ReGAIN, Religious Groups Awareness International Network
Monitoring harmful groups in mainstream Churches and Religious Groups
Pope Francis once stated, when questioned about Fr. Maciel and how he had succeeded in deceiving so many people, including Vatican officials, for such a long time and always came out smiling, that Maciel “must had had a godfather in there”.
That Godfather was Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the man behind Pope John Paul II’s throne for many years.
Pope Francis once stated, when questioned about Fr. Maciel and how he had succeeded in deceiving so many people, including Vatican officials, for such a long time and always came out smiling, that Maciel “must had had a godfather in there”.
That Godfather was Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the man behind Pope John Paul II’s throne for many years.
As his death is announced, several important news media, including Reuters’ Philip Pullella, pull no punches
![Catholic Orders & Movements Accused of Being Cult-like: Intra-Ecclesial Sects? : 2nd Edition & Index by [J.Paul Lennon]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41kbip1QY7L.jpg)
Catholic Orders and Movements Accused of being Cult-like.
and the band plays on. (except when another founder is found to be a sexual abuser! see Figari, Maciel, Marie-Dominique Phillipe…)
See study on Amazon
Why does the Vatican allow hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent and generous members to continue to suffer under authoritarian rule and coercion?
Some of them are priest-making machines and bring in millions of dollars to the Vatican
Is it because Catholic Leadership is unable to admit its mistakes?
ReGAIN has the greatest respect for Cardinal Braz de Aviz and Cardinal Farrell but as we are close to the ground we hear the cries of suffering members of these communities and cannot turn our backs on the victims of sexual, physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual abuse.
Dear Readers,
just got this alert from Google referring to ICAS, IMMACULATE CONCEPTION APOSTOLIC SCHOOL
The Center Harbor school where several boys were reportedly molested by members of the disgraced Roman Catholic religious order, the Legionaires of Christ, is no longer a defendant in the federal lawsuits brought by the survivors.
Five men filed lawsuits against the order and the school last year in the United States District Court of Connecticut accusing the order of negligence for effectively facilitating and covering up the abuse.
Judge Kari Dooley dismissed the Immaculate Conception Apostolic School, or ICAS, from the lawsuit last month based on the argument that it is a separate entity based in New Hampshire. The Legionaries of Christ order is registered as a non-profit in Connecticut and it was headquartered in Connecticut for decades.
“ICAS’s principal place of business is in New Hampshire, where it operated, at the times relevant to the Complaint, a private, Roman Catholic boarding school,” Dooley wrote. “ICAS’s students attended class, boarded, and otherwise resided in New Hampshire, where the school was located. New Hampshire is also where the alleged sexual abuse took place. Indeed, absent from the Complaint are any specific allegations that ICAS conducted any non-administerial activities in Connecticut at all.”
The order has since moved its American operations to Georgia.
ICAS was considered a minor seminary for the Legionaries, and hundreds of boys from all over the world were educated there for the priesthood. According to documents filed in court, the school was founded by Fr. Anthony Bannon, a leading figure in the Legionaries, and Br. Fernando Cutanda, a man who the Legionaries has since acknowledged abused boys at the school in the 1980s.
The lawsuits against the Legionaries itself will continue. The order closed the Center Harbor school in 2015, and in 2019 put the Dane Road property up for sale. The property, with views of Lake Winnipesaukee, is reportedly valued at close to $9 million.
Bannon ran the North American branch of the order for much of the 1980s and 1990s and was close to the Legionaries of Christ founder, Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado. Known as Fr. Maciel, the founder has since been revealed to be a serial pedophile and drug addict.
Pope Benedict XVI moved against the Legionaries in 2010, after the Vatican issued a statement on Maciel’s crimes.
“The very grave and objectively immoral actions of Father Maciel, confirmed by incontrovertible testimonies, in some cases constitute real crimes and manifest a life devoid of scruples and authentic religious meaning.”
Maciel’s now notorious behavior reportedly included drug addiction, fathering several children with at least three different women, the sexual abuse of his own children and others.
The Vatican took temporary control of the order and forced the Legionaries to make changes to their constitution, including ending the practice of having members take secret vows to never criticize the Legionaries.
According to the Irish Times, Bannon helped Maciel deal with offshore accounts for the order. The Legionaries is believed to have at least $1 billion in assets, the Irish Times reports.
According to reporting from the Pandora Papers published late last year, the Legionaries secretly put close to $300 million into hidden trusts before Benedict moved against the order, in an effort to shield the funds from Vatican overseers. The order has denied any wrongdoing.
Bannon was subject of a 1990s Rhode Island lawsuit in which he was accused of defrauding a wealthy widow, essentially lying about Maciel and the order to get her to leave the Legion $60 million in her will, according to reports. The family contested the will, though they failed in court, and the Legion kept the money.
Bannon died last, and the Legionaries used the news of his death to raise money for the order’s scholarship fund for its schools.
