Regnum Christi school says it is reforming ...

The Legion of Christ's Regnum Christi, reports the Los Angeles Times, "says it is revamping a specialized high school program for teenage girls after dozens of alumni denounced psychological abuses they say they endured that resulted in eating disorders, stress-induced ailments and depression."

Former students of Regnum Christi schools have been blogging about their ordeals at a blog called "49 Weeks A year."

The totalitarian management style of the Legion is well-documented, as is its corruption and eventual Vatical-forced change.

Founded by a man who apparently abused his own offspring, the Legion has finally been told by the Vatican that it needs to rethink its identity before going forward with internal reform.

Indeed.

Legionaries of Christ unilluminated path

Pope Benedict XVI will appoint an apostolic delegate to govern and reform the Legionaries of Christ (LC), the Vatican announced on May 1, and "a commission of study of the order’s constitution." It will in addition appoint a "Visitor" to guide the consecrated members of Regnum Christi (RC).

The actions result from a year-long Apostolic Visitation [investigation] which was provoked not only by reports that LC founder Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado fathered perhaps six children, his cult-like leadership and sexual abuse of subordinates and others. But also by the Legion leadership's history of aggressive cover-up, including legal actions to silence former members and suppress documents.

The Vatican said:

The extremely grave and objectively immoral behavior of Fr. Maciel, which has been confirmed by irrefutable testimony, takes the form of true crimes and demonstrates a private life without scruples or authentic religious sentiment. That life was hidden from the great majority of Legionaries, above all because of a system of relationships constructed by Fr. Maciel, who was adept at creating alibis for himself and winning the trust, confidence and silence of those around him, reinforcing his role as a charismatic founder.

By discrediting and pushing away those who doubted the correctness of his behavior, as well as through a mistaken desire not to undercut the good the Legion was doing, they created a mechanism of defense around [Maciel] that made him immune to attack for a long time, consequently making an awareness of his real life extremely difficult.

Yet the "sincere zeal of the majority of the Legionaries" survives and is to be preserved -- a goal which echoes through three key points of clarity:"

a) The necessity to redefine the charism of the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ, preserving the true nucleus, that of being a “Militia Christi,” which distinguishes the apostolic and missionary action of the Church, and which is not identified with efficiency at any cost;

b) The necessity to review the exercise of authority, which must be connected to truth, in order to respect conscience and to develop it in light of the Gospel as authentic ecclesial service;

c) The necessity to preserve the enthusiasm of the faith of the young, the missionary zeal, the apostolic dynamism, through an adequate formation. In fact, delusion about the founder could call into question the vocation, and that nucleus of a charism, which belongs to the Legionaries of Christ and is rightfully theirs.

All of this requires, the Vatican said, that the order embark on "a path of profound revision."

Whose substance remains profoundly unclear.

Should Cardinal Sodano resign for entanglement with Marcial Maciel?

Austen Invereigh argues in America, the Jesuit Catholic weekly, that corruption by Marcial Maciel Degollado requires the resignation of Cardinal Angelo Sodano, "the all-powerful secretary of state under John Paul II and now Dean of the College of Cardinals."

Analyzing Jason Berry's two-part [1, 2] investigation of Maciel - the womanizing, drug-abusing pedophile founder of the Legionaries of Christ (LC) - Invereigh concludes that Sodano's sponsorship and protection were bought by Maciel.

Berry's investigation certainly supports that conclusion. A key passage from Berry's longer, darkly fascinating account of Sodano's entanglement with Maciel:

Back to Rome in 1989, Sodano, in preparing to become secretary of state, took English lessons at a Legion center in Dublin, Ireland. He vacationed at a Legion villa in Southern Italy. An honored guest at Legion dinners and banquets, Sodano became Maciel's biggest supporter. Glenn Favreau, a Washington, D.C., attorney and former Legionary in Rome, said: "Sodano intervened with Italian officials to get zoning variances to build the university" on a wooded plateau of western Rome. Maciel hired Sodano's nephew, Andrea Sodano, as a building consultant. Pontificial Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum is the name of the complex.

But Legionaries overseeing the project complained to Maciel that Andrea Sodano's work was late and poorly done; they were reluctant to pay his invoices. To them, Maciel yelled: "Pay him! You pay him!"

Andrea Sodano was paid.

