Monday, July 16, 2012

The Legion of Christ: Elevating Denial To A Charism

The real charism of the Legion


Finally the Vatican admits the Legion of Christ needs a new identity.  One can only hope this new identity will involve more than just tweaking the packaging or changing the logo.  I have followed the Legion story since 1998 when Gerald Renner and Jason Berry first wrote about Marcial Maciel and the Legion in the Hartford Courant.  As the years have passed, I have watched the carefully constructed facade (product identity) of the Legion come crashing down. I also came to the conclusion the only charism the Legion had was not spiritual, it was psychological.  The Legion institutionalized the defense mechanism 'denial' and made practicing it part of their constitution.  The Vatican has been engaged in the same 'charism' about this group for decades.  JPII even went so far as to throw Maciel's personal secretary, Fr Raphael Moreno out of his office when the secretary wanted to spill his guts about Maciel.  JPII did not want to hear him and would not believe him. I guess one could define JPII's level of denial as infallibly wrong.  Anyway, the Vatican has now come to the conclusion that it might make more sense to rethink the Legion's reason for existence before it approves a new constitution written by the old leadership who surrounded Maciel.....and like good Legionnaires, 'knew nothing'.

Vatican says disgraced Legion of Christ needs a new identity

VATICAN CITY -- The disgraced Legion of Christ religious order needs to rethink its identity before going forward with its internal reform, the papal envoy in charge of the group's overhaul told priests and lay members in a letter published Wednesday.

Cardinal Velasio De Paolis was appointed in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI to oversee the order's reform after revelations that its founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel, had lived a double life, abusing children and fathering a son. (He fathered more than one child and sexually abused his sons.)
 
Macial had enjoyed iconic status in the Legion, with strong suspicions that its leaders had been at least partly aware of his actions.
De Paolis writes that the troubled groups' various branches, which include priests, religious and laypeople, need "a common platform" to "regulate reciprocal relations ... according to the identity proper to each group."

This "joint reflection on the identity and mission" of the order, said Fr. Andreas Schoeggl, a Legion spokesman, needs to precede the final revision of the order's internal rules, which has been ongoing for the last two years and was the main goal of the pope's taking over of the order.

The papal delegate's letter sees the light after several observers have criticized the slow pace of reform inside the Legion. (Cardinal De Paolis has been dithering for two years, and more than 'several' observers think this is because of the Legion's finances, specifically the holding company known as Integer.)

On June 22, Fr. Thomas V. Berg, a former Legionary, wrote on the conservative blog First Things about "The Legion's Scandal of Stalled Reform." According to Berg, "the Legion's superiors ... have fostered a culture of institutional opposition to the radical reform that is truly required."
Schoeggl denied this, saying reform "proceeds with a constant pace" and that there is "absolutely no intention" of returning to the past.

Still, new scandals have buffeted the Legion in recent weeks. Its most famous priest, Fr. Thomas Williams, admitted fathering a child, while his superiors acknowledged covering up for him for years. And this week, dozens of women who attended a Legion high school in Wakefield, R.I., accused school officials of abuse and deception, according to a letter sent to the Vatican that was obtained by The Associated Press.
"For any errors made by our order in the past, we do apologize," Margarita Martinez, director of the Immaculate Conception Academy told the AP. "We are sorry these young women have suffered and been harmed in any way."

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I keep wondering why Pope Benedict doesn't finish what he started and disband or suppress the Legion and Regnum Christi.  Is there some lesson here that we still haven't got and so the Legion hangs on and on and on in a perpetual state of limbo?  Is the plan to let the Legion die a slow death by attrition as Fr Thomas Berg writes in his blog piece for First Things.  The cynic in me thinks the reform of the Legion will drag on as long as wealthy donors in Mexico and elsewhere want their children in Legion schools.....wealthy donors like Carlos Slim.  I found it interesting that in Fr Berg's essay, he fails to mention the Legion money and donor list because while other congregations like the Franciscans minister to the poor, the new outfits like the Legion and Opus Dei minister to the wealthy.  It's beginning to look more and more like this group of Catholics is to be the bedrock of the remnant which will save Catholicism from the very vocal educated lay proletariat and those radical feminists in the LCWR.

Or perhaps the lesson still to be learned from the Legion debacle isn't one the Vatican needs, it's one the laity needs.  It could be the laity needs to understand putting their faith and trust in anyone or anything other than their own faith understanding is not just a recipe for personal disaster, it's being complicit in enabling those personal disasters. It's about being able to recognize a cult when one sees and experiences it. And last, but certainly not least, it's about learning how the defense mechanism denial works and why it is so powerful.  Jesus thought this lesson was so important he made a point to let Peter know before hand that Peter would deny Him not once, but three times.  Peter obliged and did deny Jesus three times.  He did it for the same reason we all do it, to save our lives whether that be our physical or psychological lives, or as in this particular case of the Legion, an institutional life.  In the long run denial never works.  Ask Penn State.

