Tag: Maciel

Catholicism is out there

Another excellent reflection by Deidre Mundy (aka Mouse at American Papist) on the whole Legion fiasco. This time she tackles the secretive nature of Maciel’s practices, as opposed to open nature of Catholic teaching. Here’s a pithy snippet:

I keep hearing that I can’t really understand RC/LC, because I’ve never been on the inside. And ex-members have blogged about secret books (some plagiarized!), books only available to members, books that were supposed to be kept hidden in back bedrooms or at retreat centers.
THIS IS NOT CATHOLICISM. We don’t have ‘secret teachings.’ There are no ‘secret books of the Benedictines.’ Heck, even the ‘secret archives’ of the Vatican aren’t really secret–they’re just poorly catalogued and you have to make an appointment to work with them (like most archives). Heck, even the ‘secret’ parts of the Mass aren’t secret. Anyone can get a Sacramentary and see the parts the priest is supposed to say silently.

Read Deidre’s entire post here. The whole ‘special knowledge from being on the inside’ reminds me of the Church’s struggle with gnosticism during the early centuries of the Church. It’s another good reason to…
SHUT. IT. DOWN.

The monk who stole juxtaposition

Former Legionary priest Jack Keogh (aka Monk) has a new post up in which he touts the Charter for Compassion. Says Monk while discussing the principles of compassion defined in the Charter:

I invite my readers to adopt the charter as your own, to make a lifelong commitment to live with compassion. I think the principle is especially relevant when discussing the life and times of Fr. Marcial Maciel and the congregation of the Legionaries of Christ.

This request was preceded two days ago by a post Monk titled: Did Fr. Marcial Maciel’s “son” ask for $26,000,000?
Notice Monk’s use of the reverential prefix ‘Fr.’ despite all we now know about Maciel. Notice also how Monk’s headline zones in on the amount of money requested by Maciel’s alleged victim, without mentioning (in the title) the context in which this compensation was requested. And notice how Monk includes “scare quotes” around the word son. This is followed by more scare quotes in the blog’s third paragraph, where Monk states:

The congregation published a letter written by Fr. Carlos Skertchly to Carlos Raul Gonzalez Lara on January 12, 2010, in which he says that Raul demanded up to 26 million in compensation in order for him no to reveal “the truth”.

So it’s my turn to be confused here. Is all Monk’s talk about “compassion” merely cow patties?

How do you define ‘juxtaposition’?

Thanks to the sharp-eyed anonymous poster at Life-After-RC who picked this up. According to the last paragraph of an article appearing in today’s IPS:

Another Mexican woman who had a relationship with Maciel lives in Spain with her daughter, who the order has publicly acknowledged as the daughter of the Legion’s founder. They live in comfort in a luxury apartment after apparently reaching an agreement with the order to keep quiet. (Emphasis mine)

Contrast the last line with the following letter written by Fr. Fr Carlos Skertchly, LC (ostensibly on behalf of Fr. Alvaro) to alleged Maciel incest victim Raul Gonzalez Lara:

However, in no way can we accede to your request for money in exchange for silence. While we value all of the pain and suffering that you have shared with us, and we deplore the evil of scandal that may follow, we will never accept petitions of this sort, which are also illicit. (Emphasis mine)

Am I the only one confused by the Legion’s stand on “extortion”?

UPDATED: Extortion?

UPDATE: Joe Catholic offers an excellent critique of my position in the comments section.
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Initial entry
Legion of Christ/ Regnum Christi contacts have asked me privately, behind the scenes, what I think of the LC/RC attempt to portray Maciel’s son Raul as an extortionist for demanding his inheritance in addition to compensation for having been sexually abused by Maciel? Let us suppose, for the sake of the argument, that the LC/RC are correct about Raul. Let us suppose that Raul engaged in extortion rather than follow proper legal procedure.
So what?
Speaking as a parent to children who are around the same age Raul was when Maciel began to abuse him sexually, including (allegedly) taking photographs, I don’t care if Raul is engaging in extortion. I really don’t.
Extortion just isn’t a big deal to me when I’m thinking about having one’s childhood innocence ripped from you, on camera, by the man (supposedly living a vow of chastity) who conceived you while taking advantage and lying to your mother. And unlike Maciel’s spiritual children, Raul can never renounce Maciel as his biological father.
Thus even though I don’t believe the official LC version of the story, it would change nothing for me as a parent if they were telling the truth this time. My concern is that Raul and his siblings receive just compensation from the LC/RC and/or Maciel’s estate for the horrible abuse they suffered at hands of Maciel.
Moreover, I find it absolutely scandalous as an orthodox Catholic layman that despite reportedly knowing of Raul’s existence since 2008, the family has been unable to receive justice from the Church in Mexico. No wonder there are so many anti-clerical Freemasons in the Mexican government and media. Bl. Miguel Pro – one of my favorite Jesuits – must be shedding tears from Heaven knowing that the Catholic peasants for whom he gave his life have now been forced to turn to their former persecutors for justice and protection from Churchmen who put their checkbook before the welfare of children.
But I suppose we ought not be surprised. After all, as Christ Himself states in Matthew 6:24: “No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
In sustaining the Legion’s finances, at least we’re now clear on which master Fr Carlos Skertchly, LC serves. Pray that he discovers his Creator in this lifetime, for the sake of his soul. However, it is now time for other individual LC and RC to decide which master they serve.

REPORT: LC knew about Maciel’s son in 2008

This gets even more curious, given that up until now the LC has only admitted to knowing about the existence of one daughter, as discovered by Fr. Alvaro in an investigation after Maciel’s death. According to the San Francisco Examiner:

The Rev. Jesus Quirce, rector of the Legion’s Universidad Anahuac in Mexico City, sent a letter to The Associated Press and other news media on Thursday confirming that he had met with Raul Gonzalez several times in 2008 and 2009, though he said Gonzalez never mentioned being molested.

You can read the full report here.