congregación para los Religiosos y algunas otras instituciones. Lograron bloquear toda investigación en su contra, las congelaron todas”.

Moreover, the enablers such as Cardinal Angelo Sodano continue to manipulate strings in the Vatican: "The Secretariat of State, headed up by Sodano, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith directed by Ratzinger, and the Congregation of Religious along with other institutions covered up for Maciel. They managed to block the investigation against him, they froze everything."

Lo que está en juego con la inspección vaticana a los Legionarios es mucho más que la conducta de un pervertido y su doble vida. Para Alberto Athié la herencia del fundador y sus vástagos representan incluso una cortina de humo para distraer la atención del nivel de envergadura en torno a la revisión de la Legión de Cristo: “La visita apostólica pareciera un ente que no tiene nada que ver con lo sucedido en torno a Maciel, aunque fue parte de la complicidad y el encubrimiento. Ahora visita a un ente enfermo y lo hace como si la visita viniera de una estructura pura que busca limpiar a un ente corrupto. Es un esquema parcial y dará una información sesgada. La investigación completa del caso Maciel seguirá pendiente”.

What is in play with the Vatican's investigation into the Legionaries is much more than the conduct of a pervert and his double life. For Alberto Athie, the legacy of the founder and his offspring represent a smoke screen to distract attention from the level of importance about the revision of the Legion of Christ: "The apostolic visit seems to be a thing that has nothing to do with the filth surrounding Maciel, although it was a part of the complicity and the cover-up. Now the visit is to something sick and it is being done as if the visit is from a pure entity which looks to clean up a totally corrupt one. This is a partial view and will give biased information. The complete investigation of the Maciel case will remain pending."

Añade: “Lo importante es que analicen el mecanismo que creó Marcial Maciel al interior de la congregación con su conducta, con la generación de sus víctimas que los volvió cómplices, victimarios y encubridores; varios de ellos son ahora superiores mayores. Son la cúpula. Esa cúpula es precisamente la que está en una grave crisis ante un amplio grupo de sacerdotes que fueron leales a la Congregación y que están hoy indignados. Dentro de la Legión hay gente muy valiosa que no hay que olvidar”.

He adds: "The important thing is that the mechanisms created by Marcial Maciel inside of the congregation be analysed, along with its conduct, with the generation of his victims who became his accomplices, victims and enablers; many of them are now major superiors. They are in the top levels of power. It is this top level that is in a grave crisis with a large group of priests who were loyal to the congregation and are now indignant. Within the Legion, there are valuable people whom we should not forget about."

Los sucesores de Marcial Maciel han sugerido que extirpando al fundador todo se resuelve, pero según Athié una refundación de la Legión es prácticamente imposible: “El tumor es Maciel y lo quieren extirpar pero ya hay metástasis. Parecía que la Congregación se salvaba quitando al tumor pero resulta que tiene metástasis en el cerebro que son las actuales cabezas. Ese grupo de la cúpula tiene que ser extirpado. ¿Hasta dónde van a llegar? Ya lo veremos. Allí esté el Regnum Christi en el centro neurálgico de la cuestión”.

Maciel's sucessors have suggested that cutting out the founder will resolve everything, but according to Athie, refounding the Legion is practically impossible: "The tumor is Maciel, and they want to cut it out, but it has metastisized. It seems that the Congregation will be saved by removing the tumor, but there is metastisis in the brain which are the actual heads or leaders. This group of leaders has to be cut out. How far should they go? We will see. The Regnum Christi is in the neurological center of the matter."

--¿Por qué no puede existir una Refundación de la Legión como la de los Capuchinos?

--Why can't the Legion be refounded like the Capuchins?

--La refundación tiene la riqueza de recuperar la propuesta del fundador que se volvería a la regla o la santidad de alguien que llame a la refundación. En el caso de Maciel era el cuarto voto: el de silencio, todo lo demás no tiene novedad, salvo el tema de atender a las clases privilegiadas. Al refundarse no podría volver a las fuentes del fundador: ni en la propuesta ni en la persona.

--A re-foundation has the richness of being able to recover the original proposal of the founder and return to the rule or sanctity of someone who calls for the refoundation. In the Maciel case, there was the fourth vow, that of silence, all the rest is nothing new, except the thing about ministering to the privileged classes. They cannot return to the sources of the founder, not to his proposals nor to his person.

Entonces, ¿cuál refundación? La metástasis se puede pasar a otros focos de infección. El gran temor de El Vaticano, hay que decirlo claro, es que con su desaparición se registre la pérdida de las familias adineradas para la Iglesia, pero el caso Marcial Maciel es de tal corrupción y daño a la institución que apenas empiezan a vislumbrarse sus consecuencias”.

So then, what about refoundation? The metastasis would then go on to other points of infection. The Vatican's great fear, it must be clearly stated, is that with suppression, many wealthy families will be lost for the Church. But the Marcial Maciel case is one of corruption and damage to the institution which is only beginning to show its consequences."

Por lo pronto, el escándalo de los hijos se perfila intenso a base de acuerdos millonarios extrajudiciales y demandas civiles que, según José Barba, no son más que lo que ellos se cansaron de denunciar: “Ojalá que la Legión tenga vida suficiente para garantizar esas pensiones vitalicias que ha empezado a dar a cambio de silencio. Que comience por pensar en sí misma. Es una grave ironía”.

