Fr. Maciel's Legionaries in retreat
All the top leaders of the congregation must go.
Due to their extremely close connection with the founder and his scandals,
real renewal is impossible as long as they remain in power
ROME, March 29, 2010 – At the end of April, the five bishops who carried out their apostolic visitation among the Legionaries of Christ as ordered by the Holy See will present the Vatican authorities their full report, completed recently.
A previous, long-ago apostolic visit among the Legionaries, between 1956 and 1959, ended with absolution. This time, however, everything gives the impression that will not be the case again.
It is likely that the Vatican authorities will put the Legion under the command of an external commissioner endowed with full powers.
And he will have to be obeyed by the current heads of the congregation, who are the real obstacle to any movement toward renewal, no matter how slight.
But this leadership group is anything but resigned to giving way.
Freed from the annoyance of the visitors, and not yet subjected to the command of the commissioner, during this interim period which they are hoping will last for 'several months', they are doing everything they can to consolidate their power and win the support of the majority of the 800 priests of the Legion, and of the other religious and lay members.
On March 25, during the annual meeting in Rome of the territorial directors with the director general and his council, they released a statement in which for the first time they publicly describe one by one and "reprove" the sinful actions of their founder, Marcial Maciel (1920-2008), ask forgiveness from the victims, and affirm that they can "no longer look to his person as a model of Christian or priestly life."
But how trustworthy is this distancing of the Legion's leaders from their founder, and in particular from the "sudden revelation" – or so they say – of his misdeeds?
And what is the composition of this "nomenklatura"?
Here it is, updated with the most recent appointments.
Director general
Álvaro Corcuera, Mexican, 53
Vicar general
Luís Garza Medina, Mexican, 53
General councilors
Francisco Mateos, Spanish, over 60
Michael Ryan, Irish, over 60
Joseph Burtka, American, 40
Secretary general
Evaristo Sada, Mexican, 50
General procurator
Cristóforo Fernández, Mexican, over 70
Territorial directors
Luís Garza Medina, Mexican, 53:
Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Poland, Holy Land, Korea, Philippines
Jesús María Delgado, Spanish, 45: Spain
Emilio Díaz Torre, Mexican, 50: Mexico-Monterrey
Rodolfo Mayagoitia, Mexican, 50: Mexico and Central America
José Manuel Otaolaurruchi, Mexican, 45: Venezuela and Colombia
Leonardo Nuñez, Mexican, 45: Brazil
José Gerardo Cárdenas, Mexican, 55: Chile and Argentina
Julio Martí, Venezuelan, 45: United States-New York and Canada
Scott Reilly, American, 45: United States-Atlanta
Jacobo Muñoz, Spanish, 40: France and Ireland
Sylvester Heereman, German, 40: Germany and Central Europe
About the reliability of the distancing of these Legion officials from their founder, a few facts need to be kept in mind.
The director, the vicar, and the current members of the general council were elected during the third and latest chapter of the congregation, in January of 2005.
On that occasion, Maciel, the founder, had renounced all official responsibilities, a few months after the opening of an investigation against him by then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
The investigation was carried out by the promoter of justice for the same congregation, Charles J. Scicluna, and resulted the following year, with Ratzinger having become Pope, in a canonical punishment.
But the current leadership group's ascent to power in the congregation dates back to the previous general chapter, the second, held in Rome in 1992.
On that occasion, founder Maciel was defended by the two who are still the big men of the Legion: fathers Corcuera and Garza, by the latter more than the former, together with a group of diehard faithful, almost all of whose names are found in the current "nomenklatura."
According to some of the testimonies given to the apostolic visitors in recent months, some in this group knew about the founder's double life, about the carnal acts he performed with many of his seminarians over the span of decades, about his lovers, his children, his drug use.
But in spite of that, a fortress was built around Maciel in defense of his virtues, devotion to him was fostered among his followers, all of them unaware of the truth, his talents were emphasized, even among the upper hierarchy of the Church.
This exaltation of the figure of the founder was so effective that even today it inspires the sense of belonging to the Legion among many of its priests and religious.
The cohesion of the leadership group, originating from its decades-long connection with Maciel, endures today in the bond that binds and subordinates everyone to Corcuera, and even more to Garza.
Garza concentrates two key posts in himself. He is vicar general, with control of administration, and he is the director of the congregation's Italian province, headquartered in Rome, where the Vatican is. He took this second post shortly before the beginning of the apostolic visit, transferring his predecessor, Jacobo Muñoz, to the province of France and Ireland.
But in addition to this, Garza is the creator and absolute master of Grupo Integer, the holding company that acts as treasury and administrative center for all the works of the Legion in the world, with assets totaling an estimated 25 billion euros.
Garza comes from a very wealthy family in Monterrey, which for decades was a major benefactor of Maciel's works and closely connected to another of the general councilors of the Legion, Francisco Mateos. The secretary general, Evaristo Sada, is his cousin.
In addition to being connected to Garza and Corcuera, some of the current directors were very close to the founder for years. Alejandro Ortega, until two years ago the director of one of Mexico's two provinces, was Maciel's personal secretary.
Julio Marti, director of the province of the United States and Canada, was superior general of the Legionaries' general headquarters in Rome.
