The head of the embattled Legion of Christ religious order admitted on Tuesday to covering up news that his most prominent priest had fathered a child and announced a review of all past allegations of sexual abuse against Legion priests amid a growing scandal at the order.
The Rev Alvaro Corcuera wrote a letter to all Legion members in which he admitted he knew before he became superior in 2005 that the Rev Thomas Williams, a well-known American television personality, author and moral theologian, had fathered a child.
Click on the following for more details of this recentt story: Rev admits he knew of priest’s kid - World News | IOL News | IOL.co.za
Legion of Christ
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Legion of Christ
Abbreviation
LC
Motto
Adveniat Regnum Tuum!
Formation
January 3, 1941 (1941-01-03) (71 years ago)
Type
Catholic religious institute
Headquarters
General Directorate, Via Aurelia 677
Location
Rome, Italy
General Director
Alvaro Corcuera
Key people
Marcial Maciel - Founder
Velasio de Paolis - Papal Delegate
Sylvester Heereman - Vicar General
Deomar De Guedes - General Councilor
Main organ
General Council
Website
www.legionofchrist.org
The Legion of Christ (LC) is a Roman Catholic congregation of pontifical right, made up of priests and seminarians studying for the priesthood. It was founded in Mexico in 1941, by Marcial Maciel, who directed the congregation as its General Director until January 2005. The Holy See later suspended him from ministry in 2006 over sexual allegations[1]. The Legion of Christ has priests working in over 22 countries,[2] and had 889 priests and 2,373 seminarians as of December 31, 2010.[3] In the U.S. it operates 9 schools (and assists at several others) and two of a small number of seminaries for teenage boys currently operating in the US.[4]
Its lay movement Regnum Christi has approximately 70,000 members,[5] and the youth branch ECYD has tens of thousands.[6] In Mexico, the Legionaries administer the Anahuac University Network.It operates centers of education (minor seminaries, seminaries, schools and/or universities) in Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Israel, Korea, Poland, Ireland, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Canada, the United States, and the Philippines.
The most important fields of their apostolic work are education, youth and family ministry, evangelization (especially in the mission territory of the Mexican State of Quintana Roo in the Yucatán Peninsula), and social work. The Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi seek to collaborate with the local churches by lending help and support to the bishops and parish priests as they carry out their diocesan pastoral programs.
Popes have expressed support for the Legion. When Maciel visited Rome in 1946, Pope Pius XII expressed a keen interest in the undertaking and gave it his personal blessing. In light of what were believed to be the congregation's achievements, particularly in education, Pope Paul VI was pleased to award it the "Decree of Praise" in 1965. The most enthusiastic support has, however, been that of Pope John Paul II, who in an address, picked out the qualities which have made the Legion so successful:[7] Pope Benedict XVI continues to ask God to support the Legionaries in their ministry.[8]
Contents
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Ethos
Members of the Legion take vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty. They originally took a private vow of charity, promising never to criticize their superiors. This private vow was originally opposed by the Vatican when it chartered the Legion decades ago, but that opposition disappeared after a final decision by the Vatican in 1983. This vow was repealed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007.[9] Their private vow of humility remains intact.
Loves
The Legion's spirituality can be described as four loves: love for Christ, love for Mary, love for souls, and love for the Church and Pope.
Love for Christ is, for Legionaries, a personal experience. Through the Gospel, the cross, and the Eucharist, Legionaries come to know Christ intimately, and love him in a passionate way by embracing him as their model of holiness.[10]
Love for Mary flows from imitating Christ; the Blessed Virgin is loved as both Mother of the Church and of the individual Legionary's vocation. Legionaries consecrate their spiritual and apostolic lives to her care, and seek to take on her virtues of faith, hope, charity, obedience, humility, and cooperation with Christ's plan of redemption.[10]
Love for Souls is expressed in an ardent desire to spread Christ's kingdom in this world. Legionaries try to use every moment of their time to help the greatest number of souls know and love Christ. They want to be able to say when they get to Heaven that they never wasted one minute or one soul.[10]
Finally, there is Legionaries' love for Church and Pope. The Church is loved because it is the Body of Christ, and the beginning of his Kingdom on earth. Legionaries see the Church both as she currently stands and as Christ wants her to be. Thus Legionaries honor her by faith, submit to her in obedience, win souls for her through evangelization, and put her above all other earthly things in their lives. This love of the Church leads many in the Legion to speak of being always in step with the Church, neither ahead nor behind: a commitment to Catholic Orthodoxy. It also explains the Legionaries' special affection for the Pope, who is supported in his charism of primacy and magisterium. All bishops in communion with the Roman Pontiff, as the Apostles' successors and teachers of the Catholic Faith, are likewise honored.[10][11]
Spirit of Apostolic Action
The Legion has stated that their actions are designed for the establishing of the Kingdom of Christ. According to the North American Action Plan, the Legion's apostolic action is summarized as "we form those apostles who can exercise greater Christian leadership and influence others."[12]
