As many of you know, ICSA director Rod Dubrow-Marshall, PhD and Linda Dubrow-Marshall, PhD began a Master’s program on the Psychology of Coercive Control at the University of Salford (UK) three years ago. For the 2020-21 academic year, the master’s program will be delivered completely online. Go here for more info, including how to apply to the program which begins late September (www.salford.ac.uk/pgt-courses/psychology-of-coercive-control). Because of a law passed by the UK government in 2015 ( Section 76 of the Serious Crime Act), the concept of coercive control encompasses psychological as well as physical actions and effects. The Salford master’s program elaborates upon this concept and prepares students to work with those affected by cults, domestic violence, trafficking, and other areas of coercive control. Rod and Linda will lead a special ICSA 60-minute webinar on coercive control and the Salford master’s program which will be broadcast on Friday July 24th at 12 pm eastern time (New York time). The Link for this webinar will be sent to the ICSA network nearer to the date. Register for this webinar now, while tickets are available. Choose the “Coercive Control Webinar” ticket (https://icsahome.networkforgood.com/events/14026-webinar-and-online-conference-registrations-2020).
I believe you, Father Connor, New Director General, but Help Thou my Unbelief![ii]:
Your ongoing efforts to outreach -at this late hour- the seven living “classical victims” of Fr. Maciel’s pedophilia[iii] might be considered right and just. Maciel, the Imposter Founder, whose favorite entertainment was to initiate the pubescent seminarians into their budding sexuality, for his pleasure and control. He got off scot free, thanks to his accomplices, in the Legion of Christ and in the Vatican.
And what are you up to, my good man? – I hesitate to call you “Father”, because God only knows how you, the Director General, became a Reverend, traveling fast along the conveyer belt of the Legion of Christ, bereft of real discernment, and blest only by the adulterated Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola currently usurped by your Federation.
Being an “American” -as the inhabitants of that country call themselves -appropriating the name of the Continent- you will know what is meant by damage control, or image control.
Image control for those outside: The Vatican cardinals, bishops, and Monsignors who you win over with adulation and money; the public, the parents, the benefactors, the unsuspecting generous and naïve youth you groom to join the ranks.
Damage control for those inside: Legionaries and members of Regnum Christi, men and women, new recruits, troops young and old in varying stages of allegiance, and those who should have left but hesitated, and now have one foot in the grave.
The reader can benefit from one recent example of the organization’s damage control, otherwise called Information Control, in the words of cult expert, ex-Moonie, Steven Hassan. This could also be called Indoctrination. The Federation, or Legion of Christ members, are conducting secret classes on the History of the Legion of Christ/Regnum Christi Federation in many of the houses of the “consecrated women” of the Regnum Christi Lay Movement: code name, 3gf. This history, naturally, will be “The Official Story.” Before being privy to this special (rewritten) history, the members are made to sign a letter vowing they will not divulge to “outsiders” the content of the instructions.
All this while Fr. Connor is outreaching the seven remaining original victims of Founder, Marcial Maciel, sending them friendship gifts of five to eight thousand dollars. (In order to mollify them and make them more amenable to compensation under the Legion of Christ/Regnum Christi Federation’s terms).
The number of Maciel’s sexual abuse victims are more than these seven or ten. Victim Juan José Vaca had already named twenty victims he knew about in 1979[iv]. So what about the other twelve? and The Legion has recently admitted Maciel abused sixty -anonymous- boys[v] What about the other forty?
Why go to all the trouble for these seven? Because these were the ones who spoke out. These are the native Spanish-speakers that Jason Berry and Gerald Renner gave an English-language voice to on that fateful 23rd February 1997. These are the ones who threw mud at the Rev. Marcial Maciel, the immaculate founder. These are the ones who brought their case to Rome, jumping through all the painful and complex canonical procedures. And were heard. Finally in 2005, Pope Benedict XVI acted against the untouchable Maciel, stymying thus his cause for sainthood. These are the ones who went public and cast doubt on the Legion of Christ, and kept hanging like a dead albatross around the newly named Regnum Christi Federation’s neck.
