Bombshell Letter
The American Papist is carrying an open letter to the Legionaries of Christ by Dr. Germain Grisez. Here is part of what he says:
If I were you, I would bear in mind that your fundamental commitment is to Jesus and his Church. The question that should be uppermost in your minds is how to continue carrying out that commitment most faithfully and fruitfully.
You and all your good and faithful confreres share a common good that includes realities of great value: your communio with one another, your experience and habits of working together, and material means of carrying on your common service and life. All that should be protected, salvaged, and, if possible, kept intact. I do not think that good end can be realized by the juridical person, the Legionaries of Christ, and its present leadership.
Grisez concludes:
Some of your good and faithful confreres undoubtedly will tell you that following my advice would violate your vow of obedience and constitute grave disloyalty to your superiors. Those sincere men will be mistaken. Your vow is to obey morally acceptable precepts. In the present disaster, it is, in my judgment, your grave moral duty to appeal to the Pope, as your superior, to save the common good of the faithful members of the Legionaries of Christ by terminating the present juridical person, and seeing to the formation of a new institute. I am sure that most who were complicit in Father Maciel’s wrongdoing were constrained by a false sense of loyalty. Do not follow their bad and disastrous example. Remember instead your responsibility to Jesus and to his Church and to all those whose souls are still to be saved by your service and that of the members of the new foundation.
Here are more words of wisdom from Dr. Grisez:
“The bishops, religious superiors, and others who were guilty—of complicity in such wrongdoing, lying about it, irresponsibility toward victims, and so on—have in general not honestly admitted, much less rectified, what they did and failed to do. (NAMELY, CRIMINAL ENDANGERMENT OF CHILDREN, OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE, FAILURE TO REPORT) For that reason, the injury to the Church continues to fester. (AMEN, AMEN, yes, fester) Still, those past experiences might seem to some Legionaries to provide a model by which your present plight can be overcome.
“That would be a grave mistake for two reasons. (DON’T ACT LIKE THE COMPLICIT BISHOPS HAVE)
“First, no matter how corrupt the hierarchy may be, faithful Catholics cannot do without it, but we can do without any particular religious institute. Everyone realizes that Father Maciel’s double life required the complicity of associates, some of whom surely are still members of the institute, and some of whom probably are functioning as superiors. (ABSOLUTELY CLEAN HOUSE – BY GOD, DO THE SAME FOR BISHOPS!) Unless those who shared in the betrayal are identified and faithful Legionaries cleanly separate from them, the latter group’s common good will not continue receiving the support of faithful Catholics, and will not be preserved.
“Second, when a bishop dies, the diocese’s priests cease cooperating with him. But even after the death of an institute’s saintly founder, its members’ service and life continue as cooperation with him or her.
“Regardless of Father Maciel’s subjective moral responsibility—which only God knows—the evidence of his objective betrayal of his commitment makes it impossible for you and other good and faithful Legionaries any longer to carry on your service and life as cooperation with him. (SKEPTICISM ABOUT ABILITY TO DO THAT)
“Unless you and your confreres proceed as quickly as possible to terminate the juridical person, the Legionaries of Christ, and reorganize yourselves into a new institute, the common good you now share will begin to decompose: very few new men will join you, many in formation will leave, some professed members will separate, and the collaboration and support of the lay faithful will shrink.”
The Legionaries MUST admit the sexual abuse of seminarians and priests as well, if they are to have any credibility — and apologize to them unconditionally. The vicious attacks the victims and authors Jason Berry and Gerald Renner have endured is a mockery of the Gospel. One survivor, a friend, was waking up with nightmares 40 years later, yelling for Maciel to stop, his wife told me. And that’s not the half of it.
Will the Legion have the courage to stand up and do what the bishops have refused to do? Tell the damn truth, pardon my emphasis. No spin, no passive voice, no evasions, no dissembling – the plain, simple truth.
Then may God be with you.
This seems to me excellent advice. I only hope the parties involved will take it.
Grisez has always been a interesting read, great integrity–I’m interested in his motivation here. It seems he had some experience with Maciel victims. Did he have connections with the LofC? Has he addressed these issues in such powerful terms elsewhere? In any case, good for him.
Blind obedience always has a tragic ending. We always knew there was/is much aberation in the LC. This is not new. It is just becoming more evident. We should be careful about the words of Grisez. I was with him until he started demanding that the obedience be transferred to the pope. A Johnny come lately to this crisis is not exactly the remedy.
