God bless you Father Owen. As a simple member of the church, I apreciate this apologize, it was necesary to do something. God bless you for your courage.

Thank you for this, it has been a long time coming!  I really appreciate the clear language in your apology, something we haven’t seen much from LC leadership in their attempts to apologize.

I hope the LC is now also willing to recognize the many victims of it’s (the founder’s) methodology. I myself have come to realize with much pain that during the last 6 years (I left in July 2006) my involvement in RC has lead me away from Christ rather than bring me closer.

Thank you again for being honest and straight forward in your apology!

Too little, too late

I agree with Dr.Astrid Windfuhr above. The apology was in plain everyday language and not flowery, spiritual spin. We need more of that from the Bishops also.  Yes, other       clergy suffer over this, as does the whole Catholic Community, but no one has suffered as much as the victims themselves. I pray that God Bless them with healing.

Thank you, Fr Owen Kearns, for your honesty, humility and leadership. My faith in you as a priest is greatly restored. I have hoped and prayed and sacrificed for you and many other LCs to experience and express this kind of contrition. You are a role     to other LCs, and I hope they will take note and act as you have done.  Please continue to bring this spirit of honesty to all your dealings with your fellow LCs, as an ongoing positive influence towards a future lived in truth.

I was left with no choice but to leave RC last February. My concerns for Fr Maciel’s victims were unwelcome in my RC Section and with my LC Spiritual Guide. It would be nice for LCs and remaining RCs to consider those of us exiled for our honest desire to reach out to Fr Maciel’s victims. I loved RC, but could not comprehend the mandate to stifle our natural emotions and reasoned belief in the injustice committed to the victims. The conclusions you have reached this year are the ones I reached last February, and I paid for dearly.  Please pray for me as well.

I have total faith that God is indeed answering much prayer as day by day, more people involved in these sorrowful events in Church history are waking up to the humbling truth. Let us continue to pray for all victims, all current and former LCs and RCs, all reputations and friendships hurt by this scandal, for our Holy Father and for the Church; may we all emerge from this terrible chapter in our lives with deeper faith, humility, and trust in Gods infinite love and mercy.

Fr. Owen,
How can you have been in the order for so long and have not known?  That is what we find hard to believe.  Maybe a further article addressing that matter would clear up some confusion.

I read this with tears. I am glad you can see your way to openly, plainly, and simply offer an apology and ask for forgiveness. I hope it is appreciated by the many who were hurt by Fr. Maciel over the years.

God didn’t create any perfect people. We all need to remember that. And when we make mistakes, we need to take responsibility. It’s that simple. Thank you for doing the right thing.

How many of us would readily believe accusations against our own father if accused of such things with our previously having had absolutely no reason to believe it possible of him?  Very few, to be sincere.  Certainly I would defend my own dad unhesitatingly if I were to hear such things of him.  As flawed as it was, I think there is also room for understanding the first reaction of many Legionaries to accusations against their founder, who was truly seen as a father by them, and even the time it naturally takes to come to terms with a process that has been very painful for them as well.  Fr. Owen, we continue to support you and all Legionaries with our prayers.

I completely respect the experience of others who whose experience has been otherwise, but in all justice I feel that I must say that my involvement in RC has been a means God has used to bring me to a deeper and more personal relationship with Christ.  I believe this moment in the Legion’s history is one of necessary purification so that the Legion may be more purely an instrument through which God can continue to do good in souls as he has done in mine.  Fr. Owen’s apology is a beautiful step in that direction.

These times of corruption, confusion and denial within the Body of Christ have caused much turmoil and doubt in all Christian hearts. But it is also a time for great mercy within the Body (we have just completed Mercy Sunday in our Liturgy)of which we must all be aware and take great advantage of…in prayer and action. Forgive everyone everything is not just a difficult motto to live by…it is with the grace of God’s mercy quite within reach. This is how we will restore and heal the great Body of Christ! Thank you Father Owen for your perserverence and courage to seek and proclaim the truth!

In this time in history for the Church is a time of humility, repentance and forgiveness. Like Pope Benedict XVI you have set a good example by your apology. May God in His mercy continue to provide His Church with the to heal during these difficult time. May St. Joseph chosen by Christ’s Vicar as the heavenly Patron and Protector of the Church founded by Christ, pray for us all.

Oh yes Jose, you’ve got it right. That’s just what Jesus tells us: Forgive those who wrong you 7 times 70 times ... unless you think they didn’t apologize quickly enough. Good for you! Hold on to the   !

Its about time Father Owen! (edited; watch your language, Patrick)

LONG OVER DUE. 

Father Maciel was nothing more then a man, his behavior should not have surprised anyone.

Perhaps Father Owen and the rest of the Co-founders should examine all of their behavior and recoginize
their culpability in destroying many people’s lives.

Dr Astrid Windfuhr said: “I hope the LC is now also willing to recognize the many victims of it’s (the founder’s) methodology. I myself have come to realize with much pain that during the last 6 years (I left in July 2006) my involvement in RC has lead me away from Christ rather than bring me closer.”
Your comments here are totally uncalled for. In them, you are hiding the belief that you think that the LC and RC are just the work of a man to lead men further away from Christ, that is to say, that they are the work of the devil. Since when were you named Pope?
My experience has been the complete and totally opposite. Thanks to RC, I have found a way to give my life for Christ, to spread his Kingdom, to live for Him. To have Him in the center of my life and to bring others close to Him. To work so that He reigns in the heart of every man and women. To live close to His successor here on earth: the Pope. And this is not just my experience. This is the experience of thousands of Regnum Christi members spread throughout the world.
The errors of Fr Marcial Maciel have convinced me even more that RC can not simply be the work of one man. However, if the Pope were to declare it to be so tomorrow, I would immediately leave RC and join another movement at the service of the Church.
I think the LC are doing everything possible to be sincere with the hard times they are going through. I accept Fr Owens apology and will pray everyday for the Legionaries of Christ until the day I die. May God bless you!

oh jose, are we not called to forgive 77 times 7 times?  harden not your heart.

thank you, father, for this sincere apology.  it is so very hard to face the truth, especially when it is painful.

many prayers for the victims of Maciel.

Dear Owen,
see if you have the courage to post this. It is relatively easy to apologize if one swallows one’s pride for a moment and thinks about what is most expeditious to get your mistakes behind you. I remember how, after being confreres for years, we met again in CT in 2002 when you wanted to stop Juan Jose Vaca and me from speaking at the International Cultic Studies Conference at Enfield. I suppose I was considered an “enemy of the Legion” because I criticized Fr. Maciel and believed the Legion was a cult-like organization. That will take a lot of apologizing to set straight. Forgive me for not believing much in your apology because I am skeptical of a leadership that has systematically lied for decades. I believe your apology may impress the usual gullible Catholics but hopefully not those who know you and the Legion and the Regnum like you really are.
J. Paul Lennon, REGAIN
PS Who was behind our being sued by the Legion in 2007?
Is there any freedom of expression at the Register?

If you think that a couple of paragraphs can absolve you of what you did to these reporters and to the victims - who you don’t even have the courtesy to name - over so many years, then you need to consult your catechism about penance and forgiveness.

NAME ALL of your sins.
Make a firm RESOLVE to not repeat them.
Make AMMENDS.

After this comes forgiveness.

PS - Is it a bit cowardly to make these apolgies via your own newspaper?

Why not face to face with Jason Berry, or write him a letter or phone him? In your defence of Maciel you did not hesitate to make direct contact with them.

The same with the victims.

Is this a “good-image for Kearns” move or a genuine out-reach to the victims and those you hurt?

How safe it is to sit in your office and write a sorry letter and post it online.

God bless you Father.

Think of all the lay people in Regnum Christi who have been misled for years.  Why did the LC leadership continue to defend and “honor” Father Maciel when they knew the truth?  Why did they wait so long to tell the truth?

Fr. Owen - I can totally relate to you when you say “Nothing in my experience of our founder prepared me to believe his victims — nothing, that is, until I learned that he had fathered a daughter. The conclusive evidence that he had done things incompatible with religious and priestly life made me rethink everything.” I worked fairly closely with Fr. Maciel from 1962 - 1982 and never saw anything that would have confirmed the allegations of what we now know to be true.

I appreciate your honest and straightforward apology. The truth is painful beyond belief. Oremus ad invicem.

None of us are in a position to cast the first stone.  Thanks for your honesty.  Be assured of our prayers and friendship.

Thank you father for your apology and Christ-like humility.

Thank you Fr. Owen Kearns for your openess at this time that is affecting the entire Church, not only the “victims”.  From the outside it is so easy to judge and harder to understand what is happening from within.  I hope all catholics and christians with good faith will be willing to hope for the best for the Legion and Regnum Christi and be willing to give everyone a second chance to repair the past damage.  If God is able to forgive the most atrocious sins, who are we to not offer forgiveness…..are we better than God?  I think it is a time of renewal for the church, and if any one is without sin let him cast the first stone!!!

Thank you for your sincere words and for offering them with clarity.  I have read apologies from the Vatican recently that were said in words that were impossible for many to fully comprehend.  With the academic-theological spin, they came across as insincere, regardless as how they were meant.

WE LOVE YOU REGNUM CHRISTI!!!!!!  THANKS TO FR. KERNS AND ALL THE LEGION.  YOU HAVE BEEN AND ARE ROLE MODELS TO EMULATE AND APPRECIATE!!!!!  MAY ALL OF US BE MORE LIKE YOU IN YOUR TRANSPARENCY, SINCERITY, KINDNESS, AND ZEAL FOR OUR HOLY MOTHER THE CHURCH.

I have only been Catholic for three years and am not really sure what the Legion of Christ is, but I know that when I was a Protestant and a rabid anti-Catholic I always saw the attacks about molestation as more an attack on the church than about getting at facts.  I am still shocked that priests who abused children were allowed to stay in functioning roles as priests, but then this also happens in schools and other professions.
  In my humble opinion the Church needs to rid itself of the liberal/leftist ideologies in its midst.  It is amazing how so many people in leadership do not want to call sin sin and have the attitude of not wanting to judge people actions or intentions.  It is time our Priests, Deacons, Bishops and Cardinals start calling sin sin.  We need some hard preaching about how to be in the world but not of the world.  Homosexuality is a sin, abusing children is a sin, lying is a sin, missing Mass is a sin, voting for politicians who promote the homosexual agenda is a sin, abortion is a sin and those who pass laws to protect it are wrong.  This is not just a problem in Catholicism, but main stream Protestantism is full of preaching that tickles the ears of hearers and does not convict them to turn away from sin.
  I love the Catholic faith and as I read about the early Church fathers and the lives of the martyrs I do not see them backing down from truth to be relevant in the world.  They told people they were sinners, they did it with love, but they did not tolerate sin and this is what we need to get back too. 
  If I have offended anyone I am sorry, but that is my opinion and if I never would of been offended then I never would of turned to Christ and his Church!  God Bless

” We categorically deny the allegations against our founder”  these were the words of the rev. owen kearns a few years back.  They echoed the sentiments of most the LC priests and brothers. 

