Tag: abuse

Hiding one’s crimes under a bushel basket

Deidre Mundy of the Mommy Writes blog (aka Mouse at American Papist) offers some trenchant commentary about the latest scandal surrounding Marcial Maciel and the Legion of Christ’s handling of the situation. Particularly poignant is her following observation:

This is another place where the Legion is falling short. When faced with the evidence of Maciel’s crimes, they’re NOT providing a countersign. They’re not reaching out to the victims or engaging in public penance. Instead of shining a floodlight to illuminate the darkness, they’re trying to hide the crimes under a bushel basket.

Please read her entire commentary here.

Maciel sexually abused two of his sons, CNN reports

Some more bad news for the Legion of Christ, shortly after Juan Vaca (one of Maciel’s first victims to come forward publicly) reportedly dismisses recent LC/RC apologies as vague and mere media strategy (click here).
In a live Spanish-language radio interview earlier today, Jose Raul Gonzalez (one of Maciel’s alleged sons) accuses the Legion of Christ/ Regnum Christi founder of having sexually abused Raul and his brother. According to notes taken by Aaron during the interview, Raul also alleges that although Fr. Carlos Skertchly (the priest who met with Raul on behalf of current LC Director General Fr. Alvaro Corcuera) “talks about Christian charity,” Fr. Skertchly “rejects Raul’s requests for money as his inheritance and also in compensation for 8 YEARS OF SEXUAL ABUSE OF RAUL AND HIS BROTHER BY MACIEL.” You can read Aaron’s summary translation here and here.
Additionally, CNN Mexico has posted its report (in Spanish) here. Additionally, Youtube has uploaded part of the radio interview (Starts about 90 seconds into the first part):
Part 1

Part 2

American reaction goes Espanol

Many commentators on the Legion meltdown have noted that the American reaction was the most explosive. Actually, the American reaction was more of a ‘Critics of the Legion from across the world, recognizing the American organizational genius and the potential to reach a wider audience, converged on the American Papist blog where much hearty discussion ensued with Legion apologists’ reaction. But let’s just call it the American reaction for simplicity’s sake.
What made the American reaction so nuclear, besides the worldwide audience, were several factors:
– The seriousness of the revelations concerning Fr. Maciel
– The fact Legion apologists were forced to defend their movement in a setting where they did not outnumber their critics 10-to-1.
– The fact both sides converged on the same battlefield, namely American Papist.
The first point is obvious. As far as the second point, gang-style argument doesn’t work when the other side has equal numbers, which suddenly forces you to think about what you’re saying. (I got the impression during the debate that this was the first time many LC/RC members had given serious thought to their practices and methodology. For example, how many of you reading this blog, when the scandal first broke, thought this was only about Maciel and did not extend to the LC/RC movement as a whole?) Stock answers and conversation stoppers don’t go over as well when several sets of eyes are looking at them. As for the third point, blogging as a medium lends itself to the free exchange of ideas.
What I find interesting since the release of the Spanish letter to RC faithful is that all three conditions appear now in the Spanish-speaking world. Hispanics are not stupid. They’ve noticed the discrepancy between the U.S. letter to RC and the Spanish letter, in which the latter avoids direct mention of minor seminarians who first brought forward allegations of sexual abuse at the hands of Maciel.
Following the Spanish-language blogs today, the intensity and number of responses have gone AmP. And they include commentary from both sides. The main battlefield appears to be Jose Martinez’s El Trastevere, which has covered this story for some time. But check out the number and outrage expressed in the responses to this entry reproducing the Spanish letter.
Also take a good look at this spin-off entry, where Martinez challenges Spain’s RC director over the discrepancy concerning alleged abuse victims between American and Spanish versions of the letter. Reader comments are not as numerous as those of the parent entry (although that could change overnight). However, this second entry confirms that the issue has touched a nerve in the Spanish-speaking world, and that the reaction is not uniquely American.
On a side-note I found interesting, Spanish-speaking Legion apologists are presenting many of the same arguments that their American counterparts have long since jettisoned. In large part because these arguments were refuted convincingly during the AmP debates. So I encourage Spanish-speaking readers to make their way over there and share the knowledge they gained during the English-language debate. The American reaction has the potential to go Espanol.

What’s the frequency, Alvaro?