The North American Action action also states that the Legion does this with the local Church and for the sake of both the local and universal Church. Their methodology is given as: "We form these apostles by bringing God’s love to them, inspiring them to fall in love with Jesus Christ especially through prayer and the sacramental life, helping them come to know better the truths of the Catholic Faith and inviting them to participate actively in the evangelization of culture and society."[12]
Formation
As a whole, the Legion is dedicated to advancing the Church's mission in the world, and to this end submits candidates to a rigorous formation of four dimensions: human, spiritual, intellectual and apostolic. This formation has caused critics to accuse the Legion of producing priests and religious who all speak and behave in the same way. In fact, the Legion has been called a cult.[13] But, the Legion's defenders argue as members of a family receive similar upbringing, so the members of the Legion are formed in like ways, but still respecting the freedom of the individual.[citation needed]
Contact with the family is moderated, so as to not restrict their mission, although they are allowed considerably more contact with their families than religious in past centuries. If they live in the same country as their parents, the religious and priests are permitted to visit their families usually once a year provided it does not inhibit their individual assignments. In addition, they are permitted to visit for landmark anniversaries of parents and grandparents and, their families are encouraged to visit them normally two or three times a year. However, the novices do not go home during their two-year novitiate, but their families may visit. The high school seminarians are permitted to go home in the following cases:
276. During periods of summer vacation for fifteen days. During this period the Rector and, if the number requires it, the Vice-Rector - each accompanied by another religious - should visit apostolics in their homes to attend to them spiritually and to attend to the family.
277. During the Christmas holidays for three days. However, all apostolics should celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in the vocational center and should do the same during the last day of the year.
278. For the name day or corresponding birthday of their parents for one day. This visit will, however, be subject to the approval of the Rector based on the individual environment of each family.
279. For their parents anniversary for one day.
280. For the wedding, religious, profession or priestly ordination of one of their siblings for one day.
281. On the occasion of the death or serious illness of a parent, sibling or grandparent for three days.
All members of the congregation are required to write their families every two weeks, for the high school seminarians, every week. Periodic phone calls are also permitted: once a week for the high school seminarians, three times a year for novices, and roughly once a month for religious and priests. The above are the usual, but each individual case is seen with the superior.
Apostolates
The primary apostolate of Legionary priests and brothers is to attend to the spiritual needs of the members of their lay branch, Regnum Christi. Since Legionary priests and brothers are themselves members of Regnum Christi, often they are put in charge of directing the apostolic projects.[14]
Regnum Christi has many apostolates for charitable and spiritual welfare. It essentially does not limit itself to any one apostolate, but each member is encouraged to work on his/her area of interest or expertise.[15]
As a spirituality, it encourages its members to work innovatively and systematically. Members are given the option to work on an apostolate not associated with the Legion, a Legion-endorsed apostolate, or to create their own apostolate which may eventually receive Legion endorsement.[16]
In 2006, the Legion launched a test phase of Mission Network, in the United States. Catholic Mission Network, Inc., is the umbrella organization which oversees and approves Legionary-endorsed apostolates that are not stand alone like a school or retreat center. Its purpose is to provide both 1) structure and supervision of the apostolates, and 2) An overview as to what the Legion/Regnum Christi does as a whole, with brand-name-type recognition.[17]
The youth wing of Regnum Christi offering the same spirituality for youth 11 to 16 is called ECYD. The commitments in ECYD vary over time, adapting to the ages of the members.[6] Most ECYD members are involved in clubs run or overseen by Legionaries or consecrated members of Regnum Christi.
The founder
Main article: Marcial Maciel
Marcial Maciel was born on March 10, 1920, into a devout Catholic family during a time in which the Mexican government was fiercely anticlerical.
On June 19, 1936, Maciel—a young seminarian at the time— apparently felt called to establish a new religious institute, and in 1941, with the support of the bishop of Cuernavaca, Bishop Francisco González Arias, he founded the Legion of Christ, which was originally known as the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart and Our Lady of Sorrows. The name was eventually changed because Maciel saw a likeness of his missionaries in the legions of Rome. Coupled to this was also the militancy of the Christian life found in St. Paul's letters. He claims he received his final inspiration concerning the name through Pope Pius XII when the Pope quoted the Song of Solomon when addressing a group of Legionaries: "Sicut acies castrorum ordinata" (Like an army in battle array). Maciel was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop González Arias in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City on November 26, 1944, after which he continued to build up the Legion and its lay counterpart, Regnum Christi.