For the time being, the scandal of the children in under intense scrutiny because of million dollar settlements outside of the courts and civil suits which, according to Jose Barba, are no more than what they have been able to demand: "We hope that the Legion will live long enough to guarantee these life pensions which they are beginning to give out in exchange for silence. The Legion has to think of itself. This is a serious irony."

Call for Action Against Facilitators

From a comment on xlcrc.com by Anthony concerning a post by Fr. Karras on his blog:

Consider this second excerpt:

"I will take this a step further – and believe me, it has been a long, dark and painful journey to this point – and say: who among us, Legionaries of 20, 30, 40 years or more – being of sound mind and discerning conscience – would have endured even one minute of the teaching, preaching, discipline, spirituality, methodology, spiritual direction, ‘questions’, conferences or writings of Fr. Maciel had we known that at the very time he was hypnotizing us with his lies he was sexually abusing seminarians, fathering children, running around on the congregation’s dime, duping popes, cardinals, bishops and benefactors…

It was our ignorance that held the Legion together. The LC is founded, not on the supposed sanctity and inspiration and charism of its Founder, but on the gullible and impressionable idealism of his hapless followers."

I can tell Fr. Karras who would have endured Maciel's chicanery: precisely the people who have facilitated his wickedness, used him to obtain positions of power in the congregation, persecuted those who sought justice for the abused and attempted to maintain their authority in spite of all their wrongdoing. It was not simply the ignorance of gullible Legionaries that held the Legion together but the deception and duplicity of those who are currently in control of the Legion. These people need to be stripped of power and held accountable for their crimes. These people are not of advanced age or frail health. Canonical action should be taken against them.

According to Argentinian Press: Maciel had a least 3 children

Full English Translation here.
martes 21 de julio de 2009

Argenpress.info
Legionarios de Cristo: Los hijos de Marcial Maciel y el Vaticano

Sanjuana Martínez (CIMAC) desed Mexico

La doble vida de Marcial Maciel está sujeta a revisión por el Vaticano que inició la prometida y necesaria inspección a los Legionarios de Cristo y toda su congregación religiosa, incluido su particular sistema de educación basado en su herencia teológica aún utilizado en los colegios privados que existen en el mundo y sus universidades.

La comunidad internacional fue informada oportunamente sobre la pederastia del fundador de los legionarios, pero el Vaticano no ordenó una revisión hasta ahora luego del escándalo de los hijos de Maciel saltó a la luz pública debido a la disputa por su multimillonaria herencia.

Las primeras informaciones noticiosas hablaban de una hija llamada Norma Hilda, de origen mexicano de 23 años, concretamente de Acapulco, Guerrero, radicada actualmente en Madrid, España; pero conforme ha ido pasando el tiempo, los hijos de Maciel se incrementan.

Y es que el fundador de los Legionarios no ocultaba a sus hijos a su entorno más cercano, viajaba con ellos por el mundo, los mantenía económicamente desviando importantes cantidades de dinero, les daba la posibilidad de estudiar en importantes universidades internacionales, incluida desde luego la famosa Anáhuac ubicada en nuestro país. (It seems that the founder of the Legionaires did not hide his children from his closest collaborators: he traveled the world with the children, and supported them economically by diverting large sums of money. He gave them the chance to study in the best international universities, including, of course, the famous Anahuac, located in our country.)

Los más cercanos conocían a los vástagos de Maciel, por eso esperamos que tanto Álvaro Corcuera, heredero del imperio legionario, como su vicario el regiomontano Luis Garza Medina y Jesús Quirce digan la verdad ante los visitadores del Vaticano. (His closest collaborators knew Maciel's brood, and because of this, we hope that Alvaro Corcuera, heir to the Legionary empire, as well as his vicar, Luis Garza Medina from Monterrey, and Jesus Quirce tell the truth to the Vatican Visitors.)

Son ellos los que conocen con exactitud la existencia de estos muchachos, cuyo único pecado fue ser procreados por un depredador sexual que violó a pequeños discípulos. ¿Qué seguridad tienen los legionarios de que no hizo lo mismo con sus hijos?

Al morir Marcial Maciel, sus supuestos tres hijos mexicanos (his supposed three Mexican children) se quedaron desprotegidos, al menos esos son los que actualmente han intentado recuperar una parte de la herencia exigiendo a la Legión de Cristo la parte que les corresponde, pero puede haber más vástagos, aquí y en el extranjero. ¿Cuantos hijos dejó Maciel? Es una pregunta que tendrá que responder oficialmente el Vaticano. (How many children did Maciel leave? It is a question that the Vatican will have to answer officially.)

Lo interesante de esta doble vida de "nuestro padre" como le siguen llamando los legionarios, es la relación que mantuvo con las madres de sus hijos. Hasta ahora, el mundo solo conocía la fascinación de Maciel por los niños guapos, pero que hay detrás de sus mujeres amantes. (Up until now, the world only knew of Maciel's fascination with cute little boys, but what is behind his female lovers?)

Son precisamente sus hijos los que podrán contar la verdadera vida de Marcial Maciel, sus secretos mejor guardados por los actuales dirigentes legionarios para intentar crear un mito de su muerte, una especie de santo fundador que, afortunadamente para la Iglesia y sus fieles, nunca llegará al altar.

La Legión de Cristo ha declarado oficialmente que está "deseosa" de colaborar con el Vaticano en esta inspección iniciada por los enviados del papa Ratzinger. Por tanto, esperamos que unos y otros digan la verdad al mundo. Esperamos que Ricardo Watty Urquidi de Tepic, Ricardo Belázquez de Bilbao, Ricardo Ezzati Andrello de Chile, Charles Joseph Chaput de Denver y Giuseppe Versaldi de Alessandria, Italia, se conduzcan con honestidad en los resultados de sus inspecciones.