With the Apostolic Visitation of LC at an end, Invereigh argues, Sodano's "resignation would be the best way of repudiating the sordid manner in which Maciel was protected in Rome for so many years."

Legionaries of Christ apostolic visitation concludes [Updated]

While waves of priestly sexual abuse scandal wash across the Catholic Church, apostolic visitation (investigation) of the Legionaries of Christ (LC) and their lay organization, Regnum Christi (RC), has been completed by a team of five bishops, the Vatican disclosed Tuesday.

Recommendations have not been disclosed, but Sandro Magister of L'espresso broadly suggested:

A commissioner appointed by the Vatican will take command of the Legionaries of Christ, orphans of their founder Marcial Maciel, disgraced by scandals. This is the likely outcome of eight months of investigation. Many things should be changed, including the current leaders.

The investigation could be followed by a refounding of the order under new leadership, suggested the Mexican newspaper "Reforma" in February.

Sweeping change is expected because the Apostolic Visitation was provoked not only by reports that LC founder Marcial Maciel fathered perhaps six children, attended by news that some are pursuing legal action seeking compensation from the $250-million-a-year organization, his cult-like leadership and abuse of subordinates. But also by the Legion leadership's history of coverup, which included legal actions to silence former members and suppress documents.

Those entering the order were required to take vows of silence, as explained below:

Update

Catholic News Agency reports:

The five bishops appointed to the Apostolic Visitation of the Legion of Christ will meet with Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone on April 30 to present their final report after eight months of work.

. . .

One source at the Vatican told CNA that these are all just possibilities, as the apostolic visitors have only presented their proposals. The final decision will be made by Pope Benedict XVI.

Not just the charism of the Legion of Christ

Houston Seventh-day Adventist and one-time Catholic Bill Cork goes to the theological heart of the debate over the future of Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi. The central Catholic theological question is of charism. As Cork explains:

In Catholic theology and spirituality of religious life, founders of religious orders have a unique charism (gift of the spirit) that the church is affirming when it establishes that order. But what happens when it is revealed that the founder was evil? That’s what the Catholic church is wrestling with now in the wake of the revelations about Fr. Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi. And it’s also clear that the church knew there were problems from the very beginning. As a young man, Maciel was booted from one seminary to another – formators saw he had problems. He began gathering boys to himself, and grooming them to imitate his spirituality, mandating that they never speak ill of him, but always reverently call him “Nuestro Padre.” He created a regimented order of priests, based on the Roman legions. He mandated their behavior down to minute details such as how they used knife and fork, how they sat, how they dressed, and how they laughed. “The Stepford priests” is how some referred to them.

Read the rest here. It deserves a thorough reading. Especially:

The lesson in all of this for me is that conservatives need to be very careful in reacting to problems in the church (any church). You may be unhappy with things being done in the name of your church, with theological dissent and with those who question traditional morality. You may see those on the conservative edge as being a counter balance. You may be drawn to their zeal, and their orthodoxy and orthopraxy. But beware. Satan can pull people off track to the right as well as to the left. He can appear as an angel of light, so that the very elect run the risk of being deceived. Be careful.

Marcial Maciel, molester of his own?

Marcial Maciel, founder of Legion of Christ (LC) and the Regnum Christi (RC), is alleged in a Spanish-language interview with some of his illicit "family," to have sexually molested his son and adopted step-son.

Giselle writes at Life-After-RC, "from a friend who speaks Spanish:"

First son recounts his abuse starting at age seven (including photos, for Maciel to keep as mementos). It got so bad that he became sexually confused and asked his dad if he could see a psychiatrist. MM says he knew a really good one in Spain and sends him over (to stay with "Auntie Norma" the other wife) and he begins counseling. That man quickly put him on all sorts of drugs -- just as MM did with any Legionary in the ranks who began to have trouble, feeling poorly, depressed, insomnia, struggling with the miasma of insanity, etc.

There has always been drug use in Legion. It was part of MM's way of operating -- medicating men without prescriptions (using obedience to administer) and then if they crashed, they would be labeled as mentally unstable. All of this was on the exlegionaries discussion board -- another reason it had to be shut down.

The Associated Press has a brief account and reports:

Mexican woman, Blanca Lara Gutierrez, told MVS radio's Carmen Aristegui on Wednesday that Maciel had two sons with her during a 20-year relationship and sexually abused one of them — as well as a son she had earlier whom Maciel had adopted.