The question of course, was HOW DID THEY(the priests/brothers) know????  were they with MM when he flew around on helicopters?  spent all the $$$ he was handed to in cash at the centers?  what did he spend all that money on??  was it for the poor???  I doubt it.

Where there is smoke there is fire, a phrase the LC used to say to me all the time when i was involved with them in my youth.  WHY didn’t they follow their own adice????  I suspect the upper management in the LC knew exactly what was going on and were complicit in these horrible actions of MM.

As a former RC member who left last June, I applaud this first step.  Fr. Kearns, I would like to know what the next steps will be.  Specifically, how do you want to make reparation to the victims and even to the Legion and RC members who listened to your denials of the abuse claims and were led astray by them.

I will pray that God continues to guide you in this process.

Dear Lime, neither are you Pope. Therefore, perhaps you should wait until the Pope’s investigation is over before you presume to know if the LC has his approval.

I would have thought that sentencing Maciel to a life of prayer and penance would have tipped you off. It took a man of the cloth 4 years to figure out he did something wrong. Resigning your post would have ended your apology appropriately

Just a little clarification to my comments above:
1.  I left RC in July 2009 not because of Marciel’s evil but because of LC inability to look at itself and it’s inability to be honest, frank and transparent.  Unfortunately RC members are still told not to read or listen to anything except it’s own propaganda!

2.  Lime, I am not making a comment about the validity or not of the LC charism.  Indeed, this is something for the Church to work out!  I am stating that it still adheres to a faulty methodology which was put in place by Marciel to protect himself and all his evil deeds.  This methodology to this day does not allow for TRUTH, TRANSPARENCY and true HUMILITY. The argument of ‘look at all the good fruits’ is clearly offset by the ‘silos full of bad fruit’ (as someone else described it).  There are many destroyed lives, families and individuals who have been seriously hurt by this methodology.  Until and unless the LC looks at this the healing cannot begin!

Although Fr. Kearn’s statement is to be sure an improvement on slandering victims and accusers, it still strikes me as “too little, too late.” The pressing challenge now that the Legion has admitted their founder’s depravity is to explain how the depravity went on so long and so easily.

I infer from the following sentences continuing soft-pedaling of the problem: Fr. Kearn’s writes, “Nothing in my experience of our founder prepared me to believe his victims — nothing, that is, until I learned that he had fathered a daughter. The conclusive evidence that he had done things incompatible with religious and priestly life made me rethink everything…. Since then, other shameful and reprehensible facts we never imagined about our founder have come to light.”

I find two dimensions of these sentences unsettling: why their founder’s fathering of children lead him to “rethink everything” but not their founder’s molestation of teen-age males? And second, why is he willing to name the one kind of sin, their founder’s fathering of children, but not the other, their founder’s molestation of his own seminarians. For the sake of comparison: what would we make of a German admitting that “Hitler attacked Poland without provocation ... and committed other grave atrocities.” We’d have reason to doubt the good faith and authenticity of the German. So too, I’m afraid, of Fr. Kearns.

Tim

Father Owen, I ended my support for NCR because of your denial or shall I say pride not to admit the obvious! Yes, an apology-I can’t help but wonder why now?  How many other people were hurt in the process of your
denial?

Fr. Kearns had to know.  Many at the top had to know.  There is still a massive coverup. And even now, the Register does not publish the whole story.

Fr. Owen,
I applaud you and the editors for posting my earlier post. It demonstrates a level of honesty. I see a partial consensus here for you to go further:
the damage you have done is large, as you are/were a personal of prestige, a revered Catholic, Legionary priest which gained you a lot of brownies just for starters.
I can’t help seeing a lack of logic in the excuse that some former defenders of Fr. Maciel give: they defended him and offended those who questioned until they found out he fathered a child. I cannot for the life of me see the connection between fathering a child = heterosexual love/lust, and   ually abusing his own seminarians =      ; married heterosexual men can be       es too.
I still can’t understand why the Legion itself would leak the story about Fr. Maciel fathering a daughter.
I still cant understand how you did not know anything about Fr. Maciel’s wrongdoings, when you already could see he was a deeply flawed person just by meeting with him, obeying him, and knowing of his despotic leadership style.
I still don’t understand how you could be a prominent Legion leader or superior [or Spiritual Director] and not have bought into the Legion’s oppressive system in some way.
I still cant understand how you would not be guilty of cover-up to some degree
I still cant understand…
You must have known you were doing wrong when the Legion asked you to do deceitful and unjust things as a local superior, like pressuring the International Cultic Association to prevent Vaca and me from speaking at the Conference at Enfield CT in 2002, when you confronted us with the LC spokesperson and a lawyer.
The next step would be a MORE TRUTHFUL AND FULL ADMISSION OF WRONGDOING WITHOUT HEDGING OR FURTHER DECEIT

Fr. Kearns,  I have seen too many pictures of your founder bringing large numbers of young men to be ordained by the pope at a time when no one else was getting many vocations.  I fear many of them knew of your founders flaws and were convinced by him that this was a welcoming place for active homosexuals.  How can we trust that the order has not been totally compromised?  I pray for all of us.  Forty years ago my parents were talking about reports from a career Navy uncle of ours that Communist Russia had begun to bring homosexuals into the priesthood to destroy the Church.  This has evidently been confirmed since the fall of Russia.  Your order controls the media.  That just doesn’t seem right anymore.  Same with running schools.  What biases have already been introduced?  This is obviously a spiritual battle.  God have mercy on us all.

Fr. Owen is humble, contrite and I believe him.  He has set a     the world’s bishops and the Pope should follow re. beginning healing of the universal   ual abuse scandal.  God bless Fr. Owen.

The following story of Zaccheus is a great example of a sincerely repentent heart. From Luke 19:

“He came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town.
2
Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man,
3
was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature.
4
So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way.
5
When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.”
6
And he came down quickly and received him with joy.
7
When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.”
8
But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.”
9
2 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham.
10
If you are sincerely sorry you will come totally clean.  In the measure of your sincere sorrow will be the measure of the actual reparation you makes to ALL of the victims of MM/LC/RC that have been hurt by the methodology of the movement.  I never met MM but I was hurt by other LC following the twisted methodology.

The Legion thinks it will be as easy as just apologizing and everything will be back to normal.
Why is it coming from the bottom but not from the top LCs?

Tim N - In fairness to Fr. Owen Kearns, it’s much more difficult for someone who previously believed in Maciel’s innocence and sanctity to deny Maciel’s sexual relationship with a woman. This is because of the biological evidence of Maciel’s daughter. So I cut Fr. Kearns some slack here.

Having said that, I think Paul Lennon and Aaron raise an excellent point. The apology should be followed by restitution. In Paul’s case, I personally think that renouncing the settlement imposed upon ReGAIN, which first helped bring to light many of the accusations, would help establish the Legion’s sincerity in apologizing. Likewise, a just offer of restitution to Aaron.

Fr. Kerns,
Thank you for your apology.  As the newspaper of record for the Legion, it is now time to report on all the crimes and sins of Fr. Maciel.  Even in your apology you only vaguely allude to them.  Many RC/LC are told to only read the Register and to not read other publications or web sites.  To truly set the record straight, your readers need to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Thank you for posting such a full range of comments.  I endorse the comment at the top from Dr. Windfur: It is time to connect the dots and tell the “rest of the story” in the words of Paul Harvey.  Readers need to know how Maciel created the perfect grooming environment for his pedophilia. He isolated members at an early age from their families, censored their mail and tapped their phone calls, created a secret fourth vow that said it was wrong to tell about the misdeeds of another member,—and many other wrong practices and flawed theologies that were put in place worldwide by LC/RC.  Even though 99-percent of the members were never physical victims of Maciel, they were victimized by his warped spiritual and social practices.

Jim Jones directed the physical deaths of his cult members.  Maciel and his ilk have cause the spiritual death of so many of his cult members.  The only true apology from the leadership of LC and RC would be for each to follow the sentence passed on Maciel and retire to a life of prayer and penance.  Shame on all of you in leadership of this cult!

Muchas gracias por su honestidad y claridad que a muchos nos ayuda a ordenar nuestras ideas.

Dear Owen,
  I totally agree with Paul Lennon and Aaron. More than just a cursory apology is in order now! The Legion must make amends at least for the money that you forced Regain to spend trying to defend itself in the bogus lawsuit you brought against us in Virginia! This money could have been spent to help the thousands of good Catholic hurt by the cult called Legion!
  Also, I feel that the two reporters mention DID get it right also regarding the Legion. Maybe it’s time to examine your methods or recruiting and soliciting funds! If yours be a work of God, you wouldn’t be afraid of the truth and wouldn’t hide behind deceit and deception!

“The 1997 allegations of Father Maciel’s sexual abuse came as a complete shock to the Legionaries of Christ.”

So, who was paying maciel’s “family” for all those years?  Oh, right…the legionaries of christ.  We now know - no thanks to the investigative reporting of your very own newspaper - that at least that one family was being supported financially by legion money.  So, they DID know.  No shock to some of them. 

I’ve just disproved your sentence.

Answering a couple comments here. I was an LC for 10 years 5 as a superior, and knew of one maybe two guys that could have been homosexuals.  It simply didn’t exist in the LC culture!  We were men! I know Fr. Owen well, didn’t love everything about him, but what should he do?  He issues a pretty good apology yet it is not enough.  What should he do? He told all people he didn’t believe in sorry and asks for their forgiveness.  Should he confess now that he was disobedient, proud and vain?  Fr. Marcial is dead! Thanks be to God the abuse has ended, we know all of his sins, they have been publilshed!  The Vatican has taken action and all are waiting for the Church to make a wise move.  So I ask again if an LC priest such as Fr. Owen publishes what seems to be a very sincere apology, why is that not good enough and what should he do?

I agree with Aaron.

Redemption and forgiveness are indeed central to the Catholic faith, but before redemption there is the not-so-little task of Confession, Contrition and Atonement!!!