¿Que van encontrar estos hombres en los centros educativos de la Legión y en los colaboradores de Marcial Maciel? Secretismo, mucho secretismo, pero también se exhibirá la devoción que siguen profesando los legionarios en sus colegios a un pederasta y padre de varios hijos que combinó el sacerdocio con sus patologías sexuales. (Secrecy, much secrecy, but also they will see the devotion that legionaries continue to show in their schools towards a pederist and father of several children who whored out the priesthood with his sexual pathologies.)

Las fotos de Marcial Maciel siguen colgadas en los colegios legionarios. (Photographs of Marcial Maciel still hang in Legionary schools.) Si los inspectores del Vaticano no ordenan a la Legión quitarlas, habrá que agregarles las imágenes de los hijos de Maciel.

La multimillonaria herencia dejada por el fundador ha provocado que tanto los herederos legítimos por sangre, (The multimillion dollar inheritance left by the founder has provoked even his heirs by blood) como los herederos de la legión empiecen a pelear en la sombra. Seguramente, muy pronto el mundo será testigo de estos pleitos judiciales que iniciarán en México y en otros países por obtener la mayor tajada de los dineros conseguidos con base en donaciones de importantes benefactores que prefirieron seguir con la venda en los ojos a pesar de los hechos denunciados.

Sería importante que los inspectores del Vaticano entrevistaran también a los hijos de Maciel. Ellos tienen mucho que contar de su padre. Tienen mucho que mostrar: documentos, fotografías, pruebas de su relación fraternal con el fundador de los Legionarios. Sería importante que los inspectores no solo entrevistaran a los legionarios, sino a las víctimas de Maciel, a quienes han investigado a la orden desde el periodismo, la historia o la procuración de justicia. (It is vital that the inspectors not only interview Legionaries, but also Maciel's victims, who have investigated the order over a long period of time, exposed them publicly and sought justice.) Solo nos queda ver si a los hijos de Maciel y sus abogados los mueve el interés del dinero o si prefieren hacer un bien a la humanidad desenmascarando públicamente a su progenitor.

Esperemos que un arreglo multimillonario no calle sus conciencias. El mundo merece saber la verdad y el fin del engaño. A las víctimas se les debe una reparación.

Los inspectores del Vaticano tienen la responsabilidad de terminar con las mentiras oficiales de la Legión. Si así fuera, como esperamos las personas de buena fe, la Legión debería rechazar definitivamente a su fundador y por consiguiente desaparecer. Una orden religiosa basada en el poder y la influencia teológica unipersonal de su fundador no puede continuar. Sin Marcial Maciel, los Legionarios de Cristo no pueden existir.

Los hijos de Maciel y el Vaticano han quedado unidos por el destino.

Sanjuana Martínez es periodista de investigación freelance, autora de varios libros, el más reciente: “Prueba de fe. La red de cardenales y obispos en la pederastia clerical” (Editorial Planeta).

And on to Spain

Ontaneda is forever burned in our memories as Legionaries, since it was the first apostolic school and the first solid foundation in Spain. However, for some (too many), it was the scene of horrid sexual abuse by Marcial Maciel and others when they were mere boys.

Now the investigation reaches those haunted hallways, filled with boyhood delight as well as silent screams of virginity lost in childhood.

From Gerinda Bai:
jueves 23 de julio de 2009
Los Legionarios de Onteneda (Cantabria) veneran al pederasta Maciel

El seminario menor que los Legionarios de Cristo tiene en Ontaneda es un antiguo balneario y gran hotel, levantado en 1833. Lo adquirieron en 1955, y fue la primera propiedad que la orden, fundada en México, tuvo en España. En la fachada principal, en la calle Generalísimo Franco, no hay carteles, inscripciones ni símbolos de ningún tipo. La discreción es la norma de la casa. No se puede ir más allá de la entrada, pero no hace falta ir más lejos para encontrar fotos enmarcadas del fundador de la congregación rodeado de jóvenes. Son recuerdos de las visitas del Padre Maciel, cuando de día impartía doctrina, dejándose adorar por sus incondicionales discípulos, y por la noche se hacía acompañar en la cama por alguno de ellos.

Las acusaciones de pederastia que pesaban sobre Maciel y otros miembros de la congregación fueron negadas durante años, hasta que las abrumadoras pruebas y testimonios convirtieron las sospechas en certeza.

The Legion of Christ Waning in New York

The presence of the Legion of Christ in New York State has been colored by controversy. There were battles to open a seminary, to take over property, to get tax exemptions, over destruction of woodlands, over community clashes. Now there seems to be a new approach-- scale-back?

Legionaries of Christ at critical point
from The Journal News LoHud.com
August 2, 2009

by Gary Stern

As the Vatican begins an unprecedented investigation into the Legionaries of Christ, a once-powerful religious order whose late founder has been discredited for living a "double life," it remains to be seen how the order's local operations will be affected.

Lawyers for the Legion recently notified the town of Mount Pleasant that plans for a university in Thornwood will likely be scaled back.

In addition, the order hopes to expand activities at a retreat center in New Castle after last year withdrawing decade-old plans for a seminary.

Still, it is hard to know how the urgent and potentially debilitating challenges facing the Legion, an order known for its secrecy, might be coloring its day-to-day operations.