Not once does Jesus say in Matthew 25:31-46 that one is judged by not following a superior. Each one is judged on their actions. So the LC nor any of us should jump from the frying pan into the fire. How about encouraging a good conscience to emerge.
We should not invite nor encourage more abusers of the mind or body.
I think the church could well do without a new version of the Legion of Christ.
BillM–at a word spoken against the supposed resignation of B16, you took the opportunity to call obedience ot the Pope the same as being “automotons of Rome”. Now you compare following the Pope the encouragement of more abusers of the mind or body.
These are very harsh and strident words, I am glad you spoke them–others might not be able to get away with it here.
You offer instead this solution: the emergence of a good conscience. I presume that by good, you don’t mean one formed in obedience to the Pope, which you just ridiculed. But consider that some of us prefer this obedience, over being an automoton of ourselves, or of the fad of the day.
Yet ultimately I don’t think you really mean self-direction, since the Pope’s self direction still drew your ire. So it seems the only option left for the rest of us is to be automotons of BillM, and his definition of “good conscience.”
I’ll take Peter, thanks anyway.
Peter is not a blank check, as we know since Galatians 2.
What the LC meltdown indicates is the disastrous consequences of John Paul II’s tolerance and promotion of sects and cults within the Church. At the same time he gutted the world hierarchy, so that even if the long night of restorationism ends, it will be impossible to put the Roman Catholic episcopacy back in good shape.
This is a very severe problem.
What if the letter by Dr. Grisez were sent to the College of Cardinals about the conduct of the “juridical person” they elected? Editiorial changes would be required, “mutatis mutandis,” but there is far more fodder among the derelictions of The Vatican than of the Legionnaires. Need I mention sexjual abuse of children, denial of equality for women, refusal for accountability of bishops, unjust excommunications of some and lifting of same for others, etc., etc., etc.That poor outfit of Legionnaires are but one group led by one person. The Church deals with all groups, but is led by one “juridical person” and those who put him there. In borrowing Dr. Grisez’ advice to the Legionnaires, we could recommend that they try “to save the common good of the faithful members of the … [Catholic Church] by terminating the present juridical person, and seeing to the formation of a new institute.” What if such a letter were signed by The People of God?
I sent the comment hastily, sleepily, without spell-checking it. I am sorry for this error. It is now corrected.
What if the letter by Dr. Grisez were sent to the College of Cardinals about the conduct of the “juridical person” they elected? Editorial changes would be required, “mutatis mutandis,” but there is far more fodder among the derelictions of The Vatican than of the Legionnaires. Need I mention sexual abuse of children, denial of equality for women, refusal for accountability of bishops, unjust excommunications of some and lifting of same for others, etc., etc., etc. That poor outfit of Legionnaires are but one group led by one person. The Church deals with all groups, but is led by one “juridical person” and those who put him there. In borrowing Dr. Grisez’ advice to the Legionnaires, we could recommend that they try “to save the common good of the faithful members of the … [Catholic Church] by terminating the present juridical person, and seeing to the formation of a new institute.” What if such a letter were signed by The People of God?
JosephO said “Peter is not a blank check, as we know since Galatians 2.” Peter is also not a despot, or an irrelevant figurehead, as we know from everywhere else in the New Testament. I assume neither of us hold these extreme posiions, but I guess it’s nice to clear the air anyway.
Isn’t it wonderful when a sunbeam, a ray of light, falls upon us? That’s the feeling I had, reading Dr. Grisez’s letter. I found myself saying, “yes … of course … well put …” throughout. And it was written in love.
“I think the church could well do without a new version of the Legion of Christ.”
Amen.
Unfortunately, the formal leadership in Rome and elsewhere will continue to encourage the formation of such institutes or “juridical persons.”
Why? Answers, no doubt, would vary.
For those of us concerned about such groups, though, a principal concern is our recognition that such endeavors tend to attract folks drawn to symbols of power, charismatic leaders, an “us versus them” mentality, blind obedience, etc.
Germain Grisez’s advice would be quite good but for one factor, namely, the people to whom it is directed. If the LCs do, in fact, create a new religious institute, I’m not convinced it would be much different in substance than it has been in years past.
“Peter is also not a despot, or an irrelevant figurehead…”
Tell that to the theologians who were screwed by JPII and his CDF pope-in-making. On the other hand, Benedict — like his predecessor — continues to drive the papacy into irrelevance for increasing numbers of Catholics.
Perhaps this church is undergoing renewal — the hard and painful way???