The sons appeared with her on the program and supported the allegations.

More here in the comments.

This month's conclusion of the Apostolic Visitation [investigation] still beckons.

Toward a new Legionaries of Christ/Regnum Christi beginning

The Legionaries of Christ (LC) and associated lay organization Regnum Christi (RC) continue to struggle amid debate and uncertain leadership toward the report of the Apostolic Visitation [investigation], due in March. That investigation may be followed by a refounding of the order under new leadership, suggests the Mexican newspaper "Reforma."

The Apostolic Visitation was provoked not only by reports that LC founder Marcial Maciel fathered perhaps six children, attended by news that some are pursuing legal action seeking compensation from the $250-million-a-year organization, his cult-like leadership and abuse of subordinates. But also by the Legion leadership's history of coverup and legal actions to silence former members and suppress documents.

A Jan. 24 attempt by LC Director General Father Alvaro Corcuera to suppress a roiling email debate over the order's future, failed. If it ever really stopped, the debate was reopened by an “open letter” from Father Julien Durodie of the LC in Paris. He wrote, among other things:

I see the Legion as a work made by human hands and therefore needs to be purified and perfected. It has made mistakes, yes, and it will continue to do so. Any organization facing such a situation is entitled to differences and hesitations. Benevolent exterior criticism is also normal and understandable. All of this is now clearer than ever. And although I may be wrong, I have no fear, because I know how to tell the difference between God and his works.

I also believed, especially after living with Fr. Maciel for three years at the headquarters, that he was holy. Why not?

But, I never put my supernatural trust in him as a human person. My faith is not affected by his disordered life, but on the contrary, it is purified. Of course I am affected by the scandal, and the cries of the victims fill me with sorrow. But all of this does not call into question God’s call.

Shortly thereafter the Secretary General of the order, Rev. Evaristo Sada, told a gathering of more than 10,000 members of Regnum Christi in Mexico City that the crisis caused by revelations of the double life led by Rev. Marcial Maciel has led them to a time to “face the consequences and, with determination, correct what must be correct.” He went on:

With all my heart, I wish to ask forgiveness of the persons who our founder may have affected as a result of the immoral acts in his personal life, and the persons who may have been wounded by their consequences. Father Alvaro (Rev. Alvaro Corcuera is the current leader of the order) has done so and has is doing so publicly and personally, but we again ask forgiveness because we sincerely regret what the Church and these persons have suffered.

While no longer denial, strategic, still. March beckons.

Prominent Legionary Priest bids farewell to Regnum Christi

Father Richard Gill, who with other highly respected members of the Legionaires of Christ (LC) called in February for an authoritative intervention by the Holy See, has announced he is "leaving" his post as head of Regnum Christi (RC) in New York to become a priest of the Archdiocese of New York.

He writes that after 29 years with LC and "having "participated extensively" in the Apostolic Visitation:

I’m leaving more because the manner in which the Legion has handled the revelations since the Vatican took action against Fr. Maciel in 2006 has left me often frustrated and totally distracted. I’ve tried my best to communicate with the superiors over this past year, and they have been gracious and generous taking the time to listen. I believe I have had the opportunity to get my point of view across to them …

My conclusion is that the reforms needed in the Legion (which the scandals have made clear) simply won’t happen in the foreseeable future with the current leadership’s approach to the matter.

His loss of confidence is a marked change from February, Thomas Peters notes, when as Director of RC in New York he wrote:

I am confident that our superiors are working closely with the appropriate dicasteries of the Holy See to chart the best course forward for the Legion of Christ so it can be of better service to the Church and the Holy Father.

In that letter Gill also wrote, to his credit:

I am deeply sorry to the people who have suffered from these inexcusable and reprehensible actions of Fr. [Marcial] Maciel. No person should have to suffer abuse at the hands of a priest in whom they have put their trust. And his actions have damaged the holiness of the Church and contributed to the alienation many people feel due to similar scandals in the Church.

Gill's exit was preceded by that of Fr. Thomas Berg, who in February in a letter to RC apologized to Maciel's "alleged victims" and to all of the members of RC. He resigned in May, saying, "In my opinion, the serious issues within the congregation will require its thorough reformation if not a complete re-foundation."

So the roll at Exiting Legionaries grows, possibly more quickly as the prominent leave to pursue their priestly vocations elsewhere.

