Legionaries at a crossroads

LEGIONARIES AT A CROSSROADS.
The death of Maciel with the prívate funeral and official mention of him by the Vatican could well be a golden opportunity for the religious congregation founded by him to undertake a serious examination of conscience and attempt to sift the wheat from the tares in his very questionable and questioned lagacy. Looked at superficially, he has left a seemingly thriving group with a large number of ordained priests, seminarians and lay followers with many schools, universities and other institutions, some of them secret front groups as was the usage of the Communist party.. It is present in some twenty countries. As for the statistics regarding the actual numbers of members that are bandied about by the Legionaries, they are all false. Some media tell us that there are 500 priests and 2500 seminarians, and as many as 60,000 in the Regnum Christi group of lay folk. Others tell us 700 priests and 2700 seminarians. This is not surprising because for a group like the Legionaries, success is measured in numbers, but they always seem to be round numbers and don’t resist analysis. There seems to be no doubt about the fund raising abilities of Maciel so that it can safely be stated that whatever the truth of the numbers of the members, it is very unlikely that his organization will suffer from economic penury any time soon. It is also true that he attracted many fine people to his organization and has been able to fool many bishops and others. However, the saying attributed to Abraham Lincoln that one can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time. It does seem that he was pretty successful at fooling Pope John Paul II during the whole of this long Pontificate, and by spreading money and other favors around among Vatican officials, he was also pretty successful at fooling many of them. The fact that his congregation has been banned from several diocese in the United States, also proves the truth of the dictum attributed to Lincoln. Unfortunately, it does appear that most of the members are still being fooled. Now that John Paul II has passed on to the next life and Maciel was disciplined by Benedict XVI, albeit not in a manner proportionate to the horrendous crimes he was accused of, it does seem that his support in the Vatican has eroded. For instance this past Christmas, the large group of seminarians who were ordained in Rome, were not ordained by any important Cardinal but by a retired Archbishop, Sandro Magistis. It does seems that in the Vatican, any very close relationship to the Legionaries is not something recommendable these days.
The $64,000 question is whether the Legionaries can possibly evolve into a truly ecclesial group and distance themselves to a sufficient degree from the legacy of Maciel and his whole modus operandi. I would like to present three possible scenarios. At present two of them seem very improbable, although they seem to me to be the way out of the cul de sac in which they are at present.
1.Radical reform and reorientation of the whole Legion organization.
Now that Pope Benedict has disallowed the private vows, which seem to be part of the very essence of the whole Legion system, it can be argued that radical reform is needed. If it is also true that they have been ordered to desist from pressuring and obligating members to open their consciences to the superiors and pressure them to confess to them, then it can be argued that to a good extent the backbone of the totalitarian system of total control of the lives of the members has been rejected by the Church. There is nothing special in this since it is just part of Canon Law.
An important part of this radical reform is precisely a fundamental discernment of what the specific charism is. In the case of the Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits and so many other religious orders, this is very clear. For instance, there is no doubt that the charism of the Dominicans, the Order of Preachers, is the preaching of the gospel and teaching, or that of St. Francis is the following of Christ in his humility and poverty. Now, what is the specific charism of the Legion? Within the congregation it is said that it is the recruitment (“captación” in Spanish, a word which means proselytism, also “grasping”) of leaders. Now who are these leaders and what are they to be recruited for? They are principally the rich and the extremely rich. The naive supposition is that by means of what is called “capillary action”, or going after those at the top, those who most influence the society, and converting them to Christianity , the “Kingdom of Christ” will be established in the world. In theory other influential people like journalists, various types of professionals, politicians can also be recruited to Regnum Christi and its front organizations, but the principal focus is on those with most money who are generally business people. Then they believe in the trickle down effect. Supposedly these having been evangelized and made members of RC, they will help transform the society and make it Christain, or rechristianize it. So, the Legionaries have begun in Mexico by educating the rich in their elitist schools. They do have some schools for the poor, which seem to be a sop and good for PR purposes, but forget about the poor getting an education as good as that given to the rich. One may ask if they have achieved the expected trickle down effect from their efforts at educating the rich. The fact is that the Legion shows little interest in the Social Teaching of the Church and the promotion of justice, which has been a priority for the Jesuits for several decades now. The rich tend to choose the chaplains who tell them what they would like to hear, which is not necessarily the gospel. The Legion has always felt ill at ease with the preferential option for the poor, and it may well be that the evangelization of the rich has gone the other way. Not many of the rich could have envied Maciel’s lavish lifestyle.
