As we await news of the outcome from the Vatican visitation, Fr. Owen Kearns issues an apology in the April 25 edition of the National Catholic Register.
http://www.ncregister.com/register_exclusives/setting_the_record_straight/
Fr. Kearns states that he couldn’t believe that the allegations against their founder were true, because they were so incompatible with their experience of him and tended to interpret them as one more attack something normal in the life of many founders
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Fr. Kearns included a statement of apology for taking to task writers Gerald Renner and Jason Berry and their editors at the Hartford Courant and said they didn’t get everything about the Legion right but they were fundamentally correct about Father Maciel's sexual abuse and I ask forgiveness too late for Gerald Renner, who is deceased
.
Some initial reactions to Fr. Kearns apology may be seen on life-after-rc blog
REGAIN has serious moral reservations regarding Fr. Kearn’s apology.
In August 2002 Fr. Richard J. Neuhaus wrote eloquently in First Things about Maciel's accusers scattering feathers of scandal
. What should we say about those who scattered letter of falsehood in Fr. Macie'’s defense and calumniated his accusers and other serious truth seekers?
Some posters have already demanded that Fr. Kearns be more forthcoming and honest, and repair the intellectual, spiritual, legal and financial damage done to his hundreds and thousands of victims
.