To Chris, re: what should he do?  I don’t know if anyone here can know for sure but I have some ideas.

1. Make a thorough report of all of Maciel’s wrongdoings.

2. Inquire as to whether the LC leadership will be making reparations to the victims, including the abused seminarians, the members of Regain,  the Sellors, the RC members who were told that the retirement didn’t indicate guilt, and so on.

3. Talk to his own spiritual director about how he personally can make amends.

4. Continue seeking the truth, for example, how he could’ve been so incapable of seeing even the possibility of guilt when it was obvious to many people of good will that the retirement did indeed leave that possibility wide open.

I have no idea what he should do first or for sure but I really cannot believe you think there is nothing else he can do. I humbly suggest you listen to Maciel’s victims and see how these decades of denial and further injury have affected them and what would be meaningful to them now.

THE ABUSE HAS NOT ENDED!
Shame on you, Chris,
being a Legion superior and not knowing about pedophilia and sexual abuse of children and youth. Some other Legionaries were not as lucky and were abused by their Legion superiors or Novice Masters. I do not blame you for not knowing then because you lived in a cocoon of silence and purposeful ignorance, the cult-like aspect of the Legion. But your ignorance then reflects very poorly on the much vaunted LEGION FORMATION
which puts incompetent people in charge of innocent people only because they are docile to the Legion’s methodology.
All responsible citizens have the obligation to protect our children and youth against sexual predators. With your blindness you might not even have noticed if abuse was going on under your very nose.
There are concerns about a culture of sexual abuse in the Legion, besides the culture of cult

Time for Real Reporting- take your own advice and don’t level non-substantiated allegations at a group you obviously are biased against.

Thanks Fr. Kearns for your writing and apology.

God bless you for the work you do at the Register. This is one of my go-to spots to find out the REAL story behind the corruption and propaganda put out by the main stream media.

I can’t tell you how much the blogs of Akin, Pentin, Hoopes, and Drake have helped me in understanding and defending the Truth of Christ.

God bless you!

Chris,

Fr Owen Kearns’s apology is welcomed and necessary step in the resolution of this saga.

The Legion should expect skepticism after what has happened over the years.  This is an issue of credibility and in the Church it is one of the most important things that a priest needs for his ministry.  As one who was involved with the movement for 12 years I can say that the Legion leveraged the credibility factor through all of their use of “mystique”, “methodology of the movement”, “Nuestro Padre” slick marketing, playing the numbers game, heavy vocation recruitment and the use of people for their time intensive apostolates etc etc etc. 
The very thing that was used to expand the order and its apostolates is now going to be the millstone around its neck.  The sins of the founder are going to be a burden to Fr Owen Kearns and all other Legionaries well into the future.

Does anyone find it interesting that a man such as Maciel could have led the life he did for over sixty years, abusing seminarians, fathering several children by different women, amassing a wealth of over $30billion and none of his closest collaborators knew anything about any of it?

I would like to know how someone can make $30 billion all by himself without any help from anyone—that is absolutely phenomenal!

Either all these claims of “we didn’t know” are false, or there are a lot of men in Legion leadership who are incompetent.  Either way, they need to go.  Personally, I find it difficult to believe that Legion leaders weren’t able to contact the Vatican to clarify the May 2006 statement (which Catholics worldwide were able to understand without a problem).

We who point our finger at the Legion for accusing reporters of distorting the truth when what they reported was truly happening should be careful not to fall into the same, accusing Legionary superiors of knowing the truth about Maciel’s actions when we ourselves cannot prove that to be a fact.  It is very easy to declare it obvious from outside, but could it not at least be possible that those who deny knowing may be telling the truth?  And if we cannot more than “logically conjecture”, should we not reserve categorical judgment until the Church, who is investigating, speaks definitely?  That seems to me to be the much more Christian response.

It’s worth noting that Fr OK is not responsible to apologize for every dysfunctional event in LC history. This apology is coming from Fr OK in his role as publisher of the NC Register. As such, its a good one.

Wow!! 90% of the comments are negative. Shame on your for turning on Fr. Owens when he’s trying to offer an apology. Who are the NCR readers?...mostly Catholics…what did Christ tell us about forgiving our brother 70 x 7 times?  It’s easy to point the finger when you don’t know the full truth!

“So I ask again if an LC priest such as Fr. Owen publishes what seems to be a very sincere apology, why is that not good enough and what should he do? “

He should explain to us just what it is in Legion formation that so fundamentally destroys their ability to seek and/or acknowledge the truth, even when the Vatican puts in right in front of their faces (2006 Communique).  I want to know why in the WORLD any Legionary priest should be trusted in any matter of discernment considered this incredible “inability” to see Truth.  It’s not like plenty of people in the rest of the world didn’t know it.

I want to know how it is that these Legion leaders weren’t clued in that something was amiss when the beloved Father Founder disappeared for weeks at a time, taking large sums of money with him.  Keep in mind this man had been kicked out of several seminaries and suspended for two years in the 50s due to accusations of drug use, embezzlement, and sexual misconduct.  Any man with any knowledge of human nature whatsoever should have recognized his unwillingness to live according to his own Legion norms (which was well-known among the Legionaries), combined with his frequent disappearances with large sums of money as a huge red flag.

Fr. Kearns should explain how he can continue to call himself a journalist after apparently not bothering to investigate any of the previous allegations prior to insulting and defaming Berry and Renner, not to mention the men that Maciel had raped as children.  Jose Barba-Martin, one of the original victims, has rejected Fr. Kearns apology based on the fact that Fr. Kearns never even bothered trying to investigate the truth after being informed by several inconsistencies but instead presented a 73 page report to the Hartford Courant against the victims’ testimonies.

Fr. Kearns needs to explain how it is that it took him an entire year to spit this apology out, when he is a prominent journalist in the Catholic world.  I can understand several days, even a week or two of “shock”, but well over a YEAR?  He let his terrible slander against these men stand in the Catholic press for well over a year after he knew Maciel was a total fraud.  This speaks to a very flawed character (not to mention egregiously false journalism) and is something I would never tolerate in one of my children.

Explain what the restitution will be—to all the victims he so viciously slandered, to the reporters he continues to snidely insult (they didn’t get it ALL right—-this apology is NOT the time or place to point this out.  It is mean and petty, considering it was the NCR and Fr. Kearns who outright LIED about these men for well over a decade), to all those who held on to their beliefs in the LC/RC because of his own words over these years, to the Aarons, and the Paul Lennons, and all others sued and harassed by the Legion for trying to spread truth, for trying to PROTECT OUR CHILDREN, when the Legion was supposedly too busy being simply “unable” to believe any of it.

Most of all, Fr. Kearns should have the humility to realize and accept that he has lost all credibility due to having covered up and lied for a child rapist, comparing him to Jesus Christ (talk about blasphemy!) and completely disobeying the Vatican 2006 Communique.  He cannot and should not expect anybody to believe him now.

It will take a long, long time for many of us to start being able to regain any kind of trust whatsoever in Fr. Kearns or any other Legion spokesperson.  We have been lied to for decades; the Legion cannot expects to be believed now, just because they want to be.

Had Father Kearns ended this letter with his resignation, it would have done much to restore credibility.  Instead he apparently still considers himself an excellent enough journalist to run a major Catholic newspaper.  It is, quite frankly, embarrassing.

Dear Father Owen,

Many thanks for your apology, much appreciated. Let me just please try and help if I may: you have referred to Marcial Maciel as ‘our founder’ you see the language problem here? He is not your founder, you have been created by God, Marcial Maciel is actually the founder of the congregation of which you now participate. He used to be refered to as ‘nuestro padre’ or ‘our father’ but he was never your father, I mean, he was actually a father of some children we now learnt. Please note how language has been bent to help Maciel to achieve his objectives and please help your congregation to be more charitable with honest people who tried to shed some light at all these misdeeds, because as a member of the church you and your congregation are expected to have some understanding of what charity actually mean.

NotGullibleAnyMore - Did you notice that you’re saying Fr Kearns knew the truth: “Fr. Kearns who outright LIED about these men”. I would just like to quote: the catechism number 2482 “A lie consists in speaking a falsehood with the intention of deceiving.”
Here, I’ve noticed in many of the comments that we all need to be a little bit more Catholic:
-2477 Respect for the reputation of persons forbids every attitude and word likely to cause them unjust injury. He becomes guilty:
- of rash judgment who, even tacitly, assumes as true, without sufficient foundation, the moral fault of a neighbor;
- of detraction who, without objectively valid reason, discloses another’s faults and failings to persons who did not know them;[278]
- of calumny who, by remarks contrary to the truth, harms the reputation of others and gives occasion for false judgments concerning them.
2478 To avoid rash judgment, everyone should be careful to interpret insofar as possible his neighbor’s thoughts, words, and deeds in a favorable way:
Every good Christian ought to be more ready to give a favorable interpretation to another’s statement than to condemn it. But if he cannot do so, let him ask how the other understands it. And if the latter understands it badly, let the former correct him with love. If that does not suffice, let the Christian try all suitable ways to bring the other to a correct interpretation so that he may be saved. 
2507 Respect for the reputation and honor of persons forbids all detraction and calumny in word or attitude.
As well we must commend Fr Kearns for the first step of reparation, not denounce him for doing too little. Sure, we can suggest further ways but I think he’s taking to heart this number of the catechism: “An offense committed against the truth requires reparation” CCC 2509
I just hope that others will do the same and avoid having to make reparation to Fr Kearns for rash judgments or even calumny. If we don’t believe Fr Kearns, we’re saying that he isn’t truthful. Let’s not forget that we are all sinners, all in need of the Divine Mercy, some more than others. Let not this scandal cause us to trip up and sin either. Peace to all of you. Thank you Fr Kearns for your apology – I accept it. Thanks to all those who have shared their concerns here in their comments. But let’s not follow just our emotions but also our senses and most of all our faith. Hate the sin but love the sinner.

Sally, We have been waiting for the “full truth” for several years, yet, it comes out in little trickles, in little bites that can be swallowed and digested.  The Legion of Christ should have done their own investigating years ago, but they hid the truth behind the vow of charity.  I’m not pointing fingers at Fr. Owen. The NCR is a newspaper that a lot of faithful Catholics turn to, but it has been silent this past year on Maciel. Other news sources seem to have plenty of information about Maciel, I’d like to see some reporting by the NCR on what the LC know.

