Thursday, August 27, 2009

Contents of "Our Father [Maciel] who art in bed..."



Fr. Maciel giving Paul Lennon his 'holy picture' at Patron Saint New Year Celebration, Salamanca 1962

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CONTENTS

FOREWORD xvii

1- RECRUITING 1
Bundoran, July 1961, Postulancy, Meeting “Our Father” Maciel, Feeling Special

2- REMINISCING 29
“Am I your boy, Mammy?” Sports Fan, Hero Worship, School, Holidays, Primed

3- RESPONDING 57
The Call, Daddy, Mammy, Sex

4- RELOCATING 75
Traveling with Father Maciel, August, 1961: Enchanted Spain, San Sebastian

5- RENOUNCING 85
The Self in Salamanca, 1961-63: Bearing with Crisis, Novice Master Father Arumí, Automatic Compassion Pilot

6- RETREATING 105
From the world, Rome, Italy, 1963-69: Quick Passage to Profession, A Slap and a Pat from the Founder,

7- RE-AWAKENING 139
Surprise after ordination, 1969-1975: “Get thee to the Missions”, Fed by the flock, The Sap rises, Eros stirs

8- RESISTING 165
School of Faith, Mexico City, 1975-82, The Lovely Ladies of Lomas, “Get rid of that contemptible woman!”

9- REACTING 175
Easter Candle trick, Back down on Maggie’s Farm 1982-84; Lost Letter Last Straw

10- REBELLING 189
Gunfight at the Cotija Corral, October 11 1984, Leaving on a Jet Plane, Love on the Rocks

11- REGROUPINING 209
Underground Railway 1984-85:
Furtive Phone call, Dublin, Merida, Cancun, “Happy Fault”

12- RECOVERING 225
Thanks to the Milk of Human Kindness, 1985-89:
A tribute to his Eminence Cardinal Hickey, The Kindness of others

13- REVIEWING 237
Personal Correspondence with Father Maciel, 1985-89:
Talking the talk, but not walking the walk, Legion’s support for ex-members

14- REVISITING 265
Fr Maciel’s Modus Operandi:
Attachment to finery and money, Revenge, Shafting the rivals, Above the Law, Holy Hypochondria

15- REFLECTING 289
On Sexual Abuse in the Legion:
Maciel’s Seducers in Seville, Celibate and Hibernate, The Survivors, Recent Accusation.

16- REGAINING 313

REGAINing self, the Re-GAIN Organization is conceived and born

17- RESPONDING 331
To the big questions regarding leaving the Legion and the priesthood

EPILOGUE 343

APPENDICES
I
Vatican Communiqué regarding Father
Marcial Maciel, Founder of the
Legion of Christ 353

II
The Day the Pope Died,
My Participation
in the Maciel Sexual Abuse Investigation 355

III
Echoes of the REGAIN 2004
Atlanta Conference

ETC.

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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Prophetic Book Title: Maciel in bed... with a Woman!


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--------------------------------------------------------------------------BOOK TITLE PROVES PROPHETIC

The Legion's own National Catholic Register, for whatever reason, leaked this news months ago. The Legion spokesperson, Jim Fair, and a prominent Legionary in Rome, Italian co-founder, Pablo Scarafoni, LC, are reported to acknowledge this pecadillo.

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CNS on Father Maciel

Posted by Tom McFeely

Wednesday, February 04, 2009 4:28 PM


Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legionaries of Christ. (CNS)From Catholic News Service:

Spokesman: News that founder fathered child causes Legionaries pain

By Cindy Wooden

ROME — The Legionaries of Christ only recently found out that their founder had fathered a child, knowledge that has caused the members great suffering, but has not destroyed the gratitude they owe him, said a spokesman for the religious order.

Father Paolo Scarafoni, spokesman at the Legionaries’ headquarters in Rome, told Catholic News Service Feb. 4 that, despite the failures and flaws of the late Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, members of the order are grateful to him for having founded the order and its various ministries.

“We found this out only recently,” Father Scarafoni said, referring to the fact that Father Maciel had a daughter.

