Legion of Christ Trembles as It Waits for New General...

Legion of Christ Trembles as It Waits for a New Director General to be Assigned by Pope Benedict...

"I will not stand for My priests who condone homosexuality and allow it in My priesthood! I will not stand for My priests who allow the murder of the unborn with their permissiveness! I will not stand by and allow My priesthood to be destroyed!" - Jesus, June 18, 1982

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.

In the thick of the storm rocking the Catholic Church on account of the sexual abuse committed against minors by priests, an end has come to the apostolic visit ordered by the Holy See among the Legionaries of Christ, the congregation founded by Marcial Maciel.

The Maciel case is extreme in every way. It pushes the contrast between image and reality to exaggerated limits. Between the beatified image of the priest founder of an ultra-orthodox, ascetical, devout religious congregation, flourishing with vocations, some of them exemplary, and the reality of a dissolute second life, made up of incessant violations not only of the vows but of the commandments, of continual sinful affairs with women, men, and minors of every age and condition, with children and lovers all over the world, their number still unknown. One of the Mexican sons allegedly fathered and abused by Maciel, Jose Raul Gonzalez, has said he asked the Legionaries of Christ for $26 million because Maciel had promised him a trust fund when he died and as financial compensation for the alleged sexual abuse.

A second life that even at the moment of death appeared to sink deeper into the sulfurous fumes. Morbid stories have leaked out about Maciel's last days in Houston, at the end of January 2008, before his burial in Cotija, his birthplace, in Mexico.

The apostolic visit began on July 15, 2009. And the five bishop visitors fulfilled their mandate halfway through this month of March, with the delivery of their report to the Vatican authorities. They were Ricardo Watti Urquidi, bishop of Tepic in Mexico; Charles J. Chaput, archbishop of Denver; Giuseppe Versaldi, bishop of Alessandria; Ricardo Ezzato Andrello, archbishop of Concepción in Chile; and Ricardo Blázquez Pérez, archbishop of Valladolid.

It will be the Vatican authorities who decide what to do. The three cardinals charged with the case are Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of state, William J. Levada, prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, and Franc Rodé, prefect of the congregation for institutes of consecrated life.

But the last word will belong to Benedict XVI, the most prescient of all. Even before he was elected pope and when Maciel still had very powerful protectors in the Vatican, Joseph Ratzinger ordered an extensive investigation of the accusations against the founder of the Legionaries. And as pope, on May 19, 2006, he sentenced him to "a retired life of prayer and penance."

After this sentence, the congregation of the Legionaries bowed to the papal command. But it continued to show veneration to its founding "father," as an "innocent victim" of false accusations.

It was only after his death and the revelation of other scandals that the directors of the congregation acknowledged some of their founder's sins, but without denying the goodness of his work.

Still today, after the eight-month apostolic visit, Maciel's successor as director general of the congregation, Fr. Álvaro Corcuera, and vicar general Luis Garza Medina – who were also for decades, especially the latter of them, very close collaborators of the founder – show no intention of leaving their command. And neither do any of the other high and mid-level directors, central or peripheral.

Their defense is that they were always unaware of Maciel's second life, and that their fidelity to the Church and to the pope, in addition to their leadership experience, are the best guarantees for the congregation's continuity.

Last February 5, in "L'Osservatore Romano," Fr. Luis Garza Medina, unruffled, published an article describing the "virtuous life" of the ideal priest. He who more than anyone else lived side by side with Maciel, knowing all his secrets and managing his money, and who always held him up as a model.

But that the current leaders of the Legionaries should be left at the head of the congregation is entirely unlikely. The more probable decision is that the Holy See will appoint a fully empowered commissioner of its own, and will set the guidelines for a thorough reform, including the replacement of the current leaders.

But rebuilding from the ground up a congregation still deeply influenced by its disgraced founder will be an arduous enterprise.

Priests and seminarians who until very recently were steeped in the writings attributed to Maciel will have difficulty finding new sources of inspiration, not generic but specific to their order. The current leaders of the congregation aren't helping, either. On the contrary. One of Maciel's former personal secretaries, Fr. Felipe Castro, together with other priests of the Legion, has worked in recent months to select from among the founder's many letters a group of letters to be "saved" for the future, to keep a positive image of Maciel alive.

The dependence of the Legionaries on Maciel was – and for many still is – absolute. There wasn't a shred of daily life that escaped the rules he dictated. Absurdly exacting rules. Which prescribed, for example, how to sit at the table, how to use a napkin, how to swallow, how to eat chicken without using one's hands, how to debone a fish.

