Surfing the net before heading off to Mass this morning, I came across several blogs written by Catholics re-discovering their Catholicism after involvement with the LC or RC. Like Betty Duffy's story about The Dorito Eaters. In particular, I enjoyed these two paragraphs explaining why she adopted the name Dorito Eaters for her and three friends who she had met through Regnum Christi:
It's sort of funny to consider that the four of us met through Regnum Christi. Our girls' getaway used to be a weekend retreat or convention. Since the scandal with Father Maciel, we have continued to do Gospel Reflections on our own, though not as a part of RC. We still woke up each morning in Florida and said our morning prayers together. We still went to Mass and said our Rosaries. But it was sort of fun not to spend the weekend sitting in a hotel convention room listening to lay testimonies. It felt very rebellious.I remember a cousin of mine, once explaining to me why she didn't want to join Regnum Christi with me: "Sometimes I just want to sit on the couch and eat Doritos," she said. In light of Father Maciel's writings on Time and Eternity, I often feel guilty about doing anything that's not an apostolic activity. So I have devolved into a Dorito-eater. Hopefully, there will still be room in Eternity for me. My entire adult life as a Catholic has been tied up with Regnum Christi, and one of these days I'm going to write a post about how life has changed since I'm not really involved.
Catholic Teacher Man Adam Thompson has also blogged an excellent reflection re-interpreting his previous experience with the Legion, in which some Legionaries reportedly tried to convince him to drop out of college. What I found most interesting was how his mother and his Jesuit confirmation sponsor reacted to the situation:
The young Legionaries had such an awestruck reverence for the [Maciel]. It was really quite moving. We imagined ourselves in the presence of a truly holy man, a veritable Ignatius of Loyola or Francis of Assisi. I remember thinking there was a spiritual aura about the man. Consequently, I returned home from Europe full of zeal and fervor for the faith, not to mention an unshakable confidence in the Legion. When my Confirmation sponsor, a Jesuit priest, and my mother voiced concern about the Legion, I brushed aside their criticism as being simply misinformed or excessively protective, and advocated for the Legion as a priestly order akin to what the Jesuits used to be. This was hurtful to the priest, as I intended, and I greatly regret those words to this day. That should have been the first sign that something was amiss with the Legion, or at least its founder.
You can read Adam's full story here.
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