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Fr. Marcial, Founder of Legionaries of Christ, Fathered Child, Lived Double Life?

By Deacon Keith Fournier
2/4/2009
Catholic Online
http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=31954


Pray for those hurt. Pray for the members of the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi. Pray for the Church.

CHESAPEAKE, VA. (Catholic Online) - My awareness of this horrible news began with the somewhat odd “hint” given by Apologist, Author and Blogger Patrick Madrid who sent shock waves and questions throughout the Catholic and broader Christian community with this veiled reference on January 31, 2009: “I'm sorry to tell you that some shocking, saddening news about a prominent figure in the Church will soon become publically known, perhaps as early as Monday or Tuesday. Don't worry. This is not about the Holy Father or any previous pope, nor does it have to do with a lay person. Let's start praying earnestly that God will bring some kind of good from this and, of course, offer prayers for those involved.”

However, my efforts to get to the facts of this shocking story led me to Thomas Peters of “American Papist” who broke the real substance of this awful turn of events (http://www.americanpapist.com/blog.html). He has done a great job of keeping the reports factual while maintaining the proper spirit in delivering such devastating news. No-one can do anything but mourn over this news, and pray for the members of the community birthed from the work of this now deceased, errant Priest. The ecclesial movement consists of a global order of priests, the Legion, which now has 800 members and 2,500 seminarians, and a lay community called Regnum Christi which is present in 22 Nations and has 70,000 members. The story has now been picked up in numerous new media sources as well as in the more traditional media venues. That includes the newspaper associated with the community and lay movement.

The Members of the Legionaries of Christ and its lay movement, Regnum Christi, are deeply shocked and heartsick. Their founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, had already been alleged to have been involved in serious and scandalous sexual impropriety in the past. They had hoped that those matters of the past would have stayed matters of the past. The allegations have sometimes been relegated to the level of unsubstantiated suspicion by some within the community. However, in 2006 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith found them substantial enough to respond with a direction that Fr. Marcial cease from his involvement in any and all public ministry:

"...After having attentively studied the results of the investigation, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, under the guidance of the new prefect, Cardinal William Joseph Levada, decided - bearing in mind Fr. Maciel's advanced age and his delicate health - to forgo a canonical hearing and to invite the father to a reserved life of penitence and prayer, relinquishing any form of public ministry. The Holy Father approved these decisions.”

Father Marciel Marciel followed the direction of the Church. He lived the remainder of his life as a penitent. He died on January 30, 2008 at the age of 87. However, the Religious community and lay movement he founded continued their many apostolic endeavors. Both have produced some wonderful work in and for the Church. Certainly its lay members, its priests and all who recognize the good which they have all done - and, hopefully will continue to do - were shocked by these new reports.

Here they are. The influential, deceased founder of the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi, Fr. Marcial Maciel, a consecrated celibate priest, is alleged to have had a mistress, fathered at least one child and lived a double life. I will use the summary set forth in the recent article on “American Papist” written by Thomas Peters. It appears to be the most comprehensive, up to date and substantive. It is based upon numerous reports including sources within the community itself:

“1) Maciel fathered a child who is now in her early 20's;
“2) Maciel offered some money illicitly to his own family;
“3) The current head, Alvaro Corcuera, entertaining his own suspicions, demanded that the case be reopened several years ago;
“4) The health of the Legion depends on denouncing him as founder and moving on.
“I have heard more details in addition (a second child, etc), but in this situation, I tend to think we've already learned enough to make an evaluation. Anything further is simply prurient interest.”

One of the fruits of the work of the Legionaries has been the National Catholic Register which is owned by the community. The editor of the paper is Tom Hoopes. He commented on the matter: "All I want to say is, I’m sorry. I want to say it here, because I defended Fr. Maciel here, and I need to be on the record regarding that defense: I’m sorry, to the victims, who were victims twice, the second time by calumny. I’m sorry, to the Church, which has been damaged. I’m sorry, to those I’ve misled. I did it unwittingly, but this isn’t a time for excuses. The Church gave me great, great good in Regnum Christi. The Church did bring justice, and did penalize this man. Thank God for the Church. I seek repentance and forgiveness, and I leave it at that."