But this was nothing compared to the control exercised over consciences. The handbook for the examination of conscience at the end of the day was 332 pages long, with thousands of questions.

And then there were – and are – the statutes properly speaking. Much more extensive and detailed than those provided to the bishops of the dioceses in which the Legionaries have their houses. The five visitors went through a lot of trouble to obtain the statutes in their entirety.

From the statutes one gathers that in addition to the three classical vows of religious orders, of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the Legionaries were bound by two other vows – plus a third called "of fidelity and charity" for the select members of the congregation – which prohibited any kind of criticism and at the same time required telling the superiors about confreres seen violating the ban.

These extra vows were supposed to have been removed by order of the Holy See, in 2007. But the rank and file of the Legionaries do not seem to have been notified of this revocation.

The boundary between the spirit of obedience and the spirit of subjection is not always clear in the congregation founded by Maciel.

Among the Legionaries, the competition encouraged by the rules is to see who can make the most proselytes. And the novice immediately enters a collective machine that completely absorbs his individuality. Everything is meticulously overseen and regulated, in a thicket of limitations. From personal mail to reading material, from visits to travel.

Over the eight months of the apostolic visit, this control was relaxed only in part. Some priests told the visitors about the things they believed were wrong. Others have left the congregation and been incardinated into the diocesan clergy. Others have continued to defend Maciel's legacy. Others feel lost. Still others, finally, have faith in the rebuilding on new foundations of a religious congregation that is part of their lives and that they continue to love.

A Rude Awakening - My experiences in the Legion of Christ 2000-2001
http://www.regainnetwork.org/article.php?a=47245755

Spiritual Schizophrenia - The Legion of Christ cannot affirm both a Wise Pope and a Holy Maciel
http://regainnetwork.org/article.php?a=47245965

Father Maciel suspended: New allegations against other Legionary priests on the horizon?
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/mershon/060525
Every Sunday at Our Lady of the Roses Shrine there is a Holy Hour from 10:30 am till noon for the clergy. Please join us each week in prayer for priests at this time.

Click here to email this page to a friend.

"Man shall not condone evil or rationalize sin. Homosexuality is an abomination in the eyes of God and man! The Creator condemns those who do not repent of this sin." - Our Lady of the Roses, August 5, 1977

"Are you so blind that you do not recognize the acceleration of sin among you? Murders abound, thievery, all manner of carnage, destruction of young souls, abortion, homosexuality, condemned from the beginning of time by the Eternal Father. Yet sin has become a way of life. Sin is condoned now, even unto the highest judge of your land and your lands throughout the world. As you have sown so shall you reap. Sin is death, not only of the spirit, but of the body. Wars are a punishment for man's sin, his greed, his avarice." - Our Lady of the Roses, August 14, 1981

The awesome Bayside Prophecies... https://www.tldm.org/../Bayside/
These prophecies came from Jesus, Mary, and the saints to Veronica Lueken at Bayside, NY, from 1968 to 1995.

READ YOUR BIBLES
"Your word of homosexuality can be explained by the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Read in your Bibles or consult your clergy. Find yourselves, My children, a humble, pious clergy. Many have fallen away from the Faith." Our Lady, October 6, 1992

WOE TO THE PASTORS
"My children, can I bring you a message of joy when My heart is torn by the murders and the loss of respect for your elders? Children against parents, parents going about, running to and fro, marrying and giving in marriage, living adulterously, consorting with evil, with homosexuals and lesbians! What manner of life do you show for your children to make example of? Woe to the parent that scandalizes his child. It is better if that parent had died in his mother's womb! Woe to the pastors that scandalize the children! They shall burn in an eternity of hell for their deception!" Our Lady of the Roses, August 5, 1977

PASTORS HELD RESPONSIBLE
"We hold the pastors of My Son's House, We hold them as being responsible for the fall of the children. Be ye warned now, My children, that woe to the man who has this responsibility upon his conscience and his soul. Scandals have been brought into the lives of your children. Perversion, homosexuality, immorality, perverted sex, My children-where shall you stop but at the abyss!" Our Lady of the Roses, December 7, 1977

"YOU WILL BE REMOVED"
"I am your God, and I say unto you: continue to change My Church and you will fall! You will build a secular church, bringing in all--even heretics, even homosexuals. All aberrations condemned by the Eternal Father, you will permit in the name of humanism. Nay, no! I say unto you as your God. You will be given a short reign, for I consider you then an abomination, and as such you will be removed." Jesus, May 23, 1979

