Why Mama Maurita is part of the story

In her inaugural post, RC Is Not My Life responds to my last entry about Fr. Maciel making special exceptions for his mother (Mama Maurita). Here's what RC Is Not My Life says:

At first I thought, you know, let's leave Mama Maurita out of this. But then reading the post later it just dawned on me the number of cases of favoritism I saw in the Legion. The Mama Maurita exception, while problematic, was just the tip of the iceberg.

And just like that, as instantaneously as I came under their spell, the scales came falling off of my eyes. I woke up. I could see the Legion for what they were. And then my entire life came crashing down. So many questions. So many red flags I did not see.

I totally understand where RC Is Not My Life is coming from. Initially, I too debated whether to drag Mama Maurita's name into the debate over Fr. Maciel. While many wonder whether she is material for sainthood, nobody seems to question that she was a devout Catholic woman. Is it her fault that her son grew into a fraud and a pervert?

Probably not. However, Mama Maurita is part of the story. Not because she gave birth to Maciel, but because he and the Legion's public relations machine have dragged her into the story, much like they did Pope John Paul II. Fr. Maciel's critics may have raised her name in the most recent debate, but this is long after Legion sources used pseudo-messianic language to put forward her cause for beatification (click here). That and much of what we thought we knew about Mama Maurita comes from Fr. Maciel - a man who lied about his priesthood, his dedication to God, and possibly his mother. So she is now part of the story. And Catholics looking at her beatification process are trying to sift fact from fiction.

This is the spiritual legacy of Fr. Maciel's spiritual deception. And by covering up the deception - and not being more forthcoming with the truth and an apology to the founder's victims - those closest to the founder find their reputations singed by his deception. It's not unlike what happened with former U.S. president Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinski scandal.

Clinton survived with his presidency tarnished, but still intact. However, his sexual escapades and subsequent coverup destroying the presidential aspirations of his closest advisers. Just ask Al Gore and Hillary. Despite not having participated in the adulterous act, they got pulled into the scandal when the president was less-than-forthcoming about the truth. Clinton survived the scandal by crippling future presidential runs of his wife and his vice-president. They took the fall, not for Clinton's illicit sex, but for the subsequent coverup.

This is similar to what's happening with those close to Fr. Maciel. In not being more forthcoming with information, in allowing Catholics to discover what's happening through the secular media rather than Church sources, Fathers Corcuera, Garza, Álvarez and others at the top now become part Fr. Maciel's story.