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	Sex Abuse Scandal Tarnishes an Otherwise Fine Order By Gregory J. Sullivan The Bulletin February 13, 2009 http://www.thebulletin.us/articles/2009/02/13/commentary/editorials/doc49950ed909263375336794.txt The revelations of grave sexual and financial abuses of Father Marcial Maciel have finally — and thankfully — penetrated into the leadership of the order he founded, the Legion of Christ, and the lay movement, Regnum Christi. The Legion and Regnum Christi, both of which are very impressive organizations, will need to confront this problem openly, thoroughly, and honestly to have any chance to survive. One can only hope the very best for the many outstanding members of these groups. Founded in Mexico in 1941, the Legion has been one of the most successful new ecclesial movements in the Church. It has ordained many competent priests (more than 700 currently with more than 1,000 seminarians) and recruited brilliant and committed lay people (the membership of Regnum Christi is approximately 70,000). What is more, these groups are distinguished by their sincere pursuit of sanctity and doctrinal orthodoxy. The founder, Fr. Maciel, who died in 2008, was continuously surrounded by rumors and accusations of sexual abuse of Legion seminarians. Pope John Paul II was intensely devoted to the excellence and vitality of the Legion and Regnum Christi, and the Vatican’s investigation of Fr. Maciel went nowhere. (During this time, Fr. Maciel had many influential defenders, including in this country the estimable Father Richard John Neuhaus.) Under Pope Benedict XVI, Fr. Maciel was, because of his advanced age and declining health, merely removed from his leadership position. That is where the matter remained until the recent acknowledgement by the Legion’s current leadership that it was engulfed in crisis. The newest problem to surface is that Fr. Maciel had fathered at least one child. The earlier allegations of pedophilia and drug addiction are credibly set forth in the tendentious but reliable 2008 documentary film, “Vows of Silence.” It is now beyond dispute that Fr. Maciel was an abominable man, sexually and financially corrupt, who maintained his position of unquestioned leadership by exploiting the zeal of his gifted followers with a requirement cult-like devotion reinforced by private vows. (These private vows, which forbade criticism of superiors, have been abrogated by Pope Benedict XVI.) As George Weigel has prudently observed: “It can only be saved if there is full, public disclosure of Fr. Maciel’s perfidies and if the there is a root-and-branch examination of possible complicity in those perfidies within the Legion of Christ. That examination must be combined with a brutally frank analysis of the institutional culture in which those perfidies and that complicity unfolded.” (Mr. Weigel insists, correctly, that this examination must be conducted by someone outside of the Legion and answerable only to Pope Benedict XVI.) Only time will tell whether the Legion and Regnum Christi can survive this examination in one form or other. As these problems are worked through, it is not unreasonable to ask: Why bother saving them at all? Would there be a loss? An immense loss. The Legion is filled with vibrant, young, intelligent and orthodox priests. A good example of these priests is Father Thomas Williams, L.C., who has recently published the very fine book, Knowing Right from Wrong: A Christian Guide to Conscience. Regnum Christi has the same sort of lay members. Where are these sorts of people — the sort who love Jesus Christ and seek to serve him and his Church with a totality of commitment — to go? With many traditional means exhausted, it is no surprise — and, in fact, it is a great blessing — that the Legion, Regnum Christi and comparable organizations flourish. By dramatic contrast, the Jesuits have become a rapidly diminishing, aging, heterodox and largely homosexual order of priests. (The recent death of Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., reminds us that a convert of his caliber would be very unlikely today to enter the Jesuit order, whereas in his day — that is, the 1940s — such a vocational choice seemed inevitable.) Throughout the history of the Church, new movements have emerged to carry on the work of what St. Paul called the more excellent way. Many of these movements have gone through complicated histories and thrived. Some have disappeared. One order has disappeared —more precisely, been suppressed — and then reappeared. The Legion and Regnum Christi are among the more remarkable groups of our time. To see the devastation wrought by the wicked appetites of Fr. Maciel is a real sadness. Whether they survive this catastrophe is a very open question. But, undeniably, there is a great deal of good to salvage from the wreckage. Gregory J. Sullivan (Gregoryjsull@aol.com) is a lawyer who resides in Bucks County.
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