The Legionaries of Christ are currently gathered for their General Chapter, held every six years. This is in accord with the principle of semper reformanda. Every society, especially those in the Church, and even the Church herself, stand always in need of reform, for there is no standing still in the spiritual life.
Such a reform is a particular challenge for the Legionaries, who present a unique case in the history of the Church: a religious Order, which seems to be flourishing by any number of measures, yet founded not by a saint, nor even by someone apparently striving for holiness, but by a man – a priest – whom the Church deemed ‘without scruples and devoid of religious sentiment’, allegedly living not only a double life of promiscuity, violating his promise of chastity and then some, but one who, as the Order itself has admitted, abused an untold number of minors. It makes for grim reading, opening a door into Dante’s Inferno. Why God permitted it all for so long is part of that mysterium iniquitatis of which Saint Paul speaks.
Father Macial was never brought to trial. Pope Benedict asked the elderly and ailing Macial, about to meet his Maker, to spend the rest of his life in ‘prayer and penance’ in solitude; he died in Jacksonville, Florida on this January 30th, 2007, so now received his judgement before God. We know not his conscience, and can only hope he repented (as far as I know, he never did so publicly) and somehow received God’s mercy. Miserere ei et nobis. The full extent of the harm and scandal caused by Father Marcial Maciel Degollado will never be known, along with that of his fellow travelers and accomplices, all those who aided and abetted his malfeasance.
Perfectae Caritatis, the decree from the Second Vatican Council on religious life, has guidelines for such reform, principles to which the Order should conform in her life, work and mores: First, there is Christ Himself and His Gospel teaching. Second is the charism of the founder, whose spirit, teachings, writings and example should imbue and guide the society through history:
The adaptation and renewal of the religious life includes both the constant return to the sources of all Christian life and to the original spirit of the institutes and their adaptation to the changed conditions of our time. This renewal, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the Church, must be advanced according to the following principles:
a) Since the ultimate norm of the religious life is the following of Christ set forth in the Gospels, let this be held by all institutes as the highest rule.
b) It redounds to the good of the Church that institutes have their own particular characteristics and work. Therefore let their founders’ spirit and special aims they set before them as well as their sound traditions-all of which make up the patrimony of each institute-be faithfully held in honor. (emphasis added)
The founders of Orders are almost always saints, or at least saintly, if not on the road to canonization. Saints Benedict, Bruno, Francis, Clare, Dominic, Norbert, Ignatius, Theresa of Avila, Angela Merici, Teresa of Calcutta and on it goes. A Dominican who deviates from Saint Dominic is not much of a Dominican.
What is one to say, then, of the Legionaries of Christ? Does Fr. Macial provide a counter-example, a sort of anti-founder? Should Legionaries, like Christ said of the Pharisees, do as their all-too-human founder said, but not as he did? Did God work through the grave deviancies of the founder?
I recall visiting them years ago, when, as the song goes, I wore a younger man’s clothes, before the scandal of Father Macial was known, or at least became public. There were legions – pardon the pun – of young energetic men aspiring to give their lives to Christ, all of them orthodox, Marian, full of zeal. I didn’t know much back then (and still don’t), and had yet to delve into anything resembling philosophy or theology. But I did think it odd that the superiors read your mail, and, apparently, could censor what they deemed unfitting. I was also disconcerted by what I can only now describe as a ‘shrine’ to Father Macial in one of the hallways, a full-size picture (or painting – I can’t quite recall) surrounded by flowers, with ‘Nuestro Padre’ in big letters above. Why, I thought, would he permit such adulation of himself?
But most grievously (especially in hindsight) was the ‘fourth’ vow of ‘charity’ they imposed, whereby one promised never to criticize a superior, imposing a reign of silence, and, as we now know, obeisance, submission, secrecy – a cult-like atmosphere which allowed the grave abuse to go on so long. Sure, Pope Benedict removed that vow in 2007, but why did that take so long, only after the allegations all came out? More to the point, why was it ever permitted in the first place? What sort of burden did that place on the sensitive and often scrupulous consciences of all those young men, and the even younger boys in their minor seminaries, many now scarred for life, even losing their Faith?
We should be clear that a charism – from visions to miracles – does not necessarily imply any holiness in the one given the charism. A charism is a gratia gratis data – a gift freely given. Miracles can be performed by the good or dark side, and the devil can transform himself into an angel of light (well, a fake one).
Yet, the specific the charism of founding an Order is a rather rare one, given to very few in the panoply of Catholics throughout history. Christ does not found religious orders. He founded the Church, and indeed is the Church, as her Mystical Body. Religious Orders are founded by humans as inspired by Christ.
Questions abound. How does one go back to Father Macial for any sort of inspiration? No one’s going to read his books, except for forensic purposes. Who even inspired Father Macial? Christ, or someone – or something – else? Was his intent corrupt all along, or did he go astray somewhere along the way? How might God work through such iniquity? What was, and is, the raison d’être, the purpose or mission of the Legionaries?
The Church authorities thought of suppressing the Order, but decided against this, opting instead for reform. Maybe they thought the Legion was just too big to fail. They have 1700 official members, including 1000 priests, to say nothing of their numerous apostolates, houses, colleges, retreat and formation centres, radio stations, churches, novitiates – real estate beyond measure. And then there’s Regnum Christi, the consecrated female branch, which has 20,000 members in 30 different countries. One may question how all this came to be from such a flawed beginning, and what one would do with tens of thousands of consecrated persons with no Order to which to belong. Whatever the case, the decision was made to preserve the Order, so here we be.
Whatever the future holds, we pray for the Legionaries, that they complete their purification, as Pope Benedict requested, removing whatever is contrary to God and His goodness, and somehow finding their ‘principle of reform’, discerning somehow, someway, where they go from here.