Asked how the Legionaries came to know about her, Father Scarafoni said, “Frankly, I cannot say and it is not opportune to discuss this further, also because there are people involved” who deserve privacy.

In the past, Father Maciel had been accused of sexually abusing young seminarians in the order, accusations that Father Scarafoni said “have never been proven definitively.”

Because the Holy See decided against conducting a canonical trial to investigate the allegations, but rather ordered the then-elderly Father Maciel to withdraw to a life of prayer and penance in May 2006, “we do not know what allegations were made and examined at that time,” Father Scarafoni said.

Father Maciel died Jan. 30, 2008, at the age of 87.

The pain the Legionaries are experiencing now “is so great precisely because this is something we did not know before,” Father Scarafoni said.

However, he said, “We are serene. Certainly, it is a time of great trial for us and in the face of this there is great suffering.”

Father Scarafoni had told the Mexican news agency Notimex that the Legionaries were living through “a process of purification.”

He told CNS, “When you are faced with such great pain, it means that you must grow, you must be better, you must be purified spiritually because you must continue to move forward motivated by even higher ideals. This is especially true when you are faced with the unexpected.”

At the same time, he said, “there is much gratitude. Our gratitude to him remains very strong because we have received so much that is good from him. This is something we cannot and will not deny.”

The priest said the Legionaries of Christ and the lay members of Regnum Christi are dealing with the news “as a family. With prudence and charity we are informing our members and trying to help each other overcome this situation. What is important is not to renounce the great mission that we have.”

“The priority is the life and the holiness of each of our members,” he said.

A spokesman for the Legionaries of Christ in the United States acknowledged that some aspects of Father Maciel’s life “were not appropriate for a Catholic priest.”

“We have learned some things about our founder’s life that are surprising and hard to understand,” Jim Fair, the order’s U.S. spokesman, said Feb. 4 in a prepared statement.

Fair declined further comment on the activities of Father Maciel, saying only that Father Maciel now “stands before God’s judgment and mercy.”

Fair denied rumors that the Legionaries would renounce Father Maciel, saying he will always be considered the order’s founder.

“It’s one of the mysteries of our faith, that someone can have tremendous flaws but yet the Holy Spirit can work through them,” he told CNS in a telephone interview from Chicago.

Despite the unsettling news, Fair said, the order will continue its ministries.

Father Maciel lived the last years of his life under a Vatican order not to practice his priestly ministry in public.

The accusations that Father Maciel sexually abused seminarians first became public in 1997 in a report in The Hartford (Conn.) Courant daily newspaper. In a letter to the paper, Father Maciel denied the allegations, saying “In all cases they are defamations and falsities with no foundation whatsoever.”

Father Maciel founded the Legionaries of Christ in his native Mexico in 1941. The order has about 800 priests and 2,500 seminarians worldwide, including 75 priests in the United States and a seminary and novitiate in Connecticut.
(Contributing to this story was Dennis Sadowski in Washington.)

Full Disclosure: The National Catholic Register is published by Circle Media Inc, a not-for-profit corporation that is affiliated with the Legionaries of Christ.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

American Papist: Not Your Average Catholic!: Claim: Legion founder Maciel had multiple children; other details emerging




American Papist: Not Your Average Catholic!: Claim: Legion founder Maciel had multiple children; other details emerging

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Claim: Legion founder Maciel had multiple children; other details emerging
For some time, I have refrained from reporting on the ongoing saga of the Legionaries of Christ out of deference for the canonical visitation which is taking place.
AmP was the first major blog to report the scandal of Maciel having a biological child, and became a hub for accurate reporting on the story in the tumultuous weeks that followed.
However, because the most recent round of news changes the situation dramatically, I will report on it as well. The conclusions of the apostolic visit cannot be expected for some time, but individuals who are still in the Legion or Regnum Christi deserve to know what is happening now.
Multiple stories from Mexico report that three additional individuals claiming to be children of Fr. Maciel are suing the Legion of Christ for inheritance rights. It appears the original daughter of Maciel, and her mother, were supported by Legion money (i.e. money contributed by Catholic faithful for supporting Fr. Maciel's work).


