The Independent News Source
Twitter - Facebook - Email Alerts - RSS
Legionaires 'relieved' by Vatican visitation
Investigation allows 'exit strategy' from current woes
Apr. 02, 2009
Legionaires founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado (CNS photo)
Printer-friendly version
Send to friend
PDF versionAlthough news of a Vatican inquest rarely brings comfort to its target, several sources close to the Legionaries of Christ, both in the United States and in Rome, say the dominant reaction within the embattled religious order to the announcement of a Vatican-ordered apostolic visitation has been relief.
“Collectively, we’re thrilled this is happening,” one Legionary priest told NCR. “Our view is, the sooner the better.”
Facing mounting calls for either a major overhaul of the order or its outright suppression, these sources said, at least some Legionaries have come to see an independent Vatican investigation as the lone “exit strategy” from their recent woes, potentially allowing the order to move forward despite being forced to admit serious misconduct by its founder, and despite a long history of denying that misconduct.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vatican orders visitation of Legionaires of Christ
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Like others contacted for this article, the priest spoke on background – in part, he said, because the Vatican has asked the Legionaries to withhold public comment while the investigation is gearing up.
Announced on March 29, the investigation comes in the wake of a recent acknowledgment by the Legionaries of “grave facts” in the life of their founder, Mexican Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, including that Maciel had fathered a daughter out of wedlock. Maciel, who died in 2008, had previously been charged with sexual abuse by former members of the order. Those charges were the subject of a Vatican inquiry in 2006, which ended with an order for Maciel to withdraw from public ministry and to live a life of “prayer and penance.”
In a letter to members of the Legion informing them of the investigation, Fr. Alvaro Corcuera, Maciel’s successor, effectively conceded Maciel’s culpability. “We are deeply saddened and sorry,” Corcuera wrote, “and we sincerely ask for forgiveness from God and from those who have been hurt through this.”
Following those admissions, several prominent Catholics, including noted American commentator George Weigel, have demanded an aggressive Vatican review, with some suggesting that the proper remedy may be to shut the order down. Senior prelates have struck a similar note; Archbishop Edwin O’Brien of Baltimore, for example, recently demanded “full disclosure of [Maciel’s] activities and those who are complicit in them, or knew of them, and of those who are still refusing to offer disclosure.”
In the context, sources close to the Legionaries said, many members look upon the Vatican investigation as a way to affirm the order’s on-going viability, regardless of what further details it might uncover about Maciel’s conduct – or who in the order may have known about it and kept it secret.
“However painful this may be, it’s better than the alternative,” one Legionary said.
Legionary sources pointed to what they saw as the encouraging tone of a March 10 letter from Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, announcing the visitation. In it, Bertone wrote that the order’s mission is of “fundamental importance,” stating that “many people benefit from the works of education and apostolate which the Legionaries of Christ carry out in various parts of the world.”
Sources in Rome told NCR that if abolishing the Legion was in the cards, the Vatican could have repeated the step taken in the late 1950s, when Maciel and the Legion were first investigated by Rome. At that time, Maciel was deposed pending the outcome of the review, although he was later reinstated. In this case, Corcuera has not been removed as the order’s superior, and Bertone’s letter expressed “esteem” for Corcuera.
Though the Vatican has not yet outlined the logistics of the visitation, sources said that the officials who will conduct the review, formally referred to as “visitators,” should be appointed shortly. Expectations are that a minimum of three-five visitators will be appointed, with at least one responsible for Italy and the rest of Europe, one for North America, and one for Mexico and Latin America. The visitation itself is likely to take several months; in the United States alone, the Legionaries of Christ operate multiple houses of formation, minor seminaries, centers for consecrated women, and other facilities.
In one unusual wrinkle, sources said that the Vatican office which will supervise the review is likely to be the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, rather than the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, which normally has jurisdiction over religious communities.
In part, sources say, that’s because it was the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which carried out the investigation of Maciel that ended in 2006, so its officials are in a better position to brief the visitators and to set out the parameters of the investigation.
In part, however, it may also be to avoid perceptions of bias. The top official of the Congregation for Religious, Slovenian Cardinal Franc Rodé, has been publicly supportive of the Legionaries in the past, and a member of the Legionaries of Christ, Fr. Clemens Gutberlet, works on Rodé’s staff. The Legion does not currently have anyone serving in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
If the visitation of the Legionaries follows the pattern of past Vatican-supervised investigations, the visitators will file confidential reports with Rome, and the Vatican will eventually prepare a set of conclusions – phrased either as “recommendations” or “mandates” – for the order’s leadership.
Allen is NCR Senior Correspondent.