I know, John, that you need to get them to shut up, once and for all. Pay them off from your billion dollar budget.
But think again: that dastardly debasement of the innocent Mexican and Spanish boys constitutes a stain that will not go away. Queen-Macbeth-Legion cannot wash it from her hands[vi]. But she will try, beginning with perfumed Easter Soaps of five to eight thousand dollars. Could have been thirty pieces of silver…seventy years later…
[iii]https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-marcial-maciel-02-1997-story.html First there were ten: one died in strange circumstances while hospitalized in Mexico City (Juan Manuel Fernández Amenábar), one was bribed by Maciel just before the Hartford Courant Article appeared (Miguel Díaz); then there were eight; one of these already reached a settlement with the then Director General, Fr. Álvaro Corcuera, R.I.P.
[vi] She says: Out, damned spot! out, I say! – One: two: why, then, ’tis time to do’t. – Hell is murky! – Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? – Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? (Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Act V, Scene 1)
“By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them”: How Good and Bad Works Can Deceive—the Case of the Legion of Christ
Michael Langone
The cultic studies field includes many cases in which the commendable actions of certain groups incline some observers to view the groups as good. Conversely, the blameworthy actions of certain groups incline some observers to view those groups as bad. Contrary to the well-known biblical saying that gives this panel its title, the situation is often more complex and differentiated than it appears. One cannot necessarily judge a group by its apparent fruits, especially when one is not aware of all the fruits. This panel focused on an illuminating example of a Catholic movement that successfully deceived Church authorities for many years, until the disgraced founder was relieved of his duties by Pope Benedict. The case the panel explored is that of the Legion of Christ, a congregation within the Roman Catholic Church, and its lay sister organization, Regnum Christi. Paul Lennon and Peter Kingsland discussed the “fruits” of these organizations from their respective perspectives as a former Legion priest and a parent of a Regnum Christi member. First, however, a bit of background. The ICSA began to examine the Legion in 2003, when Mexican psychiatrist Cesar Mascarenas gave a talk at our California conference. Somehow, the Legion heard about this talk; and I was approached before, during, and after the conference by people concerned that we were discussing the Legion at a “cult” conference.
We scheduled a follow-up panel on the Legion for our fall conference in Connecticut that same year, inviting as panelists Father James LeBar, Paul Lennon, and Juan Vaca, one of the first ex-Legionaries to accuse the founder of sexual molestation. We also invited the Legion to send representatives to give their side of the controversy. The group invited me to visit their seminary in Connecticut prior to the conference, which I did, along with Father LeBar. Interestingly, the organization sent representatives to our conference for private discussions, but they did not attend the panel.
Our ICSA e-Newsletter published my introduction to the Connecticut panel and later, on July 18, 2006, added an update. You can find that report here.
The current panel was inspired by an interesting email exchange that began when Paul Lennon asked a colleague about Massimo Introvigne’s views on Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi founder Marcial Maciel’s fall from grace. Mr. Introvigne is an attorney who heads an Italian cult-watch organization, CESNUR. Some call him a “cult apologist”; however, he has graciously invited a number of ICSA experts, including me, to speak on issues of harm at CESNUR conferences. He is very much aware of the fact that, as I often put it, some groups harm some people sometimes. However, his concern for religious freedom and his criticisms of some “brainwashing” perspectives have put him on different sides of some issues from most people who attend ICSA conferences. He was to have participated in this panel, but a schedule conflict prevented him from attending.
In the email exchange, Massimo said,
The principle that good fruits are a clue that the tree is good was so widespread that most people in the Church did not believe the accusations against Father Maciel until very late in the pontificate of the Blessed John Paul II. I was among the majority of Catholics and was, of course, wrong. So were the Blessed John Paul II and most cardinals. To his credit, the present Pope was inclined to give some credibility to the accusations against Maciel from the very beginning. But he never questioned the good work of the Legion of Christ and, to this day, is keen to distinguish between Father Maciel’s “criminal activities” and the good work done by the great majority of the Legionaries and by Regnum Christi.
