February 18, 2009


About the Legion of Christ

Filed under: Uncategorized
By Paul, Just This Guy, You Know? (Email) @ 11:48 am

The best commentary I’ve seen on the problems of the Legion of Christ and its founder.


6 Responses to “About the Legion of Christ”

  1. Joe says:
    February 18, 2009 at 12:00 pm

    I assumed critics were using this story to attack the Church, but in reality the Church was doing a pretty good job hurting itself by covering for Maciel. It is an old saying, but sunlight really is the best disinfectant for this sort of thing. The Church really needs to understand covering for misbehavior is almost always a mistake.

    And this is true for all institutions.

  2. Clare says:
    February 18, 2009 at 3:14 pm

    A very eloquent — although frightening — piece.

    What can/will be done about all this?

  3. Muskrat says:
    February 18, 2009 at 4:12 pm

    You assumed critics were using this story to attack the Church because …. ? Why, exactly did you make that assumption? That’s a huge, huge question that a large number of people need to answer.

    As for what can be done, it’s obvious there needs to be a full accounting — of Maciel’s life, of the financial affairs of the Legion, and of the question of any coverups or failures to come forward. When that’s done, people can talk intelligently about the future. But not until then.

  4. Raymond says:
    February 18, 2009 at 5:26 pm

    This piece was a bit strident. I found his use of “bastard” in describing to be offensive, and it made me wonder if the author had something personally at stake.

    I have read many self-serving diatribes against Maciel over the past weeks, and I will add this one to the list. This author would do well to consider the many extremely faithful Leggionaire priests and Regnum Cristi laymen who have been profoundly affected by the nefarious acts of their founder. For them, this is like finding out that their Father had a whole different life. It is devastating.

    So before he speaks of leggionaire priests being “complicit” in the acts of their superiors by maintaining their vows, and before the author writes off the sincere pain and desire of the RC members to pray for and support Maciel’s victims, this author should consider that he is talking about incredibly devout and real people.

    Maciel’s actions have been destructive. However, The charism of the Legion and of RC are very very much needed in this world. If LC and RC fail, and there is a good likelihood that they will, it will not change the fact that their apostolate served a need in the Church, and others will have to take up the torch in their stead.

    For a better article and analysis of the future of the Legion of Christ, please read George Weigel’s article on the website of First Things, firsthings.com.

  5. Joe says:
    February 18, 2009 at 9:05 pm

    You assumed critics were using this story to attack the Church because …. ?

    Because the first time I heard about it, it was from Andrew Sullivan and I assumed he was crying wolf. But he was right and I was wrong. When I recognized I was wrong I said so.

  6. Clare says:
    February 19, 2009 at 4:37 pm

    Raymond,

    Are you a member? Or close to a member?

    Because your points seem to mirror several of the organization’s talking points.

    And with regard to your penultimate paragraph, the Church can handle carrying any torch, IMHO.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress