Legionaries’ letter to lay members details reforms order has made.
By Dennis Sadowski
WASHINGTON (CNS) – The Legionaries of Christ have initiated a number of reforms since publicly acknowledging on February 4 that the order’s founder, Mexican Fr Marcial Maciel Degollado, fathered a child, two US Legionaries priests said in a letter to members of the order’s lay association, Regnum Christi.
The reforms include the training of Legionaries on best practices when dealing with minors to protect children from sex abuse; reconfiguring business and management practices; and altering the depiction of Fr Maciel in the order’s communications, including Web sites and publications, Fr Scott Reilly, director of the order’s Atlanta territory, and Fr Julio Marti, director of the New York territory, wrote on September 1.
In February, Legionaries’ officials said they had only recently learned their late founder had fathered a child. In the past, Fr Maciel had been accused of sexually abusing young seminarians in the order. Fr Maciel died on January 30, 2008 at 87. In May 2006 the Vatican decided after its own investigation against conducting a canonical trial, but rather ordered the then-frail Fr Maciel to withdraw to a life of prayer and penance.
The two priests acknowledged that more recent allegations of “other relationships and other children” have been made, but they declined to comment specifically about them.
“Given the partial nature of the information available and the impossibility to evaluate immediately and in a definitive manner these complex allegations, the Legion of Christ cannot, at this time, make a statement regarding them,” the priests wrote.
While mentioning the Vatican-ordered apostolic visitation the order is undergoing, the letter offered few details of the process, which began on July 15. The priests said Archbishop Charles J Chaput of Denver will be visiting Legionaries’ seminaries and religious houses in the US, but offered no timeline for the visits or a date when his report will be forwarded to the Vatican.
Tracy Murphy, associate director of communications for the Archdiocese of Denver, said on September 4 details of the visitation are being kept confidential.
Jim Fair, US spokesman for the order, told CNS on September 4 the letter was sent to Regnum Christi members to provide an update on what the order was doing since it became public that Fr Maciel had fathered a child. He said the letter was sent to offer “reassurance to our members because it obviously has been a real challenging time.”
The six-page letter, posted on www.legionariesofchrist.org, was sent after a visit to the US by Legionaries Fr Alvaro Corcuera, director general of the order and of Regnum Christi, who presided over the August 29 profession of vows of a group of novices and men religious in Cheshire, Connecticut.
Fr Marti and Fr Reilly offered an apology to “all those who have been harmed or scandalised by (Fr Maciel’s) actions. To all, we extend a special apology on behalf of the legion and our general director, Fr Alvaro Corcuera, who has, in fact, begun to reach out personally and in private to those he knows may have suffered most, offering his heartfelt apology and consolation.”
They did not address specific allegations against Fr Maciel.
Recognising that “this unexpected turn of events has been traumatic,” the priests also acknowledged that many with Legionaries of Christ connections have experienced “shock, anger, disbelief, denial and fear.”
“These emotions, the vast tangle of information, supposition, speculation and opinion, the different cultural sensitivities and the Christian duty not to publicise the sins of others, have made it difficult to publish the sort of direct statement that many expected of us,” the priests said. “What we do learn, we will address, respecting the privacy of those who request it of us.”