We ask all of the readers of Catholic Online throughout the world to pray for those hurt by this behavior. Pray for the members of the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi. I have known Legionary Priests and lay members of Regnum Christi. They have all been wonderful Catholics and good people, deeply in love with the Lord and His holy Church. My heart breaks for them in this time of struggle and disappointment. We also ask our readers to pray for the Catholic Church which, in the midst of this very difficult time of history, will now also have to bear with what will be a fierce season of reaction to this latest tragedy.




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Catholic Order Jolted by Reports That Its Founder Led a Double Life
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/us/04legion.html?_r=4&ref=us
February 4, 2009
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

The Legionaries of Christ, an influential Roman Catholic religious order, have been shaken by new revelations that their founder, who died a year ago, had an affair with a woman and fathered a daughter just as he and his thriving conservative order were winning the acclaim of Pope John Paul II.

Before his death, the founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, had been forced to leave public ministry by Pope Benedict XVI because of accusations from more than a dozen men who said he had sexually abused them when they were students.

But most members of the Legion continued to defend Father Maciel, asserting that the accusations had not been proved. Father Maciel died in January 2008 at the age of 87, and was buried in Mexico, where he was born.

Now the order’s general director, the Rev. Álvaro Corcuera, is quietly visiting its religious communities and seminaries in the United States and informing members that their founder led a double life, current and former Legionaries said.

The order is not publicly confirming the details of the scandal.

Jim Fair, a spokesman for the Legionaries, said only: “We have learned some things about our founder’s life that are surprising and difficult for us to understand. We can confirm that there are some aspects of his life that were not appropriate for a Catholic priest.”

Some former members said they expected the order to renounce its founder, but Mr. Fair said: “He is the founder and he always will be the founder of the order. That’s one of the mysteries that we all see in life is that sometimes good things come out of less than perfect human beings.”

In Catholic religious orders, members are taught to identify with the spirituality and values of the founder. That was taken to an extreme in the Legionaries, said the Rev. Stephen Fichter, a priest in New Jersey who left the order after 14 years.

“Father Maciel was this mythical hero who was put on a pedestal and had all the answers,” Father Fichter said. “When you become a Legionarie, you have to read every letter Father Maciel ever wrote, like 15 or 16 volumes. To hear he’s been having this double life on the side, I just don’t see how they’re going to continue.”

Father Fichter, once the chief financial officer for the order, said he informed the Vatican three years ago that every time Father Maciel left Rome, “I always had to give him $10,000 in cash — $5,000 in American dollars and $5,000 in the currency of wherever he was going.”

Father Fichter added: “As Legionaries, we were taught a very strict poverty; if I went out of town and bought a Bic pen and a chocolate bar, I would have to turn in the receipts. And yet for Father Maciel there was never any accounting. It was always cash, never any paper trail. And because he was this incredible hero to us, we never even questioned it for a second.”

Mr. Fair said he had no comment about whether Father Maciel had misappropriated money, fathered a child or sexually abused young men.

The Legionaries, founded in 1941, have grown as the church in many countries has shrunk. It has 800 priests in 22 countries, and 70,000 members worldwide, many of whom are lay people in its affiliate, Regnum Christi.

Tom Hoopes, managing editor of The National Catholic Register, which is affiliated with the Legionaries, posted an apology on the Web on Tuesday for having dismissed the sexual abuse accusations, saying, “I’m sorry to the victims, who were victims twice.”

I am sorry but having a girlfriend and kid on the side, while scandalous, is small potatoes compared with the myriad accusations of sexual abuse brought against the man. What sickens me even more is that this is going to be the straw that broke the Legion's back? Sexual abuse of boys and men we can overlook, but a girlfriend and child, how can we contiue? The Legion should be surpressed and the members intergrated into some less cult-like conservative order whose founder wasn't a scandalous, hypocritical nut-job.

Have to agree with you 100%. We have one Teacher, as the Lord Himself has told us in the Gospel. I just wonder how this thing was kept under cover for so long.

You can see the danger, too, when the highest level of Church authority seems to give an unqualified blessing to a man with a cult-like aura. Who would dare to step forward?

BOB

Move the good ones over to the FSSP!

...Let the Jesuits have the rest. They need the vocations.

Alexis

Fr. Deacon Lance,

I'm with you on this one...I will only suggest, though, that this represents the "straw" because the evidence is 20 years old and walking around. Substantiating the other claims is far more difficult.

I think the reality of this young woman has caused the Legion to face facts: the man was far more beast than angel, to paraphrase Pascal.

So long as it was just ex-members of his order, they could chalk it up to jealousy or sour grapes.