AN ABOMINATION
"Man shall not condone evil or rationalize sin. Homosexuality is an abomination in the eyes of God and man! The Creator condemns those who do not repent of this sin." Our Lady, August 5, 1977

BLACK CLOUD OVER AMERICA
"In the days of Sodom, so too were men giving themselves over to all the pleasures of the flesh: eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage. All manner of sinful lusts are being committed. Men shameful with men, women casting aside their role of motherhood and lusting after women. As it was in the days of Sodom, so now is this black cloud over America." Our Lady, July 14, 1979

SODOM: "WE DESTROYED IT"
"And the great issue now of homosexuality in your country, that shall be on the balance that Michael holds. Unless this balance is evened by removing this evil from your country and bringing in just laws to prevent the spread of homosexuality, you cannot be saved; your country cannot be saved. Because I repeat again, as I have repeated in the past: When a country has given itself over to immorality and all pleasures of the flesh, and abominations of the flesh, then that country will fall! If you do not believe Me, My children, I say: You will read your history books, and you will find out that there was a Sodom and Gomorrah. And what did We do to that abominable city, Sodom? We destroyed it! And what did We do to Gomorrah? We destroyed it! And We destroyed all who did not follow the plan for their redemption." Jesus, November 1, 1985

SIN: FORERUNNER OF WAR
"For sin is always a forerunner for war, My children: murders, persecutions, robberies, all manners of sins of the flesh, homosexuality, lesbianism, perversion, sodomy. Sodom and Gomorrah fell for less sins than you have committed now upon your earth. Noah took to the ark and the world was in a better state spiritually than your world now; for you have accepted a sophisticated manner of sin, based on man's reasoning and not God's truth." Our Lady, October 2, 1979

ANY COUNTRY
"Any country that allows homosexuals to roam and to seduce the young shall be destroyed." Our Lady, June 30, 1984

HOLY HOUR
"I wish that there be held on these sacred grounds an hour of reparation on the Day of the Lord. This hour will be for your Vicar and the fallen hierarchy in the House of God. This hour will also be in atonement for the discard of the holy Day of God." - Our Lady, September 14, 1972

Directives from Heaven... https://www.tldm.org/directives/directives.htm

D63 - The Third Secret PDF
D169 - Stigma of a Fallen Hierarchy, Part 1 PDF
D170 - Stigma of a Fallen Hierarchy, Part 2 PDF
D171 - Stigma of a Fallen Hierarchy, Part 3 PDF
D172 - Priestly Celibacy PDF
D174 - Homosexuality, Part 2 PDF
D177 - Seminaries PDF

Articles…

A Rude Awakening - My experiences in the Legion of Christ 2000-2001
http://www.regainnetwork.org/article.php?a=47245755

Spiritual Schizophrenia - The Legion of Christ cannot affirm both a Wise Pope and a Holy Maciel
http://regainnetwork.org/article.php?a=47245965

Father Maciel suspended: New allegations against other Legionary priests on the horizon?
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/mershon/060525
Vatican says no to homosexuals in priesthood - approved by Pope Benedict
https://www.tldm.org/News8/homosexualityPriesthood3.htm

Vatican appointed seminary investigator says homosexuals should not be ordained
https://www.tldm.org/News8/SeminaryInvestigator.htm

Cardinal George of Chicago reaffirms longtime Vatican teaching: no homosexuals allowed in priesthood
https://www.tldm.org/News8/homosexualityPriesthood.htm

John Paul II and a Vatican official speak out against homosexuals in the Catholic priesthood
https://www.tldm.org/News5/gays_in_priesthood.htm

Clear Vatican statement against ordaining homosexuals: "a person who is homosexual or has homosexual tendencies is not, therefore, suitable to receive the sacrament of sacred orders."
https://www.tldm.org/News5/Estevez.htm

Bishop D'Arcy urges ban on gay priests
https://www.tldm.org/News7/D'Arcy.htm

Philippine Bishops Conference bans homosexual seminarians and priests
https://www.tldm.org/News7/PhilippineBishopsBanHomosexuals.htm

Santo Domingo Cardinal says gays do not belong in seminaries
https://www.tldm.org/News7/homosexualityCardinalNicolas.htm

Austrian seminary: no more homosexuals
https://www.tldm.org/News7/HomosexualityAustrianSeminary.htm