Later in the exchange, he said,
Paul Lennon’s mail confirms that most in the Legion had no idea of what Maciel was doing. This was also true for most OUTSIDE the Legion, who did not know Maciel but did know the good deeds of other Legionaries.
In that same message, Massimo also alluded to something I have noticed as well; namely, that some who disagree with Maciel’s conservative theology suggest that aspects of the theology are wrong because Maciel was corrupt. This is a non sequitur that merely uses Maciel as a hammer to harass theological opponents while it obscures the central issue of harm.
Massimo also shed light on why well-intentioned people can hold diametrically opposite views on an issue. He said that the Renner and Berry book Vows of Silence, which outside the Vatican was generally viewed as vital in exposing Maciel, was, inside the Vatican, viewed as so flawed on matters of Church history and canon law that it “persuaded many in the Vatican that those accusing him [Maciel], since they were obviously wrong in other matters, were probably wrong on Maciel too.” Much of the polarization in the cultic studies field has been fueled by this kind of thinking—the tendency to dismiss people, including people with reputable credentials, because one knows they are wrong about some things. The non sequitur is “If he is wrong about some things, then he must be wrong about all things.”
Thus, members of the so-called anticult movement (ACM) may dismiss so-called procultists because the latter question reports of harm associated with cults, while so-called procultists may dismiss cult critics because they may sometimes report inaccurately about certain groups. This attitude fuels polarization, which encourages inaccuracies to arise on both sides of a controversial issue. In her 1995 presidential address to the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR), Eileen Barker chided her colleagues:
If we are to be honest and self-critical, we have to admit that several of us have reacted against the selective negativity of the ACM by, sometimes quite unconsciously, making our own unbalanced selections. Having been affronted by what have appeared to be gross violations of human rights perpetrated through practices such as deprogramming and the medicalization of belief, there have been occasions when social scientists have withheld information about the movements because they know that this will be taken, possibly out of context, to be used as a justification for such actions. The somewhat paradoxical situation is that the more we feel the NRMs are having untrue bad things said about them, the less inclined we are to publish true “bad” things about the movements. (Barker, 1995, p. 305—emphasis added)
Given this candid remark, it is not surprising that Dr. Barker reached out to ICSA in the late 1990s and established a dialogue that has been quite productive.
Dr. Barker’s remarks to SSSR and the email exchange involving Massimo Introvigne underline the fact that the vast majority of generalizations that refer to human behavior, such as “by their fruits ye shall know them,” are probability statements, not absolute “natural laws.” In the email exchange, I commented,
Given that the tree-fruit relationship, like the cult membership-harm relationship, is only probabilistic and will vary greatly from situation to situation, it seems to me that Church authorities can be faulted, as can some cult experts, for treating the tree-fruit relationship as though it were a “law.” Even if Massimo and Pope Benedict are correct in their belief that “the fruits are, generally speaking, excellent,” we can still fault Church authorities for not adequately examining what they thought were low probabilities. And we can especially fault the Legion’s leaders (not just Maciel) for the viciousness of their attacks on those who dared to criticize Maciel… A grocer may not worry about a handful of eggs broken during a shipment of hundreds of boxes. However, Christians (and anybody else who claims to care about people) ought to be concerned about a handful of broken souls. The pain of one person is not negated by the joy of 100.
In closing, I’d like to comment on the distinction between “good works” or “good deeds” and “good fruits,” a distinction that I did not think about during our email exchanges. Although I am certainly not qualified to expound upon the proper theological interpretation of the biblical verse concerning good fruits, it seems clear to this layman that fruits should not be morally judged without reference to the tree that produces them. In other words, ends should not be morally evaluated without consideration of the means used to achieve them or the context from which they spring.
One may, of course, erroneously believe that a particular tree is good and that the effects seemingly produced by that tree are good fruits. However, if one learns that the tree is not good, even in the imperfect sense in which all “good” people are good, if one learns that the tree is in fact corrupt at its core, then one should refrain from interpreting positive events as necessarily the good fruit of that tree. One should, instead, look for other explanations for the good things formerly associated with the tree now known to be very bad.
The Legion tree was rotten from its inception. No amount of pruning will eliminate the poison in the seed (Marcial Maciel) from which the Legion and Regnum Christi sprouted.