[H/T: How to get a loved one out of the Legion of Christ & Regnum Christi]

Legion of Christ more cooperative than Women Religious? Really?

Catholic Culture's Jeffrey Mirus, seeking redemption for the Legion of Christ, indicts Women Religious. The takeaway:

For those who would swear that the Legion is fundamentally flawed at its very root and cannot be salvaged (and there are a good many in this camp), I would suggest they take careful note of the difference between the Legion and the women religious in the United States as to how each group has responded to their respective current apostolic visitations. A large number of communities of women religious are in open rebellion against Rome, resisting the visitation, and revealing their desire to do without the Petrine ministry, the male priesthood, and the “patriarchal” dogmatic theology of the Church, including the traditional definition of the Holy Trinity. In contrast, the Legion has turned confidently toward the See of Peter as to Our Lord Himself. It is not too much to say that the one thing necessary to fruitful ministry is an ongoing willingness to make the mind of the Church one’s own. If the Legion can do that—as a number of female religious congregations apparently cannot—then there are many, even among its just opponents, who would be well-advised to hold their fire.

Something about that comparison rankles.

The last Legionnaires' apostolic visitation and predicted March outcome [Updated: Plagiarism]

With Zenit reporting a conclusion of the Legionaries of Christ apostolic visitation will be in March, this is a good time to review the first one (1956-1959).

Cassandra Jones explains:

. . . it concluded obscurely and Father Maciel and the Legionaries were able to misrepresent it for fifty years afterward. But the visitation did occur and actually concluded that Maciel needed to be removed from office and that the Legionaries needed reform. The Legionaries defeated that first apostolic visitation with untruth, appetizing presentation, and the help of curial friends. This is something that anyone interested in the honest outcome of today’s visitation needs to be aware of.

Attending the article is an instucitive timeline.

Bishops taking part in the current Apostolic Visitation met at the Vatican for "their first evaluation" on Dec. 4. They denied having met in October, as was reported earlier.

The Legion will not be dissolved but head will roll, according to an article by Jesus Bastante at the Spanish site ReligionDigital.com. The article says in part [Spanish]:

• Visitators will submit in their reports in mid-March, 2010.
• The order will not be dissolved but reaction will be stern and dismissals are expected.
• Current Legion leaders "are trying to disengage completely from the figure of" Maciel because Benedict has declared "zero tolerance" for pedophiles:
  

  The Pope was visibly shaken by everything that he has learned about the life of the founder of the Legion of Christ, and the responsibility not only Maciel, but many of his colleagues, who are now trying to avoid its responsibility by ignorance and apologizing.

• The seminaries will be restructured.
• Many top leaders will be asked to resign, among them probably Alvaro Corcuera, the current General Director, whom many accuse of having "instigated" the silence around Maciel for many years.

[H/T: How to get a loved one out of the Legion of Christ & Regnum Christi]

Does all of that remind you of Ireland, where after decades of systematically concealed abuse is revealed in a stunning report, the pope is outraged and an Irish bishop's resignation is accepted but thus far no one is going to jail? Nor, it seems, is the pope going to visit Ireland to apologize.

Just make some changes in top management, tidy up the offices and move on.

Maciel's Plagiarism:

“El Salterio de mis días” (The Psalter of my Days), popular and long-venerated by members of the Legion of Christ as a work of Fr. Marcial Maciel's spirituality, was plagiarized from a book by Spanish Catholic politician, Luis Lucía.

According to the Catholic News Agency, the plagiarism was disclosed in a recent, internally circulated Legion of Christ memorandum whose purpose was to further distance current members of the Legion from its founder.

The original book was “El Salterio de mis horas” (The Psalter of my Hours).

CNA reports that in it Lucía, a Spanish Christian Democrat, "reflected on his experience of being persecuted both by the Communist government during Spain's civil war (1936-1939), and the Nationalist government of Francisco Franco, who condemned him to death, but later changed the sentence to life in prison."

According to a CNA source, Fr. Maciel's version reproduces "80% of the original book in content and style."

Legionaries of Christ to be dissolved or refounded

Sources in Spain say Rome's investigation into the Legionaries of Christ will result in either the dissolution or the re-founding of the order. There is apparently a disagreement between the Americans and the Spaniards over which course to take and whether to keep any of the order's current leaders.

