Regnum Christi Day Bribery Collection

From a comment on Life-after-rc.com on the Jason Berry article.

Once a year RC members worldwide and any others participating in "Regnum Christi Day" (celebrated on Feast of Christ the King - the last Sunday of the liturgical year) are asked to contribute to a collection "for the needs of the worldwide Church". Here is the intro to the set of instructions pertaining to this collection:

“To all Organizers of Regnum Christi Day

Dear Friends in Christ,
As you know, it is our custom on Regnum Christi Day to take up a collection that is forwarded to the general director in Rome to be used for whatever Church need he chooses. We forward the full content of the collection without deducting anything for the expenses of the RC Day. This is a beautiful way of expressing our solidarity with our general director’s intentions, and previously Nuestro Padre sometimes remitted the full amount directly to the Holy Father for his needs, further expressing the Movement's unity with the Church."

The instructions are very detailed so I'll just highlight the main ones: 1) All checks, as well as money orders from cash collected, should be made payable to "Legion of Christ", 2) The collection should be totaled and the total e-mailed to the Legion the evening of CTK, and 3) The funds are to be mailed to the General Director's attn. at the Legion of Christ's Thornwood address the very next day (Monday). Donors would be issued a receipt, etc.

In previous years our Section Ass't had represented to us that the funds were presented personally to the Holy Father to determine the best use. It was only in the past couple of years that I saw actual instructions disclosing the "best use" decision to be the General Director's and NOT the Holy Father.

I now realize that the "Regnum Christi Day" collection has probably been funding the Legion's bribery machine, arriving as it does right at the start of Advent (so plenty of time to purchase those $1,000 hams, whiskey and other items for the Christmas baskets). Looks like the lid has been blown on this particular financial shenanigan as well - I'd be curious to see how much the LC collects this year.

Posted by: Still RC - For Now, Anyway July 20, 2009 at 03:56 PM

Don't Throw it All Away

Relatives Challenge Woman's Will Leaving Estate To Catholic Church Order

By DAVE ALTIMARI The Hartford Courant

June 28, 2009

When Gabrielle Mee died in May 2008 on the Greenville, R.I., campus of the Legionaries of Christ, her caregivers mourned the loss of the order's "grandmother."

Leaders of the secretive Roman Catholic order rushed from Connecticut and New York to pay their final respects. Six of her consecrated "sisters" carried her plain wooden coffin to the cemetery where she was buried next to her husband, Timothy Mee.

None of her family attended the service for Mee, who was 96 when she died. In fact, many of her relatives didn't find out that Gabrielle Mee had died until nearly a year later when a letter from the Legionaries' lawyer arrived, notifying them that the Probate Court in North Smithfield, R.I., was about to administer her will.

What relatives discovered is that since the mid-1990s Gabrielle Mee steadily turned over real estate and money — upwards of $7.5 million — to the Legionaries of Christ, which is headquartered in Orange, Conn.

Stunned family members are accusing the church of taking advantage of a lonely, deeply religious older woman. They have hired a Providence attorney to contest her will.

"As I started to research who this group really was it became clear that this is a cult that kept her isolated," said Mary Lou Dauray, Mee's goddaughter.

Although it is difficult to overturn a will, the family is hoping the order's sex scandal involving its founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, will be taken into consideration. The Courant reported in 1997 that Degollado was accused of molesting at least nine boys, aged 10 to 16, in seminaries in Spain and Italy in the 1950s and '60s.

And just earlier this year it was revealed that Degollado had fathered an illegitimate child, followed by the news that Pope Benedict XVI was ordering a papal investigation of the Legionaries of Christ. Degollado died in 2008 at age 87.

Family members believe that if Gabrielle Mee — who had received Holy Communion every day of her life since she was 12 years old — knew about the sex scandal and Vatican investigation, she would not have made the church her beneficiary. They are hoping to convince the probate judge of that.
....
Family members are expected to ask the judge to hold a full hearing.None of the family is named in the will. Sherman said that would allow him to subpoena bank records and depose people.

The Dauray family — with many members living in Rhode Island — acknowledge that they didn't try to visit Mee often.

They don't want the Legionaries to end up with all her money, even if the family doesn't get any.

"Her money should go to a cause not involved with a cult," Mary Lou Dauray said. "Not necessarily us but to some charity."

READ THE REST HERE (3 pages)

Another Campaign Dinner?

Too bad the date has passed. A grand GALA at the Waldorf Astoria to support the Millionaires of Christ. A fitting post script: the Legion of Christ priest who started this annual fundraiser/elbow rubber, Fr. W.S., has left the Legion.

Image source.

An Ingenious Solution

Sylvia Dorham is the founder of a new fundraising effort called Legion Supply, which has been quietly and effectively providing Legionaries and consecrated women with necessities ranging from shaving cream and hair gel to three-ring binders and vacuum cleaners. Some of these items are acquired at no cost. Others are purchased in large quantities at greatly reduced prices.

“We’re like Ruth who walked behind Boaz and gleaned the leftovers from the fields. Just by gleaning, she was able to provide for herself and her mother in law. That’s how we hope to provide the things the Legion needs as well,” says Sylvia Dorham.

What We Do:

Provide the Legionaries of Christ with the practical essentials they need to love God, serve others and build the Church.

How We Do It:

Finding gifts-in-kind from corporate excess
Buying in bulk, wholesale quantities
Fundraising

How You Can Help:

Put us in CONTACT with organizations who have excess materials to donate.
Make a CONTRIBUTION.
Purchase a CELEBRATION CARD.
Participate in fundraising efforts.
Tell us if you see an unmet need.

At this, they are good!

Exlcblogger has been invited to the Legionaries of Christ profession mass!

Here is the invitation sent by first class, USA Nonprofit org. mail:


And here is the lovely RSVP asking for money:

The latest plea from Fr. Bannon

With stories of how mass intentions are handled...maybe a bit daring.

(experiments with the new scanner-- for now, click on the pages above to see them larger).

See you in hell?

St Joe's Bulletin features some mass intentions for the repose of the soul of the founder.

Many parents of LCs sent mass intentions to the Legion for their loved ones. Exlcblogger knows of Legion brothers who were told to toss the mass intention notes and not even record them after taking the money. Wasn't there some saint who said that priests who mess with mass intentions will go to hell?

Imagine Exlcblogger's surprise...

when a letter from Fr. Anthony Bannon showed up at Exlcblogger's mailbox. Just a few days after the desperate plea, the orthodox Legion of Christ sends out its latest round of gambling: July 4th Sweepstakes. A bet, a wager, gambling. What would Mr. Bennett think?

Dear Friend,
Our Cheshire seminary is filled with young men of deep faith....
When you open your heart (and your bank account) to our seminarians, you also open it to Christ.

Wow, Exlcblogger never knew that.

There is a picture on the letter of ordinations to the Legion from 2007. Those have been seen before, of groups from years past where Exlcblogger can pick out the faces of many priests who have left the Legion. But that would be naughty.

It's a rich man's world...

While you read this, click on the video and listen.

Exlcblogger just got an URGENT letter from Fr. Anthony Bannon, LC (it was stamped URGENT on the envelope):

Dear Friend,
A finacial emergency has hit the Legion of Christ and I must send an urgent plea for help.

Must Exlcblogger keep typing?