I pray that all Apostolic
I pray that all Apostolic Visitations (there are several under way) -not just this one will be accepted in the spirit of good will. That attitudes which currently prevail like Sr Schneiders of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Monroe, conerning the Womens Religious Visitaion will be changed in the Holy Spirit especially through our Lady's prayers to Jesus our God.: See the article in NCR located at: http://ncronline.org/news/women/weve-given-birth-new-form-religious-life
EXCERPT:
We cannot, of course, keep them from investigating. But we can receive them, politely and kindly, for what they are, uninvited guests who should be received in the parlor, not given the run of the house. When people ask questions they shouldn't ask, the questions should be answered accordingly. I just hope we will not, as we American Religious so often do, think that by total "openness" and efforts to "dialogue" we are going to bring about mutual understanding and acceptance. This is not mutual and it is not a dialogue. The investigators are not coming to understand -- believe me, we found that out in the seminary investigation. So let's be honest but reserved, supply no ammunition that can be aimed at us, be non-violent even in the face of violence, but not be naive. Non-violent resistance is what finally works as we've found out in so many arenas.
Grace and peace with prayers always in Christ
The "spirit of acceptance" is
The "spirit of acceptance" is often affected by the perception of where the hearts of the "visitors" (not to mention those who sent them) may lie. I imagine that both Sr Schneider and the Legionnaires have a fairly good idea of what awaits each of them. I doubt the sisters are nearly as hopeful as the Legionnaires of a sympathetic visit.
I pray that Sr Schneiders of
I pray that Sr Schneiders of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Monroe Michigan reads this weeks column by Bishop Thomas Gumbleton published here in the NCR wherein he explains that the true meaning of the word "obedience" , it doesn’t mean subservience; the word obedience means to listen deeply. I hope that this article will touch Sr Schneiders heart with Mother Mary's intercession. This is my prayer going into Holy Week.
Here is the link to the NCR page:
http://ncronline.org/blogs/peace-pulpit/fifth-sunday-lent
Mr. Allen admits: "Like
Mr. Allen admits: "Like others contacted for this article, the priest spoke on background – in part, he said, because the Vatican has asked the Legionaries to withhold public comment while the investigation is gearing up."
Does this imply that for the Legionaries obedience to the dictates of Rome are not an issue? The Vatican says keep quiet and yet they speak out? Wouldn't this bring some slight reprimand at least to any other group? Or do the Legionaries believe themselves, like the Big Three auto makers or Wall Streeters like Merril Lynch, too big (and "orthodox") for consequences, like their founder who believed himself too powerful to suffer any consequences for his several abuses (and, you know, in the end, he was right, until now, in the hereafter).
By ignoring this request from the Vatican they follow still in their founder's footsteps. Those who are faithful, on the other hand, in the small things are also faithful in the large.
The best thing that the Holy
The best thing that the Holy See could do is suppress this group. With what they have known for years it should have been done a long time ago.
Relieved??? Who are they
Relieved??? Who are they kidding!?!?! I bet the Legionaires are fuming over the upcoming visitation.
The only real solution is to abolish the Legion altogether. They are a corrupt organization and I am sure many of the followers associated with it still have a very 'cultish' attraction to that monster, Maciel.
I feel sorry for the innocent people who have been duped by Maciel and his croonies. They will surely end up with what they deserve in God's time.
If only the women religious
If only the women religious who do not want transparency in terms of their decades long fall and decline would be as open as the Legionaries of Christ to the Vatican's investigation. What are women religious of a particular hiding and what are they afraid of?
Maybe twenty years ago I was
Maybe twenty years ago I was considering religious life, particularly contemplative life, but I also made an inquiry to the Legionaries. After a while I got a telephone call from a priest in their vocation office. We had a short discussion. When I told him I had probably by that time settled on a contemplative order, he went ballistic! He actually screamed that the Legionaries weren't a contemplative order and that I should not have wasted his or their time with my inquiry. I was stunned. I thought he might have congratulated me on finally reaching a decision. From that moment on I decided there was something radically wrong with that group.
Let us unite prayers for
Let us unite prayers for strength and perseverance along the contemplative path, and may you never falter though often waylaid!
Sounds like a typical vocation director of twenty years ago. Perhaps by now such desperation becomes grateful humility and generous, compassionate acceptance. It was not you, nor anything you said nor did. Continue strongly and ever more fully to seek and to live God's Love in contemplation and in gentle, humble service.
It is obvious that such
It is obvious that such things mainly happen with people and institutions claiming especially to be "faithful and conservative". We have some good examples for this also in Austria.
THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE -
THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE - I applaud the Holy See for demanding an apostolic visitation of the Legionaries of Christ, and I commend the Legionaries of Christ for their humility, courage, and sense of duty in welcoming this painful visitation. "The truth will set you free." If the Legion of Christ is of God, it will survive and prosper. I wish them well.
Sr. Maureen Paul Turlish
Sr. Maureen Paul Turlish writes: "The best thing that the Holy See could do is suppress this group. With what they have known for years it should have been done a long time ago." Suppress this group? With her criterion, the Capuchins today would not exist.
In the long view of the Church's 2000-year-old history what happened to the Legionnaires of Christ and their founder, Fr. Maciel, is no big deal. We've seen this and worse before. I personally don't know any members of the Legionnaires of Christ. But, if one can tell the tree by its fruits, it must be a pretty good group of men. From what I know, they have done and are doing a lot of good for Church and society. For me Fr. Maciel is not the founder of the Legionnaires. The Holy Spirit is, and this is true of all religious orders. Someone can have tremendous flaws and yet the Holy Spirit can work through him. Whether the Legionnaires should be suppressed and refounded is another matter. Maybe an apostolic visitation might be good for them.
