EMAILS IN FAVOR OF
REGNUM CHRISTI AND THE LEAGONARIES OF CHRIST
Patrick Madrid has promised to give a defence of RC and LC, which I am waiting for. When it arrives it will go up without change. Looking forward to it, and let us hope he sheds some light on the problems as I see it. Nonetheless, we have had some emails in favor of the Leagonaries and RC, as follows.
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Dear Unity Publishing,
I know some Legionaries of Christ and am impressed with the work they do. I have looked at
your work and am impressed with you as well. It surprises me that you have such an
unfavorable view of the Legionaries; I came across your page when it popped up on a
google.com search for pages about the Legionaries.
It seems like you contacted a number of people who have had bad experiences with Legionaries, but it doesn't look to me like you shared your findings with any Legionaries before publishing your final conclusions. I have seen some of the responses to the Hartford Courant article at http://member.aol.com/lgofchrist/index.htm.
Did you check out that site? I'd be interested in chatting with you about that. I mean,
it's clear that you have the Church's best interests at heart in your work and that your
work of highlighting trouble spots is a work of charity. I just think if you cast your net
a little wider you might have a different view of the Legionaries. I look forward to
hearing back from you. Sincerely yours in the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church,
R
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Dear R
I have had some responses which I intend to put up on that site. I am sad to know that 90%
of these letters to the editor are against LC. No one questions the orthodoxy of LC, and
in fact four of my best friends are supporters of LC and two have children in the
movement. But no one is addressing the questions I ask in the newsletter except with
untruths. For example, they say that Rome investigated the allegations about sex with the
seminarians and that is not true. Their response is that Rome loves the movement and
therefor - etc. But that means nothing - Rome has been in favor of many movements that
have turned out to be bad for the Church - ex. Charismatics. I do not just attack groups,
as many (hundreds) have asked me to go against Opus Dei, but after four years of
investigation I cannot find anything cultic or theologically wrong with them. The problem
with LC is that there are too many reasons to believe that they care more about the
Movement than the Church or the families of their recruits. Going up on my site is an
email that I received from a priest who was ordained as a LC and lived side by side with
the founder. You will not like what he says.
Rick
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Dear Rick,
Thank you for responding.
What I have learned from my LC friends is that Vatican investigators lived with the
Legionaries for three years in the 1950s when the accusers first said Father Maciel was
abusing power and the like. One of those investigators is a retired bishop in Chile,
Bishop Polidoro. A friend shared with me Bishop Polidoro's response to the allegations run
in the Hartford Courant. The bishop wrote that the "nature of the accusations were
disingenuous and always seemed calculated to create the greatest impact with the
particular audience to whom they were presented." He also told me that Bishop
Polidoro was surprised that so many decades later, "Fr. Maciel is accused of sexual
abuse by some of the same individuals who did not hesitate to accuse him in the
1950s of so many other faults and grave crimes that were proven totally false."
Bishop Polidoro writes the more recent charges are even less credible because "We,
the Apostolic Visitators, gave them every opportunity to level any accusation they had,
but not once was this type of offense mentioned."
Any instances of "sexual abuse" involving the accusers could have taken place only from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s. Immediately after the time when these men say they were abused, the alleged abuser was put under suspicion and removed from their midst. The path was clear for any wrongdoing to surface. Yet not one accuser stepped forward to allege any abuse until these many decades later. And if the allegations were true, wouldn't there be a rush of others to back up the story? It's been three years, and nothing. In fact, the Legionaries have the signed retraction of one of the accusers and sworn statements from four other men that the accusers recruited them over a period of years to join them in their lie.
Rick, my friend, given that what is at stake here is a matter of "bearing false
witness," I am worried for you. The Legionaries and the Vatican also know much about
the accusers that they will never make public because Father Maciel refuses to destroy the
reputation of anyone, despite what they might say against him. What do you think?
Yours in Christ,
R
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Dear R
I have read before what Bishop Polidoro wrote, however, you put it very well
and what you say should be put up on my web site and I will. Thanks for a kind and honest
response.
Rick
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Dear Rick, Christ's peace.
It's a big-hearted man who can take criticism with the grace you're showing.