"I suspect they are scrambling to do anything that makes them look mainstream and not cultish," said Jason Berry, a New Orleans-based writer who first made public in 1997 accusations that former seminarians were sexually abused by the Rev. Marcial Maciel, who founded the Legion in Mexico in 1941.

Pope John Paul II, a strong supporter of Maciel and the Legion, would not address the allegations. But in May 2006, 13 months after the election of Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican announced Maciel would lead a "life of prayer and penance, renouncing every public ministry." Maciel died in January 2008.

Then early this year, word began to spread that the Legion had discovered Maciel fathered a child and led something of a double life. The Vatican announced it would begin a rare "apostolic visitation" on July 15 - assigning five bishops to investigate the Legion's worldwide operations.

Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput will look into the Legion's U.S. operations, based out of Cheshire, Conn.

At stake is the future of the Legion, which runs 150 schools and a dozen universities in nearly 20 countries, and its affiliated group for lay Catholics, Regnum Christi.

Important Note From the Regnum Christi

Life-After-RC has the text of a letter from RC members to Fr. Alvaro Corcuera concerning the future of their movement.

In part, the letter reads

"We have always admired the Legionaries of Christ in their ability to see the good in things and speak positively of others. It is an admirable quality that is so lacking in most of our society, and sadly within the Church. However, this emphasis on the positive can become a double edged sword when exaggerated or misdirected. Indeed, it can be detrimental to the process of enacting the necessary reforms our organizations need. This ab ility to filter out and avoid negative news blinds you from perceiving the errors and flaws visible to us and voiced by some members of the Church hierarchy.

Our fear is that you and most of the Legionary major superiors continue to languish in a state of denial over the flaws and errors that have been introduced into the internal culture of the Legion by the decades long influence of Fr. Maciel and his deviant personality. You must face things squarely and get past this denial."

The authors claim that the RC is theirs, that they have built it up and that it does not belong to the superiors of the Legion of Christ. Any comments from experts in Spiritual Theology?

Be sure to read the entire letter at the link above.

Jason Berry on the Vatican Investigation

Talk about having been right all along. And vilified for it...

Vatican investigates Legionaries of Christ
The Catholic Church looks into cult allegations — and $1,000 hams.
By Jason Berry — Special to GlobalPost
Published: July 19, 2009 20:54 ETU

Editor's note: A sweeping Vatican investigation of an international religious order — and the cult of personality built around its founder — has just begun in Rome. Five bishops are delving into the finances and internal dynamics of an organization suspected of influence peddling. Award-winning investigative reporter and author Jason Berry has tracked these events for years in a book he co-authored and a documentary he produced on events leading to the Pope's decision to investigate. In this exclusive report for GlobalPost, Berry breaks new ground on the Vatican investigation of the Legionaries of Christ, and the case against Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the founder.

ROME — Pope Benedict XVI recently appointed five bishops from as many countries to investigate the Legionaries of Christ, a religious order founded in 1941 by the late Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, a Mexican priest who is accused of sexually abusing young seminarians, and who left a grown daughter who was born out-of-wedlock.

Even after death, Maciel wields power through the influence he secured.

While the American Catholic Church has been publicly battered by two decades of priest sexual abuse scandals that erupted in the press and devastated church finances with hundreds of millions of dollars spent on compensating victims and legal fees, the Maciel scandal has gone largely unnoticed by most of the American press.

There’s a reason: For decades, the Legion shunned the media while Maciel cultivated relationships with some of the most powerful, conservative Catholics in the world. He also forced his priests and seminarians to take vows never to criticize him, or any superior. The legion built a network of prep schools and an astonishing database of donors. In Maciel's militant spirituality, Legionaries — and their wing of lay supporters, Regnum Christi — see themselves as saving the church from a corrupted world. Behind the silence he imposed, Maciel was corrupt — abusing seminarians and using money in ways that several past and present seminarians liken to bribery, in forging ties with church officials.

The silence Maciel imposed on his followers allowed Maciel to pursue a double life.

_________________

Exlcblogger will continue to publish snipets from this article.

Read the 5 page article here

Caminos [y Drogas] de Michoacán

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- In response to a spate of attacks allegedly by a drug cartel, Mexico more than tripled the number of federal police officers patrolling the state of Michoacan, a government spokeswoman said.

Drug violence is up in Michoacan state, shown by recent attacks on police in at least a half-dozen cities.

The government on Thursday dispatched 1,000 federal police officers to Michoacan state in southwest Mexico, increasing its presence to 1,300 total, Public Safety spokeswoman Veronica Penunuri told CNN.

At least 18 federal agents and two soldiers have been killed since the weekend in Michoacan, the home state of President Felipe Calderon. [and the home state of Marcial Maciel]

The sudden spike in violence followed the arrest Saturday of Arnoldo Rueda Medina, whom authorities described as a high-ranking member of the drug cartel known as La Familia Michoacana.

Cartel members first attacked the federal police station in Morelia to try to gain freedom for Rueda, authorities said.

When that failed, drug gangs attacked federal police installations in at least a half-dozen Michoacan cities, according to authorities.

The Michoacan cartel also is accused in the slaying of 12 federal police officers whose bodies were found Tuesday on a remote highway.

Video from the scene showed three signs, known as narcomensajes, left by the killers. They all stated the same thing: "So that you come for another. We will be waiting for you here."

Since Calderon went after the drug cartels shortly after coming into office in 2006, more than 10,000 people have died across Mexico, about 1,000 of them police.

A View from the UK

A secret shame: Inside the latest scandal to rock the Catholic church

Sunday, 12 July 2009

When Todd Carpunky was 16, he joined the Legion of Christ. I his six years with the Catholic order, he bore witness to a culture of sexual abuse that rocked the Church. Here, he talks candidly to Peter Stanford about the secretive world created by the order's founder while the papal authorities looked the other way

Parents of youngsters recruited as Legionaries described it as a cult that targeted the young and naive in particular, some of them just 13, and then 'brainwashed' them. But it is Maciel himself who has proved most controversial. Nuestro Padre was, according to one biographer, 'a narcissistic sociopath' with a taste for flights on Concorde and five star hotels. He is acknowledged by the Legion to have fathered at least one child – a 23-year-old daughter said to be called Norma Hilda and now living in Madrid.

It has also been alleged that he was a paedophile. The first accusation came in 1976 from the former head of the Legion in the US. By 1998, the Vatican had received sworn statements from eight men, all detailing how Maciel had abused

Whither the Spirituality Books of the Legion

...some of Maciel's writings still available to buy from the LCs... click here

According the Fr. Karras:

But while Fr. Maciel masqueraded as the saintly founder, the admirable priest, apostle and ‘suffering servant of Yahweh’ that all the LCs sought to emulate in their own vocation, his writings were veritable treasures that we meditated and quoted, memorized and preached.

Once we found out who he truly was, those same writings have turned into the cruelest of jokes, a most unholy parody of true spirituality and religious tradition, a sacrilegious satire that should make us all ashamed of having once proudly called ourselves ‘co-founders’.

The bathwater dissolved whatever baby there was long, long ago.
So throw it out with no regrets.

Too Bad They Didn't Do Toxicology on The Monster

So many similarities! Can you count them?

From CNN:

Toxicology reports from Michael Jackson's body will disprove rumors that the singer's personal physician injected him with powerful painkillers, the attorney for Dr. Conrad Murray said Monday.

The cause of pop star Michael Jackson's death has not been determined after Friday's autopsy.

"Dr. Murray never prescribed Demerol, never administered Demerol, never saw him -- Michael Jackson -- take Demerol," attorney Edward Chernoff told CNN's "American Morning."
"And that goes as well for Oxycontin. I think those are just rumors. When toxicology comes back ... that's going to be all cleared up," Chernoff said.

Extreme Makeover: Legion Edition

Once again, The Exorcist does a much better job than most in getting to the point. Exlcblogger can't help but copy the entire post here.

There is just so much more to this than merely business as usual for the Legion of Christ and the Regnum Christi, and those who use this platitude are not only fooling themselves, they also perpetrating an injustice with those young people whose parents are stupid enough to let them join this mess this summer.

Take over, Fr. Karras:

There was a time when it was severely frowned upon to refer to writers other than the Founder in our preaching, spiritual exercises and private reading. We were instructed to quote him often, to dedicate certain meditations to his person, virtue and vocation. We were to read his letters during adoration and as part of the liturgy of the hours. We were to engage in studies of our own spirituality much like Jesuits have studied Ignatius and Salesians have studied Don Bosco.

Now? Not so much.

For those of us who have lived through it, it is nothing less than mind-boggling.

Recalling the years and years of our lives as LCs during which EVERYTHING was centered on the person of Fr. Maciel now feels like trying to remember the hallucinations of a distant psychotic episode.

Every word, every gesture, every commentary, every scrap of paper scribbled on by ‘the Boss’ was a treasure, an unforgettable connection between the inspired, saintly Founder and his intrepid, although still imperfect, co-founders.

For a long time the most piercing motivation the superiors could give us to live with greater fidelity the infinite rules and regulations of the order was: “Think of how Nuestro Padre suffers with even the slightest infidelity of his co-founders!”

He was our ideal... the true “legionario tipo” that we all so ardently aspired to imitate.

I cringe to think of it now.

Those same green books that I so dutifully worked my way through, volume after volume, taking time to memorize favorite passages and copy special phrases into my own spiritual journal... now make me physically nauseous when I try to read their pages.

A letter from the early 80’s encouraging a LC priest to be ‘authentic’, to open himself entirely to the Legion through his superiors, to never wear ‘masks’ and always be transparent...

This from the master mask maker himself!

Line after line on the subject of chastity, on maintaining priestly dignity and decency when dealing with women, on offering the sacrifice of ourselves with a pure heart to Christ...

When did he think this stuff up? While he was lying in bed, enjoying a post-coital cigarette next to some young concubine, dreaming of the army of holy priests he would someday offer the Church?

Or how about those fabulous letters warning us of the dangers of ‘particular friendships’, those devilish ‘maría–remedios' waiting to seduce us at every turn, importuning us to have confidence only in our superiors (i.e. report everything you see, no matter how innocuous, to Big Brother)...

Yet behind it all he camouflaged his own turbid proclivities and allowed his unrestrained deviance to ruin so many young lives!

How sick does it get, man?

All those heavy one-liners of Nuestro Padre that were constantly repeated as a litany of motivation to eager and gullible ‘co-founders’ now sound hopelessly vapid and cynical:

“fiel hasta morir en la raya” Yeah, right. Just like NP.

“de una sola pieza, al pié del cañón” Spare me the irony.

“amor et dolor vita mea” You put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig.

“el Legionario se es o se despide” Finally, some candid advice...

“nunca he dicho ‘no’ a mi Señor Jesucristo” If that’s the case, who has?

“soy por la Legión que Dios me quiere” Syntax is no longer the main problem with this one...

“mi vida por Cristo” Whatever.