What about the words “did not know” is so difficult to understand? Most members of the Legion didn’t spend much time with Fr. Maciel, who was often traveling outside his communities. Why would anyone (except perhaps his closest advisors) at home in the seminaries where Fr. Maciel wasn’t know anything about what he was doing?

Every LC/RC member who trusted in Maciel’s goodness was duped by a sociopath, and Fr. Owen is one of the many whose trust has been mightily betrayed by a wicked priest. That does not make him “vicious” or a slanderer, since he fully believed what he said was true at the time. It makes him wrong. Painfully wrong, humiliatingly wrong? No doubt. But the wickedness lies in Maciel and his astonishingly duplicitous life.

It’s time for the current and ex-LCs to recognize they are brothers. Their hearts were all attracted by the same apparent goods in the LC; they all had their trust mightily abused; they just discovered the betrayal at different times. Enough hating, already; let’s deny Maciel his legacy.

NotGullibleAnyMore,

You might not be gullible, but you are accusing someone of things when you don’t know all the facts.

Liseux,

The sad fact is that it has been clearly demonstrated that neither Fr. Kearns, the Legion, nor the National Catholic register can be trusted to admit to, much less print, the facts about this order of priests.

Any facts I have wrong, I will gladly stand corrected on.  I was forced to start researching this order of priests last February, when with dawning horror I began to realize I had entrusted the formation of my children to an order not only founded by a child predator, but an order of priests incapable of seeking and/or accepting unpleasant truths, even when the Vatican clearly laid it out for them.  I have a lot to answer for as a parent, and it was my duty—painful as it was—to discover just what it was I had allowed my children to be formed in.  I highly recommend Cassandra Jones’ blog as a very concise factual history of this order, for anybody interested.  It is certainly to be trusted much more than the “History of the Legion”, a copy of which I still have sitting on my bookshelf as proof of the fact this order really was all about Maciel and just what a charade this whole outfit was.

The truth is, the Legion forced many of us to start researching last Feb/March when their inadequate response made many of us realize the malformation went much deeper than their founder.  Of course, it only makes sense that an order of priests designed by a pedophile with norms and statutes clearly designed to allow him to get away with 60 years of predation and deceit, would be seriously malformed.  But it took seeing the reaction of the Legionaries last Feb/March for me (and many others) to be able to accept the fact that this was about so much more than the sins of one man.

There are unconfirmed reports circulating that the Legion is to be re-founded with a new name, a new commissioner, new norms and constitutions, and a new charism.  Whether this turns out to be true or not remains to be seen, but it does seem like it would be in keeping with Benedict’s desire to reach out and care for all those priests who went into the Legion with the best of intentions and true love of God, and ended up being formed by the poison spirituality of a hardened criminal and sexual deviant.  I pray for all involved.  My own anger as a mother of children spiritually abused (which I definitely consider being allowed to read only the works of a liar, a fraud, and a child molester for their spiritual growth to be—spiritual abuse) by this order of priests is real, but it does not prevent me from recognizing that many, if not most, of these priests are victims themselves, unknowing pawns of a methodology constructed by deviantly genius mind.  As such, they deserve our prayers and support as they try to discern whether they stay in or decide to leave the Legion.

Paul,

I know of 3 alleged cases of sexual abuse in the LC. These three have been on Regain for years. These three as far as I know have never gone further than allegations. (This does not mean it did not happen, just stating the fact)  To say that sex abuse runs rampant throughout the LC is absurd!!  Shame on you for making such a statement!! I lived in 4 large houses of formation and never witnessed sex abuse by a Superior.  As I also mentioned I only knew of two LC’s that “could” have been gay.  Subsequently they ended up leaving.  Furthermore was there/is there possible homosexual activity in the LC.  I would assume so for ever major institute/school/university etc.. has homosexual activity for we are dealing with human beings.  Was that activity rampant.  ABSOLUTELY not!

Sally, you seem to be saying that the requirement to forgive “70 times 7” somehow exempts people from consequences.  There are penalties for heinous crimes, even Jesus speaks of them. Forgiveness is necessary, but so is justice and crying out for justice is hardly “turning” on Fr Owen. It is the next step in this process.

Yesterday I felt that Fr. Owen was going down under a hail of bullets that greeted his apology. The strong reaction is not only to him but to the leadership cadre of Legion and Regnum [which is basically the same people with a few consecrated Srtas thrown in for good measure]. The public reaction is strong because this is one of the few times that Legion leaders have shown any vulnerability. And in this case, even the vulnerability seems calculated and partial. It is because the Legion and Regnum are so closed and never let anyone get near them.
You just don’t go up to a Legion/Regnum house and say “May I come in? I would like to talk with so and so”. No, the Legion/Regnum is a medieval fortress in your neighborhood -maybe you could not afford to live in that particular neighborhood!- and you don’t know what the heck is going on in there. [If the media ask for it they will get a conducted tour and allowed to speak to those brothers the superiors have given permission to and chosen!] You can’t call a Legionary on the phone and you can’t contact him via email because that is monitored just like his letters.
So when Fr. Owen opens the castle door just a little and peeks out it is only natural that a hail of arrows/bullets assail him.
But he is still inside defending the castle against intruders: running the paper, his section, his community…Who knows what else Fr. Owen does.
Another thing we don’t know is how many nasty things Fr. Owen did of his own free will and how many he did under “holy obedience”. He has been a kind of enforcer for the Legion over the past few years.
But, Fr. Owen, thanks for opening the door just a little and peeking out into the real world instead of that virtual/secluded world Legionaries and Consecrated members live in. That does take some courage. Maybe you are being one of the fall guys.

Jane:What about the words “did not know” is so difficult to understand? Most members of the Legion didn’t spend much time with Fr. Maciel, who was often traveling outside his communities. Why would anyone (except perhaps his closest advisors) at home in the seminaries where Fr. Maciel wasn’t know anything about what he was doing?

What is difficult to understand is how even given the circumstances that you describe, they ignored years of testimony, and finally a forced retirement. The question actually is, how could you not even consider the possibility?  On the one hand, he says that he knew enough of Maciel to be unable to fathom such things about him. Yet you are acting like they barely knew the man. As a former RC member, I must vehemently disagree.  These Priests studied everything about the “Founder” tirelessly. Heck, even as an RC member, we were told to study his “writings”, read all about him and pray prayers that he wrote.  He was called “Our Father,” so let’s not rewrite history Jane.  Fr Owen himself seems to recognize that not only did Maciel’s actions harm people, but the LC and RC who denied the possibility of the truth of the allegations, branded the victims liars and enemies of the Church, and compared Maciel to Christ after he was forced into retirement also do have something to apologize for.  And what some commenters are saying is that there is another step, reparation.  I’m sure Fr Owen can take these comments here on a small corner of the web. After all, he is well aware, that is a pretty small penance compared to what the victims of sexual abuse have had to deal with.

Paul, you are bearing false witness (8th Commandment), when you say, ‘“Another thing we don’t know is how many nasty things Fr. Owen did of his own free will and how many he did under “holy obedience”.’

If we put Fr. Owen up to be crucified would you vote for Barrabas instead? Jesus was crucified in part because of false witnesses…..

That’s the tone I’m reading here.

If you are a Catholic, cease and desist with the innuendo and malicious allegations.

According to Fr Scott Reilly, LC, ” but we now know that nobody must be exempt of accountability and that you always have to pay full attention to warning signals and any credible allegation.”

Thank you Fr Scott for recognizing what some here already knew. Perhaps hearing this from and actual LC will help some of you understand what is supposed to be the norm in the matter of   ual abuse cases.

For all who question “rampant   ual abuse” in the Legion,

One young man from Ireland traced his   ual abuse by a Legion priest back through five “generations” to Maciel.  In other words, the man who abused him was abused by a superior, who was abused by a superior, who was abused by a superior who was abused by Maciel.  It may not be “rampant” but that is too much for me and shows that it has been going on for a long time.  This young man, I believe, is in his 30’s so his abuse was quite recent.

If Maciel abused between twenty and one hundred seminarians, and the example above shows the result of one of these abused young men, one can speculate with some certainty that it is not rare in the Legion.  Not to mention that Maciel told his victims that it was not a sin; Maciel told his victims that the Pope told Maciel that he had a valid medical reason for this activity; and Maciel absolved his victims in the sacrament of confession.

Add all of these facts with the reality that many of the young men have been isolated within Legion walls with almost no contact with the outside world since they were very young, it would seem quite plausible that they would after time have no idea that any of these things were wrong.  The reality of this situation is much bigger than many people realize.

Re criticism of Fr OK and the NC Reg, not covering the Legion scandal - Fr OK has addressed this in his message. “To avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest, the Register recused itself from further reporting of the events. We adopted the objective policy of covering the scandal by using reliable news reports produced independently of the Register and of the Legionaries.” Let’s be fair folks. Anything the Register might have written would have been highly criticized for that very reason - conflict of interest.

The Legion needs to come clean about its vast international financial network.  There are layers and layers of connections with for profit ventures like Worldfund and Integer, and even the terribly corrupt Compartemos Bank which have been at the ugly heart of Maciel’s worldwide network.  Maciel’s connections with Mexican organized crime and the way the Legion and Regnum Christi were used to launder money must all come out.  The   scandal with Maciel is horrific, but it is a distraction from the financial black heart of this cult which was basically founded by Maciel as a front group, using the Catholic Church as a mantel.

There is absolutely no way that most of the top figures in the Legion universe did not know about all of these dealings.  Most of the strange money laundering entities had priests at the head of them—although it was a small circle of favored LC’s. 

The story will get much, much worse as regards how the disciples of Maciel were manipulated or seduced into becoming relentless fundraisers for the cult, and then how the money they raised was used.

Not calumny, not bearing false witness.
Owen Kearns admitted wrong-doing himself….
I think we can leave Jesus, Barabbas, Mother Teresa and Mother Angelica out of this discussion; we are talking human frailty and human malice. I do not judge Fr Owen’s guilt, or the state of his conscience, or his relationship with God. You are rashly accusing me of breaking the 8th commandment. How Pharisaical on your part!
I am sick and tired of the false witness stuff because that was the attack the the Legion and Fr. Owen used to stifle critique of Fr. Maciel and the Legion. Fr. Maciel’s victims of   ual abuse were calumniated by Fr Kearns as he himself admits in his apology; they were ‘bearing false witness against Fr. Maciel, who silent like Jesus would not reply’
What is wrong with criticizing and questioning the Legion?
I do not belong to any Absolutistic Group that forbids me from doing that. It is healthy to question, especially when children and       ones are at risk of deceit and abuse!
Are you a member of this cult like group and still brainwashed?
Are you afraid of reading the world press which would open up your eyes to reality out there?
Or can you only read Legion approved media, such as this paper?

