Author: Pete Vere

Not your life, Fr. Alvaro, but an apology

Giselle has posted an unofficial translation of Fr. Alvaro’s letter reportedly sent to LC priests and RC consecrated. You can read the translation here. Like Giselle’s reader Don, I suspect this may be the letter referred to in August by LC priest (and blogging internal critic) Fr. Damian Karras. Even if it isn’t, Father’s following criticism still sums it up best:

The Superior General has just sent an eighteen page letter meant, apparently, to motivate and strengthen the LCs in these difficult times. The meandering missive never even names the problems that are rocking the congregation to its core and basically offers three bits of advice to its confused, anguished and frustrated priests: pray, don’t read the newspapers and trust the superiors.
Trust the superiors? Like we all trusted Fr. Maciel, our Superior General, for nearly 70 years?

For my own part, I feel a lot more pity for LC Director General Fr. Alvaro after reading this letter. I kept think back to that passage from Lord of the Rings where Gandalf says to Frodo:

Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo’s hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.

I suppose there are many similarities between Maciel and Sauron, between the founder’s methodology and the Ring of Power. Like Gollum, Fr. Alvaro strikes me in this letter as someone who once was like us, but who having under the spell and influence of his precious, is eager to hold on at any cost. Hopefully I’m wrong.
Regardless, we don’t know what role remains for Fr. Alvaro as the scandal unfolds. Especially if rumors in the Mexican media pan out of a power struggle between Fr. Alvaro and his Vicar General Fr. Garza, who also served as vicar general for Maciel. My heart tells me Fr. Alvaro can still play an important role in the movement’s meltdown, whether for good or for ill.
Having said that, I discern a lack of confidence in the letter attributed to Fr. Alvaro. The Legion and Regnum Christi follow a military motif. But as any current and former military can tell you, soldiers expect communications to be concise and to the point. So too do sailors and marines. (Air Force are a bit of an exception, but even they get to the point once the meandering threatens to cut into their coffee break.)
The Jesuits operate much the same way. I attended a Jesuit college for my undergrad. One of my visiting professors during graduate studies in canon law was a Jesuit. I have worked with Jesuits in the canon law profession. Their communication is always precise and concise. Essays are limited to one page only. Anything longer and they stop reading. Anything longer and they wonder whether you know what you’re talking about, or grasped the central point.
The Legion is capable of pointed and focused communication. It is capable of such under Fr. Alvaro’s leadership. A good example is the order’s response in 2006 when the Holy See invited Fr. Maciel to retire to a life of prayer and penance.
In contrast, the more recent letter goes on for several pages without identifying what necessitated the letter. In so doing Fr. Alvaro’s letter communicates three things, in my opinion: A lack of self-confidence in his leadership, a lack of confidence in the priests and consecrated to whom the letter is addressed, and a lack of confidence in the message the letter attempts to convey. And a general who lacks confidence cannot inspire it in his soldiers. I don’t know what Fr. Alvaro is talking about in his letter. Does he?
Giselle’s reader Jane put the letter’s word count at 8,555. That’s 8,553 words too many, in my opinion. What’s needed is a simple “I’m sorry” to Maciel’s victims. Fr. Alvaro, this is the only message that will restore confidence in your leadership.
Which brings me to this quote from Fr. Alvaro’s letter:

Believe me that I would give my life, or whatever it would take, so as to soften the cross of each one, and that I feel very unworthy of being able to offer you my whole life and renew to you my gratitude, support and brotherly closeness.

Nobody is asking Fr. Alvaro to give up his life. We’re simply asking him to apologize publicly to Maciel’s victims. It’s a debt of justice owed to those who were victimized at the hands of Maciel, then victimized again by having their reputations shredded when they came forward with the truth. Yet this is the one course of action Fr. Alvaro keeps avoiding. Why?

Trouble commenting?

A few readers have expressed difficulty using our comments’ section in the past week. Catholic Light tech guru Rich Chonak tells me the following might work: “If you delete all cookies for mt.stblogs.org and reload the web page, things should work more normally.”
(UPDATE from RC: Flushing your browser cache may also help.)