All of this is not just the venting of a guy who, like many others, was deceived and betrayed about the core truth of his vocation.

It is vitally important as a point to be considered by the visitation.


The spirituality of the LC, such as it is, is embedded in the writings of the Founder. His thoughts and his words are conserved in endless books, pamphlets, recordings and videos. In the LC we have often prided ourselves on how completely EVERY aspect of our lives has been defined and detailed by the Founder.

The double life of Fr. Maciel as inspired spiritual guide/fraud and sexual predator has totally negated his credibility. Nothing he has said or written to the LCs or the RC members can be believed or taken seriously. Who he was taints all he wrote. There is no separating the teachings from the life of the teacher when it comes to the all-consuming, conscience-binding religious vocation.

The writings – all of them, from the Constitutions to the Salterio – are as fraudulent as the life that produced them.

From now on, there will be an 800 pound gorilla in the room every time his letters are read during meals in spiritual exercises, every time the Constitutions are read and commented on in community, every time the wishes and words of the Founder are half-heartedly tossed around as motivations.

In essence, the visitation has to expunge every last vestige of the Founder from the Legion’s spirituality.

But would a ‘Legion’ devoid of Fr. Maciel’s thought and teaching still be the Legion of Christ?

Therein lies the challenge: to remake a religious congregation into something totally removed from its Founder, while at the same time salvaging the vocations, apostolates, houses of formation and charitable works associated with it.

Peace.

Algo Mas

"Los Legionarios de Cristo están bajo sospecha papal desde el pasado 31 de marzo. Benedicto XVI ha ordenado "una visita apostólica" -investigación en argot eclesiástico- a este grupo. Su fundador, el mexicano Marcial Maciel, ya muerto, fue sancionado en su día por abusos sexuales repetidos sobre seminaristas. Sin embargo, el juez vicario del Vaticano, Filippo di Giacomo, estima que estas nuevas pesquisas son "algo más" que lo destapado en su día sobre Maciel. "
Published in El Pais de Madrid. Read it here in Spanish.

Don Maciel Corleone

You want him, Legionaries? You can have him!

Cassandra Strikes Again!

Pity, Cassandra that no one believed you

But then again you were lost from the start

Now we must suffer and sell our secrets

Bargain, playing smart, aching in our hearts

Sorry Cassandra I misunderstood

now the last day is dawning

Some of us wanted but none of us would

listen to words of warning

From the ABBA song, Cassandra

Read the complete article by Cassandra Jones on spero news here.

Legion of Christ delays explanation of Rev. Maciel

More than a month has passed since revelations that the Legion of Christ's founder, Rev. Marcial Maciel, may have fathered a child, the LC appears to delay a response due to an internal debate over its "charism." He is also accused of paedophilia.

More than a month has now passed since the February 3 revelation that Rev. Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, fathered a daughter. The Legionaries immediately admitted it officially and claimed to be surprised at the discovery of inconsistencies in their founder’s life. But this was only a provisional response that avoided specifics out of concerns for privacy and suggested that a fuller accounting was being prepared. That fuller accounting is now delayed and the reasons why are emerging. Church officials must reconcile two divergent views on the question whether the Legionaries have a “charism” and a “mission” given to them by God and already acknowledged by the Church.

A promise of “materials to inform the Church and the public about all of this” was first made on February 13 by Rev. Owen Kearns, publisher of the Legionary National Catholic Register. Some inside the Legion and the Vatican expected these to be issued on February 24 and the Catholic News Agency was told so.

The statement could be expected to address specifics, at least in general terms: Was the daughter’s mother a “mistress” or was the child conceived in an act of statutory rape, another instance of Father Maciel’s pedophilia? Is there another child? Was money embezzled or misused? Is Father Maciel’s sexual abuse of his seminarians now officially admitted to? Will Father Maciel’s public accusers, whom the Legion calumniated for years, be acknowledged and apologized to? What are the consequences of Father Maciel’s sins on the life of his institute?

These questions are painful enough for the Legionaries to answer honestly, especially since for 12 years in public they only ever defended their Founder with untruth and evasion. But the statement would also begin to lay out for the order a path on which to continue in a post-scandal future and that will need the approval of Catholic Church authorities. The Church will not now allow the order to decide its future entirely on its own.

VATICAN: APOSTOLIC VISITATOR FOR THE LEGIONARIES OF CHRIST SOON

VATICANO: PRESTO VISITATORE APOSTOLICO PER LEGIONARI DI CRISTO (STAMPA)