I would, then, humbly suggest to Pope Benedict that he conceive of the Church’s task in this matter to be the preservation of the goodness of individual members of the Legion and Regnum Christi, not the preservation of the organization founded and corrupted by a man whose actions Benedict has called “criminal.” Whatever good fruits we may now point to may be viewed as the fruits of the good will and piety of individuals aspiring to virtue, perhaps in spite of the Legion and Regnum Christi, not because of them.
Dissolve the organizations. Even if property and other considerations argue for some legal continuity, at least change the names of the organizations. Also, move out all of the upper-level management, and some mid-level management, who functioned adaptively for so many years in Maciel’s climate of deceit, control, and abuse. One does not adapt to such a system without internalizing attitudes and habits of thought that sustain the system. The resulting identity does not disappear simply because the leader is gone.
The rank-and-file members of these organizations also adapted themselves to the system, and, like their leaders, they do not shed their Legion/Regnum Christi identities automatically because Maciel was discredited. The universal human tendency to rationalize will preserve Maciel’s influence in ways that will not always be apparent. Church authorities, whose inclinations tend toward kindness and gentleness, may be reluctant to challenge the rank and file. I believe this would be a mistake. The cognitive dissonance, confusion, and sense of betrayal that some Legion/Regnum Christi members may feel should be addressed directly, preferably by professionals trained to help people cope with such transitions. The resilience of former cult members who come to the ICSA for assistance suggests that Legion and Regnum Christi members are probably stronger than some Church authorities may think.
In my opinion, the Church needs to affirm its own integrity by expending the pastoral and counseling resources needed to help the good people of the Legion and Regnum Christi see more clearly that the Church welcomes them, that the Church will find or create places for them, and that their desire to do good and to be good does not depend on organizations nourished by decades of deceit. The “good fruits” of the Legion and Regnum Christi members will not wither on the vine if those individuals are separated from the fraudulent system that took advantage of their noble spiritual aspirations.
Reference
Barker, E. (1995). The scientific study of religion? You must be joking! (presidential address to the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion). Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 34(3), 287–310.
About the Author
Michael D. Langone, PhD, a counseling psychologist, received a doctorate in Counseling Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1979. Since 1981 he has been Executive Director of International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA). Dr. Langone has been consulted by several hundred former cult members and/or their families. He was the founder and editor of Cultic Studies Journal, that journal’s successor, Cultic Studies Review, and editor of Recovery from Cults: Help for Victims of Psychological and Spiritual Abuse (an alternate of the Behavioral Science Book Service). He is co-author of Cults: What Parents Should Know and Satanism and Occult-Related Violence: What You Should Know. Currently, Dr. Langone is ICSA Today’s Editor-in-Chief. In 1995, he was honored as the Albert V. Danielsen visiting Scholar at Boston University.
Bilingüe Testimony: A Legion of Christ “Throw-Away”, “Usado y Tirado” por la Legión de Cristo
by Thácio Siqueira, xLC
ESPANYOL Spanish original:
Obispos, sacerdotes, parroquias… todos están desesperados pidiendo dinero para lograr pagar sus cuentas ahora que las iglesias están cerradas. Hay que ayudar, sin duda, en la medida de lo posible.
Sólo que, en este momento, me acuerdo de como el P. Victor de Luna, LC me dijo en 2011 (año en que salí de la LC) en Roma: !La Legión no te va a ayudar con nada!
Yo estaba desesperado, sin dinero, sin futuro, en la Legión desde los 15 a los 30 años, y volviendo a mi país en una situación de miseria humana, lleno de traumas sicológicos etc., etc. ….
Me acuerdo también de mis palabras: Bueno, padre, ok, pero acuérdense de una cosa: Dios no bendice quien no vive la caridad. Por 15 años yo he sido un hermano, un miembro de la familia. Hoy no soy nada más para ustedes y para esta congregacion. Pero seguro, un día, Dios les va a cobrar todo lo malo que hacen con estos miles de exreligiosos legionarios tirados a la calle.