This is based on a totally simplistic analysis of the society and is not in line with what the Church has discerned as its mission in the world particularly from Vatican II on. Besides the fact that this trickle down effect doesn’t work, either in economics or any other field, it also seems to envisage a return to Christendom. It has little or nothing to do with the analysis of the relationship between the Church and the modern world in Vatican II’s document on this topic and the further developments by recent Popes and other ecclesial forums like synods of bishops, the Conferences of Latin American Bishops. It is, as many have stated, “old Church”. Although the Legion was founded in the 1940s, the truth is that the specific charism, an as much as it is such, is way out of date and the Legion truly needs a refoundation. It is totally permeated with Maciel’s totalitarian and anti-gospel modus operandi and needs a radical purification and also needs to do serious penance for the evil done particularly to the victims of sexual abuse. So, in my estimation, the first thing the Legion would need to do would be to approach the Holy See and seek help and guidance and call a General Chapter in order to carry out a genuine discernment which in reality would have to ditch almost all of the Maciel legacy and be refounded. I am not naïve enough to even dream that they will do this, at least not unless there is strong pressure from the Vatican. For instance, the Pope could appoint some kind of adviser or group of advisers to help them in this process, or a Ponntifical Commissioner to run it for a time until it can be reorganized and reformed. This could be done discretely. As is well known, the Vatican is good at doing things in a discrete fashion. It is not enough for Benedict XVI to have scrapped the private vows, it is necessary to go on to a really radical reform. The Holy See likes to respect the internal governance of religious orders, but in the case of the Legion, when it rides rough shod of much of Canon Law, something needs to be done.
One of the problems is that a charism is a gift of the Holy Spirit given for the good of the Church. If there is no such charism, then nobody can give the Legion one. Now, the Legion has received Papal approval. It is to be assumed that those who examined the constitutions and approved them did find that it had some specific charism, but the fact that it is so difficult to define what it is, because serving the rich and the super rich and perpetuating itself by looking for vocations and amassing wealth is hardly a specific charism for the good of the Church, some fundamental reinterpretation seems to be in order. Supposing there is none, and Maciel achieved the approval by deceit and soft soaping Vatican officials, then one might conclude that the best thing to do would be to disband it. However, that is complicated because there is a considerable number of members, and if it could be properly reformed it could make a valuable contribution to the mission of the Church.
One suggestion could be that since Maciel originally called it Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Most Sorrowful, then the original charism would be missionary, so the whole focus could be to redirect its efforts at evangelization in the Third World. This is not likely to happen.
Once the question of the specific chrism and mission has been thrashed out and discerned, one could then proceed to rewriting the Constitutions and the rules. There are literally hundreds of rules, even thousands, some of them so detailed that they tell members what they have to do in the toilet, and oblige them to ask for permission to go there. Other tell them how to eat, how to hold the napkin, how to do almost everything imaginable. There are pages and pages of rules telling them about what they should wear and more restricting home visits. The minutest details of their lives are regulated by these rules, which in some ways seems like those of the Pharisees. Most of this has to be ditched. Maciel copied some of his rules and regulations from the pre Vatican II Jesuits and he copied the Regnum Christi mostly from the Opus Dei. This interminable litany of rules only tends to make the members immature, or keep them so, besides controlling their lives, which seems to have been extremely important for their lives. The extreme central control of everything has to be changed. For instance, if the Principal of a School in South America wants to change the curtains, he has to get permission from Rome! Yes, from Rome! Nobody could possible fulfill all those rules and regulations and nobody does, least of all did Maciel. He, like the Pharisees tied heavy burdens and laid them on the shoulders of others and didn’t lift a finger to help carry them.
The whole matter of Maciel and the issue of his sexually abusing of so many of the young seminarians must be faced and resolved. Many of the victims are still members. The congregation can have little future or make no contribution to the Church if it fails to resolve this issue. Perhaps this special General Chapter should listen first to the members who have been abused and then invite its detractors and those who have accused Maciela and listen to them and sincerely ask for forgiveness for having demonized them and cooperated with Maciel in his misdeeds. It is obvious that those in charge at present, handpicked by Maciel, will be incapable of doing this. This is where the advisers appointed by the Vatican would need to come it. It might be necessary for the Vatican to appoint someone as Pontifical Commissioner, but it would seem almost impossible to find anyone inside capable of fitting the bill. Those who would have been capable were ostracized and have left. It would not be very likely an outsider could be capable of reforming it because he wouldn’t understand the Legion’s particular Mexican way of doing things. For instance, in the Legion it possible for someone to be appointed to a position and for someone else to actually do the job. Some think that the present Superior General is not actually the one who is pulling the strings at all. Then, besides the thousands of rules, there are hundreds of letters which establish what are called “criteria”. Much of this is unknown to members. Of course, not all members are equal in standing. The higher ups have special privileges and perks like trips, they wear better clothes, watches and so on. This is just an example of how complicated it is for an outsider to understand how things operate within it.