(ASCA) - Citta' del Vaticano, 6 mar - A metterlo nero su bianco e' stato da ultimo, nella sua edizione odierna, il quotidiano argentino ''Clarin', uno dei piu' autorevoli di tutta l'America Latina: la Santa Sede starebbe per inviare un ''visitatore apostolico', ovvero un ispettore ufficiale, per valutare la situazione del movimento dei Legionari di Cristo, fondato da p. Marcial Maciel e tra la realta' piu' dinamiche e in crescita dell'intera Chiesa cattolica. P. Maciel, morto nel 2008 a 87 anni, era stato oggetto quando era ancora in vita, di numerose e fondate accuse di pedofilia, tanto che papa Benedetto XVI lo aveva condannato ad una vita di solitudine, preghiera e penitenza, senza pero' permettere che il processo canonico contro di lui giungesse a termine. Nelle ultime settimane, poi, e' giunta la notizia che p. Maciel avrebbe condotto per anni una doppia vita, con una figlia, ora 22enne, che vive in Spagna, frutto di una lunga relazione con una amante al cui mantenimento economico provvedeva lui stesso. Notizie che hanno scosso profondamente i Legionari (e il movimento laicale ad essi legato, Regnum Christi) mettendo in discussione il carisma del fondatore, centrale per l'identita' della congregazione. Un trauma cosi' forte che persino numerosi membri dei Legionari, soprattutto Oltreoceano, hanno invocato l'intervento della Santa Sede. Fra questi p. Thomas Berg, direttore del Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person in Usa, che in una lettera pubblica ha chiesto esplicitamente l'arrivo di un visitatore apostolico. ''I superiori dei Legionari hanno fallito, e fallito miseramente, nel rispondere adeguatamente a questa crisi'', scrive. In molti infatti fanno notare che i leader della Legione, i piu' stretti collaboratori di Maciel, non abbiano potuto rimanere all'oscuro di tutto per decenni. Di fronte alle indiscrezioni su un prossimo arrivo di un visitatore, fonti dei Legionari spiegano all'ASCA che ''si tratta di informazioni in cui non viene citata una fonte ufficiale''. Si tratta quindi di ''notizie vaghe, supposizioni o illazioni''. ''Alla luce di cio' - e' la conclusione - non abbiamo altro da aggiungere a quanto abbiamo detto in passato''. E che si tratti di un ''momento doloroso'' lo conferma anche il successore di p. Maciel alla guida dei Legionari, p. Alvaro Corcuera. ''Stiamo vivendo - ha scritto in una lettera ai membri del movimento dell'inizio di febbraio - momenti di dolore e sofferenza; e in questo dolore, un'esperienza dell'amore infinito di Dio che ci chiede di andare avanti con pace e bonta', poiche' l'unica cosa che vuole nelle nostre vite e' che sperimentiamo la felicita' di essere suoi figli''. Senza citare colpe o reati specifici di p. Maciel, Corcuera ammetteva pero' che ''e' anche vero che e' stato un uomo e questi temi che ci hanno ferito, sorpreso stanno gia' davanti al giudizio di Dio. E' vero che c'e' molto dolore e molta pena. Come in una famiglia, queste pene ci uniscono e ci portano a soffrire e gioire come un solo corpo. Questa circostanza che viviamo ci invita a vedere tutto con molta fede, umilta' e carita'. Cosi' la mettiamo nelle mani di Dio Nostro Signore, che ci insegna il cammino della misericordia infinita''. Di fronte allo smarrimento e alla confusione che regnano nelle centinaia di case e istituzioni dei Legionari in tutto il mondo, e in particolare nei seminari che riescono ancora a fornire alla Chiesa cattolica decine di preziose nuove vocazioni al sacerdozio, si ritiene probabile che la Santa Sede procedera' prima o poi ad una qualche riorganizzazione del movimento.

El Mercurio Reports Vatican Study for Intervention for the Legion of Christ

El Vaticano estudia intervenir Legionarios de Cristo

La posibilidad de llevar a cabo esta supervisión está siendo analizada por el prefecto de la Congregación para los Institutos de Vida Consagrada, el cardenal Franc Rodé, quien hasta ahora no ha autorizado su inicio.

CIUDAD DEL VATICANO.- Al comienzo era sólo un rumor, pero hoy ya es un tema debatido al interior de El Vaticano: Se está estudiando intervenir la congregación católica Legionarios de Cristo y así orientar su futuro en medio de una crisis interna.

Así lo da a conocer hoy el diario Clarín de Buenos Aires y la agencia mexicana Notimex que cita fuentes al interior de la Santa Sede: “El Vaticano estudia intervenir la orden con el nombramiento de un Visitador Apostólico a fin de salvar a los Legionarios de un final estrepitoso o de una disolución a mano de la Santa Sede”.

La posibilidad de llevar a cabo esta supervisión está siendo analizada por el prefecto de la Congregación para los Institutos de Vida Consagrada, el cardenal Franc Rodé, quien hasta ahora no ha autorizado su inicio.La idea surge luego de que la cúpula misma de la Legión aceptara públicamente el 4 de febrero que su fundador, Marcial Maciel fallecido hace más de un año-, tuvo en vida "actitudes no correspondientes a un sacerdote católico".

Informaciones previas aparecidas en medios de Internet y algunos blogs católicos señalaban que Maciel mantuvo una relación amorosa durante muchos años. Según una investigación del diario The New York Times, de ese vínculo nació una hija.

Se trata del primer "mea culpa" de la congregación sobre las acciones de su fundador, pero la aceptación pública de las conductas de Maciel también ha provocado una "fuerte crisis" al interior de la orden.El sacerdote, que murió a los 87 años, fundó los Legionarios de Cristo en 1941, cuando apenas tenía 20 años, y en 1959 creó su brazo laico, Regnum Christi. La orden creció hasta convertirse en una de las más influyentes congregaciones de la actualidad: cuenta con unos 800 sacerdotes y 2.500 seminaristas en más de 40 países. También gestiona una importante universidad pontificia en Roma.

Pese a que fue muy cercano a los dos últimos papas, en especial a Juan Pablo II, los últimos años de la vida de Maciel estuvieron marcados por controvertidas acusaciones. En 1995, estallaron denuncias en su contra por abusos sexuales, hechas por cerca de una treintena de ex seminaristas de la orden, que se remontan a los años 40 y 50, cuando algunos de ellos eran niños.
Maciel dejó de ser el líder de la orden en 2004, y en 2006, el Papa Benedicto XVI le ordenó que se retirara a una vida de "oración y penitencia" y que abandonara sus responsabilidades sacerdotales tras una investigación del Vaticano sobre las acusaciones.