Tres días después me invitaron a trabajar en ZENIT como traductor, pero sin seguridad social, sin ningún vínculo de trabajo… como un esclavo, aprovechando mi total desconocimiento del mundo de fuera y de las leyes de los hombres… Allá me quedé hasta el 2016 cuando decidí salir por mí mismo pues, antes tarde que nunca, me di cuenta de que la LC solo sabe hacer una cosa: explotar a su gente.
Debería haberlos metido en la justicia humana, pero lo único que me restó fue poner en las manos de Dios para que haga justicia. No tuve dinero para contratar un abogado. Aun estando en ZENIT nunca recibí una llamada siquiera de los LC, ninguna propuesta de que mi esclavitud en ZENIT pudiera volverse un trabajo de verdad.
Una pena. Hace unos años conocí una congregación religiosa de hermanas, en Brasil, que no abandona a sus ex hermanas… a todas les ayuda… para ellas, familia es algo que no se deja sólo por haber dejado la obra… viven la caridad verdadera. En la LC solo unos pocos exlegionarios tienen la suerte de tener algo después de la LC. Y muchos de estos pocos son obligados a vivir en silencio, sin la posibilidad de exigir sus derechos humanos, siempre con el miedo de morirse de hambre… les tratan peor que a un esclavo…
Una oración por todo esto. Sé que la culpa no es de muchos de los Legionarios, mis excompañeros… todos son víctimas de una estructura corrupta que primero abusa de ellos, y que luego escupe la mayor parte de sus exmiembros, como se fueran un cáncer. Un día me encontré con un sacerdote legionario en mi ciudad, de unos 45 años. Me dijo con todas las letras: “Yo no me salgo de la LC porque no tengo en donde caerme muerto”. Bueno, estas son las “vocaciones” de la reformada Legión de Cristo
Conozco a un exsacerdote salesiano que después de años dejó el sacerdocio. Los salesianos le pagaron 35 años de seguridad social y hoy este señor está jubilado. En la LC solo hay una salida: el hambre y la pérdida de toda dignidad humana.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
by ReGAIN:
Bishops, priests, parishes… everyone is desperate begging for money to get their bills paid, now that the churches are closed. We must certainly help as much as possible.
Except that, right now, I remember how Fr. Victor de Luna LC told me in 2011 (a year I left the LC) in Rome: The Legion is not going to help you with anything.
I was desperate, without money, without a future. From 15 to 30 years in the LC and now returning to my country in a situation of breakdown , full of psychological traumas etc., etc. ….
I remember answering:
“Well, Father, ok, but remember one thing: God does not bless those who do not live charity. For 15 years I’ve been a brother, a family member. Today I am nothing more for you and for this congregation. But sure, one day, God is going to hold you responsibel for all the bad things you do with these thousands of former legionnaires lying in the street.”
Three days later I was invited to work at ZENIT (a Legion venture at that time), as a translator: but without social security, without any work link… as a slave, taking advantage of my total ignorance of the outside world and the laws of men. There I stayed until 2016 when I decided to go out on my own because, better late than never, I realized that the LC only knows how to do one thing: exploit its people.
I should have brought them before human justice, but all I had left was to put them in God’s hands to do justice. I didn’t have the money to hire a lawyer. When I was at ZENIT I never even received a call from the LCs, no proposal that my slavery at ZENIT would become a real job.
It’s a shame. A few years ago I met a religious congregation of sisters in Brazil, which does not abandon its former members… it helps them all… For them, family is something that does not die because they have left the group. They live true charity. In the LC only a few ex-legionaries are lucky enough to have something after the LC. And many of these few are forced to live in silence, without the possibility of demanding their human rights, ans always in fear of starving to death. They are treated worse than slaves…
A prayer for all this. I know that the fault is not of many of the Legionnaires, my ex-partners… they are all victims of a corrupt structure that abuses them in the first place and that sculpts most of their former members, however they were cancer. One day I met a legionnaire priest in my city, about 45 years old. He said very plainly: I don’t leave the LC because I have nowhere to go; I wouldn’t have a roof over my head.
Well, such are the vocations of the reformed Legion of Christ!