Very clever Matt, but no cigar. For the past decade plus I have taken care of and nursed both my mother and mother-in-law who live with me. (My mother-in-law passed a year ago) I forgive and love my enemies and give to those who ask of me. I do not need Peter to form my conscience thank you. Thorugh the grace of God, from whom all good comes, I will put my life up with anyone. I lead to the Sermon on the Mount. Not my own gospel.
What we need from Peter is service not domination. Too few popes have lived up this. Yet is their mandate as “servus servorum dei.” If we let them dominate rather than serve we are responsible for the evil they bring. The Sermon on the Mount trumps any papal encyclical. If we need encyclicals to render social justice, shame on us.
“One survivor, a friend, was waking up with nightmares 40 years later, yelling for Maciel to stop, his wife told me. And that’s not the half of it.”
What all of us should understand about Maciel is that he is a scoundrel. The man was not railroaded. The facts came out even after overwhelming attempts to suppress them and intimidate all who uncovered them. Yes God is his judge but his actions are tranparently evil, dominating and distinctly demon like in its secret nature.
On the contrary it is a good day for the people of God when Maciel and his corrupt followers are exposed.
The website of the International Cultic Studies Association has information about the LC and RC: http://www.icsahome.com . Use the “search” function.
Is the discussion here on the need to reform the Legion, the hierarchy (including the Vatican), or, as I suspect, both? They are surely both intertwined.
And leadership has failed in this case, so the message to the Legion is allso a mixed message to us.
So many threads about this LC’s scandal & here are a few thoughts after reading them… In my youth I visited the LC in Wisconsin and Connecticut and talked quite a few times to Owen Kearns, now editor of the Catholic Register. From my observations and conversations with several former LCs later, I think it’s pretty safe to say that LC has a lot of cult-like features, if not a cult itself. The personality of Fr. Maciel was central to life in LC and RC. So all these information about Maciel that came out in the last few years did not surprise me at all.
It should be added that at the time of knowing LC, I could see the great appeal it had on young people. And not just in appearance, but also the program itself. It prided itself on being like Jesuits of the old time, and it’d be hasty to be dismissive of this appeal. In addition, from a scholarly perspective, LC’s and RC’s appeal – small as it is (and it is easy, esp. for liberals, to exaggerate their size and influence – bespeaks of broader fragmentation in contemporary Catholicism: a fascinating topic for historians like myself. In the end, however, the organization does not have the charisma, structure, accountability, and sensibility like those of, say, Opus Dei, all of which are pretty modern. (No matter what you think of OD, it was relatively ahead of its time in its target of lay membership, addressing the topic long before the liberal wings in Western Europe and North America focused on the laity.) Based on my knowledge so far, deception has so embedded LC and RC that there was no possibility it could reform as long as Maciel was alive. It’s risky to predict what would happen in the future to LC and RC, but it’s hard to think the organizations wouldn’t be affected big time by Maciel’s death and now these revelations.
Finally, I think it’s great that someone like Germain Grisez spoke out as he did. Conservative organizations – be they religious or politics – are more liable to listen to conservative criticism. Well, maybe not, but certainly they wouldn’t listen to liberal criticism. (The same, of course, is true of liberal organizations.)
There are several sites of former LC and RC members; here is one with plenty of links:
http://www.life-after-rc.com/
Action plan;
After reading Dr. Grisez’s excellent letter/advise and As a ‘liberal’/'progressive’ Catholic I’m just going to say ‘I told you so’ twice and move myself on.
Conservative organizations – be they religious or politics – are more liable to listen to conservative criticism. Well, maybe not, but certainly they wouldn’t listen to liberal criticism. (The same, of course, is true of liberal organizations.)
——
Clarifying: I didn’t mean to say that liberal organizations wouldn’t listen to liberal criticism, but the opposite. Sadly, so deep is the polarization in politics and religion (and, in this case, Catholicism) that conservative organizations generally distrust and dismiss liberal criticism while vice liberal organizations generally distrust and dismiss conservative criticism. Criticism coming from the same side might fare a little better.
At the end of the day, there is no such thing as a “liberal”/”progressive”, “conservative” Catholic because Catholicism is not about politics and these are all political terms. One is either Orthodox or heterodox. Heterodoxy is heterodoxy in every location, right, left, far right, far left, etc., because your reference point must always be The Truth. Truth is not a matter of opinion, nor is it a matter of degree. Truth is Truth, The Word of God Made Flesh, as He Has revealed Himself to His Church. Pope Benedict XVI, and those Bishops in communion with him, have been entrusted by God to be Guardians of the Deposit of Faith. We are called to Nurture our Faith.