The mother claims she was a minor when her relationship with Fr. Maciel began. And it appears that "highly placed officials" in the Legion knew of this situation and where complicit in it. Details beyond this are sketchy, but it appears probable now that there are even more children than the ones mentioned (the most frequent number I hear is six total).
If you are interested in the details, two ex-LC blogs provide them: Life-after-RC and Ex LC Blog.
These new allegations suggest several conclusions:
Fr. Maciel was an extraordinary, calculating fraud and he ought to be acknowledged as such by the leaders of the Legion and Regnum Christi alike
The breadth of Fr. Maciel's crimes makes it nearly impossible that other members of the Legion did not know of them, and they ought to be brought to justice
The serious financial infraction of misusing lay resources (money, property, etc) for the upkeep of Fr. Maciel's mistress and his other escapades demands restitution
The ongoing revelations about Fr. Maciel and his enablers requires an intense examination, person-by-person, of those still charged with the movement's leadership
In the face of these conclusions, the choice made by increasing numbers of Legionary and Regnum Christi members - to simply leave the order and begin anew - to my mind, is the most prudent way to respond. Most of these individuals have left quietly, and I have no desire to point them out, but it is happening and I have not yet heard of anyone regretting that decision. Life in the Church, after all, can always be wonderful, even outside a movement.
For both those who decide to stay in the Legion/Regnum Christi and for those who have left, I would firmly admonish them to assist in every way possible with the ongoing apostolic visitation.
There have been some scattered reports of Legion/Regnum Christi members attempting to thwart the visitation (I do not necessarily give credence to these reports), but obviously the primary obedience of any faithful Catholic is to the Holy See and its elected representatives (Christ speaks through His vicar the pope, not Fr. Maciel). For LC/RC in the United States and Canada the representative of the Holy Father is Archbishop Charles Chaput.
To contact Abp. Chaput, send an email with the subject line "PRIVATE" to "shepherd [at] archden.org" (without the brackets and spaces). Emails ought to be VERY SHORT and to the point. Every email will be read eventually.
For those of us outside the Legion and Regnum Christi, let us continue to pray for all the members, and if we personally know anyone who has been or is a member, let us charitably reach out to them if they welcome it. Oremus pro invicem.
[photo credit: chamorros1976]
Labels: catholic controversy, legionaries of christ, prayer requests, scandal

Monday, August 10, 2009

Available in Canada and other countries



[The author taking time out with friends from International Cultic Studies Association at Conference in Brussels, 2007]

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If you live in Canada order from Amazon.ca, a kind friend informs me:

"I order books all the time from amazon.ca and I pay less than if I ordered them from the US Amazon.
I checked the website at www.amazon.ca and they had some new and used copies of your book starting from $11.88 Canadian
The new version is $14 plus (Canadian dollars) The shipping cost is definitely better and the deliveries are faster if you live in Canada.
It helps to order more than one book at a time because they seem to charge about the same (shipping and handling) for two or three books as they do for one."

The book is also available in UK from Amazon.uk; but because of the strength of the Sterling vis a vis the American dollar it may be more expensive that way. Some may find it less expensive to order from Amazon.com; the problem is always the cost of the shipping and handling
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Thursday, August 6, 2009

Book Distribution by Booksurge, a division of Amazon.com


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The easy part is writing a book; the hard part is distributing and selling

My memoir is published by booksurge, a division of Amazon
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Monday, August 3, 2009

Promoting in Geneva, Sunday July 5



[Some of our Spanish-speaking friends prepare to board the boat for trip around Lake Geneva]
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With the wonderful people from the International Cultic Studies Association who have shown their solidarity in presenting our case re The Legion of Christ's cultlike nature, Fr. Maciel's sexual abuses, and the culture of deceit and manipulation present in the Regnum Christi Movement; plus their enthusiasm for the memoir.