Tag: Legionaries

Legion of Pelagius?

Thanks for everyone’s prayers. They’re much appreciated!
I’ve managed to sneak away and find a location where I can access the Internet unrestricted a couple times a week. Usually my wife and I message back and forth, but tonight I wish to respond to Michelle’s recent comment to this old thread. The reason being, she brings up a couple of points I have heard from other apologists of LC/RC, including a few high-profile ones.
Michelle writes:

[God] led me to RC. I joined because I fell in love with FAMILIA training.

Here’s the thing. FAMILIA wasn’t invented by the RC. Rather, it was taken over by the RC – the programme’s founders given the boot – as reported here.

So what if the founder Maciel fell from grace? He won’t be the first or last.

If it was just a matter of the founder falling from grace, this controversy would be over by now. As we have seen over the past nine months, there’s some deeper issues troubling orthodox Catholics:
1 – It’s become more-and-more clear that the LC/RC is an embodiement of the mindset that allowed Maciel to live his “double life”. Thus the movement’s charism and methodology are suspect.
2 – The lack of adequate apology or recognition of Maciel’s earlier victims by the movement’s leadership is very troubling, especially since the victims were for years made out to be liars by members of the movement. So orthodox Catholics recognize that the movement still owes a dept of justice to Maciel’s victims.
Until these two issues are resolved, orthodox Catholics will continue to hold the entire movement as suspect. So will the world. Hence any good the LC/RC tries to accomplish will be overshadowed by the great evil perpetuated by Maciel and those who covered up for him and defended him.
Thus to answer LC/RC apologists asking: “Why can’t we just focus on the movement’s good works?” Good works alone won’t cut it. We’re Catholic, not Pelagians. As long as grave evils remain unaccounted for, the good is poisoned.

Fr. Euteneuer tried to warn Legionaries

Human Life International’s Fr. Thomas Euteneuer is a prophet. I was re-reading his response to Fox News’ Fr. Jonathan Edwards, LC over L’Affair Hannity a couple of years ago. In retrospect, this line from Fr. Euteneuer’s response really stands out:

The church sex abuse scandal was not just about homosexual and predatory priests. It was about clerical negligence and silence on issues that not only affect people’s souls but also ruin people’s lives. It is highly unusual that you or anyone else would want a priest to be silent on issues that affect the salvation of souls.

Wow! Did Fr. Euteneuer realize at the time what he was saying? Or was it entirely the Holy Spirit speaking truth through him?
Just as troubling is a second point Fr. Euteneuer’s raises in his response, albeit couched in his polemical use of the term “politically-correct sissies”. The point is that Fr. Jonathan was no ordinary Legionary priest at the time. Besides being a Fox News analyst, Fr. Jonathan was rector of the Legion’s seminary in Rome, if I recall correctly. This means that Fr. Jonathan’s mindset was instrumental in forming Legion priests from all over the world.
In retrospect, this may help explain why the Legion has for the most part been silent concerning Fr. Maciel’s alleged molestation of former seminarians.

A sense of dissolution

In the combox of the recent schism thread, reader Richard Sutcliff (who has graciously taken on the role of resident SandPounder), raises the following question:

Here is an entirely hypothetical question, but one which I would like Pete to address.
We talk about the possibility of a rump of LCs going into schism if the Pope doesn’t rule their way.
What are the possibilities of the opposite happening, that some of the Legion’s critics refuse to accept Rome’s verdict were the Vatican (again, this is hypothetical) to allow the Legion to continue on?