Either one believes in The One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and is in full communion with the Church, or one is not. If one does not believe the teaching of the Catholic Church regarding Faith and Morals, one can not be in communion with the Catholic Church.
… while, vice versa, liberal organizations generally distrust and dismiss conservative criticism.
I think stories like this raise another question, worthy of study: what allows people like Maciel to pull the wool over so many people’s eyes?
Are there clearly identifiable warning signs of this sort of person?
Any psychologists out there?
Cathleen I believe so, there can be many signs which I’m sure you could pick out yourself. Just think in your life as you live it daily. Just from exprience of seeing how some will act in thier lives in different circustances. People watch as you go along in your day thenstand back and watch after awhile you will see you already do this. I think it’s sometimes for some reason we just don’t want to see, maybe a need in our own lives.
Cathleen and Robin,
Very pertinent question. For some like Neuhaus, Wiegel, Bennett, Glendon, I intuit it was the primacy of orthodoxy. Anyone loyal to the Pope, well then, fine. Willful blindness. Clericalism too: Neuhaus yelled at Rod Dreher, if a Catholic bishop said something was true, it was true. End of story.
Maciel also knew how to spread gifts around, play the exquisite host with the best of everything, have handsome seminarians write letters to lonely rich widows, offer honorary degrees to cardinals, and the attention worked its magic. Nothing like wordly success to impress.
One Jewish commentator noted people are unconsciously looking for a Messiah.
Indeed, what are the psychological characteristics of those duped? Desire for authority to tell you what to do; all black and white; avoidance of responsibility? What emotional neediness is addressed?
The latest is that the Legion admitted Maciel had a child as a result of concern for monetary requests from his heir that might require a full audit of Legion vs Maciel’s finances. They were fully intertwined.
Juan Vaca, the survivor I know, says the daughter is 20; her mother was impregnated at 15 when Maciel was 68 (statutory rape anyone?) and she wants to sell her story.
No desire for truth and reform had any part in it. Lee Podles writes:
“I see no alternative to the suppression of the Legion. The Piarists were suppressed in the 17th century for similar reasons; the Jesuits were suppressed for political reasons; various branches of the Franciscans were suppressed for nuttiness. The priests can go to dioceses and other orders; the schools and other apostolates can be run as separate foundations; but the Legion must cease to exist.”
Amen.
For a fascinating account by two LC priests about Maciel’s abuse and drug addiction in the 1950′s, see
http://www.regainnetwork.org/let/fedE.pdf and
http://www.regainnetwork.org/let/FerE.pdf
Look who knew what way back when. The rewards of secrecy in a culture that infantilizes adults.
Heaven forbid, what hierarchs would even want ex-LC clergy following any suppression of this group?
Oops, there’s Baker, OR, and Kansas City-St. Joe, MO, and Colorado Springs, CO, and St. Louis, MO, and Baltimore, MD, and, and, and……………….oh, the list conceivably goes on and on and on………………
Sigh.
Madoff and Maciel, two of kind, no? Both preyed on human weakness, although the weaknesses took a different form. Each was a supreme narcissist, each desired to be a god. For the mystery of evil there is no easy answer.
Joseph wrote:
“Each was a supreme narcissist, each desired to be a god.”
Indeed. While I’m hearing some LCs speak of Fr. Maciel’s “multiple personality disorder” (which makes him — and also his surviving associates — sound less culpable), his actions are more symptomatic of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). (I’ve researched this condition for some time as the result of a tragic situation in my extended family.)
NPD arises out of childhood trauma. There have always been and always will be a relatively small number of individuals who develop this mental illness.
What I think is a more significant phenomenon than NPD itself is the seemingly dramatic rise in the number of people who are susceptible to becoming prey to malignant narcissists. It is *that* phenomenon which has in recent decades fueled not just the growth of cult movements but also the incidence of democratic dictatorships (Hitler, Mussolini et al.) and the increasing prevalence of narcissistic leadership in other established social institutions (religion and commerce being two examples cited by Joseph).
It would be a fascinating conversation to delve into the possible causes of the rise of “narcissistic society.” Is it a byproduct of the breakdown of the family? Defective models of authority? Spiritual anorexia? Deconstruction of social institutions? A combination of these or other factors?
Maybe a good subject for a follow-up blog post on the LC issue …
If folks are still reading this topic – George Weigel is pretty forthright in the First Things blog today.
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=1311