Several readers have asked me whether Jose Bonilla, the lawyer for three of Fr. Maciel’s alleged children, has a case against the Legionaries. Speaking as a canon lawyer, probably not. Fr. Maciel was a priest with a religious order. He was not supposed to own property personally, according to canon law, and most of what he raised was probably intended for the Legion, Regnum Christi, or various other apostolates – not for him personally, and certainly not for the support of his clandestine mistress and children.
Nevertheless, there might be a case if the children can substantiate rumors they were abused by Maciel. But this would be based upon their status as abuse victims, not as Fr. Maciel’s children.
In terms of the civil courts, I don’t know. I’m not a civil lawyer nor am I familiar with civil law in the Mexico, where these cases are reportedly being introduced. However, several readers have told me that Mexican civil law prohibits clergy from owning large amounts of property personally. So for the sake of the argument let’s exclude this possibility as well.
What’s left? Well, the court of public opinion.
From what Spanish-speaking readers are telling me, this has the potential to explode into South America’s Boston. Bonilla presents a perfect David behind who the secular press can rally as he faces down the Goliath of Legion secrecy, influence and power. The average person can sympathize and identify with him. Not because he’s a lawyer, but because he’s the loving father of a preschooler who suffered abuse is an Legion/RC-affiliated nursery school, for which he won a civil judgment after the school failed to cough up the accused perp.
Few media images break through the stereotype of litigators as cold, calculating, money-grubbing ambulance chasers. But a father crusading to stop the abuse suffered by his own child is one of them. Who would want their child to suffer the same horror? Show me a mother and father who, discovering their child had suffered such a horror, would not devote the rest of their life to taking down the system that allowed the abuse to happen? Thus as parents we are all Jose Bonilla – at least for the fifteen minutes in which we filter the story through the media.
And Fr. Alvaro, who appears desperate to reassure members that nothing is wrong, is struggling through his fifteen minutes as former Iraqi information minister Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf.
Which brings us to something else that strengthens Bonilla’s presentation before the court of public opinion: The Legion has allowed him to control the flow of information. In not fully disclosing the truth, in using vague terms to confirm only bits and pieces after the secular media reports it, the Legion is reacting to the scandal rather than guiding Catholics through it. This forces us to go to Bonilla and the secular media for information concerning the scandal.
We may question Bonilla’s presentation of the facts. Did Pope John Paul II really know these were Maciel’s children? We may wonder about some of the discrepancies in his presentation. How could the children, having received their First Holy Communion from Pope John Paul II, not have known their father was a priest until later in life? But with the Legion fog-tongued and stone-lipped (talk about a weird image!) even their most ardent apologists must turn to Bonilla for information about Maciel’s “double life”.

It’s about the victims, Fr. Alvaro

Over at Life After RC, Giselle posts a poignant reminder that this scandal is not about Fr. Maciel or the movement he founded. This scandal, and the strong emotions it fuels among ordinary people, is about Fr. Maciel’s victims. Especially since they were thrice-victimized: First through the sexual abuse they reportedly suffered. Second through the unjust persecution and tarnishing of their good name when they came forward with serious and substantial allegations. And third, through the Legion’s failure to apologize publicly to them when strong evidence of Fr. Maciel’s “double life” emerged in the media.
Which is why Giselle’s point is one we cannot forget. As new evidence surfaces about Fr. Maciel’s sexual exploits with young women, let us remember that Nuestro Padre’s first alleged victims were the young men who entrusted their spiritual formation to his care:

Rome/February 28, 1997
Mr. Clifford L. Teutsch
Managing Editor
The Hartford Courant
285 Broad Street
Hartford, CT 06115
Dear Mr. Teutsch,
Regarding the accusations made against me in the Hartford Courant of Sunday, February 23, I wish to state that in all cases they are defamations and falsities with no foundation whatsoever, since during the years these men were in the Legion never in any way did I commit those acts with them, nor did I make any such advances to them nor was the suggestion of such acts ever mentioned.
During the time that these men were in the Legion of Christ and even after they had left, I spared no sacrifice to help them as much as I could-as I have always done with every person the Lord has put under my care. I do not know what has led them to make these totally false accusations 20, 30 and 40 years after leaving the congregation. I am all the more surprised since I still have letters from some of them well into the 1970s in which they express their gratitude and our mutual friendship.
Despite the moral suffering that this has caused me I bear no ill will toward them. Rather I offer my pain and prayers for each one of them, in hope that they will recover their peace of soul and remove from their hearts whatever resentment has moved them to make these false accusations.
Yours respectfully in Christ,
Marcial Maciel, L.C.