2.A gradual reform.
Perhaps with some nudging from the Vatican and others, it may be possible for them little by little to distance themselves from much of the Maciel legacy. One cannot expect the Legion to radically change from being a conservative force in the Church, like its twin or cousin Opus Dei. It is to realistic to expect it to move towards a more creative pastoral action in tune with the reality of the post modern world in which we live at present and to which the Church is attempting to respond. Neither is it totally immune from the movements present in the Church, although it may only pay superficial attention them, as it has to Vatican II reforms. Is it possible for it to become less defensive, more open to dialogue and less elitist? A slow evolutionary change may be possible, but it is also true that this would involve internal struggles because the die hard Macielites will continue with the tack that he is like Padre Pío, having been persecuted by certain “enemies” in the Vatican. The trouble for them is that such enemies include the Pope himself, and Maciel spent his wole life preaching absolute fidelity to the Pope, a kind of “popolatry”. He used to say that he would prefer to “be mistaken with the Pope”, as if the Pope couldn’t be mistaken, or had the charism of “creeping infallibility”, as some ultramontanes thought at the time of Pope Pius IX. Of course, like the Jansenists of the 17th century the Macielites will say that they appeal to the Pope better informed.
There is a whole problem of what a charism of a religious community actually is and how it can be transmitted. Let us take it that it has its origin in the Holy Spirit and is destined for the building up of the Church, as St. Paul states (1 Cor ch. 12). Obviously the Holy Spirit operates through the medium of human beings. Even in the case of Christ himself, he operated through human means, as also in the inspiration of Scripture. Some Jesuits have expressed the idea that the foundation of the Society of Jesus is in fact the life of St. Ignatius. One would also have to add his original companions. A charism is define as “gratia gratis data” , a grace freely given, not for the sanctification or the person who receives it, but for the building up of the Church, as mentioned above. In this it is distinguished from “gratia gratum faciens” (grace making one pleasing to God). This is also called sanctifying grace, which is a participation in the divine life, which makes us children of God and is received in baptism, and can be intensified by means of the other sacraments, especially the Eucharist, prayer and good works in general. St. Thomas Aquinas also distinguishes uncreated grace from created grace. Uncreated grace is God himself, whilst created grace is our participation in his divine life in as much as it elevates and transforms our human nature, without radically changing it into some other nature, angelical for instance. Then there is actual grace and habitual grace. The latter is the same as what used to be called sanctifying grace in the old catechisms. It is said to be “habitual” in the scholastic sense of “habitus”, a permanent disposition. In this sense virtues are also considered to be “habits” in that they are permanent dispositions which perfect human action, making it easier and more spontaneous to fulfill a virtuous act. Habitual grace is said to be an “entative” habit, that a permanent disposition which not only affects our action, but perfects our very being, so that there is a radical difference, on the level of being between being “in a state of grace” and not being so, that is being in sin. Actual grace is a particular stimulus which God freely gives us to help us do good acts and avoid evil. It is also passing. A charism, as distinct from these other types of grace, is directed towards the Church and not necessarily going to perfect the one who is the means of its communication. However, one may ask if it is not more difficult for a charism to be communicated to the Church by means of a person who is credibly a criminal. Certainly there is always a disproportion between the divine origin of the gift and the person chosen to communicate it, but it seems obvious that it can be better communicated by a saintly person as is the case of such saintly founders as Sts. Francis, Dominic or Ignatius. If the person chosen to communicate such a charism is pharisaical and has a seriously flawed character such as a homosexual, pedophile and drug addict, would this not be an extremely serious obstacle for the credibility of such a charism, supposing that it does exist and has been so discerned and approved by Church authorities? Otherwise, it would be like stating that the quality of the pipe or channel through which water flows does has nothing to do with the purity of the water. However, the matter is more serious. A charism in order to be truly capable of contributing to building up the Church would need to be lived out. If the founder, who we assume was chosen to communicate it to the Church failed to live it out and lived in a totally scandalous manner, then this charism would be in serious danger. Mother Theresa would hardly have been able to communicate her charism to the Church and the world at large if she had never gone into the slums of Calcutta, if she had never picked up dying people from the streets or founded shelters for victims of AIDS etc. If she had limited her action to telling others how important it is to do those things, she would have been considered a hypocrite and a cheat. Her witness and total dedication to the living out of the charism she received seem to be an essential part of it. If now, how could such a charism have been able to build up the Church and have such a tremendous impact in the world.