In my experience? I’ve never seen it happen. Certain individuals may abandon Rome for the Eastern Orthodox Churches, evangelical Protestantism, or even atheism – but I’ve never seen a formal schism over something like this. So I consider it unlikely.
I also consider it increasingly unlikely that the Holy See won’t act in some in some dramatic way to dissolve or refound the movement, especially in light of growing allegations like the following from reputable media sources: “Among the conclusions that he will present in breve to Rome, Blazquez [one of the apostolic visitators] seems to understand clearly that the the intermediate command of the Legion knew about the double life of Maciel as well as as some scandals which occured in Spain, and not only did they do nothing to stop him, they silenced some of the victims.”
If this allegation is true – that the Legion’s middle leadership knew of Maciel’s double-life earlier, but continued to cover up for him and attack the victims (the moral equivalent, I feel, of World War II Germans hiding Nazis in their attics) – then I don’t know how the Holy See can avoid decapitating and dissolving the movement.
Moreover, as one of my former canon law professors use to say: “Rome is never hasty unless you bring the Church hierarchy into disrepute, especially in financial matters. Then she acts swiftly and the consequences are always painful.” There’s no question among many orthodox Catholics outside the LC/RC that Maciel’s actions and the movement’s response have brought the Church and Pope John Paul II’s legacy into some disrepute. Especially since apologists for the movement continue to link its credibility to that of the late pontiff.
Among the Legion’s critics, both internal and external, one also sees a growing consensus for dissolution of the congregation in lieu of attempting reform (although critics are divided on whether the Holy See should permit the movement’s current members to attempt a refoundation). I get the same feeling I had back in February, when Catholics from across the faith spectrum came to a consensus that the Legion was incapable of handling the crisis internally, and that intervention from the Holy See was necessary. Yeah, pro-Legion apologists kicked up a fuss at the time, accusing critics of lacking faith in the Church. When momentum continued to grow anyway, the same apologists tried to spin it into saying that any outside intervention or investigation should come from Cardinal Rode. In contrast to these pro-Legion apologists, Pope Benedict agreed with the sensus fidelium.
Having said that, I think the greater danger for the Legion right now is that orthodox Catholics won’t accept a refoundation should it come about. Why? Because we’re parents. It’s one thing for us to accept the Holy See’s verdict that a movement can be refounded, but quite another to involve our own families in the refoundation. There are other options for orthodox Catholics, you know.
Which is why, to give a potential refoundation a fighting chance at taking root,the Holy See must do three things in my opinion:
1 – Impose several deep reforms upon the movement.
2 – Appoint outside superiors to implement these reforms.
3 – Apologize publicly to Maciel’s victims and offer them reasonable restitution.

Jesus loves pride

Giselle, RC is not my life and ExLC are all discussing an alleged incident reported by one of Giselle’s readers:

NEWSFLASH: The women in a certain [formerly thriving] section were just visited by their new priest. In addition to the other introductory information he passed along, he praised them for their fidelity, sadly noting that much of the RC leadership had defected out of sheer pride. They were there when everything was good, when the accolades were rolling in, when the limelight was on them. Once the road got a little rocky, they threw in the towel — since they don’t know how to deal with crosses.

Now I haven’t had time to check sources, and I find the reported incident a little strange given Fr. Scott Reilly, LC’s following recent assurance to U.S. RC:

Understandably, in the midst of the present circumstances there have been a few of our members who have felt that they can serve God better by separating themselves from the Legion and Regnum Christi; others have opted temporarily to step aside to see and evaluate, waiting also to see the outcome of the Visitation. The vast majority has opted to continue doing as much good as they can from where they are, knowing that our time here on earth is limited, and trusting that with the guidance of the Church whatever needs to be corrected in time, and whatever is good will be confirmed. Each one has made his or her choice before God, moved by their love for him and their desire to serve him to the best of their ability, and for no other consideration. Let us have great Christian understanding and respect for all. Each of us must presume the best and purest intention in the other, pray for each other, and recognize that each one of us suffers and recovers in different ways and at different times.

But for the sake of making a point, let’s assume there are witnesses to corroborate the alleged incident. Pride can be a good thing. It depends upon the context and how the word is being used.
Growing up in the French Catholic school system, one of the first lessons a young student learns is that romantic-based languages often have two words for one English counterpart. This is because the English word contains both meanings. To understand which meaning is being used, one has to look at the context.
Law is an example I deal with every day. In French the word law can translate into loi (or lex in Latin). Each of the Ten commandments is an example of loi. Or the word law can translate as droit (ius in Latin), meaning a system of jurisprudence or law in the broader sense. The American legal system is an example of droit.
The same is true of pride. Depending upon the context, pride translates into French as either orgueil or fierté. Orgueil is the type of pride that denotes arrogance. For example, refusing to apologize for having slandered victims of sexual abuse is an example of pride that translates into French as orgueil. This type of pride is one of the seven deadly sins warned against in the Bible.
In contrast, fierté is a type of pride through which one identifies with the goodness of something. I suspect it may be related to the French word foi, which means “faith”. A couple examples of fierté come to mind. “Displaying the same pride in his Catholic faith that had been instilled in him during his Marine Corps training, the pro-life priest went on national television and defended Catholic teaching on contraception.” Or “A proud Catholic mother, Mary resigned from her apostolate to devote more time to her children’s needs.”
There is nothing wrong with this type of pride. In fact God loves this type of pride, as we read in Psalm 47:4 (“[The Lord] chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob whom he loves.”) Like any good father, Jacob took pride in his descendants, the Jewish people, whom God chose as His own. Far be it for me to accuse Our Lord and this venerated Old Testament Patriarch of a deadly sin. I’m not that proud. I am, however, proud of our Old Testament heritage as Catholics. Hence the difference between orgueil or fierté.
So faced with this type of situation, I would guess that a certain amount of fierté would motivate a person to leave. After all, not apologizing to one’s victims for having unjustly tarnished their reputation is an example of orgueil that few Catholics wish to identify with.