I know an ex-Salesian who left the priesthood after years. The Salesians paid him 35 years of social security, and today this gentleman is retired. In the LC there is only one way out: hunger and the loss of all human dignity.
Legion of Christ Filth to be cleansed by Pope Francis’ A-team
“How much filth there is in the church!”
Pope Benedict XVI
The 2005 “Stations of the Cross” by Pope Benedict XVI are quite moving. When he spoke of the “filth” of the Church, he was referencing spiritual filth — specifically, Catholic priests who disobeyed God’s holy law.
Pope Francis will dispatch his A-Team on clerical sexual abuse to Mexico and will interview Legion of Christ victims.
“Vatican sends top 2 sex crimes investigators to Mexico
By NICOLE WINFIELD and MARIA VERZA, AP
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican is sending its top two sex crimes investigators to Mexico on a fact-finding and assistance mission as the Catholic hierarchy in the world’s second-largest Catholic country begins to reckon with decades of clergy sex abuse and cover-up.
Archbishop Charles Scicluna (Malta) and Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu (Catalonia, Spain) teamed up in 2018 to investigate the Chilean church and its wretched record of protecting pedophile priests — a bombshell expose that resulted in every active Chilean bishop offering to resign.
Their new mission to Mexico, due to take place March 20-27, was announced Monday in Mexico and at the Vatican. Officials stressed it was not an investigation per se but an assistance mission to help the Mexican church combat abuse.”[i]
The present action by Pope Francis is meant to control damage done to the Catholic Church in Mexico by the intense media coverage of sexual abuse by Legionary of Christ priest Fernando Martínez, whom the Legion is protecting in the mother house in Rome.
The pope’s action also appears to be prompted by the gut-wrenching testimonies of three of Fr. Martínez’ female victims, abused when they were little 6-8-year-old girls at the Legion’s Cancun Instituto Cumbres 1991-93. The case is a classic example of Legion of Christ’s protection of perpetrators, reassignment, cover-up and neglect of victims.
Further turmoil has been caused by another scandal in Gozzano, Milan region, in Italy -also reported on this site- where Legion superiors attempted to bribe the mother of a boy-victim to retract her accusation. The mother won the court case against the Legion.
The Legionaries have also been hit by a strong stance from the Mexican bishops demanding the Legion take care of its victims[iii]
and by the active role of Vatican Nuncio to Mexico, Mons Coppola, who has given Legion victims his time and attention (and his reports to the Vatican!).
<Already, the Mexican bishops conference has ended its silence about the Legion to denounce the newly revealed abuse and the Legion’s failure to provide “a specific act of justice or reparation for the victims” even after it acknowledged the crimes, vowed more transparency and pointed to its child protection policies in place now.
The archbishop of Monterrey — a Legion stronghold — denounced the group’s “criminal silence” and treatment of victims, and led recent calls from Mexican bishops for an end to the statute of limitations for child sex abuse cases. It was a remarkable turnabout, given that Mexico’s Catholic hierarchy long supported the Legion and benefited from the once-wealthy order’s largesse.
Even the Vatican’s ambassador to Mexico, Monsignor Franco Coppola, broke the Holy See’s tradition of diplomatic discretion to publicly criticize the Legion’s handling of the case and call for the Vatican to investigate the “web of cover-up” behind it. That too was remarkable, given that the Vatican itself has been implicated in the Maciel cover-up.>[iv]
LIMPIEZA DE LA LEGIÓN DE CRISTO DE CRISTO POR EL EQUIPO-A DEL ABUSO SEXUAL DEL PAPA FRANCISCO
“¡Cuánta suciedad hay en la iglesia!” Papa Benedicto XVI
Las “Estaciones del via Crucis” de 2005 del Papa Benedicto XVI son muy conmovedoras. Cuando habló de la “inmundicia” de la Iglesia, estaba haciendo referencia a la inmundicia espiritual, específicamente a los sacerdotes católicos que desobedecían la santa ley de Dios.
El papa Francisco enviará su equipo estelar en abuso sexual clerical a México y entrevistará a las víctimas de la Legión de Cristo.