Was Fr. Maciel excommunicated?

A question readers keep asking is whether Maciel was excommunicated for allegedly absolving in the confessional accomplices in sins against the Sixth Commandment. As most of us are aware, the expression “sins against the Sixth Commandment” covers serious sins of sexual nature. The question comes from canon 977 which prohibits a priest from absolving his accomplice in a sin against the Sixth Commandment, except in danger of death, combined with canon 1378, paragraph 1 which automatically excommunicates a priest who violates canon 977. I don’t have access to the 1917 code right now, but I believe it too excommunicated a priest for absolving in the confessional an accomplice in sins against the Sixth Commandment.
Regardless, we don’t know the answer to this question. Here is what we do know:

  1. The case against Maciel was introduced before the CDF during the 90’s, alleging Maciel had violated canon 1378 or its equivalent found in the 1917 code.
  2. During the investigation the CDF invited Maciel to retire to life of prayer and penance in exchange for not pursuing the case.

From this we can conclude that the evidence was serious enough for the CDF to act upon. In which case, I believe it probable the Holy See, either through the CDF or the Apostolic Penitentiary, would have removed any potential censures incurred by Fr. Maciel. So in all probability Maciel did not die under censure.

Pure Fashion – Medium vs. Message

A reader asked me why I thought the Pure Fashion threads seem to provoke such strong reactions. I think it’s because the issue touches many of us concretely. Whereas few readers were personally abused by Maciel, and none to my knowledge have fathered his children, many readers are mothers who have volunteered with the Pure Fashion program, or parents to daughters who have participated in it. So Pure Fashion is an example of how the Maciel scandal touches us – and more importantly to us as parents, our children – personally.
Which is why I appreciate CindyB, who describes herself as ex Regnum Christi and a six-year veteran of Pure Fashion, sharing her thoughts in this thread. Whether this was intentional on her part or not, Cindy expresses the internal conflict felt by many who have been part of this program. On the one hand, she left RC because of the way it elevated Maciel (who she can no longer dignify with the prefix “Father”) despite serious allegations against him. On the other hand, her own experience with Pure Fashion was good, and she sees a desperate need in today’s world for programs that promote modesty, purity, and “programs that can influence teenagers and young adults to make better choices through positive self-esteem.” Her concerns are legitimate.
Hence her statement that Priscella likely “meant that [Maciel]’s behavior needed the message of Pure Fashion.”
Here’s the difficulty. Knowing how many volunteer hours Catholic moms like Cindy and Priscella put into the program with only the best of intentions for their daughters, it breaks my heart to say this. However, it is a point long recognized by saints and media critics:
People look to the medium when discerning the message.
St. James knew this. As he states in the New Testament epistle bearing his name: “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” He understood that one’s actions offered the best proof that one had received the Gospel message. St. Francis of Assisi clarifies this point further, stating: “Go into the world and preach the Gospel, but only use words when necessary.” And of course there’s Marshall McLuhan’s aphorism: “The medium is the message.”
In the case of Pure Fashion, the message of purity and modesty is contradicted by the medium of Fr. Maciel. The founder’s actions where anything but modest and pure. Teenagers know this. They may not piece it together right away, or they may not repeat it within earshot of parents while living under their roof. But they know. And eventually there’s the temptation to act upon it. If the founder can molest seminarians and father children through various mistresses – while still receiving public gratitude from holy priests, along with Mom and Dad – what’s a little premarital foreplay or displaying a bit of bellybutton n comparison? After all, Maciel engaged in much worse while building God’s kingdom.
Or the reaction may be one of anger, of feeling lied to or mislead for all these years. I’ve seen this happen. The relationship between parent and child is never the same afterward. The child will always second-guess Mom and Dad. Jezebel can correct me if I am wrong, but I believe from her comments that she was taken aback by the support she received from orthodox Catholic parents over her critique of Pure Fashion. We may disagree with her position on human sexuality, however, many of her criticisms of Pure Fashion have the ring of truth about them.
And if I can recognized this as a Nascar dad with no fashion sense, you can bet your teenage children will recognize it as well. It’s just a matter of time before the child google searches “Pure Fashion” or “Regnum Christi,” comes across a critique written by someone who disagrees with us on Humanae Vitae, and is struck by how strongly the critique resonates. Or the child may hear of Fr. Maciel’s duplicity from other children from orthodox Catholic homes while trying to recruit them to the kingdom. Who will the child blame for feeling misled, deceived or embarrassed in front of one’s peers?
Not Fr. Maciel. Not LC priests. But you, the parent.
Make no mistake about it. So long as Pure Fashion remains connected to Regnum Christi, which in turn continues to express its gratitude to the founder, Maciel remains the medium. And as the medium, he is also the message.
As for the other question, how can orthodox Catholic moms instill modesty and purity in their daughters, while having a little mother-daughter fun… Who needs a program? Here’s what a good friend of mine, who happens to be the mother of several sons formerly with the Legion, did with her daughters. Instead of dropping $450 on a program she purchased each teenage daughter a Catechism of the Catholic Church for $10. After putting the younger kids to bed, she took aside each adolescent daughter individually, and used the catechism to initiate one-on-one mom-and-daughter discussions on purity, modesty, fashion, sexuality, family, and marriage.
She was surprised by how each daughter opened up in this one-on-one atmosphere. What most of her daughters wanted, after years of apostolate and activity outside the family, was not another program. They wanted honest and open communication with Mom.
Every few months or so my friend and other homeschooling moms nearby would each pick a daughter (starting with the oldest), hop in the van, and head off to the big city Saturday morning for a Mom & Daughter shopping trip. They would find a hotel, each mom and daughter sharing a room, then all the moms and daughters would gather in the lobby and head off together for a mom and daughter supper. This was followed by Mass on Sunday morning before heading home.
How could the moms afford this? With the $440 they saved.
The girls could not have been more thrilled. Every time I visit it’s “Do you like this outfit? Mom helped me pick it out during our last shopping trip,” or “Next year I will be old enough to go on a shopping trip with Mom.”
And this, I believe, instills more strongly the message of modesty, purity and self-esteem in our daughters than any pre-packaged program. Why? Because it’s the medium of the heart. Mom, you are telling your daughter that she is so important to you that you willingly sacrifice time from your busy schedule to spend it with her. That her purity, her modesty and her self-esteem are worth these evenings and weekends together.
Mom, the medium is your message.