But how many people know that the venerable Capuchin Order had an even more sordid beginning than the Legionnaires? Yet this prominent religious Order has done an immense amount of good down through the centuries and has had great saints and martyrs. Here's what Wikepdia says of the Capuchins:
"The new congregation at the outset of its history underwent a series of severe blows. The two founders left it, Matteo di Bascio to return to the Observants, while his first companion, on being superseded in the office of vicar, became so insubordinate that he had to be expelled. The case of the third vicar, Bernardino Ochino, who became a Calvinist, 1543, and married, was even more extreme.
"The whole congregation came under the suspicion of heretical tendencies and the pope resolved to suppress it; he was with difficulty induced to allow it to continue, but the Capuchins were forbidden to preach.
"In a couple of years the authorities were satisfied as to the soundness of the general body of Capuchin friars, and the permission to preach was restored. The congregation at once began to multiply with extraordinary rapidity, and by the end of the 16th century the Capuchins had spread all over the Catholic parts of Europe, so that in 1619 they were freed from their dependence on the Conventual Franciscans and became an independent order, with a general of their own. They are said to have had at that time 1500 houses divided into fifty provinces."
Err. Dude. Alex? Where in
Err. Dude. Alex?
Where in your Capuchin account does it say their founder molested boys in his boarding schools, claiming to have a special dispensation from the Vatican, as did Marcial?
Next time try the decaf cappucino.
Anonymous I am sure the
Anonymous I am sure the women religous of the United States have nothing to hide. Both progressive and conservative sisters are hard at work to help realize the Reign of God. The Legionaires, I opine, are "releaved" that the Vatican is coming in to investigate because it's a matter of hierarchy reviewing a patriarchal fraternity. My guess is that the visitation will be a slap on the hands and nothing more. As for the women religious, we're too busy to be releaved or to shake in our boots about the upcoming visitation. When I was a little girl, in the 50's, my teacher, a women religious said, "Even if the Pope tells you to do something against your conscience, you cannot do it." After 45 years of religious life,I realize more and more that the institution should stand only for service not control or power.
In response to:If only women
In response to:If only women religious in their decade long fall
I will be celebrating 60 years in religious life this year.As far As I know there is No problem with transparancy on the part of Sisters communities. We responded to the calls of Vatican 2 and made great changes in our consttutions and our lives in order to be more relevant to the Church and to the world in the past 40 years. We minister to the poor and needy wherever we find them. Sisters can be found practicing the Church's "Option for the Poor" throughout the US, Canada,and missions around the world.
As someone who has lived our life both before and after Vatican 2 and has had to suffer through all the changes that were required of us to arrive at where we are today, I can only say, " The Spirit of the Lord was upon us" and continues to be with us as we continue our transformatin into the fullness of Christ.
I applaud the Holy See for
I applaud the Holy See for demanding an apostolic visitation of the Legionaries of Christ, and I condemn the Legionaries of Christ for their false pride, weakness, and sense of treason in welcoming this painful visitation. "The truth will set you free." If the Legion of Christ is of God, which it is obviously not, then it will schrivel and die. I wish they and their supporters will go to hell. Which is the will of the true Christian God.
Yvon has a huge axe to grind
Yvon has a huge axe to grind or is just trying to be inflammatory. Either way she is placing herself as prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner. Not very Christ-like.
Funny, I guess many of these
Funny, I guess many of these progressive religious orders must not be from God either...because they are all dying as we speak.
Yvon, DO YOU KNOW WHAT
Yvon,
DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU JUST SAID?! You actually wished eternal damnation upon someone...who exactly do you think you are?!
In a situation like this it is neccessary to pray for the souls of Maciel and others who have done these horrible things. We must pray that they repent and that God has mercy upon their souls. Wishing someone to hell is evil.
Wise words...
Wise words...
I dont Know What Happen with
I dont Know What Happen with the formal leader of Legion But Ive Met 2 Young Legionaier Brothers In 1998 And They vited Me to A Prayer Group were we Had Confesion By Legion Preist In confession He talk about the Mersey full way of are good Lord jesus Not like regular disease Priest like that it well Here 10 hell Marys and 2 our father see u next week No the legion Preist talk Love peace Hope Faith and told me to have a great journey Almost like God was working though Him Like Fr. Monahan in Minniapolis Doing the commuion It A good thing I dont Know If I have a Calling But It Just felt right It not about Taking one Problem and replacing it with filler But and 11 years later I felt the same way and Now Im Just Feal the same fealing in my Heart So look The Legion info up and Im Think Ill stand fast Because I dont want to tread deep in any waters and the thought I had was pope Paul ordaine these legion preist and now pope Benidict Crushing this order but the priest that I met was not to apear to be Bad and it wasent just the one group had miss guiding way but I heard there dieses preist had problem to and in not my place to judge but Every Priest I new were Good I met one that was Gay but My origianel parish took him in There was a right up about Him and sting operation in the paper before he took the Parish over But God Love the sinner but Not the sin Right God be with U
Post new comment