A Saint’s words concerning the current situation

Several readers have asked my opinion about a new LC/RC prayer book, which reportedly continues to source Maciel. Giselle has aptly summarized the situation here. Likewise, Changobeer (the pseudonymous priest who spent 30 years with the Legion, and who was until last year one of Maciel’s most vocal defenders) warned about this impending controversy in a blog last August:

At the same time, a book recently distributed internally, ‘Cristo al Centro’, offers an anthology of Fr. Maciel’s writings and sayings – unindexed and sometimes slightly retouched – mixed with quotations from other, less dubious sources as a thinly disguised attempt to revindicate the Founder’s contribution to LC spirituality. Now we can quote the Founder without mentioning his name, read some of the things he said and wrote without that direct and oh-so-uncomfortable reference to his person. They’re already talking about revisiting the writings of Fr. Maciel some years down the road when all this ‘persecution’ has blown over…

This ties into Changobeer’s earlier critique of the “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater” argument (click here). Since Changobeer and Giselle have exposed the Legion’s attempt to hide Maciel in the rear ranks, I prefer to address this controversy from a personal angle:
Quite simply, I never could get into Maciel’s writing. I tried reading material recommended to me by LC friends. But gave up after a couple of pages. What little I read was tedious, boring and inconsequential to my life as a Catholic. Which is kinda weird given that I was excited by the Code of Canon Law, not to mention arcane legal texts. I’m not saying others didn’t get anything out of Maciel’s writing, I simply could not, and was not going to pretend.
At the time, I chalked it up to being a canon law student. Many in my profession had serious doubts and reservations about Maciel and the Legion even before the original accusations became widely known. The reservations included the rumored Vow of Charity, superiors acting as confessor, the alleged raiding of other movements’ seminarians, not being able to identify a clear charism, not knowing how the Legion contributed to the wider Church community.
Maciel’s writings never clarified any of these concerns; his writings simply obfuscated them. So I walked away conflicted between my non-canonist friends in the Catholic apologetics movement who swore by the Legion as the new ecclesiastical movement most loyal to John Paul II and Catholic orthodoxy, and my friends and trusted mentors in the canon law world who were waiving red flags from their experience with other new ecclesiastical movements that had gone astray. Two things held me back from critiquing the Legion sooner: Pope John Paul II’s support for Maciel, and the many pious lay Catholics I met through Regnum Christi.
That being said, I had the opposite reaction to the writings of St. Bruno – founder of the Carthusian order. I find his writings inspiring, accessible, and clear. They are as easy on the eyes and the spirit as blueberry pie and chilled Chimay beer on the tongue. At the same time they are deeply rooted in Christian prayer and intellectual relfection. Which is why the Carthusian charism continues, 900 years later, unreformed by the Church.
Here is an excerpt from one of St. Bruno’s most famous letters, which in my opinion provides sure guidance vis-a-vis many of the issues surrounding the Maciel controversy:

Contemplation, to be sure has fewer offspring than does action, and yet Joseph and Benjamin were the favourites of their father. This life is the best part chosen by Mary, never to be taken away from her. It is also that extraordinary beautiful Shunammite, the only one in Israel to take care of David and keep him warm in his old age. I could only wish, brother, that you too, had such an exclusive love for her, so that lost in her embrace, you burned with divine love. If only a love like this would take possession of you! Immediately, all the glory in the world would seem like so much dirt to you, whatever the smooth words and false attractions she offered to deceive you. Wealth and its concomitant anxieties you would cast off without a thought, as a burden to the freedom of the spirit. You would want no more of pleasure either, harmful as it is to both body and soul.
You know very well who it is that says to us: “He who loves the world, and the things of the world, such as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and ambition, does not have the love of the Father abiding in him”; also “Friendship with the world is enmity with God”. What could be so evil and destructive then, so unfortunate, or so much the mark of a crazed and headstrong spirit, as to put yourself at odds with the one whose power you cannot resist and whose righteous vengeance you could never hope to escape? Surely we are not stronger than he! Surely you do not think he will leave unpunished in the end all the affronts and contempt he receives, merely because his patient solicitude now incites us to repentance! For what could be more perverted, more reckless and contrary to nature and right order, than to love the creature more than the Creator, what passes away more than what lasts forever, or to seek rather the goods of earth than those of heaven?
So, what do you think ought to be done, dear friend? What else, but to trust in the exhortation of God himself and to believe in the truth which cannot deceive? For he calls out to everyone, saying: “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest”. Is it not, after all, a most ridiculous and fruitless labour to be swollen with lust, continually to be tortured with anxiety and worry, fear and sorrow, for the objects of your passion? Is there any heavier burden than to have one’s spirit thus cast down into the abyss from the sublime peak of its natural dignity – the veritable quintessence of right order gone awry? Flee, my brother, from these unending miseries and disturbances. Leave the raging storms of this world for the secure and quiet harbour of the port.
For you know very well what wisdom in person has to say to us: “Whoever does not renounce all that he has, cannot be my disciple”.

It is well worth reading the whole letter, by clicking here. Why not make a donation to the nearest Carthusian monastery, asking the good monks to pray for Maciel’s victims as well as those who have been harmed by the movement. The address for their North American monastery is:
Charterhouse of the Transfiguration
Carthusian Monastery
1084 Ave Maria Way
ARLINGTON, Vermont 05250
USA

13-year-old faces damnation

Former LC seminarian/brother Bonum, Verum and Pulcrum recently blogged several allegations surrounding his experience of being shipped off to a Legion apostolic school as a young teen. Particularly gripping is the following, which I’ve broken up into paragraphs. The first paragraph describes Bonum’s homesickness, the second how communication reportedly was cut off between the teen and his family, and the third delves into what many would consider spiritual extortion:

I was thirteen years old and I was heartbroken. First day on the ground there in New Hampshire and the first of many heartbreaks had arrived in full force. I was so homesick I felt physically ill for the first four months or so. To make matters worse the fathers and brothers intercepted phone calls from my parents for the first two weeks, telling them not to call for awhile in order to let me settle in. They also opened all my mail before I got it in order to “safeguard my vocation”. As if my “vocation” was so fragile that I wouldn’t be able to handle a bit of bad news from home.
My letters to my folks were also screened before being sent. I submitted a letter to my mom and dad and the brother returned it to me and chastised me for submitting it closed. He told me that there were no secrets here and that from now on I was to leave all my envelopes open in order for the priests and brothers to read them first. This was a crucial time for them to start indoctrinating me and the other boys that had arrived.
We were told from the get go that our discernment process was over. God had led us to the Legion and it was safe to assume that was how he let us know that we all had vocations, all of us! We were told, in no uncertain terms that Christ had entrusted souls to our care. We were told that failure to remain in the Legion would result in the loss of those souls and certainly our own as well, was that something we could live with?

Read Bonum’s entire story by clicking here. I believe Bonum’s experience also answers former Legionary Jack Keogh’s (aka Monk) protest that “it’s gross overstatement to suggest that [LC/RC] ‘stake their souls’ on Maciel’s spiritual path.”
Anyway, I’ll leave it to readers to judge what’s ‘beyond the pale” for a 13-year-old receiving religious instruction while away from his family. At that age, my biggest worry was that the neighbors would think I’m a geek because my parents prohibited me for religious reasons from listening to Iron Maiden:

