A Quick Link to Life-After-RC Testimony

This is the testimony of an RC member who repeated the mantra "OK, but that is not my experience" whenever a bad thing was said of the RC.

Now a lesson has been learned. The testimony is incisive, if sad, since it means the crumbling of a lot of personal walls, and the dismantling of a personal altar of spiritual experience. And that is never easy.

A Testimony from Life-After-RC

I was a Legionary for 10 years. I joined in the mid 90's after a few years of university studies. I never questioned the LC/RC's methods, practices, or norms whatsoever, even during the 4 years after I had left the Legion. The only reason I had the intellectual breakthrough was because of the news of Maciel's daughter in Feb 2009. Without that news, I would still be drinking the Kool-aid today and following the party line. The 2006 communique didn't even faze me, in fact it just strengthened my intellectual adherence to the LC/RC, as if tempered by fire. Interestingly enough, in Feb 2009, it didn't take long to break through 14 years of mental shackles once the conerstone of the entire institution, Maciel, was shown to be rotten to the core. I couldn't sleep the night I found out the news, so I hit the internet and starting reading up on the websites which I formerly refused to even look at because the Legion had warned me that they contained nothing but lies. Turns out, those websites struck so many chords with my personal experience that I was finally able to take a step back and look at the institution from the outside and realize it's true manipulative and self-serving nature. So many of us are expressing similar concerns about the LC/RC even though we were members of the movement in completely different places around the globe.

I was a very good student in school growing up (co-valedictorian in high school) and, after I left the Legion and saw my grades, I had done pretty well during my Legionary studies also. I say this because people think you must be stupid to accept "thought reform" which occurs in cults such as the Legion of Christ. I accepted the Legionary thought reform because I believed it was God's will to submit my mind, personality, will, desires, emotions, everything to the directives of the Legion who was my mother and path to salvation. This is all clearly spelled out in the constitutions and norms. The Legion of Christ works systematically to mold you into the person they want you to be. Whatever doesn't fit inside the cookie cutter, is to be eradicated through gradual formation and personal direction given by your superiors. The Legion told you what to think on every issue and topic that you might encounter in your religious life. They told you how you should feel about things, what your innermost desires should be, what facial expressions you should show or hide. They even told you when you can go to the bathroom and how you should urinate (LC's are forbidden from using urinals). There isn't enough room here to explain all of the violations of one's personal dignity and autonomy. Archbishop O'Brien summarized it very succinctly and accurately.

Source

Provocative Title!

Our Father, who art in bed: A Naive and Sentimental Dubliner in the Legion of Christ by J. Paul Lennon.

Before dismissing this book for the title (and maybe for the author), Exlcblogger would like to give it a read and let you know if it is interesting as well as provocative.



Check it out and buy it on Amazon.com by clicking icon on the left of this page.

Tidbits from Oak Leaves I

From Oak Leaves

“Familia”–a Regnum Christi Story

Many Catholic churches use “Familia,” which is for many people an entry into the Regnum Christi movement. Here’s a story about how the movement sought to drive out the founders of that apostolate, Paul and Libbie Sellors. They wrote the materials before it was adopted by the movement, and sought to retain access to them. A court gave that to them, and they’re promoting it under a new name, Together! But that’s not the end of the story, as that first link will tell you.

I was involved in one Regnum Christi apostolate–without being a member. I became involved in College COMPASS through some students at Rice, was invited to speak to a COMPASS gathering in Europe in 2005, helped coordinate a COMPASS national gathering in Houston, and served for a while on the COMPASS advisory board. I stayed for a few days at the Legionary seminary in Rome, and have visited the Legionary seminary in Cheshire, CT. I found the Legionaries I knew to be open to the criticism I gave (they needed to be more upfront with folks about it being a Regnum Christi apostolate, they should not be pressuring students to “incorporate” into RC until at the end of their college years, they should “go in the front door” when starting on a campus or in a diocese, etc.). But there were a lot of things I found very odd about it–including the segregation of men and women (a week before the Houston conference the COMPASS folks were told by the Legion that they couldn’t have men and women stay in the same hotel–some of the students laughed at that and said, “Well, in Europe they had us stay in different countries!”).

Comments on a youtube

The following are comments posted on youtube on a news item that was covered here some time ago--the local Connecticut news story concerning abuse in the LC seminary.

If I may speak, charges have not been corroborated... YET. I have never been in relationship with the Legion except to go onto retreats where they attempted to recruit me. I can assure you, though. I know of numerous individuals, all under the age of 28, who relate stories shockingly similar to one another in detail (threats, abuse etc.(, yet they know of noone else's story but their own. Often it takes years to come to grips with this type of abuse. I assure you, it will come out.(cont'd)

And

Each of the individuals I personally know, are very afraid to say anything, on top of struggling to make sense of the abuse, as well as the silence imposed on them from every direction. It's a closed community, where members are encouraged to report on one another. Nothing can be said internally without some form of disciplinary action being taken, if the comments shed negative light on the community. I could tell you stories. You won't like them.

These guys....!

Legionaries of Christ Visitor Comments

"It is all true! The legion is deceptive, manipulative, secretive and militant in their execution. I lived it for FIVE years. I was a consecrated member in the Regnum Christi female section, "3GF" otherwise known as "el tercer grado." After leaving I felt used and guilty, but another ex-member visited me and said she felt the same. I have recently started talking about my experience with a psychologist and have come to terms with the church.My life is on track again and so I am very happy."

"I spent nine years with the Legion and was treated well until the final year. Then I was given 24 hours to pack my bags. Not a word of thanks or a hand shake. I've heard nothing, but bad news. The Legion seems to be a whole different organization from the outside. Good luck in your work."

"Thank you for the information on your site regarding the Legionaries of Christ [LOC]. One of my daughters is now in the 'movement.' She and my younger daughter were both targeted and recruited while at college. They were attending 'retreats' for Catholic students and very friendly recruiters encouraged them to join. They were given a 'spiritual director' (lay person), which is not in accordance with church general policy. My elder daughter was very out going, friendly and the light of our family, but idealistic and vulnerable. After becoming involved with LOC though, she became secretive, non communicative, filled with negative self images and very driven toward religiosity. She then had to see if she 'had a vocation' and spent three years with this 'spiritual direction' while at college and later two years of indoctrination with the group. Against all pleas she eventually left the country to continue with the group and now does not visit home, though I can send letters. I worry about her mental and spiritual health."

From Rick Ross' site.

Exlcblogger is Amazed and Scandalized!

From a comment by Anonymous on Fish in a Barrel:

We saw situations where the kids from Conquest and Challenge were sent, that were artificially constructed (without the kids knowledge) so they would be guaranteed to succeed. For instance, we were offered money by a benefactor to listen to a Conquest presentation and then make a donation of the benefactors money, but from our checking account. Thereby the kids believing that they had made another successful presentation. This is called "formation".

Wow! And ouch!