Well, we know Fr. Owen Kearns did a very     thing when he said,

“The writers, Gerald Renner and Jason Berry, knew these facts at the time they published their story. So did their editors at the Hartford Courant. They knew that the accusers were caught in their lies, that some had a decades-old animus against the man they were attacking, that five men (one of whom was an accuser who recanted) had testified that the accusations were a conspiracy of lies and that medical evidence proved that none of the accusers had any credibility.”

And let it stand for well over a year after he knew these men were telling the truth after all, and four years after the Legion now admits they knew Maciel had a problem back in 2006.

I have no idea what other     things he might or might not have done, but this very apology of his is because of a very     thing he did. Lies and slander are grave matters, and he used a paper claiming to spread the Catholic faith to spread such lies such as this—-for years.

The old cries of “calumny!”, and “malice!” have been so overused by those who would protect Maciel and the order he founded, that they mean next to nothing these days.  It’s a tired old refrain of those who have no argument to support what the Legion has done.

I don’t know how much proof you need to know that Fr. Owen Kearns did bad things—-that is why he is apologizing here, after all.  Paul Lennon is simply positing that none of us know how much of this was done of his own free will and how much was forced on him by his superiors.

All in all, it’s a rather charitable view, if you ask me.

The Legion has no right at this point to expect anybody to give them the benefit of the doubt.  Many of us did that for years, to our everlasting sorrow. 

The burden is now on the Legion to prove that their intentions are good and that what they say is the truth, not the other way around. 

Credibility matters.  They lost theirs by spreading lies and deceit for years.

Paul, your words: “Another thing we don’t know is how many nasty things Fr. Owen did of his own free will and how many he did under “holy obedience”.”

If you are sick and tired of the “false witness stuff” than stop breaking #8. 

And… it’s not pharasaical of me to point out your sin- it’s a corporal work of mercy to rebuke the sinner (And it ain’t that difficult to do, especially when he records his own sin in public for everyone to see.)

I see- guilty until proven innocent.  How Christian of you.

Not sure if Fr Owen was apologizing about interviewes he gave on TV defending Fr. Maciel [about abuse] and the Legion [about being a High Control Group]
Remember that report in May 2002 on Channel 8 CT with Alan Cohn?
It is not only the fact that Fr Owen defended the Legion, it was the way he put his boot up anyone who came out and criticized

I am no fan of NCR (mostly because of its part in the slandering and malicious attacks on the victims of Maciel and Berry/Renner for so many years) or the Legion it has protected for so long, but I do believe in giving credit where it is due:  I am pleasantly surprised that NCR has published these comments and hope that it is a harbinger of more honest times to come.  This goes for Owen Kearns as well; I am sure he could suppress these comments (and indeed, the suppression of any criticism of the Movement or its representatives has been a hallmark of the Legion for years) but has let them stand.  This takes a bit of guts and is perhaps his way of doing some reparation for the harm he has done so many through the power he wields as the editor of a major Catholic publication.

I too am gratified by Fr. Kearns’ apology, but I also suggest that in the future when the Vatican forcibly retires an international figure to silence and prayer, that Fr. Kearns trusts the Holy See and stops “the hope out hope” nonsense.  That’s just willful ignorance.

As for Patrick McGrath’s quote, “Father Maciel was nothing more then a man, his behavior should not have surprised anyone.”  Excuse me, but such behavior by men will forever surprise people.  Are you saying something about your own behavior as a man that might surprise us, too?

Dear Fr. Kearns,

Thank you for your apology. Many Catholics, aware of the tremendous work the Legion has done throughout the world, have been following the story of Fr. Maciel, especially in the past couple of years. I personally know several good and faithful Legion priests, and have seen many good fruits from Regina Apostolorum. It has been a great concern to me that, up to this point, most spokesmen for the order have failed to acknowledge the pain caused to the victims who first came forward about the abuse. It is reassuring to find that this is finally being addressed. Precisely because the defense of Fr. Maciel was public, it is important that the retraction and apology be public too. Thank you again for your courage and humility. May God continue to bless you and the Legion. You will be in my prayers.

- Christopher Wells

A number of people have been offended at the apology’s mention of Maciel’s daughter as causing him to “rethink everything,” as if molestation of boys wouldn’t cause such a rethinking.

However, the point that Fr. is trying to make is that a daughter—living, physical evidence of Maciel’s breaking of his vows—was the irrefutable proof that all assumptions of innocence had to be given up.

It’s not that molestation is less severe; rather, it doesn’t produce living, breathing evidence of itself in the form of a new human being, acknowledged by Maciel as his daughter.

Finally, the failure to mention outright the molestation points not to a casual view of such things but to a realization of how awful it is. If we said “Hitler invaded Poland and, once there, did other, more reprehensible things,” we would thereby be hinting at the holocaust, a crime so horrific that it approaches the realm of the “unspeakable,” as does molestation. It is this reverent horror of an awful crime that comes through in the way Fr. writes.

We’re angry, yes; but we must take this apology at face value, and believe his sincerity.

Ted’s comment is worth reading by all of us who sincerely want to approach this scandal with the attitude of a true disciple of Christ.  And perhaps these very numbers of the Cathechism can give us a possible understanding of why the Legion (in the Past Year) didn´t rush to make publish every one of the reported sins of their founder.  Yes, it is necessary that the truth be known, but the Legion also has a responsibility before God (and so do we all) for the way in which it presents the sins of another.  Yes, we can argue error in aspects, and we don´t need to repeat what has already been said.  But let us also leave room for possible valid intentions as well.

Paul, do you remember how your namesake was present at the stoning of Stephen, and how St. Paul also had Christians arrested?

That’s in the readings for this week.

Jesus forgave Paul and allowed him to follow him, eventually becoming one of our greatest evangelists.

You need to forgive- not pursue vendettas and payback.

If one is apologetic the Catholic thing is to accept it graciously not to make further demands. God alone knows the sincerity. Further proof to satisfy ones demands means little.

This is a good start, but only a start.

Among the LC and RC members themselves, it will be hard to tell what part of each person is victim and which part helped carry forth the evils their “founder” set in motion. 

Serious soul searching.

Fr. Kearns,
Please call off the LC Novices, Consecrated RC, RCs, and other amateur theologians! Tell them to get busy with chores. They have too much time on their hands!

Malcom and Lisieux are way off base.  We are talking about men who were already consecrated and then embraced sin, working all the time to make it (the sin) more acceptable in society and trying to change attitudes to loose the sin on earth and in heaven. God have mercy. We are all paying for it.

I dare the Register to print all the facts.  All the abuse, from the beginning.

liseux,
  You need to take a good look at what the Legion of Christ has done to Paul Lennon and his allies these past several decades; he’s only tried to get the TRUTH out and has been maligned with Legion deception/“discretion”, sued and otherwise harassed.  You can continue this standard Legion practice, or you can face the truth.  It isn’t pleasant and you’re hurting, I know.  But this isn’t about you, it’s about the victims of the Legion, the discarded “fruit”.

Pam, do you think that Peter, a man consecrated by Jesus himself who then went on to embrace sin (three times, if you catch my biblical drift) deserved to to be forgiven?

Did he deserve to have false charges brought against him?

By assigning guilt to any LC before the facts come out, you bring false witness.

I don’t think that any Christian who calls for the facts and recalls the forgiveness of Jesus is off base.

Paul, why do you want to silence any RCs?

Aren’t you against cover-ups and silencing people, or just when the data is of no help to you.

Fr. Kearns,

I note that you publish blog posts by Mark Shea and that he has published comments elsewhere about this comment thread.

http://markshea.blogspot.com/2010/04/fr-owen-kearns-offers-personal-apology.html

Does he need your inviation to be as frank on your site as he is elsewhere:

“Personally, I think the best contribution to the combox fracas is Pete Vere’s because it puts legs on what the Legionaries need to do next if they are really serious… the Legion needs to renounce the settlements imposed upon victims and make some serious restitution to the people they screwed… Apologies are fine and are a good start…the Legionaries—the giant machine Maciel built—has to stop careening on like a headless giant continuing to do the stuff Maciel built it to do. Or, it needs to be taken apart piece by piece”

Thank you, Father Kearns.

Liseux, you seem to be unaware of many facts about this situation. Might I humbly suggest you learn what the Legion of Christ did to the people who tried to speak the truth. Not false accusations, but true, heinous crimes.

Those who tried to report these crimes, to Church authorities and media outlets were branded liars and enemies of the Church.  I was in RC.  I heard it. So, this is not a false accusation. This is gross sexual misconduct, gross financial misconduct, coupled with the very things you seem so outraged about, false accusations, calumny, slander. 

Please answer me, do you think simply apologizing absolved people of any responsibility for reparations or any legal consequences?  Do you have any sympathy for people who were abused and then denied justice for decades?  Why not give them a little bit of that charity you want everyone to give Fr Owen?  And here’s a thought, maybe you could even tell them you are sorry for the abuse they endured, the false accusations they endured.  Maybe you could even thank them for their perseverance in seeing to it that the truth would someday be revealed so that more people are not harmed. Can you do that?

Lisieux,  This is where the distortion is so blatant.  Peter denied Christ before the descent of the Holy Spirit on him.  He was a totally different man afterward.  Peter never campaigned to make his sin a non-sin. He WEPT BITTERLY over his sin and didnt pretend it was in any way justified or acceptable or more palatable because Jesus loved him so much.  Before any sin can be overcome, one has to have the desire to overcome it and realize how offensive it is to GOD!  He didn’t hide it or cover it up.  Plenty of facts have already come out and enough has been said from too many pulpits when I was sitting in Church to deny that some priests don’t believe Church teaching on homosexuality.  You try to silence people by saying no one can speak up because we don’t know all the facts.  I know JPII said the Church made a mistake by allowing homosexuals in the priesthood and saying no more should be allowed to be priests. Someone with this objectively disordered nature SHOULD reach out to Christ.  They just shouldn’t be our PRIESTS!  The concept of Jesus’ forgiveness is being abused.  He made Peter recant three times.  He let the rich young man and the crowds who didn’t believe the teaching on the Eucharist walk away.  He waited at “home” for the prodigal son to return and COME TO HIS SENSES.  He told everyone he HEALED to go and SIN no more.  He is just and loving, not blind and a doormat.

