An anonymous reader wrote in the comments box below:
My wife is a member of RC, […] On the one hand, she is quite shocked about the revelations concerning Fr. Maciel and disappointed in the current LC leadership (at least at the top) for failing to come clean, but on the other hand she likes and admires the LC priests and RC members at the local level. As her husband, I can say that she has developed spiritually in positive ways since joining, though sometimes I fear she is too influenced by opinions she hears by those in authority in RC. (In my case, I’d say that my experiences with LC have been rather mixed.) Here is the dilemma I am facing: though not a member, I am involved in an RC apostolate with my wife, and the question I keep asking myself and my wife is, at what point do we cease being victims of a cover-up and become co-perpetrators of it? In other words, naturally we don’t tell the people whom we want to benefit by this apostolate about the allegations concerning Fr. Maciel or about the possibility that members of LC knew about Fr. Maciel’s actions. We have made non-RC friends through this apostolate; naturally we don’t tell them about the allegations. Do we have a duty to tell them?
One of the biggest allegations to surface during this scandal is that the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi (LC/RC) use their schools and apostolates as “recruiting mechanisms” for the LC seminary. Who is in charge of this seminary formation? The priests at the top, or those with who you and your wife rub shoulders at the local level?
Knowing what you now know about the Legion and its founder, and suspecting what you don’t know with moral certitude but nevertheless feel has the “ring of truth” to it, are you comfortable with your son entering the Legion as a seminarian or your daughter consecrating herself a 3rd Degree member of Regnum Christi?
And what about these other parents you come into contact with? Would they be comfortable with either possibility for their children without knowing what is going on right now? Who will they blame if these allegations are proven down the road, once their children have been “integrated” into the movement? Will it just be Fr. Maciel and those at the top?
Will they still be your friends?
More importantly, can you live with your conscience? Knowing that you knew or had reason to suspect strongly, but intentionally concealed the information for the sake of “growing the Kingdom”?
Pete, so diplomatic.
A less diplomatic voice might say something like:
Get out, get out now, and take everyone with you.
Save the women and the children first!!!!
Start a parish group, and help form solid Christians that way. For the love of God!
The existence of children is not an allegation. The fact that the Legion itself has stated that it appears some of the earlier allegations “are probably true” is not an allegation. The fact that the order is currently under investigation by the Holy See is not an allegation. The fact that there have been credible accusations of molestation against this man is not an allegation.
Are you friends or recruiters? Friends do not recruit friends into organizations that have such problems without being upfront about those problems. Recruiters with any integrity whatsoever would not recruit people blindly, without telling them exactly what they are getting into so they can make a truly informed decision.
If any friend of mine recruited me into something like LC/RC, and I later found out they KNEW the organization was corrupt, they would not be my friends any longer. Friends do not risk the spiritual wellbeing of friends so that they can add a number to their list of the recruited.
Sorry to be so harsh, but truly—-friends do not do this to each other. Only the callous and calculating (or the brainwashed!) would recruit people at this point without telling them the truth about this organization.
Meant to add: whether you are recruiting these people into RC (which it sounds like you are not, not being members yourselves) or an RC-apostolate, these people still deserve to know what they are getting into. LC/RC apostolates have their root in Maciel, a deviant and a pedophile. I personally would not want to join ANY brainchild of a pervert without being given the opportunity to research the problems with the organization first. It’s all about informed consent.
I was in a similar position as the man in the quoted comment–though neither my wife nor I ever joined RC, we were employed by an RC apostolate school. We left (but not because of the then (still) rumors about Maciel, but for other reasons).
The last day we were officially employed was a First Friday and we attended Mass. Interestingly, one of the readings that day was from Acts, Chapter 5.
“Some time ago, Theudas appeared, claiming to be someone important, and about four hundred men joined him, but he was killed, and all those who were loyal to him were disbanded and came to nothing.
37
“After him came Judas the Galilean at the time of the census. He also drew people after him, but he too perished and all who were loyal to him were scattered.
38
“So now I tell you, have nothing to do with these men, and let them go. For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself.
39
“But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God.” They were persuaded by him.”
This gave me great solace in walking away “from these men” that day. I know an RC member would likely highlight the “you may even find yourselves fighting against God” part, but for me, it eased my conscience regarding my own walking away. It was no sin or abandonment on my part in the least. I simply was choosing to follow the path marked out for me and my family and it did not include support of the Legionary enterprise.
If it turned out in the end that the Legionaries of Christ are “from God,” well, so much the better. If not–well, at least I had not continued to help them in their agenda.
And that’s the rub–you cannot have it both ways, even if you are not an RC member: your presence and aid in the apostolate gives the petina of respectibility to a Legionary and Regnum Christi enterprise.
It is used, passively or actively, as “proof” that the Apostolate “must be good.” Otherwise, the reasoning is, how could it attract someone as intelligent, upstanding, and faithful as YOU??
Excellent question, at what point do we become co-conspirators?
I say you become a co-conspirator right when you continue with a movement that is unrepentent about victimizing victims. This was why I had to leave RC; I could not bear to stand alongside so many so-called devout Catholic men and women who were simply incapable of summoning even a microscopic ounce of compassion or mercy towards MM’s abuse victims who were branded as liars for coming forward to tell the truth about Maciel. what a shameful way for priests and the Catholic faithful to treat abuse victims!
A good question ask youself – why would you recruit people to something you cannot speak frankly about? That you feel has elements to it which you would like to keep hidden?
It is a good sign that you have asked this question, because it shows your conscience has not been warped by this movement.Now, it would be good for you, the husband and spiritual head of your home to take the lead, and lead your family out of harm’s way. I will pray for you!
Co-conspirators? EXACTLY! When my concerns with RC were reaching critical mass, I was tipped over the edge by compunction for having influenced a good friend to “incorporate.” I have apologized to her many times, though sadly, she remains active.
Someone on another blog talked about “spiritual gluttony.” (Can’t remember where it was.) The implication was that some of us RC members were spiritual consumers, benfitting from the Enounters, Half-Days, etc. while never becoming “formators” or hardcore in an RC apostolate.
Yikes! I’m guilty! And my involvement bore witness to others and gave tacit approval of RC. Thank you, God, for finally pricking my conscience and giving me the courage to cease being a co-conspirator.
My own view of this was as follows, for good or for bad: so long as there was only one admitted mistress and child, I could rationalize things by thinking that MM could have taken the money more or less on his own, and would have been, so far as the financial peculation goes, a kind of garden variety rogue executive who dips hand into the till. It happens in the corporate world all the time, and when discovered, there is an independent investigation followed by firings (if not prosecution) and often adoption of new safeguard policies.
But with two mistresses and four children (and counting), there has to have been a much greater amount of financial malfeasance such that others, perhaps quite a few others, had to have been involved one way or the other. Such a situation begins to look less and less like an isolated rogue boss dipping his hand in the cookie jar and more and more like a corrupt group. So it was shortly after hearing of the second family, not to mention the other things surfacing, is when I had to leave RC.