Marcial Maciel or Judas II?

[John McGuire]

The Legion of Christ: Operation Rescue

April 2011

“It is no exaggeration to say that [Legion of Christ founder] Marcial Maciel was by far the most despicable character in the twentieth century Catholic Church, inflicting more damage on her reputation and evangelizing mission than any other single Church leader.” These intemperate words were not written by an abuse victim of the Mexican priest. They are not the rantings of some fringe fanatic with an axe to grind. Amazingly, these words were penned by Fr. Richard Gill, who for twenty-nine years served as a priest of the Legion of Christ and also as longtime director of Regnum Christi, the congregation’s lay branch.

Last year Fr. Gill became one of seventy priests (out of eight hundred) to abandon Maciel’s congregation in the wake of revelations about its founder’s double life. Maciel’s “lifetime of deviant sexual behavior, corruption, abuse, and deception of several popes raised serious questions about how any valid charism could be transmitted by such a man,” explains Fr. Gill in an article published in the Italian daily L’Espresso (Feb. 9). Fr. Gill not only recounts why he left the Legion to be incardinated in the Archdiocese of New York, but, more importantly, expresses his skepticism about the chances for the order to reform itself, even with the help and oversight of the Vatican.

Because Gill was a longtime Legion insider, his article carries considerable weight; his conclusions are worth examining closely. He poses one simple question: Can the Legion of Christ be repaired? That question turns out to be more rhetorical than inquiring. Though he does perfunctorily express his good-will hope that the project of reform will succeed, his implicit “no” is resounding, and the evidence he provides persuasive.

It is instructive to note that Fr. Gill is not alone in his assessment of Maciel’s character. The group of Vatican investigators chosen to oversee the Legion has referred to Maciel as “a man without religious sentiment,” and Pope Benedict XVI has called him a “false prophet.” What bothered Fr. Gill more than the Maciel scandals themselves — he fathered children and sexually abused boys (including seminarians and his own sons), and so on — was the way the congregation’s current superiors dealt with the scandals once they became known. In Gill’s words, “they led a systematic effort to deny and minimize the facts about Fr. Maciel and thus revealed a profoundly disturbing attitude of paternalism toward their own religious.” This attitude was a direct result of the internal culture Maciel created and fostered over the decades. Consequently, Gill, and apparently many others, not only have little confidence in Legion leadership, they deeply distrust these superiors.

In July 2010 Pope Benedict appointed Velacio De Paolis, an Italian cardinal, as papal delegate to the Legion. The reforms, if they happen, would happen under his watch. Though Fr. Gill applauds several of the cardinal’s initiatives, including a three-year process designed to revise the congregation’s constitutions, the former Legionary priest sees six major problems with the cardinal’s approach.

Problem 1: Charism. Cardinal De Paolis has referred to the Legion of Christ as a “work of God,” though without explaining how God uses a man like Maciel. Gill believes the cardinal cannot move forward by continuing to employ the same pietistic terminology used by Maciel during his lifetime. For Maciel, referring to his congregation as a “work of God” meant that “every detail of the Constitutions and Norms were inspired by the Holy Spirit and could not be called into question.” Rather than making concessions to Maciel-style lingo, Fr. Gill suggests that Cardinal De Paolis explain in what sense there remains any valid charism to the Legion, rather than simply asserting that it all flows from God. During his twenty-nine years of service in the order, admits Gill, “It was always rather embarrassing that Legionaries could never really agree on what their charism was, much less explain it to others.”

Problem 2: History. Cardinal De Paolis has made it clear that he is not interested in calling for a fuller investigation of the whole Maciel scandal. The Vatican’s 2009-2010 apostolic visitation identified irregularities in the internal working of the Legion but “it did not directly address the facts surrounding Fr. Maciel, or his history of abuse of minors or his maintenance of at least two mistresses and three children, nor the financial irregularities his lifestyle created.” Fr. Gill understands that the truth of the scandals must be fully brought to light. But the scandals per se are not the only subjects begging for investigation. The Legion of Christ, to put it bluntly, has a shady history. Gill, for one, wants answers to questions such as:

- How is it possible that Fr. Maciel was re-instated as superior general in 1959, after having been suspended for two and a half years during a Vatican investigation into his conduct, especially considering that the accusations against him turned out to be true?
- How did Ma­ciel manage to obtain a “Decree of Praise” for the Legion from Pope Paul VI in 1965?
- What is behind the practical disappearance of Maciel from the Legion for nearly a year in the late 1970s? (Hint: It turned out that this was when one of his children was born.)
- How could Maciel have carried on a double life, fathering at least three children from two mistresses over decades, with no one noticing or colluding with him?
- Why did no one recognize the fact that Maciel rarely celebrated Mass or prayed the Breviary — a sign of a serious spiritual problem?
- How was it that the constitutions of the Legion, which now are recognized to have serious flaws and conflicts with canon law and are under revision, were approved in 1983 by Eduardo Francisco Cardinal Pironio, former prefect of the Congregation for Religious?
- How could a man such as Maciel have gained access to Pope John Paul II and misled him over the course of decades?
- How does one explain the consistent defense of Maciel by Angelo Cardinal Sodano, former Vatican secretary of state, and Franc Cardinal Rodé, former prefect of the Congregation for Religious, and their encouragement of the Legionaries to hold him in esteem, even after the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had censured him with the approval of the Holy Father in 2006?

If these questions are not sufficiently answered, there’s no way any reforms in the Legion will ever be taken seriously. Internal reforms must be undertaken with an eye toward avoiding a repeat of the Maciel tragedies in the future.

Problem 3: Accountability. Any successful and honest organization holds its individuals accountable for their decisions, their actions, and their behavior. The third weakness Fr. Gill identifies is the “apparent lack of concern for holding individuals accountable for their role in keeping secret from Church authorities what they knew of Maciel’s behavior.” Some obviously had to have collaborated or colluded with him in some way. The fact is that many of the current and past leaders of the Legion have perpetuated a false history of the congregation and its founder. To put it mildly, Maciel distorted the truth and misled thousands under his spiritual care. He did not do so alone. Private secretaries, personal aides, those who traveled with Maciel and provided funds for him — these are the men who cooperated in Maciel’s corruption. “It is perfectly reasonable,” Gill suggests, “to have a full investigation and hold people personally accountable.”

Problem 4: Leadership. In his role over the past year as papal delegate to the Legion, Cardinal De Paolis has yet to remove a single major superior from office. “For the most part,” says Fr. Gill, “the same group of superiors who were appointed by Maciel and who presided over the attempts to cover for him in the aftermath of his condemnation by the Holy See in 2006 are still at the helm.” It stands to reason that while these men are still in positions of authority in the congregation, there can be no real reform. Heads will have to roll, says Fr. Gill. There’s no way around it.

Problem 5: Limitations of Dialogue. The answer to most problems in our age can be discovered through “dialogue,” or so runs the cliché. Yet with the same corrupt superiors in positions of authority, those Legionaries who express opinions contrary to the Maciel party line will find themselves marginalized. “Some members of the Congregation have been transferred to remote outposts, others threatened,” Gill attests. “Superiors are still concerned to keep dissidents from organizing themselves.” It is well known that the Legion has long used subversive spy­master-style tactics to monitor all members’ written communications, mail and e-mail. These kinds of controversial practices need to end before any honest internal dialogue can take place.

Problem 6: Legion Culture. In Fr. Gill’s words, a “Latino mentality” pervades the Legion. Such an internal culture is in many ways at odds with a European or American way of living the faith. “With Maciel’s obsession with uniformity and unity throughout the world and one set of rules for all, the national and cultural differences were played down. The tension was never seriously confronted, or even acknowledged,” writes Fr. Gill. In many ways, he says, Maciel’s attitudes were a product of the Mexican mentality, and that mentality was perpetuated by the Legion’s Mexican leadership. “Culturally, Latinos tend to be more tolerant of misconduct, corruption, and dishonesty. And it is now clear they did not feel the members of the Congregation actually had a right to know the truth about the founder’s lifestyle and kept it hidden.” Bottom line: Legion culture itself has to change before any meaningful reforms can take place. The notion of “monolithic unity” promoted by Maciel needs to be replaced, Gill proposes, by transparency and openness.

Fr. Gill concludes his article by reminding us that most religious orders successfully reform themselves after a period of decline by returning to the original charisms and principles of their founders. With the Legion, such a “return” is neither possible nor desirable — first, because no one really knows or understands what those charisms are truly supposed to be or how they get lived out; second, because Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legion of Christ, is himself the problem. Emulating any principle of his would only be another way of perpetuating the multifaceted tragedies he’s set in place. The problem is systemic.

Though Fr. Gill seems to feel the need to give some vague words of hope, his overall thesis is a simple one: The Legion cannot be saved, even with the intervention of the Holy See. As it stands, the Legion has no clear sense of mission. If the congregation is to survive extinction, courageous leaders will need to “break free” from the “despicable” Maciel and “forge a new path forward.”



DOSSIER: Fr. Marcial Maciel & the Legion of Christ