UPDATE: Recognize what was done to victims, says Holy See

[UPDATE: Zenit has published an excellent, fair and balanced story on the Holy See’s press release. The story even stresses the paragraph that I had quoted below. You can read the Zenit story by clicking here. What’s curious is that in searching Zenit’s archives, I find no coverage of Fr. Sada’s apology earlier this year. Nor can I find any mention of the Legion’s recent, widely-distributed news release concerning their letter to Maciel’s son. Thus I’m pleasantly surprised by the good coverage Zenit gave to the Holy See’s press statement on this topic.]
Original entry:
There was no direct mention of the Legion of Christ in yesterday’s press statement by the Holy See “concerning cases of the sexual abuse of minors in ecclesiastical institutions.” However, in addressing the scandal in other parts of Europe – namely, according to the statement, “the German Jesuit Province (the first to be involved, through the case of the Canisius-Kolleg in Berlin), the German Episcopal Conference, the Austrian Episcopal Conference and the Netherlands Episcopal Conference – the Holy See Press Office offers us insights into Pope Benedict’s thinking on the issue:

The main ecclesiastical institutions concerned […] have faced the emergence of problem with timely and decisive action. They have demonstrated their desire for transparency and, in a certain sense, accelerated the emergence of the problem by inviting victims to speak out, even when the cases involved date from many years ago. By doing so they have approached the matter ‘on the right foot’, because the correct starting point is recognition of what happened and concern for the victims and the consequences of the acts committed against them.

To read the Holy See’s press statement, please click here.

March 10 – St. Bruno, hope for LC/RC, their families and former members

Found this on Jean Heimann’s excellent Catholic Fire blog. It is an excellent bio of St. Bruno, founder of the Carthusians, and includes important information such as:
– Bruno was one of the most remarkable scholars and teacher of his time: “…a prudent man whose word was rich in meaning.”
– His Order enjoys the distinction of never becoming unfaithful to the spirit of its founder, never needing a reform.
– St. Bruno is the patron of diabolic possession and Ruthenia.
You can read the entire bio here. Here is a translation of St. Bruno’s famous letter to his friend Raoul Le Verd. And this link takes you to several prayers to St. Bruno.

March 10 – Prayers for James’s brother

I hope you will join Giselle and me today in praying and fasting for Maciel’s victims. Today is particularly significant as Maciel’s birthday, since in previous years the movement went all out in celebrating the founder’s birthday movement-wide.
Reader James Bremmer pipes in with some good information in the comments section of a previous blog entry:

March 18, is the anniversary of Maciel’s baptism. Traditionally, in the Legion, this day was also celebrated as a first class feastday. I just spoke with my brother in the Legion’s house of formation in Connecticut, he has been doing a Eucharistic hour everyday since the apostolic visitation began, praying for the success of the visitation. Not all Legionaries are bad and should not be painted with that brush, some are there to serve the church.

You are not the first concerned friend of family member to whom I have spoken. Over the last couple weeks I have heard several stories of people on the inside who “get it,” and who are praying that Rome successfully sorts everything out. I am told that the incest allegations have shocked even many who had remained serene up until now.
As the old cliche goes, I have some good news and I have bad news if the the Holy See refounds the Legion. FIrst the bad news: It will be priests like your brother who have the toughest road ahead. While those priests who played a major role in Maciel’s coverup will likely find themselves sidelined, while other priests in the rank-and-file leave for dioceses or other orders, priests like your brother are left to pick up the pieces.
It’s a demanding task as they will be required to simultaneously bring justice to Maciel’s victims, restore trust among the laity, reassure their own concerned and disappointed laity, show obedience in letter and spirit to legitimate Church authority, and win over hard-core and old guard Maciel loyalists among their priestly ranks. Not an easy task.
However, the good news – according to Pope Paul VI in Mysterium Fidei – comes from the fruits of daily Eucharistic hour. Christ will be with your brother to strengthen him, and the Church present to guide him along. However, if I may be so bold as to make a recommendation, your brother will likely need his hour of daily Eucharistic adoration even more after the AV than during it.
So let’s add James’s brother to the list of people we pray and fast for today. Let us also agree to March 18 as another day of prayer and fasting for Maciel’s victims and members currently caught in the system. Let us pray that God gives current members the opportunity to see this scandal through the eyes of the victims, as well as the humility to sincerely apologize and offer these victims restitution. And let us pray He grants the victims the grace to heal and forgive.