Propuesta de una supervisión apostólica no es nueva

El 9 de febrero pasado el escritor católico estadounidense George Weigel, acreditado biógrafo de Juan Pablo II y reconocido como cercano a la Legión, propuso públicamente la supervisión apostólica.

"Sólo después de que se haya llevado a cabo ese tipo de auditoría moral e institucional y se haya verificado públicamente como auditoría limpia, podrá la Legión de Cristo y la Iglesia entera afrontar las cuestiones sobre su futuro", escribió.

En un artículo de su blog On the Square (En la Plaza), Weigel estableció que la visita de un delegado del Vaticano a todos los centros de los Legionarios del mundo puede dar certeza de transparencia.

"Sólo puede ser salvada (la orden) si hay una divulgación completa y pública de las maldades de Maciel y si se realiza un examen de las raíces y las ramificaciones de la posible complicidad en esas maldades dentro de la Legión de Cristo", añadió.

Are We Finally Getting It?

Madoff and Maciel: Similar-minded fraudsters
The men resemble each other in so many ways they appear to be twins

Feb. 25, 2009
By Tom Gallagher

To watch interviews of victims of Bernard Madoff’s gargantuan Ponzi scheme, and then immediately switch to interviews of Legion of Christ priests, is to quickly lose track of which scoundrel is being discussed. The priests had just learned their founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado (1920-2008), had a longtime lover and fathered a daughter now in her 20s.

From the National Catholic Reporter.
(don't shoot the messanger)

Exlcblogger Told You He Was a Con Man

Told ya so...

“It seems to me and many others that this was a man with an entrepreneurial genius who, by systematic deception and duplicity, used our faith to manipulate others for his own selfish ends,” Archbishop O’Brien [of Baltimore] told The Catholic Review in a telephone interview following his Feb. 20 Rome meeting with Father Alvaro Corcuera, director general of the Legion.

Read the whole article here.

Matthew 7:17 & The Legion of Christ: A Question

From Being and Nothingness:

"Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit." Matthew 7:17

"A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth that which is evil. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Luke 6:45

These two passages (taken from the Douay-Rheims version of the bible) have been rolling over in my head for the last week since learning of the confirmations that many (most?) of the allegations against Fr. Marcial Maciel, the founder of the apostolic order Legion of Christ and the lay apostolic association Regnum Christi. Added to the list of accusations which were previously made is the confirmed fact that Fr. Maciel fathered a daughter who is now 22 years old and her mother is only 37 years old (which mathematics will tell you was 14 or 15 when she conceived).
Often on blogs people posit their positions as provocations or opinions, using the blog primarily as a medium of judgment on the events around them. That is usually my reason, as well. However, today I offer this post primarily to engage you to think with me what these two passages mean and how the current situation that the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi can be understood in light of them.

I want to avoid a moralistic approach and at the same time I want to avoid an interpretation of those passages as deterministic. I also don't want my reflection to remain at the surface of my annoyance with the LC or RC in my particular encounters with them. Instead, I want to try to understand what exactly a "fruit" is and more so, I want to understand how much the "charism" of any religious order or lay movement is tied to the person of the founder, and whether or not this "tie" is necessary to or a consequence of the moral life of the founder.

I also want to understand more about the Legion's formation and structure. Are some of it's tendencies (the focus on appearance, sameness, moral rigidity, secrecy, the apostolate) a result of some work Christ was doing "through" a fragile, broken creature or are they the result of a dualism that emerges as a result of his constant rejection of Christ's grace.
Here are some thoughts:

1. The focus on appearances belies the tendency in someone who lives a double life to convince all those around him that "everything is fine." It's not a coincidence that all the Legionaries are told time and time again that their appearance is fundamental in not interfering with someone hearing the gospel message.
2. The focus on the "sameness" of all Legionaries could also be a symptom of the above mentioned problem. The more everyone is the same, the more the person who is living the double life can rely on those patterns and expectations to cover their own duplicity.
3. The focus on moral rigidity often what we call "reactionary." The reaction is to the person's own sinfulness. Sin, in the Christian life, usually evokes shame. Since serious patterns of sin result from our own choices, we often think that our choices and actions will lead us back to the right path. This is a typical misunderstanding of the Christian life in which instead of a complete reliance on Christ, we rely on the rules as the path to holiness.
4. The focus on secrecy is almost self-evident. When you have something to hide you treat everything as if it is "private" and therefore create patterns of behavior where you "hide from the left hand what the right hand is doing." This isn't always negative. Somethings should be private. But when everything has the potential to be a little damaging or negative is treated with "secrecy" we can really occlude the truth.
5. The focus on the apostolate is troubling because it avoids the personal interior work of self-awareness and self-acknoledgment. This is true in my experience. Often when I focus on my work as the most important thing it is because there is an interior rejection of my dependence on Christ and an inability to be silent in front of him and recognize what I am in front of him. Even prayer can be full of this "business" so even hours in front of the Blessed Sacrament can amount to a "nothingness" if I am not present with all of myself infront of the "You" that makes me.
In addition, I think it also can be used a "measure" of one self, in the way that the protestant tradition has looked at it. "I must be good with God, because look at how successful my apostolate is going." It's the tendency that many had to say "Fr. Maciel must be a saint, because look at all the good that the Legion does, look at all the seminarians, look at how faithful they are to the pope, only a saint could generate all of that." If he's not a saint, are those things that he generated now evil?