There is a sixth sex abuse lawsuit filed in Connecticut by a Jane Doe who alleges she was abused at the order’s school for women in Rhode Island. The Rhode Island school was recently dropped from her lawsuit as a defendant.
Fr. Maciel (1920-2008) began abusing his adolescent seminarians soon after the foundation in Mexico City 1941. He was investigated twice by the Vatican, never went to trial in canon or civil law, and lived out his days in luxury and pleasure, unrepentent.
Names of Not Compensated Sexual Abuse Victims of Fr. Maciel, Founder and Superior General of the Legion(aries) of Christ -now morphed into Regnum Christi Federation
Recently deceased while the Legion/Regnum Superiors played cat and mouse, waiting for them to die off:
Saúl Barrales Arellano (maternal surname goes last in Spanish; although people can be named by their maternal surname in certain cases, as in the case of Francisco González, called Parga )
Félix Alarcón Hoyos
Fernando Pérez Olvera
Living Survivors in their 80s,
two of whom are living in abject poverty and illness
José de Jesús Barba Martín
Alejandro Espinosa Alcalá
Francisco González Parga – together with Alarcón, the only other victim ordained to priesthood- went public in 2005 when victims were interviewed by then Vatican Prosecutor, Mons. Charles Scicluna, in Mexico City)
Arturo Jurado Guzmán
José Antonio Pérez Olvera
José Antonio Pérez Olvera, José Barba Martín, and Chilean clergy sex abuse victim
(Note Legionaries/Regnum Christi tried to hack this site in July 2019 -shame on them, supposedly operating under the name of Christ!)
MACIEL SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIMS HELP EACH OTHER – WHILE LEGIONARIES OF CHIST RELAX IN LUXURY, THEIR VICTIMS LANGUISH IN POVERTY FOLLOW UP
UPDATE August 25, 2021 LATEST REPORT FROM VICTIMS
WHILE LEGIONARY OF CHRIST LEADERS FRS. CONNOR, SCHOGGL, ETC., PLAY HIDE AND SEEK WITH THEIR FOUNDER’S SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIMS
José Antonio had to move out of L.A.B.’s home recently because José Antonio caught the COVID-19 virus, and had to retreat to his previous cubby hole… Legion/Regnum of Christ leaders continued to wrangle with Maciel victims over compensation for their sexual abuse, Legion denial and denigration, calumnies and abandonment.
While deliberations continue with Legion/Regnum leadership about the where, the what and the when of compensation (it is believed a total of ten thousand dollars may have been given to José Antonio up to now – while promises are in the hundreds of thousands!), at least one of the surviving Maciel victims has made sure JA has power and phone in his basement. Two kind women have also contributed to the rescue operation in the past few days.
It appears that Legion/Regnum rescue operations are CONDITIONED BY THE AMOUNT OF DAMAGE CONTROL AND PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES THEIR INTERVENTION MAY AFFORD THEM!
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Original posting below:
José-Antonio Pérez Olvera, now 84, and suffering from numerous illnesses, is about to be evicted. His compensation from the Legion of Christ, led by LC (Director) Superior General, Fr. John Connor, USA, amounts to a $5,000.00 US he received last April as an “Easter Gift”.
“Promises, promises, promises”, resound in his aged ears.
Pepe Toño is one of the few remaining victims of Fr. Maciel’s -founder of the Legionaries of Christ/Regnum Christi 60 million dollar budget Movement.
LEGION COMPENSATION IN ALL THESE CASES HAS BEEN FROM ZERO TO PALTRY. “Better for these old men to die off than for the Legion of Christ/Regnum Christi Federation have to disburse money in compensation” (bottom line of Pontifical Delegate, Mons. Velasio de Paolis’, policy during his visitation 2010. May God have mercy on his soul! See Velasio de Paolis, WIKIPEDIA, “Pontifical Delegate to the Legion of Christ.”)
A week ago, Pepe Toño wrote to some friends: “What really bothers me is that they are literally evicting me in three days’ time.”
Pepe’s friends are screaming at Fr. Connor to do something. ReGAIN has the awful feeling this will be another case of “Too little, too late.”
And I think of how his perpetrator, Fr. Marcial Maciel, lived out his last days in luxury and pleasure, accompanied by his female lover and daughter traveling freely in the USA and Mexico, despite that slap on the hand from the Vatican in 2006.
August 1-15, most Legionaries are on their “major vacations” which means relaxing at the beach houses of millionaire benefactors in Mexico, Spain, Italy and the USA. I spent mine years ago in Mazatlán; the family left their house to our “community”; this included a captain for the yacht to go marlin fishing, waiters to serve us our drinks at the pool, a cook to prepare our meals and maids to take care of housekeeping…
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Pepe Toño sweats it out, as he waits for the crumbs to fall from the rich man Dives Connor’s table.