Maciel professed religious vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and lived a lavish lifestyle, moving around the world in the Concorde, First Class, in Mercedes Benz and BMW (members were told that he had a bad back and that only the seats of a Mercedes or BMW were good enough for him), staying at the Waldorf Astoria, the Hilton and Hyatt, having stocks of filet mignon shipped from Ireland to Rome because only the best of Irish beef was good enough for him. Besides, he considered it appropriate to visit possible benefactors in New York, landing in the garden of one of them in a helicopter, and ask them for money! As for the vow of chastity, it is hardly necessary to go into any details on this. As for obedience, it seems that he never obeyed any bishop or anyone else. He vehemently preached poverty, chastity and obedience to others. He apparently died in Naples, Florida, not exactly a shanty town like the slums of Calcutta where Mother Theresa worked herself to the bone. He frequently ridiculed and reprimanded others for their lack of “apostolic zeal”. One occasion he held a meeting with all the Principals of schools in Mexico City and went on a tirade to them because in his estimation none of them were living up to the demands of their positions. They were failing to get more people into Regnum Christi. One of the priests present stood up and asked him if he could go to his school and teach him what he was supposed to do, how he was expected to run the school and get many into Regnum Christi (remembers that all Legion activities are considered “open means of recruitment”, in Legion lingo in Spanish “medios abiertos de captación”). Maciel quickly backed off by saying that he was very busy. One may legitimately wonder how a charism could be communicated if the founder chosen to communicate it was light years away from living it out and bearing witness to it.
This hypothesis of an evolutionary change in the Legion may be valid, but not much can be expected in the short term. What we have seen since the Vatican’s disciplining of Maciel in May of 2006 doesn’t give us much hope that this evolution will take place any time soon. They are likely to continue with the tack that he was like Jesus who failed to defend himself before Pilate and the Chief Priest. The trouble with this analogy, as several commentators have pointed out, the latter are the Pope and the CDF, something which doesn’t wash. Part of the problem is that those in charge and many of the members are out of touch with reality. They seem to think that they lame duck arguments they are accustomed to give the members can wash with the outside world. Besides, the recent lawsuit against REGAIN demonstrates an unusual belligerence, which has brought them into line with such sects as the Church of Scientology and the Jehova’s Witnesses. Again, they are confirming the fact that they are out of touch with the reality of the globalized world because they seem to think that by means of expensive lawsuits they can shut their detractors up. The Legion drilled into the minds of its novices that they had to live the “Gospel without gloss”. In what Gospel do they find Jesus telling his followers to sue their detractors in the public court? So, for the present in any case, there is little hope of any evolutionary change in the Legion, unless it comes under Vatican pressure.
3.Retrenchment.
They could also take the line of retrenchment in their defensiveness and an attempt somehow rehabilitating Maciel’s tarnished image. This in the long run would be a futile exercise because with modern communications and particularly Internet, they cannot burnish his image or attempt to have him canonized, as the Opus did with its founder. The fact that they had a private funeral, although they did celebrate funeral Masses in various places, seems to indicate that they do realize that something is “rotten” in the case of Maciel, or that they can hardly fly in the face of reality. Nothing will happen soon, but it does seem clear that much will depend of the winds coming from the Vatican. It seems clear that Benedict XVI is not very happy with groups like the Legion and the Neocatechumenals. They definitive Statute of this latter group should have been approved in June of last year and it has been delayed, apparently because of similar problems to those of the Legion, sectarianism, parallel church and elitism, plus in the case of the NC, dogmatic problems. Once such groups are approved or tolerated in the Church, it is not easy to reform them because even if Statutes are approved, they tend to carry on business as usual. They also have a siege mentality and interpret constructive criticism as an all out attack on them, close ranks and fail to reform.

All in all, it is extremely unlikely that the Legion will walk down the road of radical reform, facing the sexual abuse issue squarely, asking for forgiveness of the many victims of Maciel’s misdeeds, both sexual and other. Besides that it needs to face the fact that several abusers have not only not been taken out of circulation, but have been promoted or sent to another minor seminary as superiors. The capacity of the human being for self delusion is almost infinite. Einstein stated on some occasion that two things amaze him, the order of the universe and the capacity of the human being for self-deceit. It is likely that there will be some evolution, but in the opinion of the present writer, the only true Christian option left open to the Legion is the first one. The Maciel legacy is so tainted, the very epitome of the Gospel that it is impossible to whitewash most of it. The congregation is permeated with it. Only this radical road will be capable of cleansing and purifying the Legion of the misdeeds of Maciel, in which many those in charge at present are complices. If they are incapable of this option, then it would seem that the Legion can be of little service to the Church and would be better suppressed.