Monday, July 18, 2011

End to Sexual Abuse in Legion of Christ's Dublin Novitiate?



The Legion announced the closing of the Dublin Novitiate this week and gave its reasons for doing so.
The Novitiate in Salamanca's entrance is adorned with the words from St. Paul [Fr. Maciel loved to quote him] "Christus Vita Vestra" "(Let) Christ be your life!" Some who were not so lucky might say "Let Hell be your life"

Here is what a victim of sexual assault in the Dublin Novitiate writes:

Regarding Dublin - there hasn't been an Irish vocation since candidacy 1994. The house is very big - four floors. It has been financially viable for most of the time because of the two Oak schools (one for boys one for girls) which house foreign teenagers (11 - 16 perhaps) to learn English for a semester or a year or a summer program.


These exclusive English academies charge a fortune and in turn provide the up keep of the novitiate - so unless these schools have been hit, there isnt a particularly financial reason (Except of course that the LC would have to pay for the flights for all the foreign LC novices to move to Dublin.).

Originally the boys Oak school was in the same building as the novitiate - so when the boys needed to buy oil for the heating, there was no need for the LCs to buy it too (one single heating system) and when the boys larders were full of food and they were having their dinners and lunches cooked by hired kitchen staff, it was impractical to have a secondary LC kitchen staff and larder. So much of the novitiate expenses were absorbed by Oak.

Regarding foreign novices in Dublin - the majority were always from USA/Mexico. Europe has had a steady decline in vocations since the mid 90s, way before the crisis. I would wager that there is a real european crisis and there are simply not enough foreigners to go around the European novitiates: Ireland, Germany, Italy, Spain - and I'm not sure about France?

I am left empty about this news, I thought I would be pleased. I would be perhaps more affected by the demolition of that building... But it is good that no more novices can be hurt in Ireland.

Maciel abused novices there, Guillermo Izquierdo also, Eoghan Devlin too, and one more rector has been accused in recent years.

That is to say there has been abuse in that house in the so called noughties, the 90s, the 80s, the 70s and the 60s - since it was built.

This is an end, I hope, and not a transferral, to a horrible history.

Those annoying victims of sexual assault will not go away and leave De Paolis and Alvaro alone!



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