“El Vaticano envía a los dos principales investigadores de delitos sexuales a México
Por NICOLE WINFIELD y MARIA VERZA, AP
CIUDAD DEL VATICANO (AP) – El Vaticano está enviando a sus dos principales investigadores de delitos sexuales a México en una misión de investigación y asistencia a medida que la jerarquía católica en el segundo país católico más grande del mundo comienza a contar con décadas de abusos y encubrimientos sexuales por parte del clero. arriba.El arzobispo Charles Scicluna (Malta) y monseñor Jordi Bertomeu (Cataluña, España) se unieron en 2018 para investigar la iglesia chilena y su miserable historial de proteger a los sacerdotes pedófilos, una exposición explosiva que resultó en que cada obispo chileno activo ofreciera renunciar.Su nueva misión a México, que tendrá lugar del 20 al 27 de marzo, se anunció el lunes en México y en el Vaticano.
Las autoridades enfatizaron que no era una investigación per se sino una misión de asistencia para ayudar a la iglesia mexicana a combatir el abuso “. [I](Nota de REGAIN: este es el mismo equipo que fue enviado a EE. UU. Y México en abril-mayo de 2005 para entrevistar a las víctimas de abuso sexual del P. Marcial Maciel, fundador de la Legión, y que llevaría a su destitución como Superior General y la declaración del Vaticano en mayo de 2006 condenando a Maciel y prohibiéndole el ministerio público” [ii].
Una intervención del Vaticano de la orden se produjo en mayo de 2010 cuando el Vaticano denunció nuevamente las acciones de Maciel y nombró a un Delegado Papal para supervisar la orden y su gobierno).
La acción actual del Papa Francisco está destinada a controlar el daño hecho a la Iglesia Católica en México por la intensa cobertura mediática del abuso sexual por parte del sacerdote del Legionario de Cristo Fernando Martínez, a quien la Legión está protegiendo en la casa madre de Roma.
La acción del Papa también parece ser impulsada por los desgarradores testimonios de tres de las Las víctimas femeninas del padre Martínez, abusadas cuando eran niñas pequeñas de 6-8 años en el Instituto Cumbres de la Legión en Cancún 1991-93. El caso es un ejemplo clásico de la protección que la Legión de Cristo ofrece a los abusadores: reasignación, encubrimiento y negligencia de las víctimas.
Otro escándalo ha sido causado por un caso en Gozzano, región de Milán, en Italia, también se informó en este sitio, donde los superiores de la Legión intentaron sobornar a la madre de un niño víctima para retractarse de su acusación. La madre ganó el caso judicial contra la Legión.
Los legionarios también han sido golpeados por una fuerte postura de los obispos mexicanos que exigen que la Legión cuide de sus víctimas [iii]
y por el papel activo del Nuncio Vaticano en México, Mons Coppola, que ha brindado a las víctimas de la Legión su tiempo y atención (¡y sus informes al Vaticano!).
<Ya, la conferencia de los obispos mexicanos ha terminado su silencio sobre la Legión para denunciar el abuso recientemente revelado y la incapacidad de la Legión de proporcionar “un acto específico de justicia o reparación para las víctimas” incluso después de reconocer los crímenes, prometió más transparencia y señaló a sus políticas de protección infantil vigentes ahora.
El arzobispo de Monterrey, un territorio bastión de la Legión, denunció el “silencio criminal” del grupo y el trato a las víctimas, y dirigió recientes llamamientos de los obispos mexicanos para poner fin al estatuto de limitaciones para los casos de abuso sexual infantil.
Fue un cambio notable, dado que la jerarquía católica de México durante mucho tiempo apoyó a la Legión y se benefició de la generosidad de la orden una vez rica.
Incluso el embajador del Vaticano en México, Monseñor Franco Coppola, rompió la tradición de discreción diplomática de la Santa Sede para criticar públicamente el manejo del caso por parte de la Legión y pedir al Vaticano que investigue la “red de encubrimiento” detrás de él. Eso también fue notable, dado que el propio Vaticano ha sido implicado en el encubrimiento de Maciel.> [Iv]