Maciel was asked by Pope John Paul II to accompany him on his visits to Mexico in 1979, 1990, and 1993, and was appointed, also by Pope John Paul II, to the Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the formation of Candidates for the Priesthood in Actual Circumstances (1991). He was a member of the Interdicasterial Commission for a Just Distribution of Clergy (1991), the IV General Conference of Latin American Bishops (CELAM) (1992), the Synod of Bishops on Consecrated Life and Their Mission in the Church and the World (1993), the Synod of Bishops´ Special Assembly for America (1997) and, since 1994, a permanent consultant to the Congregation for the Clergy. The golden anniversary of his priestly ordination was celebrated on 26 November 1994, with 57 Legionary priests ordained on the anniversary's eve. Fr. Marcial Maciel also served as Chancellor of the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, which is based in Rome.
According to the Wall Street Journal, "The Legion of Christ...became a global phenomenon in Catholicism over the past few decades by joining a devotion to orthodoxy and secrecy with an equal fidelity to the Legion's charismatic founder, Father Marcial Maciel, who helped his community's cause by liberally dispensing funds to hierarchs in Rome. Other bishops complained of the Legion's cult-like aspects, but it was only in 2006, when the truth of Maciel's extensive record of sexual abuse and financial shenanigans was finally acknowledged, that the Vatican forced the elderly priest from ministry and launched an investigation."[18]
He died in Jacksonville, Florida, on January 30, 2008, aged 87, and was buried in his hometown of Cotija de la Paz, Michoacán, Mexico.
Controversies
Main article: Controversies surrounding the Legion of Christ
In January 2005, Maciel, at age 84, was succeeded by Álvaro Corcuera, LC, as General Director of the Legion shortly after the reopening of a sex abuse allegation by the Vatican. Maciel died on 30 January 2008.
Cardinal Edwin O’Brien, then archbishop of Baltimore, banned the Legion of Christ from counseling people under the age of 18 in his jurisdiction. O’Brien banned the Legion and Regnum based on concerns that they practice “heavily persuasive methods on young people, especially high schoolers, regarding vocations.”[19]
Archbishop O’Brien further wrote among other matters, “I want to ensure that encouragement of vocations is carried out in a way that respects the rights of parents in the upbringing of their children and the rights of young persons themselves to be able to make free and fully informed decisions about their futures.”[19]
Archbishop Harry J. Flynn, archbishop emeritus of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, also banned the Legion of Christ from his area.[19]
Accusations against the founder
Main article: Sexual scandal of Father Marcial Maciel
In July 2009, media in Spain published an interview with a woman who had a child with Maciel over 20 years ago and now lives in a luxury apartment in Madrid which Maciel purchased for her. The woman, Norma Hilda Baños, says that she was abused by Maciel as a minor and later was impregnated by him and she bore him a daughter, Norma Hilda Rivas.[20] At least one source claims that Rivas is an alias that Maciel used during his life.[21]
A day later, Mexican media reported that an attorney, José Bonilla, will represent three of a possible total of six of Maciel's children in a civil suit to recover Maciel's estate. The lawyer claims that there are several properties in Mexico and around the world which Maciel owned in his own name.[22][23] In March 2010, Bonilla announced that he would no longer represent the three reputed children of Maciel, since one of them admitted to asking the Legion of Christ for $26 million USD in exchange for silence.[24]
In March 2010, the Legion of Christ in a communiqué[25] acknowledged as factual "reprehensible actions" by Maciel, including sexual abuse. The communique stated that "given the gravity of his faults, we cannot take his person as a model of Christian or priestly life." This occurred after the Legion spent more than a decade denying allegations from the victims of abuse.[13]
It has been suggested that the close relationship between Maciel and Pope John Paul may have been one of the reasons that Vatican investigation regarding sex abuse allegations made against Fr. Maciel proceeded slowly although the first allegations were provided to the Pope in the late 1970s.[13] There are also suggestions that bribery and corruption may have been a factor,[26] see History of Maciel with the Vatican.
[edit] Apostolic Visitation
On March 31, 2009, the Legionaries of Christ and the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI has ordered an Apostolic visitation (a type of Vatican directed investigation) of the Legion of Christ. The Legion of Christ has acknowledged that its founder fathered a child and is also responding to claims that the founder molested seminarians. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, said church leaders will visit, investigate, and evaluate all seminaries, schools and other institutions run by the Legion worldwide.[27] The announcement of the unusual investigation was posted on the Web site of the Legionaries of Christ March 31, 2009 along with the text of a letter informing the Legionaries of the pope's decision.[28]
Vatican authorities named five bishops from five different countries, each one in charge of investigating the Legionaries in a particular part of the world. Their report was given to the Holy Father in late April 2010.