Maciel’s sins are proof of RC’s charism?!?

What would cause orthodox Catholic parents and sexually-permissive feminists to express agreement on a public blog? The following post by a reader calling herself Priscilla…

I comment both as a Regnum Christi member and board member of a local Pure Fashion program. Accept my sincere apology on behalf of the Regnum Christi movement for the scandalous behaviour and infidelity of Fr. Macial, founder of the Legion of Christ. All the more does his behavior indicate the need for Pure Fashion, an excellent program for anyone who wants to purchase it for their group, to support young women in their self-discovery. [Emphasis mine]

The comment is in response to a sexually-permissive feminist fisking of a recent Marie Claire article promoting Pure Fashion, a RC-affiliated apostolate that revolves around fashion and modeling. Before I link to the original blog entry, please be aware [WARNING!] that it is not safe for children or for work. Click here.
Two thoughts:
1 – As one of Canada’s most famous converts to Catholicism, media theorist Marshall McLuhan, once quipped: “The medium is the message.” What message is being sent to our daughters about chastity and modesty when Fr. Maciel is the medium?
2 – Come to think about it, what’s Pure Fashion’s message? In scanning photo and video galleries posted to their website, I’m surprised none of the feminist bloggers (or Catholic parents for that matter) picked up on the absence of more heavyset models (For previous discussion on this topic, click here). After all, this is a concern with the fashion industry that feminists and orthodox Catholics have often shared. And given the underlying context of character development, one would think all young ladies could benefit, not just those of a certain body type.