Roman Catholic journalist Austen Ivereigh writes for America magazine:

According to a former Legionary quoted by the Spanish religious journalist Jose Vidal, the ordinary priests and members of Regnum Christi, want a root-and-branch reform --if necessary, by means of a dissolution -- in order to give a new institute a fighting chance. But the order's leaders are fighting a defensive rearguard action, arguing that they knew nothing of the double life led by Maciel, and were therefore neither accomplices in his abuses nor did they attempt to cover them up.

The investigation, called an "apostolic visitation," is being conduded by Basque Bishop Ricardo Blazquez in Spain and by Archbishop of Denver Charles Chaput in the United States.

Current leadership is in apparent denial about the full scope of Marcial Maciel's offenses, is "aware that no order has ever survived the repudiation of its founder" and with actions like a recent letter to the Legionaries lay organization Regnum Christi is fighting to stay in power.

The denialist strain still evident in their actions affirms that “the current Mexican leadership of the Legionaries is not up to the challenge of dissociating the organisation from the sexual and financial wrongdoings of the founder.”

Legionaries of Christ (well-timed) apology to Regnum Christi

A letter regarded with some skepticism by critics has been sent to the members and friends of Regnum Christi, the lay movement associated with the Legionaries of Christ.

The letter extends "a special apology on behalf of the Legion" to victims of their founder’s sexual misconduct, and announces recent efforts to move forward.

This letter comes less than a month after reports that Legionaries of Christ founder Marcial Maciel fathered perhaps six children. Not merely the one revealed on Feb. 3.

The American Papist argues that the allegations suggest several conclusions:

1. Fr. Maciel was an extraordinary, calculating fraud and he ought to be acknowledged as such by the leaders of the Legion and Regnum Christi alike.
2. The breadth of Fr. Maciel’s crimes makes it nearly impossible that other members of the Legion did not know of them, and they ought to be brought to justice.
3. The serious financial infraction of misusing lay resources (money, property, etc) for the upkeep of Fr. Maciel’s mistress and his other escapades demands restitution.
4. The ongoing revelations about Fr. Maciel and his enablers requires an intense examination, person-by-person, of those still charged with the movement’s leadership.

Coverup has long been the the Legion's approach. An earlier, incomplete letter. Well-time revelations. Those were preceded legal actions to silence former members and suppress documents. But some documents affirming the Legion's cult-like practices still leaked out and are available for download.

The implosion of the Legionaries of Christ is “unique in modern church history,” writes Jason Berry of New Orleans for the Hartford Courant. This is the result of issues which date to the 1950s, Berry explains in the Hartford Courant:

In 1997, Gerald Renner and I reported in The Courant on sex abuse accusations against Maciel by nine men who had been Legion seminarians in Spain and Rome in the 1950s. Juan Vaca, who said his abuse began at age 12, produced documents he sent to the Vatican in the 1970s and in 1989, to Pope John Paul II. Each time, the Vatican failed to act.

There is now a Vatican inquiry under way. As we have suggested since February, Maciel’s history of predation and cult leadership style shaped the order’s culture. An outside investigation was required. What of new leadership, also needed?

Legion of Christ manual seems revealing

The Legion of Christ has in the past filed lawsuits when copies of its various documents were published on the Web. Had them taken down.

ReasonWeekly says it knows, and offers for download "the leaked internal manual of the order [.pdf]."

ReasonWeekly says the "document reveals a totalitarian and intrusive outlook on the congregation by its leaders," and that seems fair, but read the manual yourself. And if one manual is not enough, you can supplement it by downloading the censored Legion of Christ sect personal exams from WikiLeaks.

We await your considered assessment.

Unique implosion of Legionaries of Christ continues

The implosion of the Legionaries of Christ is "unique in modern church history," writes Jason Berry of New Orleans for the Hartford Courant. And much of the fault lies squarely with Pope Benedict XVI, who in May of 2006 approved an order banishing order founder Father Marcial Maciel Degollado from public ministry to "a life of prayer and penitence," but ignoring the victims and failing to specify the causes of action.

Those omissions gave credence to a stream of misinformation which apparently continues amid a rising chorus of calls for top down reform of the $650 million-a-year order with seminaries, prep schools and universities spread across the globe.