American seminaries: "hell-holes of error and heresy"
https://www.tldm.org/news5/seminaries.htm

John Paul II orders cleanup of U.S. seminaries
https://www.tldm.org/news5/seminaries2.htm

Vatican document: homosexuals should not be ordained or admitted to the seminary
https://www.tldm.org/News5/Vatican_document.htm

“This hapless bench of bishops”
https://www.tldm.org/News5/hapless.htm

Gay and lesbian newspaper reports: “Victory at Bishops' Conference”
https://www.tldm.org/News5/WindyCity.htm

The American bishops and homosexual priests
https://www.tldm.org/news4/scandal1.htm

81% of clergy sex crimes committed by homosexuals
https://www.tldm.org/News6/homosexuality9.htm

What the Saints say about the sin of homosexuality
https://www.tldm.org/news7/homosexualitySaints.htm

What the Bible says about homosexuality
https://www.tldm.org/News6/homosexuality3.htm

Great Britain study says 43% of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals have a mental disorder
https://www.tldm.org/news7/GayMentalDisorder.htm

Our Lady of the Roses gave 17 requests to save America from annihilation
https://www.tldm.org/news5/17-steps.htm

Homosexuality and Hope: excerpts taken from a document by the Catholic Medical Association
https://www.tldm.org/news6/ssa.htm

America: Slouching towards Gomorrah
https://www.tldm.org/news5/gomorrah.htm

Homosexuality: dispelling the lies
https://www.tldm.org/News4/homosexuality2.htm

Supreme Court Justice Burger speaks out against homosexuality
https://www.tldm.org/news6/homosexuality1.htm

Sin is insanity
https://www.tldm.org/news6/insanity.htm

Links...

U.S. Bishops to Begin Inspecting Seminaries, National Catholic Register
http://www.ncregister.com/articulo.php?artkod=NTU-

Expected Vatican Ban Roils American Church, [U.K.] Guardian, September 22, 2005
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5295980,00.html

Trust us to fix it, Catholic World News
http://www.cwnews.com/offtherecord/offtherecord.cfm?task=singledisplay&recnum=2791

Bishops meeting to avoid gay issue, Washington Times, June 15, 2005
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050614-114626-2482r.htm

Why won't our bishops solve the 'gay' priest problem? New Oxford Review, July-August 2004
http://www.newoxfordreview.org/note.jsp?did=0704-notes-bishops

How America's Catholic Church crucified itself, [London] Times Online, March 13, 2005
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2099-1517560,00.html

Vatican Monsignor says gays shouldn’t be priests, Washington Times, September 20, 2002
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020920-85049356.htm

Catholic official argues against gay priests, Modesto Bee, September 19, 2002
http://www.modbee.com/24hour/nation/story/543081p-4290797c.html

John Paul II to Church: Risky seminarians must go, National Catholic Register, Sept. 15-21, 2002
http://www.ncregister.com/Register_News/091002sem.htm

John Paul II: Men with deviant affections can’t be priests, ABC News, September 5, 2002
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20020905_339.html

Catholic Medical Association: Homosexuality and Hope
http://www.cathmed.org/publications/homosexuality.html

Your names have been written in Heaven… "It is not by accident that you are called by My Mother, for your names have been written in Heaven.... But with this great grace you have great responsibility to send this Message from Heaven throughout the world, for if you are able to recover just one more for Heaven, an additional star shall be placed in your crown." - Jesus, August 5, 1975

A great obligation to go forward... "It is not by accident that you are called by My Mother, for it is by merit and the prayers that have risen to Heaven for your salvation. For those who have received the grace to hear the Message from Heaven, you have a great obligation to go forward and bring this Message to your brothers and sisters. Do not expect a rest upon your earth, for you will have eternal rest very soon." - Jesus, June 12, 1976

The sin of omission... "The sin of omission shall condemn many to hell, be they layman or Hierarchy. I repeat: not the sin of commission, but the sin of omission will commit many to hell." Our Lady of the Roses, October 6, 1980

We encourage everyone to print or email copies of this web page to all the Bishops and all the clergy. Also, email or send this web page to the news media and as many people as possible.

Email this page to a friend.

The electronic form of this document is copyrighted.
Quotations are permissible as long as this web site is acknowledged with a hyperlink to: http://www.tldm.org
Copyright © These Last Days Ministries, Inc. 1996 - 2011   All rights reserved.
P.O. Box 40                   616-698-6448
Lowell, MI 49331-0040
Revised: October 01, 2018