15 comments:

  1. It's a big deal to dissolve a religious order, because alongside the rot there will (even with the Legion of Christ!) be souls who draw spiritual strength from it and for whom the dissolution would expose to spiritual danger, perhaps even disorientating them to the degree that they stop participating in the Church.

    Personally, I'm not clear on the purpose of the Legion of Christ, and find the centrality of its scandal a persuasive sign that it ought not exist, but this is really a matter for the hierarchy.

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    1. Invictus: We are advising the hierarchy. You have made significant progress simply by stating that the LC/RC should not exist. Well Done!

      Relay the message to your pastor and bishop.

      p2p

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    2. Invictus, I share your concern and thought one of the very first things Cardinal De Paolis should have done was to instruct all LC/RC members to find a spiritual adviser outside of the Legion.

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    3. My priest wouldn't be interested, it's not my bishop's jurisdiction, and it's not my place. I communicate in some matters, but it doesn't make sense to do so over this matter.

      Colkoch, perhaps a good idea, though I don't know enough about the places the LoC is active to know if that is feasible or reasonable. I'll leave 'solid' input to people who know what they're talking about!

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    4. Invictus, Good points. Go right to the top, let the pope know. He needs better advice than he's getting.

      p2p

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    5. Invictus, I have been thinking about your last answer and sincerely hope you do discuss this with your priest and bishop. None of us should be "bystanders" in these matters, thinking it is not our business, or that we couldn't possibly help. Where ever you are, you should impress upon your pastor and bishop that speaking up for justice is the right thing to do in accordance with the principles of the parable of the Good Samaritan.

      We all have a responsibility to seek justice. In the matter of the Vatican and the LC/RC, to return to Colleen's theme, the organizations are still in denial.

      If the righteousness of the good Samaritan doesn't inspire you consider Jesus with a whip in the temple.

      p2p

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    6. I am a bystander in this matter, though. I have never knowingly met anyone involved with the Legion of Christ, and couldn't even say for sure if they are active in my country of residence.

      I raise matters, sometimes in person, or by phone, or by letter, when it is important and appropriate, but in this matter I trust the hierarchy to make the right decision without my fundamentally ill-informed input.

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  2. I suspect one of the reasons the Legion is still around is because JPII was so involved with it and Maciel. Since JPII is on a path to sainthood, it tends to bring unsavory questions to mind as to whether he has any claim to sainthood (add to this his failure in handling the abuse crisis). I think his fans in the Vatican want to keep him under the radar. It also casts a shadow upon the recent speed of the canonization process itself.

    Then, there's the $$$, and I'm sure there's great reluctance in turning off that spigot.

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  3. Yes, the beatification of John Paul II is beginning to look like George W's proclamation "Mission Accomplished!" after a few weeks in Iraq! JPII seemed to want to shape the Church into HIS vision: making the College of Cardinals larger than ever; canonizing more saints than anyone before him;
    and having no one elevated to bishop or cardinal unless they were una voce, with his being the voice.
    I hope I live long enough to see how the Holy Spirit is going to fix this mess, but fix it she will.

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  4. Yes, the beatification of John Paul II is beginning to look like George W's proclamation "Mission Accomplished!" after a few weeks in Iraq! JPII seemed to want to shape the Church into HIS vision: making the College of Cardinals larger than ever; canonizing more saints than anyone before him;
    and having no one elevated to bishop or cardinal unless they were una voce, with his being the voice.
    I hope I live long enough to see how the Holy Spirit is going to fix this mess, but fix it she will.

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    1. I don't think the increase in canonisations was a bad thing, or that it was intended as or resulted in a Church made in his own personal vision.

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    2. I guess two out of three isn't bad. lol I agree with you, I don't think he canonized so many for any personal vision. He did have an agenda of creating the Church in his image though.
      The whole Marcial/JPII relationship really puzzles me though.
      Linda, I believe money is a factor, but not the only one. Power is right up there and the fear of losing the unquestioned authority they held over the lowerarchy. (i.e., us) I think they may have already lost it however. Smart men behaving like spoiled children.

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    3. Invictus I have to disagree. Once JPII removed the need for the Devil's Advocate during the Canonization procedure for Jose Maria Escriva, founder of Opus Dei, he made a very large statement, both political and religious.

      Authoritarians were in, with all their ring kissing, both political and religious. Everybody else was out. JPII further backed this up by pushing forward the Canonizations of Popes Pius IX and XII. In the meantime the cause of John XXIII stays dormant.

      JPII was all about the power of the papacy, especially his own. It got much worse the longer he lived. Historically this has been the bane of the papacy.....popes who stayed in power too long

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    4. Josemaria is a saint, though. Whatever you might think of Opus Dei, Josemaria Escriva was undeniably a very good and holy man.

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  5. I believe in the end there will be no change because the bottom line is money. It's as simple as that.--Linda Grant

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