Michael Ryan was an old friend of Maciel's family, and a supporter of the beatification cause of his mother, Maura Degollado Guízar.
In recent days, Garza and Corcuera have closed ranks even more tightly, with a few personnel changes. Emilio Díaz Torre has been appointed director of the province of Monterrey in Mexico. And his predecessor, Leonardo Nuñez, has been entrusted with the province of Brazil.
Both are Mexican, like most of the upper echelon of the Legionaries. The second most privileged nationality is Spanish.
The Italians, on the other hand, have always been kept away from the important posts. They are seen as less trustworthy, in addition to having too many connections in the Vatican Curia, where the Legionaries have friends but also enemies - more of them enemies now.
Magister is generally a fair reporter, and I don't believe he would make the statements he does - so strongly, too - unless he was convinced of his facts. So I would take his word regarding the attitudes and actions, past and present, of the leadership group that developed around Maciel.
It was a very unhealthy situation all around, starting with the inappropriate personality cult - I suppose Maciel himself wanted it that way - they built up around Maciel, and the infamous fourth vow of 'discretion', which was really their equivalent of the Mafia omerta, in which their priests took an oath not to speak of their superiors to anyone outside the Legion.
The personality cult, already anomalous in itself, became a travesty as soon as reports gained currency about Maciel's double life. But his loyalists never flinched or budged, even after the CDF penalized Maciel eventually.
They are answerable to their own priests and lay movement for sacrificing basic honesty and moral principles just not to 'rock the boat' and/or other ulterior motives, usch as 'protecting' the image of Fr. Maciel. This has compromised their leadership fatally, and it's hard to see how they can square their conscience.
It will be interesting to see what the visitation team says...
I still find it strange that ZENIT, the news agency of the LC, has not reported this at all in any of their language services. At least, they could have posted the statement.
Legionaries acknowledge founder's
sins and ask for forgiveness
By John Thavis
ROME, March 29 (CNS) -- Top officials of the Legionaries of Christ have acknowledged that the order's founder, the late Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, sexually abused young seminarians, and they have asked forgiveness for failing to listen to his accusers.
A statement released March 26 by the Legionaries and its lay branch, Regnum Christi, said that any members of the order who were guilty of cooperation in Father Maciel's crimes would be held accountable.
[What about knowing about them but covering up for him all along? Or at least choosing to stay in denial?]
The statement said the Legionaries were looking to the future with the hope of continuing to serve the Church, but with a greater emphasis on reconciling with those who suffered from Father Maciel's actions and greater cooperation with local pastors and other Church officials.
The future of the order rests in the hands of Pope Benedict XVI, who ordered an apostolic visitation of the Legionaries last year. The visitation team's report was expected to be handed in to the Vatican at the end of April.
After investigating allegations that Father Maciel had sexually abused young seminarians, in May 2006 the Vatican ordered him to stop practicing his ministry in public and to live a life of prayer and penitence. At the time, Legion officials defended Father Maciel's declaration of innocence and compared him to Christ for his suffering.
The latest statement says the 2006 Vatican investigation reached "sufficient moral certainty to impose serious canonical sanctions related to the accusations made against Father Maciel, which included the sexual abuse of minor seminarians."
"Therefore, though it causes us consternation, we have to say that these acts did take place," it said.
The statement asked forgiveness from "those whom we did not believe or were incapable of giving a hearing to, since at the time we could not imagine that such behavior took place."
"If it turns out that anyone culpably cooperated in his misdeeds, we will act according to the principles of Christian justice and charity, holding these people responsible for their actions," it said.
In early 2009, the Legionaries said it had learned that Father Maciel had fathered a daughter. The latest statement said Father Maciel had had a longstanding relationship with the child's mother, and that two other people have since come forward, claiming to be the offspring of Father Maciel and a different woman.
"We find reprehensible these and all the actions in the life of Father Maciel that were contrary to his Christian, religious, and priestly duties. We declare that they are not what we strive to live in the Legion of Christ and in the Regnum Christi movement," it said.
"Once again, we express our sorrow and grief to each and every person damaged by our founder's actions," the statement said. It offered the order's "pastoral and spiritual help" to those who were injured by Father Maciel's actions.
Father Maciel, who died in January 2008 at age 87, founded the Legionaries of Christ in 1951 and was its superior until 2005.
The Legionaries' statement said that God, "for his own mysterious reasons," had chosen Father Maciel to found the order and its lay association, and "we thank God for the good he did."
"At the same time,
we accept and regret that, given the gravity of his faults, we cannot take his person as a model of Christian or priestly life," it said.
The statement said the Legionaries would follow the instructions given by Pope Benedict in light of the Vatican investigation, which was conducted in the order's institutions around the world. Many at the Vatican expect a major reorganization of the Legionaries, perhaps with direct supervision by the Vatican.
As it looks to the future, the statement said, the Legionaries resolved to do several things, including:
- Reach out to those who have suffered.
- Tell the truth about the order's history.
- Protect minors in all its institutions.
- Cooperate better with bishops and church institutions.
- Continue oversight and demand accountability in the order.
- Redouble its efforts to bring the Gospel to as many people as possible.