On Feb. 3 it was revealed that Maciel had fathered a daughter, but there has still be no comprehensive report dealing the other issues. Specifically, as Berry wrote:

In 1997, Gerald Renner and I reported in The Courant on sex abuse accusations against Maciel by nine men who had been Legion seminarians in Spain and Rome in the 1950s. Juan Vaca, who said his abuse began at age 12, produced documents he sent to the Vatican in the 1970s and in 1989, to Pope John Paul II. Each time, the Vatican failed to act.

On Feb. 25, Archbishop of Baltimore, Edwin F. O’Brien called on the Legion of Christ to give “full disclosure” of their founder’s activities and has expressed his concerns that the movement ‘fosters a culture of personality’ with the founder at the center. The Legion of Christ had committed to releasing a major statement no later than that day, and no such statement was forthcoming.

Archbishop O'Brien has advised Catholics against joining the Legion or Regnum Christi and calls for Vatican intervention continue.

What next for the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi?

In the London Telegraph, Damian Thompson wrote:

Archbishop Edwin O'Brien of Baltimore, America's oldest diocese, last week advised Catholics against joining the Legion or Regnum Christi. He said he was worried that the order "stifles the free will" of its priestly members and lay affiliates - not least, by encouraging the cult of Fr Maciel, a Mexican priest who abused seminarians and siphoned off money from the faithful to support his mistress and daughter.

According to the National Catholic Reporter, Archbishop O'Brien said:

"While it's difficult to get ahold of official documents," Archbishop O'Brien said, "it's clear that from the first moment a person joins the Legion, efforts seem to be made to program each one and to gain full control of his behavior, of all information he receives, of his thinking and emotions."

The archbishop said many members who leave the order suffer "deep psychological distress for dependency and need prolonged counseling akin to deprogramming."

Cath News echoes the call for Vatican intervention because "the current Mexican leadership of the Legionaries is not up to the challenge of dissociating the organisation from the sexual and financial wrongdoings of the founder."

Questions of Vatican competence

Exploring today Pope Benedict XVI issues we have visited, the New York Times raises one question most strongly.

It comes from several directions, but most directly from a scholar interviewed for the piece:

The Vatican expert George Weigel, in a recent essay in First Things, an American religion journal, criticized the Vatican for its “chaos, confusion and incompetence.”

Regarding a Vatican examination of the Legionaries of Christ in light of recent revelations about its founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, and questions raised about his closest associates, Weigel is more pointed still:

In his criticism of the Vatican hierarchy, known as the curia, Mr. Weigel said a curia that allowed the Bishop Williamson controversy to explode was not “a curia capable of conducting an investigation that can command public credibility.”

Maciel facts out (please); Holy See intervention in?

A letter seeking forgiveness and healing is "circulating among the 800 priests and 2500 seminarians of the congregation of the Legionaries of Christ, and also among the 65,000 lay members of the Regnum Christi apostolate."

That letter is from the superior general of the congregation, Fr. Alvaro Corcueradoes. And it does not say:

Fr. Maciel had a daughter, a young woman now just over the age of twenty living in Spain, born from a relationship that was not sporadic, but regular, between the priest and a lover he had.

Sandro Magister concludes:

In part for reasons of personal conduct, therefore, the congregation of the Legionaries of Christ no longer seems to be capable of managing its own recovery.

Current materials generate growing clouds of satiric heat and deadly serious debate.

Meanwhile, First Things points out the necessity of complementary Catholic press "repentance and change." He argues in persuasive bullet-point detail that there is a great deal of truth yet to be told to set things more right.

Maciel facts out (please); Holy See intervention in …

A letter seeking forgiveness and healing is "circulating among the 800 priests and 2500 seminarians of the congregation of the Legionaries of Christ, and also among the 65,000 lay members of the Regnum Christi apostolate."

That letter is from the superior general of the congregation, Fr. Alvaro Corcueradoes. And it does not say:

Fr. Maciel had a daughter, a young woman now just over the age of twenty living in Spain, born from a relationship that was not sporadic, but regular, between the priest and a lover he had.

Sandro Magister concludes:

In part for reasons of personal conduct, therefore, the congregation of the Legionaries of Christ no longer seems to be capable of managing its own recovery.

Meanwhile, First Things points out the necessity of complementary Catholic press "repentance and change." For, as he demonstrates in detail, there is a great deal of truth yet to be discovered and told. And it should be.