Legion Leaders Complicit in Cover up of Maciel's Sexual Misconduct?

Fr. Luis Garza for years has been trying to separate himself from Maciel and his abuses, minimizing his knowledge and power in the Legion; although Fr. Garza has been virtually in charge of the order since 2006 and was a close collaborator with Maciel for decades before!
REGAIN posted recently:
http://www.regainnetwork.org/article.php?a=47246194

Belgium Bishops Raided by Police!

The Monitor | Operation Chalice | January 20, 2012 

In an unprecedented move this week, federal prosecutors in Belgium sent search teams into the headquarters of all eight of the country's Catholic dioceses. OnMonday, detectives confiscated files from the offices of the archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussel and the dioceses of Antwerp and Hasselt; on Tuesday, from the dioceses of Bruges and Ghent and the office of a religious order; and on Wednesday, from the dioceses of Liège, Namur, and Tournai.

 

This is the first time that an entire nation's Catholic hierarchy has been investigated by civil authorities. Part of an extensive investigation called "Operation Chalice," this week'ssweep generated more than 50 priest personnel files. Prosecutors will examine them for evidence that church officials culpably mismanaged abusive clergy.  

 

Prosecutors are particularly interested in abusers supervised by former Bruges bishop Roger Vangheluwe, who resigned in April 2010 after admitting to molesting his nephewfor years. Belgian church officials subsequently acknowledged complaints from hundreds of victims, including 13 who committed suicide.

 

The world first learned of Operation Chalice (see overview here) on June 24, 2010, when armed Belgian police seized hundreds of records from the former archbishop's home and office and searched two prelates' tombs. Belgian courts ultimately ruled the files inadmissible but allowed the investigation to continue.

 

YOU'RE INVITED. If you are in the metro New York area, please consider joining Terry McKiernan and me at Cardozo Law School this Tuesday, January 24. We will be giving a talk moderated by Professor Marci Hamilton, followed by a question-and-answer session and an informal reception. It's free and open to the public. We'd love to see you!  See Cardozo's flyer here.

 

Best,

Anne

 

Anne Barrett Doyle

Co-Director

BishopAccountability.org

Catholic Bishop in CA, father of two, resigns

Well, Fr. Maciel is not the only one!

Reported today that auxiliary Bishop of  Los Angeles, Gabino Zavala [smiling in photo] resigned after revealing he had two teen age children in another state.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The pope has accepted the early resignation of a Los Angeles bishop who recently acknowledged being the father of two teenagers.

Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala, 60, resigned Wednesday under the code of canon law that lets bishops step down earlier than the normal retirement age of 75 if they're sick or for some other reason that makes them unfit for office.

In a letter to the faithful, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez said Zavala had told him in December that he had two children who lived with their mother in a different state. Zavala subsequently submitted his resignation to the pope.

The archdiocese has offered spiritual and financial aid to help the children with college costs, Gomez said in the letter posted on the blog of the Catholic News Service of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Roman Catholic priests are required to be celibate, though Eastern rite priests can be married and married Anglican priests who convert can become Catholic priests. The celibacy requirement is often blamed for discouraging many men who would otherwise consider the priesthood.

Also Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI named Monsignor Cirilio Flores to eventually take over the San Diego diocese when Bishop Robert Brom retires.

In 2007, Brom oversaw a $198.1 million settlement with 144 people who said they were sexually abused by priests, at the time the second-largest abuse settlement since the scandal broke out in the United States in 2002.