Hello Anon,

I think we are all unaware of all of the facts of the situation.  No one has appointed your or me the just judge.

I am for open disclosure.  We’re just at the beginning of the truth coming out, anon.

What I see here is a priest apologizing for believing the best of someone, and some wolves smelling blood and giving chase.  They have some legitimate points, but a good deal of these posters are grasping at innuendo AND would to silence the likes of moi…...

I pray for victims of sexual abuse everyday, and I do implore our God to comfort and heal them.

Pam, do you think that Peter was not a sinner after the Holy Spirit came down on him?  Jesus says we’re all sinners, even after Baptism…... Only He and his Blessed Mother are free from sin.

When Peter refused to eat with the Gentiles in front of the Jews, Paul rebuked him for it.  Peter might have been the first pope, but he was not impeccable-even after the descent of the Holy Spirit.

So, I don’t quite know your point.

I don’t enjoy others trying to silence me, so I would be among the last to try to silence you or others.

BUT… should we not be concerned about what has actually happened and not assign hypothetical evil deeds?

All will come out into the light, we Catholics don’t need to be lurking in the shadows with false accusations.

Pam thank you for your comment above.  It is so true: ‘The concept of Jesus’ forgiveness is being abused!’  like other catholic teachings.  And it it done subtleley.  Much abuse in many areas…..so if people (Lc/RC) are unable to recognize this in their own world what does that sya about the methodology and formation!!!

We shall each earn the benefits of our lives in the afterlife.  I find comfort in the fact that “Father” Maciel will rot in eternal Damnation for his misdeeds.  As a cradle Catholic, I have completely and eagerly turned away from my religion as my eyes have been opened to the hypocrisy that lies before me.  Catholocism truly disgusts me, and I am more than happy to have turned my back on false prophets.

Has anyone else lconsidered Buddhism?  At least their First Noble Truth recognizes that life is pain.  It doesn’t get much more straightforward than that, just ask any of the children “Father” Maciel ruined.

Divine Retribution,

How do you find comfort in the “fact” that anyone will rot in hell?

Also, just how are you aware of anyone’s final judgement?

And… I don’t think Buddhists believe in hell, or heaven for that matter.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061002143139AASKiBB

If it is true you have lost the faith because of the sins of a few, that is tragic.  I often think of those who might have lost their faith because of Judas’ tragic witness. I do hope you don’t follow their path.

I ask you instead of focusing on the few Judas’ we have in our ranks, to look at the saints: Mother Teresa, Mother Angelica, St. Francis, St. Augustine, etc.

Lisieux, As we all know there are different degrees of sin.  With the Holy Spirit came truth and courage and Peter would have had the strength of that to overcome his sin.  Paul judged Peter and rebuked him because he didn’t see any reason for Peter to act differently when the jews arrived.  Peter wasn’t so sure - he was in two “Romes” at the same time.  This does not rise to the level of sins of the flesh. Do you agree?  Yes we all sin but we don’t try to change the world to accomodate our sin, we try to change ourselves to overcome the sin with God’s grace.

Dear Divine Retribution,  Please don’t turn away from the fullness of truth because of the misdeeds of the carriers of the message.  The truth hasn’t changed just because some don’t follow it or because they use it for their own purposes!  Christ is truly present in the Eucharist!  That doesn’t change.  He stands behind the most vile priest in the confessional to absolve you.  You are letting Satan win!  He has succeeded in pulling you away.  Don’t let him.  Go to Church, teach CCD, be a light to the parishioners and don’t wait to be thanked for it. You aren’t meant to be successful MOther Theresa would say, you are meant to be faithful!

Lisieux, from personal experience I know that when it has been a question of questioning the methodology or motive or actions of a priest - even with the purest motive and best intentions, the result was to be relentlessly assaulted.  Something smells.  The two venues this order is involved in that bother me are schools and the media.  Two places where public opinion is formed.  We know what the founder did.  We know seminarians who brought charges, we know r.c.s who have spoken of the formation.  Do we just let more souls get lead astray? or do we say before you teach or write we need to know more about what is going on.

Thank you Dr. Windfuhr

Pam, the title of this blog is “Setting the Record Straight.” Father Kearns is apologizing as well.

Please demonstrate how that title corresponds with your statement: “Do we just let more souls get lead astray?”

Also, do you and others think I am a “RC” operative- part of the vast Legion conspiracy? :-}  I’m an RC all right, but not the kind you are thinking of!

The point still holds, Pam, that people can sin to ANY degree after receiving the Holy Spirit.

@ liseux [Saturday, Apr 24, 2010 11:34 AM (EST)]

What is this, “... people can sin to ANY degree after receiving the Holy Spirit” supposed to mean?

Is it perhaps some calvinistic-antinomianistic ...?

Lisieux,  You are starting to sound like one of those bloggers who changes the subject whenever they can’t refute the truth of the statement addressed to them.  First, in setting the record straight, Fr. Kearns acknowledges some of the very grave sins of the founder of the order.  These grave sins have tainted the order. There are statements by seminarians and ex- rc members saying they were solicited or molested.  The order operates schools and a newspaper - two venues where public opinion is formed.  There is a real danger that souls are at risk of being mislead.  The Church teaching is clear that homosexuality is objectively disordered.  When one embraces this sin, the sin is not limited to the physical.  It encompasses a mental and spiritual outlook at odds with our faith.  To answer your other remark, I had no idea of your affiliation with the rc and I make it a practice not to assign motives to people seeing as I am not God.  He knows the answer to that.  As to the point that anyone can commit a grave sin even after receiving the Holy Spirit - committing a mortal sin breaks our relationship with God.  Once that grave a sin is committed, true contrition and confession and penance are necessary to restore the relationship.  Hopefully Fr. Maciel reached that point before he died.

Miguel, do you disagree that one can sin after receiving the Holy Spirit?

Hello Pam,

I can promise you I have never changed the subject permanently to avoid addressing the truth.

Anything I bring up is related to what the original blog or to what others have posted.

As for my question about the “RC” it was amazing to me and still is that when Paul told Father Kearns to “call off his RC dogs” I originally thought it mean “Roman Catholics.” Then, I deciphered it to mean Regnum Christi people.

I AM a RC- a Roman Catholic, and I’d add, a Register Catholic. I’m just a stay-at-home mom of several kids who is blessed by the National Catholic Register and has used it devotedly in the past to learn Catholic teaching and to defend Catholic teaching in CCD classes, letters to the editor, etc.

I live no where near a Regnum Christ group, and to my knowledge, have never seen an LC in person.

But by their fruits you shall know them.

I am saddened by the trumped-up accusations hear on this blog and supports thereof, which means you, Pam, at Fr. Kearns when he does such a great service for the Church with this paper.  Leave the man alone until you KNOW what has happened.

Aren’t we Christian enough to not bear false witness?

Enough already. Let the truth stand.

HOMOSEXUALITY AND PEDOPHILIA
one of the posters constantly confuses these two realities; whatever one’s religious, moral, or ethical beliefs we have to accept the fact of pedophilia, the sexual abuse of minors, as distinct from homosexuality, the sexual activity of adults.
Even Fr. Neuhaus, an Orthodox Catholic writer, who so ardently defended Fr. Maciel, accepted this basic distinction.
If anyone c/dares to read, I have debated this issue with him:
http://www.regainnetwork.org/article.php?a=47245778
There is debate regarding Fr. Maciel’s homosexuality.
I am outraged by his pedophilia, and that, my dear friends, was what the Vatican censure of May 19th, 2006 was all about.

Liseux, I think you need to do some more research on this situation. The charges are not all trumped up.  I repeat, the charges are not all trumped up. Look elsewhere for your news and you will find the full scope of this tragedy. 

If you want to have your paper, even at the cost of harm to innocents, then so be it.  Look the victims in the eyes and tell them that the paper is worth the abuse they went through. 

I don’t see where you’ve mentioned any sympathy or concern for the victims. I challenge you again, can you express any sympathy for the victims of Maciel and of the tactics of the LC?  Are you even aware of the vast array of problems? 

I certainly agree with you on one point, by your fruits you shall know them. Indeed!

That dtuff is very boring. Very very boring. Almigthy God, Have mercy on us, and have mercy on those who seek the scandal.

Pam, this is a long blog, and I visit several others as well on here.

Here’s few points that might have been missed in the numerous posts:

1) I know that all the charges aren’t trumped up against Maciel. Never
  said they were. I think it’s a tragedy.

  What I am speaking about on here are rash judgements against Father Owen Kearns.  Don’t you agree that we should act like the Catholics we are and count on the truth in the matter, not vengeance?

2) I pray for sexual abuse victims everyday. Been doing that for a while. That includes those who are not forgiving of those who hurt them.

3) Forgiveness is needed for complete healing. Some of the Early Church Fathers said that sacramental forgiveness is a greater miracle than the creation of the universe by God.  I think so to.

I think that you have misdunderstood my defense of Fr. Kearns as a defense of Maciel, and perhaps we have been talking past each other.

Paul, when 80 to 90% of the abuse is male on male with post-pubescent boys, that’s homosexual.

The Boy Scouts had the same problem until they got the homosexual leaders out of the dens.  They are in the news lately too for old cases.

As for Maciel, I don’t think he was a homosexual. I think he was just… sexually addicted.

Well Liseux, sounds like you don’t want to answer me. Yes, we are called to forgive. But, I feel it is incredibly insensitive for to to focus on forgiveness before you’ve bothered to say ‘i’m sorry for what you went through,’ first.  And at the risk of sounding like a broken record, forgiveness doesn’t mean there are no consequences for the perpetrators of these crimes, which are more, much more, than molestations.

Oops, Anon., I responded to your questions and directed them to Pam. That should be you instead.

Did you read where I said that I pray for victims of sexual abuse everyday? Of course I recognize the trauma they have been through, and I am sorry that it occurred. Jesus said if you hurt one of these little ones, it is better had you not been born. I believe that.

I wouldn’t be praying for them if I didn’t see the incredible need, Anon.

Lisieux,  Fr. Kearns admits attacking people who were telling the truth. He is admitting he was never really open to it until it hit him in the face.  He answers to God for his actions, but he answers to us too as the head of the newspaper.  He showed a bias to protect a “priest” (man)) over a bias to find truth (God).  This is why we are in the mess we are in in the first place.  A priest once said to me “No priest will speak against a brother priest.”  I think thats incredibly unChristlike in these circumstances.