This is definitive evidence.

I pray for the healing of all who misled and for those who willingly partcipated in the misleading, profound repentance.

In ICXC,

Fr. Deacon Daniel

This occured only because that "highest level of Church authority" -- in this case, the late Holy Father John Paul II -- was himself surrounded by what can only be described as a cult-like aura.

Please don't get me wrong here. Pope John Paul II was a holy man (although the jury will be out for a long time on whether he was great) and was very humble too. I like the anecdote about him, how we would softly say to himself "non sum dignus" whenever he faced thousands or millions of adoring faithful.

However, it is a fact that Pope John Paul II was adored and revered by many faithful and orthodox Catholics to an extent unprecedented in Church history, such that whatever fell from his lips and whatever he did was always taken as something that can neither be questioned nor criticized. During his reign, many Catholic thinkers treated everything he said with the reverence ideally due to the Magisterium alone. (Case in point: when "Crossing the Threshold of Hope" appeared -- a written interview in book form! -- Vittorio Messori publicly declared that it is a document of the Magisterium, binding upon all. In contrast, Pope Benedict's "Jesus of Nazareth" came out with an explicit denial of its Magisterial status). In my experience with Opus Dei from 1996 to 2005, this "papolatry" was very strong among their followers.

It is no surprise that false mystics, false apparitions, heterodox "New Movements" and charismatic groups and false saints like Marcial Maciel spread unchecked under Pope John Paul II, given his enthusiasm for Marian apparitions, for the "New Movements" and for whatever group or individual seemed to uphold moral and sexual orthodoxy. If Pope John Paul II approved something, that was enough! If you ask me, his Pontificate was a true example of the distortions into which the papal office could fall.

We always have such as this man in the church in every age. They look the part and to the untrained eye they seem 'kosher', so no one believes the whistle blowers as they appear.

Stangely child abusers work the same angle. "Dont bother complaining to anyone, as no is going to believe you." So the abusive situation goes on and on unchecked for a much longer period. He got caught very late (too late for some) but he did get caught.

Many others who have the externals in order (dress and rules etc), get away with things completely simply because their abuse is non sexual and their lack of any substance is allowed to go on, as it would be too much work (and embarrising) to bring them into line, or disband them.

Indeed, Jesus had two in particular, and hand-picked by Him. And in the betrayal, I venture that Simon Peter's sin was greater than that of Judas -- Peter had such a privileged position among the twelve. And besides considered synchronically, even diachronically Peter's sin, of all the sins of the Popes of Rome, must be the most egregious.

Yet, Judas went out and hanged himself, but Peter wept bitterly. The Church can only hope and pray that all sinners follow Peter's example.

Fr. Marcial Maciel did spend his final year in penance and seclusion.

Well said.

I do not see reason enough to supress the Legion... yet.

I'd like to see how they do without Fr. Maciel for a few years.

You see, the Church is not only a human organization. I do believe the Holy Spirit is our CEO and He is hard at work everywhere.

Latin Religious congregations are not quite like Eastern Monasticism (I understand that, save for very rare exceptions, mostly imported from the West, in the East a monk is a monk is a monk). Reassigning these thousands of priests to a different congregation they did not choose to begin with may not be the best for them, the other congregations and the third parties involved in this whole thing. Ultimately, it may not be the best for the Church at large.

Again, I think we have to wait and see.

Shalom,
Memo

A Church is different than a religious order. How can an order continue whose rule was written by such a man? There were complaints about his rule anyways.

Brother Deacon-

you're right, there is something fundamentally wrong, when something unnatural is excused while something in line with nature is thought to be the end all.

If the following article can be believed, a number of RC priests in Mexico spurn celibacy:

Mexican Parishioners Accept Married Priests [latinamericanstudies.org]

One of the Mexican patriots of the War of Independance from Spain, José María Morelos, was a diocesan priest of Valladollid and fathered a son. Unlike North Americans, I would say Catholics from Latin America are not scandalized by a priest with a wife/mistress.

ajk:

With all due resepct, I think you miss the point of your own comparison. It is not the sin, nor is it the position, but the reaction once the sin was recognized.

St. Peter repented. He humbled himself. He accepted the Lord's entirely free gift of unconditional forgiveness.

Judas did not repent. He despaired of forgiveness. He refused the free gift always offered simply because he could not see beyond himself.

In Christ,

BOB

I agree but must admit that a child is much more difficult to ignore than accusations.