Ricardo Watti Urquidi,[29] Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tepic, Mexico, is in charge of the Vatican's oversight of the Legionaries in Mexico and Central America, where the congregation has 44 houses, 250 priests, and 115-120 seminarians; Charles J. Chaput, Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver, is in charge of the Vatican's oversight of the Legionaries in the United States and Canada, where the congregation has 24 houses, 130 priests, and 260 seminarians; Giuseppe Versaldi, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Alessandria della Paglia, is in charge of the Vatican's oversight of the Legionaries in Italy, Israel, the Philippines, and South Korea, where the Legion has 16 houses, 200 priests and 420 religious seminarians (in Italy itself there are 13 houses, 168 priests, and 418 seminarians); Ricardo Ezzati Andrello,[30] Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Concepción, Chile, is in charge of the Vatican's oversight of the Legionaries in Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil and Venezuela, where the Legion has 20 houses, 122 priests and 122 religious seminarians; Ricardo Blázquez Pérez es:Ricardo Blázquez, formerly the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bilbao and now the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Valladolid, both in Spain, is in charge of the Vatican's oversight of the Legionaries in Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, Holland, Poland, Austria, and Hungary - the rest of Europe outside Italy- where the Legion has 20 houses, 105 priests, and 160 seminarians.[31][32]
Formal Denunciation of Fr Maciel
On May 1, 2010 the Vatican said that the Pope will name a delegate and appoint a commission to review the Legionaries of Christ following revelations that the congregation's founder sexually abused numerous underage seminarians and fathered at least three children with two women. In a statement, the Vatican denounced the Rev. Marciel Maciel for creating a "system of power" that enabled him to lead an "immoral" double life "devoid of scruples and authentic religious sentiment" and allowed him to abuse young boys for decades unchecked. The Vatican issued the statement after Pope Benedict XVI met with five bishops who investigated the Legion to determine its future.[33] The Vatican statement was remarkable in its tough denunciation of Maciel's crimes and deception.[34][dead link]
The "very serious and objectively immoral acts" of Fr. Marcial Maciel, which were "confirmed by incontrovertible testimonies" represent "true crimes and manifest a life without scruples or authentic religious sentiment," the Vatican said.[35] The Vatican said the Legion created a "mechanism of defense" around Maciel to shield him from accusations and suppress damaging witnesses from reporting abuse. "It made him untouchable," the Vatican said. The statement decried "the lamentable disgracing and expulsion of those who doubted" Maciel's virtue. The Vatican statement did not address whether the Legion's current leadership will face any sanctions.[36] Actions taken by the current Legion leadership will be scrutinized; but no specific sanctions were mentioned, amid suspicion that at least some of the current leaders must have been aware of Maciel's sins. The Vatican acknowledged the "hardships" faced by Maciel's accusers through the years when they were ostracized or ridiculed, and commended their "courage and perseverance to demand the truth."[37]
[edit] Naming of the Papal Delegate
As a result of the visitation, Benedict XVI named Archbishop (now Cardinal) Velasio De Paolis as the Papal Delegate to oversee the Legion and its governance on July 9, 2010.[38]
[edit] Activity of the Papal Delegate
Archbishop Ricardo Blazquez es:Ricardo Blázquez, Archbishop of Valladolid, Spain, headed the probe into the consecrated women of the Legion's lay movement, Regnum Christi. According to an online Catholic News Service article issued September 30, 2010, Archbishop Blazquez, 68, who had been Bishop of Bilbao and was once a professor of theology, was the former President of the Spanish Episcopal Conference from 2005 to 2008 and before his presidency had been the head of the Spanish conference's commission for the doctrine of the faith from 1993 to 2003. As mentioned above and in the article, he had assisted in the earlier investigation of the congregation's centers and institutes in Europe outside of Italy. On June 7, 2011 he concluded the visitation but has as of June 16 he was still working on the final report.[39]
Also, several clergy were named by the Vatican as assistants to Archbishop de Paolis in his work leading the commission. Bishop Brian Farrell, 66, a member of the Legionaries who was ordained a priest for the congregation in 1969, is a Dublin native and presently is the Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (from 1970 to 1976 he served as director of the Legionaries' U.S. novitiate in Orange, Connecticut). In addition, there are three canon lawyers: Jesuit Father Gianfranco Ghirlanda, S.J., a former rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome; Sacred Heart Father Agostino Montan (a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus), who is the episcopal vicar of the Rome Diocese's office for consecrated life and a professor of canon law at Rome's Pontifical Lateran University; and Monsignor Mario Marchesi, who is the vicar general of the Diocese of Cremona and who has taught canon law at the Legionaries' Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome. Archbishop de Paolis, Father Ghirlanda, and Father Montan are consultors to the Vatican Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Monsignor Marchesi and Fathers Ghirlanda and Montan serve as consultors to the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. Archbishop de Paolis and Father Ghirlanda also are members of the Vatican's highest legislative body outside of the Pope, the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, and the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts.
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