To Paul Lennon,  Yes there are distinctions between pedophilia and homosexuality, but they are both grave sins.  I am sick at the Church’s attempt to lump 11 to 18 year olds as non-victims of pedophilia.  Ask any mother if her child at 11 or 12 or 13 or 14 or 15 or 16 or 17 or 18 has reached an age where they can may an informed consensual mature choice about homosexual acts and see what the response you get is.  Those who should be helping them through muddy waters are turning it into a cesspool.  Don’t go there.

All of you are nobody to judge somebody. Try to judge Maciel is useless now. He died!!! God have judged him. We need to find the Legion’s mistakes, and the Church is doing that with the apostolic visitation.All these things have happened, we can’t change the past, just we need to do something in order to avoid that these horrible sins appear in the future (again for taht reason Benedict XVI ask this apostolic visitation) Fr. Owen recognized his mistake and ask forgivness. Who are we to judge him?

Pam, I don’t think that people in the Church, by distinguishing between young children and teens, is trying to say that the latter are not victims.  I believe that they are trying to clarify what type of crime this was.  If a person is attracted to teens and young adults of the same sex, it is reasonable to state that this is a crime of non-consensual homosexual sex rather than that of pedophilia.  Which, is good news, really.  Pedophiles are almost impossible to treat which means they remain a threat forever.  Those with same sex attraction are much more capable of changing their unchaste behavior.

Pam, I read from Mutter Vogel, that NO ONE should attack a priest.

In a vision to her, Jesus said, “One should NEVER attack a priest, even when he’s in error, rather, one should pray and do penance that I’ll grant him My grace again.  He alone fully represents Me, even when he doesn’t live after My example!”  p. 29 Mutter Vogel’s Worldwide Love

Pam, why are you attacking a priest who has admitted he’s done wrong? Can you judge his heart if he was defending someone he thought was innocent?

Have you not sinned?

Who appointed you the just judge?

What you call unChristian like behavior is what you turn around and do yourself.

Pam, to say that a 17 or 18 yr. old is a victim of pedophilia is nonsense.  It can still be sexual abuse, but it ain’t a man attracted to a child. It’s a man or a woman attracted to a young adult, with all the supporting body parts.

Jimmy,  It is not looking back at someone who has died. It is looking at what the founder of an order has done.  Someone who, as founder, has sins so grave he has destroyed the credibility of the order.  What trust can be built on that foundation?  Especially when a priest will tell you that no priest will speak against his brother priest?  What priest in that order is not suspect because of the molestations and homosexual actions of the founder?  They run SCHOOLS.  They publish a NEWSPAPER.  Don’t you want every priest in that order reexamined by someone faithful to the Church teaching on homosexuality and spiritual formation? Does no one care about the grave breach to LOVE and TRUTH this all is.  Do you really believe that God exposed all this so we can blindly let it continue without question?

Lauretta,  Yes I see that aspect, but I read the Church’s statement distinguishing the acts and it just highlights the problem to me.  Even you talk about treatable psychological conditions.  It is a grave SPIRITUAL CONDITION!  It has SPIRITUAL consequences. This is a CHURCH.  This is a SIN. It is over come by GRACE.  How can it not be grounds for immediate expulsion from the PRIESTHOOD?  The SHEPARD has ATTACKED one of his FLOCK - no matter what the victims age it is outrageous.  LOVE him, CARE for him, COUNSEL him but do NOT keep him as our SPIRITUAL leader, our CONFESSOR, our PERSONA CHRISTI!  This just seems so BASIC.  This is the Emperor’s New Clothes - the fairy tale where no one dares say the obvious.  A child has to tell them the emperor is wearing only underwear before they admit they have known it all along too but they were afraid to say it because they were told anyone who couldn’t see the King’s garments was a fool.  Today’s argument is you are intolerant or discriminating even when you are doing the MOST loving thing.  Every thing we do should be based on our love for Jesus Christ.  Because we love HIM, a priest would report a fellow priest who engaged in grave sin because in loving his brother priest he will keep him from spiritually and physically harming himself, others and Christ’s Church. People will vote and speak up about laws that lead society down a road to moral decay. Because we love Christ, we will not confuse emotions and truth and make them equal.  Don’t you agree?

Pam, the order is being examined, and I think the report is due out this week. Can’t you wait and see what the report is before you make hasty judgements?

I trust Archbishop Chaput among the many leaders doing the examination.

Who is blindly letting any deception go on without question? Not me. Not Father Kearns.

Did you read the apology by Fr. Kearns?

For heavens sakes, woman, it’s just the beginning of a workover for the Legion.

I think we should call for justice, not vengeance. And justice takes time.

ça suffit

Pam, I agree with your zeal but not all of your ideas.  I want child abuse to stop as much as anyone on this planet.  However, to remove someone from the priesthood takes away all authority of the Church over him.  The man is free to come and go and engage in whatever behavior he desires.  It would free the Church from any responsibility but I’m not sure it would protect one child from harm.  Maybe even endanger more.

If you look at the history of this abuse in the Church, about 150 priests have committed the vast majority of abuse in this country, the US.  They should be removed from society if they haven’t been already.  Many priests were accused credibly of only one count of abuse, usually when they were young.  Are they a threat to children or the Church?  I don’t know.  Also, it is considered abuse if someone kissing a young person inappropriately or touches them in the wrong place even through their clothes.  If they only do something like that one time, should they be forever banned from functioning as a priest?  I don’t know.  I know of a priest who, when he was over 80, kissed a young teen-aged girl behind a closed door.  What kind of a kiss it was, I don’t know.  But I do know he was banned from all priestly functions.  He could not even meet with a group of adults for a study.  He died having never been reinstated to his priestly duties.

PEDOPHILIA
staying on track here as best I can - I am a bit lost with some of the more spiritual reflections about the Holy Spirit and Repentance and Salvation….
I believe that one of the big strikes against Fr. Maciel is that he was a pedophile. Conservative Catholics and Legion/Regnum defenders dont want him to be tarred with that stick. But we have serious testimonies of Maciel abusing very young boys who were his first recruits to the first Apostolic School in Mexico City; it is softer to call him a ‘sexual deviant’ or even a ‘homosexual’. Again, Conservative Catholics have this big hangup about homosexuality and want to make it the mother of all sins. Bigger than incest?
These same Conservative or PreVatican II CAtholics subscribe to a very restricted view of pedophilia and tend to reduce pedophilia to homosexuality. In doing this they are not helping the cause of protecting children

[second part of post because i am afraid it will get gobbled up by the system here which easily deletes postings]
So, these Catholics [almost the only people in the world who do this] keep this very narrow definition of pedophilia as the sexual abuse of the pre-pubertal child. Big obsession about puberty, about sexual awakening. Big hang up about homosexuality, as if it were the mother of all sexual sins. It is not. Incest, for example, is worse. And most Christians and people in the world believe pedophilia is worse.
Sexual abusers of minors, whether the minor be pre-pubertal, in pubertal, or postpupertal are not worried about committing sins; they are obsessed with their gratification with minors, with our without erection or sexual pleasure on the part of the victim. And they never repent. They are only deterred by punishment.

Lisieux, where do you see me judging anyone?  Any comment I have made refers to someone who has already been judged by the Church.  I am not talking about a particular priest. There is no vengeance here it is love of Christ and faithfulness to Him.  I am not attacking any priest either.  I am saying priests who molest anyone any age should be defrocked. Is that an attack or a simple truth. Lauretta, One child molested is too many no matter what the priest’s age he crossed a line. And how does the abuser remaining a priest keep children safer? Couldn’t disagree more on that.  He should already be reported to civil authorities.  The Church is cloaking him with respectability and authority and access and priestly power and clouding judgment like it clouded Fr. Kearns.  Too many will suffer for not believing the truth.  You give the Church credit for more police power than they actually have I think.  I can not understand your logic.  On the street he will have none of that to abuse and will answer to civil law and if he remains in his faith he will still answer to the Church.  As to what is considered abuse now a days, that is precisely because we think we can live side by side with homosexuality as a social norm or other sexual sins and still have some control over morality.  It is just not true.  So people try to protect themselves by hypervigilance and the most normal, innocent things become suspect.  It is all part of the same problem.  Either society works toward purity and goodness or it suffers these reactions.  The Church is trying to protect children by forbidding touching, one on one encounters etc., but none of that is normal or healthy.  The real problem is the sexual sins that need to be addressed.  And Paul,  the labelling doesn’t help.  Sexual sins hurt us all.

Lauretta, you are repeating the argument of well known Fr. Neuhaus in his “Feathers of Scandal” defense of Fr. Maciel in 2002; I repeat, read my rebuttal of this vision which minimizes pedophilia and sexual abuse. In my opinion, based on the words of Jesus, “Woe to him to causes one of these little ones to fall, it were better for him that a millstone…” it is better to have one less priest than one more sexually abused and traumatized child. You do not understand the devastating effects of sexual abuse: even a kiss, or a touch, or an act of exposure, or voyeurism. Ask any victim. Read their stories. You fail to understand the teaching of Jesus, and the Church hierarchy which is now awakening from a thousand year slumber. And if you want to wax theological or spiritual read the sermons of St. Augustine about the pastors that plunder the sheep -By the way these are in the readings of the Liturgy of the Hours [breviary] that all priests are supposed to read and meditate. Fr. Maciel never prayed the breviary. He was too busy founding the Kingdom of Christ.

Pam, The apostolic visitation has the scope of examinate the Legion´s credibility after all these facts. My point is that is useless to make a discussion about Maciel´s sexual orientation, or about other aspects of his personality. We know all things he did, and these things that many people are speaking here will not change that.
The Legion autorithies have recognized that Maciel is not an example. About Legion’s charism, is aprooved by Church. Why do we doubt about it? Can’t God choose whoever he wants to trasmit this charism?

Jimmy, The Lord does not use evil to do good. The charism was obtained under fraudulent conditions.  God can do whatever He wants and He has let us know who the founder of this order is and what they do.  Now we need to make sure it is GOD’S will that is being done with this order.  I trust Archbishop Chaput to look after us.

Pam, first you talk about Father Kearns, the newspaper, and the Legion’s schools, now you are deflecting to defrocking priests who abuse.

Father Kearns is not under investigation for abuse. His great “sin” right now is just being a Legion priest who edits the paper.

And yes, you have been judging Legion priests all along, and yes, you have been unjustly attacking Father Kearns.

Unless you can keep your story straight, it’s difficult to dialogue with you.

I’ll be happy to discuss facts with you, but not hunches, malicious opinions, or false accusations.