I thank God for your openness and intellectual honesty. I'll continue to pray for you and
your work, and I will also pray that your ultimate conclusion in your investigation of the
Legionaries, Regnum Christi, and Father Maciel will be the same as mine: they suffer the
cross of accusations like those in the Courant because, like others privileged to share in
Christ's sufferings, they are truly doing His work.
Yours in Christ,
R
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Hi Rick!
Hope all is well with you. I read that former Legionary's letter on your site. I remember
you mentioned you'd post my letter there too so I hope it'll be there soon.
I can't say anything about Mr. Lennon because I've never met the man but I have met Fr.
Maciel and I can't imagine how someone could come up with such a wild description of him.
It makes me wonder: if Fr. Maciel were what he describes, how could anyone like Mr. Lennon
spend 23 years working with him? Why would it take so long to become disenchanted if it is
as he says? And why would my friends and I and thousands of others have such a totally
polar opposite view?
I know you're working hard to defend the one true faith. Does Mr. Lennon share our love
for the Church? You're in a tough spot because you're searching and people are giving you
conflicting reports. I just wonder how Mr. Lennon could verify any of his claims.
Have you read George Weigel's biography of JPII? It's incredible! There's a passage in
which he documents how Father Maciel was instrumental in helping the Pope arrange his
first trip to Mexico in '79 when the Church, according to the Mexican constitution, didn't
even exist. There were no diplomatic ties between the Vatican and Mexico. So how was the
Pope able to arrange his trip? Weigel wrote:
"President Jose Lopez Portillo's mother and sisters, all of them practicing
Catholics, lived in a house within the presidential compound in Mexico City; one of the
sisters was the president's confidential secretary. Father Marcial Maciel, the Mexican
founder of the Legionaries of Christ, a relatively new renewal movement of priests,
encouraged these ladies to encourage the president to invite the Pope. Their intervention
evidently succeeded. President Lopez Portillo overrode the protests of his anti-clerical
interior minister and issued the invitation, stipulating only that the Pope would not be
received as a head of state and would have to have a visa like any other visitor. Whatever
distress this may have caused
among the Vatican diplomats, the arrangement was fine with John Paul II."
I also checked out that website from Jeff in Phoenix. I notice he posts a lot of the same
Hartford Courant stuff you have referred to. It seems he's glad someone else is posting
the same stuff, but I wonder if you and he can see that facts like the reaction by Bishop
Polidoro and the testimony of the men recruited to join in the false accusations show that
the Courant's attack is fatally flawed and that its real agenda is to try to force the
Church to change its teachings on priestly celibacy and sexual morality, which would
certainly not be the work of the Lord. I think his sharing the official letter from the
Legionaries' communications guy was kind of a low blow. Like me, they're just trying to do
what they can to stop the proliferation of lies against Father Maciel. I can tell you're
honest and a straight shooter. That's why I continue to believe you will change your view
of the Legionaires and Father Maciel.
Yours in the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church,
R
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Hi Rick!
I went to visit your site again recently, and saw that you've posted a couple newsletters
in June, but I didn't get them as emails. Are you still emailing the newsletters? Have you
removed my address from your database? What's up?
Of course, I'm still wondering if you're going to publish my email from last March in
defense of the Legionaries. That's a generous offer from someone who has publicly come out
against them and shows your open-mindedness and willingness to consider all the aspects of
a situation. That's why I remain confident you will come to see what a blessing the
Legionaries are.
It reminds me of a bit of LC history: You'll recall that Father Maciel was put under
investigation by the Vatican 1956-58, the first time the accusers quoted by the Hartford
Courant tried to smear his reputation (but note as well they never said anything about
sexual abuse at that time). Once the three Vatican investigators who lived with the
Legionaries and interviewed each one personally all reached the same conclusion -- that
the charges against Father Maciel were trumped up -- he was restored to his place as
general director. In 1965, when Pope Paul VI granted the Legionaries the Decretum Laudis
establishing the Legion as a congregation of pontifical right, HE CITED THE LEGIONARIES'
SUCCESSFUL PASSING OF THE TIME OF TRIAL AS A SIGN THAT THEY ARE IN FACT A WORK OF GOD. I
think, you, too, Rick, after putting the Legionaries on "trial," so to speak,
will ultimately see that they are a great gift of God to the Church.
Yours in the one, holy Catholic and apostolic Church,
R