RC Is Not My Life touched a nerve with her recent post explaining how RC formation diminished her capacity to make everyday choices. Even picking out an ice-cream flavor caused her to question her faith, she states. (Click here)
I can understand how sharing her experience is therapeutic. But how does it help other consecrated, both current and former, who find themselves in the same situation? How do they overcome their paralysis of the will when facing the same choices as my eight-year-old?
Thankfully, RC Is Not My Life offers some excellent advice – again, based upon her experience – in a followup post.
(And for the record, I think RC Is Not My Life made the wrong choice. I would have chosen Rocky Road over Health Bar Crunch, which sounds like it’s made from soy milk and contains tofu. Just kidding….OUCH!)
Author: Pete Vere
Imagine your son a priest unto the order of Maciel
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”?
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.
JPII, Maciel’s children, and Christian loyalty
One of the things that amazes me about this blog is that most of the readers are smarter, holier and more eloquent writers than I am. So it behooves me that you come from all over the world to gleam what little insight I can offer. Nevertheless, it does have its perks.
For instance, I was struggling over how best to defend Pope John Paul II from allegations he knew of Fr. Maciel’s children, when shmikey chimed in with the following well-written explanation::
It occured to me […] that since the Legion insisted on addressing Marcial Maciel [MM] as [Nuestro Padre], that this may have been how [Maciel’s] children may have addressed MM as pappa, and the Vatican would not have suspected that these were his own. This may have been all part of his deception. Many priests travel with family members, and no one suspects a thing. Many priests have nicknames that are familial and are used by only their family. This is just my suspicion as to how the Vatican could be innocent if these things happened as they are revealing in this summary.
I agree.
Nevertheless, I can understand why people are suspicious and raising questions. They trusted Fr. Maciel because of his perceived closeness to Pope John Paul II. Moreover, they were taken in Fr. Maciel’s appearance of holiness, orthodox and living sanctity. And how could nobody at the top have noticed, either in the Legion or at the Vatican? Add to this the fact the Legion spent decades denying Fr. Maciel was anything but a saint, and that the Legion has not been forthcoming publicly with answers to these question, and people – including many within the movement’s middle ranks – are going to grow suspicious.
Which brings me to another point. Many blog commentators, particularly those who understand Spanish, are discussing Lucrecia Rego’s recent Catholic.net article. This is the one in which the high-profile RC member blasts former Maciel followers for disloyalty (click here) because they believe the allegations and are discussing them openly.
While she speaks passionately about loyalty to her priest friend, absent from her article is any discussion bout loyalty to the Church. I find this troubling. Loyalty works two ways. One should not expect loyalty if one is not oneself loyal.
Which raises several questions:
– How is it loyal to Christ to lead a movement bearing his name, and not apologize publicly to those who were seriously harmed by the movement’s founder in Christ’s name?
– How is it loyal to the Church when all Catholics are tarnished by a Catholic movement’s founder, including those who are not part of the movement, and the movement’s lack of public disclosure allows the founder’s “double life” to be dragged out indefinitely in the media?
– And how is it loyal to allow the name and reputation of a deceased pope to come under dark suspicion, because the movement is not more forthcoming about who knew what, when and how?
So in one sense I agree with Lucrecia. Most of this scandal could be avoided is those calling themselves good Catholics showed more loyalty.
The Return of the Jesuit
“If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat;
And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink;
For so you will heap coals of fire on his head,
And the LORD will reward you.” (Proverbs 25:21-22)
“The hands of the King are healing hands, and thus shall the rightful King be known.” (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King)
As many have noted, Fr. Maciel spent his life warning his followers about the Jesuits. For their part, the Jesuits have mostly ignored Fr. Maciel and the Legion – at least in public – secure in the knowledge that centuries of canonized saints is proof of the Ignatian charism.
Which is why it’s surprising to read Fr. Orlando Contreras, S.J. weigh into the controversy. For those who understand Spanish, you can read his reflection here. For those like me whose Spanish is far from perfect, Babelfish offers an uncharacteristically clear translation of key points. (Click here).
What’s noticeable in the cyber-translation is the Jesuit knack for discerning spirits, speaking the truth through Charity. What’s also noticeable is the clarity of his thought. Even the babelfish translation for the most part sounds like normal English.
So here are some of Fr. Orlando’s thoughts, courtesy of babelfish:
“The truth, however painful, help, purified and cries out for justice for the victims, their relatives […] Truth also asked for forgiveness and mercy to the victimizer, first, of their victims, as seen in the same report-and of God that God is more than ever when you can show and reveal his infinite mercy. And because the P. Maciel did not believe that, as Church, we have to apologize to victims for the damage he did this brother of ours.
“Truth also does justice to the Church and the Congregation founded by Fr Maciel: The Legionaries of Christ. This is because many would not see or hear what was happening in the intimate environment of its founder. So the sin of one step to be the sin of many who have hidden and silent truth.
“No doubt that all who are part of the Legionaries of Christ (priests and laity) must be suffering a lot with this painful truth. Many of them have been cheated by hiding the truth. They also should apologize to them.
“The mercy of God with Father Maciel, the Legionaries of Christ and the Church leads to the personal and communal conversion. This conversion makes us think, first of all victims of these abuses and to seek, as far as possible, [to] repair the damage. We say as far as possible because we know it is impossible for humans to repair the damage. But what is not possible for us is possible with God. So we have more confidence in what God can do that in what we do because the latter, always fall short.”
If Fr. Orlando is any indication of what his brother Jesuits are thinking, it would seem that the Jesuit conspiracy is centered around truth, forgiveness, and abandonment to God’s mercy. No wonder Fr. Maciel feared the Jesuits.