“Jimmy, The Lord does not use evil to do good. (Posted by Pam on Wednesday, Apr 28, 2010 6:58 AM (EST):”)

Give me an argument to hold this affirmation. I answer here with Your own words “God can do whatever He wants”. He called David to be King of Israel, the same David who killed one of his soldiers to take the wife of the soldier. During Mass we read many times the psalms written by the same King David.

The charism was obtained under fraudulent conditions ((Posted by Pam on Wednesday, Apr 28, 2010 6:58 AM (EST):”)

Please, give me an argument to hold this affirmation. Who did give the charism to Maciel?.... Authentich charism, approved by the Church is givven by God. Do You think God gave it under fraudulent conditions? Don´t confuse the charism with Maciel´s life. Why God gave this charism to him? I don’t know. This is a mistery that we can`t understand with our human intelligence. We need faith.

He has let us know who the founder of this order is and what they do ((Posted by Pam on Wednesday, Apr 28, 2010 6:58 AM (EST):”)

Yes, thanks be to God God has helped us to know the truth about Maciel, and as Legionaries superiors said “God chose Fr Maciel as an instrument to found the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi, and we thank God for the good he did. At the same time, we accept and regret that, given the gravity of his faults, we cannot take his person as a model of Christian or priestly life.” (ROME, MARCH 26, 2010 (Zenit.org).) So they accept that, and they are trying, with visitator’s help, to find the best way to improve and to never comitt again their mistakes.

Now we need to make sure it is GOD’S will that is being done with this order.  I trust Archbishop Chaput to look after us. ((Posted by Pam on Wednesday, Apr 28, 2010 6:58 AM (EST):”)

I agree with You, and the Legionaries as well: “We thank the five apostolic visitators, Bishop Guiseppe Versaldi, Archbishop Ricardo Blázquez, Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap., Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati, SDB, and Bishop Ricardo Watty, MSSP, for all the work they have done with such dedication and fatherly concern.

We will embrace with filial obedience whatever indications and recommendations the Holy Father gives us as a result of the apostolic visitation, and we are committed to putting them into practice”. (ROME, MARCH 26, 2010 (Zenit.org).)

Jimmy,  I seem to have hit a nerve.  Peace.  Benedict Groeshel was the first priest I heard make that statement. That is a spiritual reality. God permits evil to happen but does not use evil to do good. With King David, God did not use David’s evil act to do good.  God gave David the choice of three penances and the people paid the price for his misdeeds even though he asked God to punish him, not his subjects.  The son of him and his lover died also.  David turned to God and repented of what he had done as well.  God can do whatever he wants but He is Light and there is no Darkness in him.  As to the Charism, the key is your own word - “authentic” -  the order is tainted throughout by its founders actions.  He effectively mutilated it.  If the charism survives, THAT will be God’s grace.  The attempt to narrow the problem to one priest is disingenuous.  We don’t know the extent of the harm done to the whole order and the members of Regnum Christi.  Certainly there are grave trust issues.  So to Lisieux: to voice that is NOT a judgment.  It is a FACT and a genuine concern.  God brought all this to light.  His will be done. When I wrote the comments you quote, it was hurriedly before I went to work.  I thought I said “He has let us know who this founder is and what he (not they) has done.  Perhaps I mistyped, I made a copy I can check.  Finally, I am glad we can agree that the visitation is being done in all good faith.  So let’s pray for God’s grace for all involved.  God bless.

Jimmy and Liseux, thanks for giving the com boxes that breath of fresh air.  It was getting a bit nauseating…

Pam, don’t worry, I’m not neither nervous nor anger with You. I agree with you when you say “God did not use David’s evil act to do good”. God didn’t use Maciel´s evil act neither to do good nor to found the Legion. My point is that the Legion is not a Maciel work. Is a God work, and Maciel was his instrument. Why God did choose Maciel to found the Legion? I don’t know (ask God Why he did it). We don’t know neither if God punish Maciel or not, nor if Maciel repented or not. For that reason, we can’t speak about that. We know that Legion’s general superior have heard Maciel in confession before Maciel´s death, but we can’t know if Maciel was really repented. If we don’t know, we can’t make affirmations about that.
We need to make a distinction between a God charism and the personal life of the founder; they are not the same thing. Logically, when all these facts of Legion’s founder came to light, it’s necessary to make a good review, but we can’t say that one charism is false because the instrument was bad.  That’s my point. Forgive me, Pam, if I didn’t express well my ideas and if I’ve offended You, that’s not my intention. I invite you to keep praying very hard for the fruits of the apostolic visitation!

Yes, Pam, I agree that the visitation is being done in good faith. I do think the results are coming out tomorrow, or the study will be completed tomorrow.

I think that the best policy for the American Catholic Church (Catholic dioceses here in the U.S.) has been lately to get all the facts out front and deal with them. The Europeans are finding this out the hard way as well.

We have made progress with preventing sexual abuse in the last 8-9 years. This has been done by admitting, prosecuting, confessing, and making reparations in light of sexual abuse.

God bless you as well.

Jimmy, So if for instance Maciel formed the order to promote a mindset that is amenable to the homosexual agenda through his schools and paper you think that God used him as his instrument?

Sorry Pam, this afirmation is not true. You can read many articles written by Legionaries, you can go to Legionaies scholls or universities and you will not hear homosexual’s teachings. At least i’ve read a lot of articles, i’ve heard a lot of conferences of Legionaries, and I never see any homosexual teach. I belive that God have chossen Maciel as his instrument to found the Legion (Maciel have founded the Legion, we can´t deny that) but really I don´t understand why God have chosen him. But God is God. Please, Pam, hold your arguments, don´t say just what you hear on TV.

Is true that the Legion needs a review. because logically the evil acts of it founder could affect the congregation, but for that reason the visitators are working. Before making these kind of affirmations I think that is better to wait visitator´s reports, Pam

Jimmy, I asked a question. I didn’t make an affirmation. You see not everything is God’s will even if done by a priest.  Even if it is founding an order.  That is the point.  God gave us free will and some have used it to sin. The silence of a priest or paper on issues like homosexuality is as harmful often too.  By not clearly speaking up against the sin they are complicit in condoning it.

Pam stated, “The silence of a priest or paper on issues like homosexuality is as harmful often too.  By not clearly speaking up against the sin they are complicit in condoning it.”

Pam, are you saying that the Register is complicit in condoning sin?

I do much letter writing and discussion on issues related to life and apologetics of the Catholic faith.  The Register is one of my top sources on this.

IN FACT, Pam, it was because of the Register that I learned about the independent John Jay report which notated that approx. 80% of the U.S. Catholic Church sexual abuse was HOMOSEXUAL in nature.  I’ve seen other mentionings of the sins of homosexual acts also.

Please don’t tell me you are drumming up false accusations and airy allegations again.

You see not everything is God’s will even if done by a priest.  Even if it is founding an order”.

That’s your mistake. As I told You before, Legion is not a Maciel´s work, is a God´s work. The Cahrism is aprooved by the Chruch, so, until the Church say that the charism is not true, we can´t say neither that it is false nor that is a man’s work. Maciel was God’s instrument, why did God choose this sinner to found the Legion? I don’t know, ask God. His ways are not our ways. For each one of us (and for the Legionaries as well) it would be better have a holy founder, as St. Ignatius of Loyola, but That wasn’t God’s will. If after the meeting with visitators Benedict XVI says that the charism is false, and suppresses the Legion of Christ, you will be right, but for now, you can’t say that the Legion is a work of one priest.
You can’t judge the supposed priests that have silenced Maciel´s sins, because you don’t know something about that and the visitators are investigating that. Again, don’t speak things that you heard on TV.

    “if for instance Maciel formed the order to promote a mindset that is amenable to the homosexual agenda through his schools and paper you think that God used him as his instrument? “

  Sorry, I read that very fast and I didn’t realize that it was a question. That is a supposition, and I think that we can´t know that, Maciel is not here to ask him why did he founded the Legion. But look at the fruits of Legion of Christ, look to all good that they did in these years. I never heard homosexual teachings of one Legionary. Do you think that the Church would approve a Charism with homosexual teachings? Again, if Benedict XVI says after meeting visitators that the charism is false, and he suppresses the Legion, you will be right, but for now…..pray and wait Benedict XVI statement.

So, Pam, I think that I will not spend more time with you. I can see that you have good intentions, but you always speak the same things, and you say things without arguments. In many messages I have to answer practically the same. Just I have tried to show you the truth. I didn’t try never to defend Maciel (that’s stupid) but I try to defend the Legion that is being attacked because of his founder’s sins. The Legion has recognized its mistakes. God calls men, not angels, but we can’t say that one charism is false because of instruments sins or defects.

It was a pleasure to speak with you. Thank You and I will keep you on my prayers.

Lisieux, Exactly because so many people like you rely on a Catholic newspaper to understand the Church teaching it is important that the paper be above suspicion.

Pam, then do please continue to get your most up to date, fully informed and accurate news about the Church from the New York Times and the Boston Globe.  I suggest you check into the parallels between what the Times and Globe have done and what the radicals during the French Revolution did.  I seem to remember that they used the press and any form of media they could to spread many false things about the Church and clergy for the purpose of destroying the Church. 

Thank you, Fr Owen, for posting your apology.  Continue being a man of the Church!

Peace of Christ, Chris.  I don’t get my news from your sources.  Did you see the Register’s report on what Pope Benedict has decided.  He also was concerned about the order and the charism being abused. The article was in last night’s edition.  God bless.

Pam, sorry for reacting the way I did.  I have seen the report that the Holy See issued at the conclusion of the Visitation and I think we should all be grateful for the action that the Pope has decided to take.  God bless you too.

Fr Owen, all I have to say is, in the words of Scarecrow, “You humbug!”

“Legion is not a Maciel´s work, is a God´s work”
Many defenders of the Legion and Regnum Christi make this statement as if it were true. It is not “self-evident” given the very immoral and devious life of the founder and the system that he implanted in the Legion and Regnum. These are Maciel’s work. Whether they are God’s Work remains to be seen. That is what the recent Vatican Investigation is all about. And it is not over yet. The Vatican Communique in May opened the door for DOUBT. In a cult-like group there is never room for doubt. Legionaries and members of the Regnum Christi, cannot, are not allowed to seriously question or doubt. That is what makes them “cult-like”. Another characteristic of a “cult-like” group is not being able to accept serious criticism. They tend to go after the critic and try to destroy their credibility, or call them names to disqualify their opinions and criticism. If the Legion and Regnum are True they need not fear criticim.