Tag: Marcial Maciel

Fr. Maciel’s Saga In Northern Spain, 40’s And 50s, The Real Story

No Stable Abode for First Legion Seminarians in Northern Spain: Rumors, calumnies and misunderstandings re Fr. Maciel’s relationships with his seminarians

Asked to leave the Marquis de Comillas Palace, then the Jesuit run Seminary University of Comillas, then the Trappist Monastery in Cobreces, finally purchasing the Ontaneda Spa.

In 2003, as a group of Regain members tried to reconstruct the REAL HISTORY of the Legion in Northern, Spain, in the late 1940s, the following confusion arose:

Quoting from El Legionario summation: 1948.[See Regain webpage] Two years after the students arrived at the University of Comillas, the rector, Fr. Francisco-Javier Baeza SJ, and the spiritual director, Lucio Rodrigo SJ, heard about Maciel’s devious conduct through spiritual direction and confession but they felt sworn to silence because of the seal of confession and confidentiality. Worried, nevertheless, by the influence he could have on their students, they prudently advised him to reform his behavior.

Philip, a rather naive disciple, asked:
How can this possibly ever come to light if it is part of Fr. Maciel’s Confession or Spiritual Direction? This makes no sense and if true, cannot be countenanced. All confessions are confidential forever, even Maciel’s. What am I misunderstanding here?!

Then realistic Levi, suggested:
Good point. However, it may be referring to the kid’s confession and spiritual direction, not Maciel’s. If that is the case, the Jesuits could have obtained permission from the kids to discuss it with Maciel. I don’t know if it means SD and Confession with MM. I don’t think Maciel gets SD…and I wonder to whom he goes to confession…. I would have to see the original-El Legionario- in Spanish.

HISTORICAL FRAMEWORK
1 September 2, 1946: Fr. Maciel takes first group of 34 teenagers from Mexico City via Havana, Cuba, aboard the Marques de Comillas to study at the Pontifical University in Comillas, Bay of Biscay, Northern Spain, run by the Jesuits.
2 The local count offers the young Mexican priest his family palace as a residence/seminary. Fr. Maciel begins recruiting Spanish born seminarians studying at the University of Comillas.
3 1948 Fr. Maciel is asked to leave with his students.
4 He takes them to the nearby town of Cóbreces, finding hospitality on the grounds of the Trappist Monastery, in a converted farmhouse.
5 1952 they are asked to leave the monastery property, and move to the Ontaneda-Alceda Spa bought by Fr. Maciel

So the Disciple explained:
“I have read the e-mail exchange. There is always the understandable problem of innocent people, of good faith, who, in spite of having read certain passages from the Gospel about false prophets, simply cannot imagine how a person as devious as Marcial Maciel could exist. If you all patiently bear with me I feel I could add some clarity to the question recently raised by Philip and commented on by Levi and others.

Arturo Jurado, one of Fr. Maciel’s sworn accusers, arrived in Comillas on October 1949. Being close to the facts, he can offer a very valuable testimony. So can I because I arrived from Mexico at the LC Major Seminary in Cobreces, Santander, twelve kilometers from Comillas, in August 1951. This was just two years after the Jesuits had asked MM and his students to leave Comillas. Reverend Fr. Yague, the Abbott of the Trappist Abbey of Santa Maria, adjacent to our school, and Fr. Cid were both former Jesuits who still kept some contact with their former religious brethren at Comillas. Fr. Cid and a couple of other Trappist monks used to help us, the Mexican Legionary students and few Spaniards in the school with our sacramental life and spiritual direction.

Non-Legionary priests involved early on with Legion seminarians because of lack of LC priests Between early April and late October 1949 Fr. Maciel was assisted in the spiritual attention of LC seminarians in Cobreces by Fr. Luis Ferreira. Ferreira was a Mexican diocesan priest and former companion of Maciel at the Jesuit Seminary in Montezuma, New Mexico, from where the Founder had been expelled in 1939. Fr. Ferreira, on loan from his diocese, began helping MM at the Quinta Pacelli Apostolic School in Tlalpam, Mexico, in 1947. Fr. Ferreira became a member of the LC in an improvised manner and in haste in June 1948. [Editor: This is part of the story of the Legion’s canonical erection as a congregation of diocesan right in Cuernavaca, Morelos State, Mexico. Fr. Maciel relishes telling how he got a jump on the Vatican in June 13 that year, prevailing on Bishop Alfonso Espino y Silva to canonically erect the Legion by witnessing the religious profession of the first Legionaries just days before a letter from Rome told him to standby.]

I bring this up to explain how we, first LC members, for several years did not receive spiritual ministry from LC priests and relied on outsiders. This also explains how communication with non LC priests was inevitable (Though this information might in turn provoke more questions).

Suspicions, Calumnies and Misunderstanding dogged Fr. Maciel
Regarding how the Jesuits would have found out about Maciel’s immoral behavior I can testify that one of the very first LC founders, belonging to the January 3rd 1941 group, told me in person that it was he who informed the Jesuit authorities in Comillas about the Maciel’s misconduct. Unfortunately for our cause, in December 1996 this very same person wrote a note to journalist Gerald Renner opting out of making any public statement about his Legionary past. On the other hand, Fernando Perez Olvera, an engineer, and brother of Jose Antonio Perez Olvera, MA, told me, early in January 1994, that there were undeniable signs of obscure sexual desire in Cobreces in 1948 through 1950, and that he believes that one or more of the LC apostolic boys had informed the Jesuits about this. IN NO WAY DID HE MENTION THIS INFORMATION BEING PART OF ANY FORM OF SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION OR ANYTHING OF THE SORT. The LC seminarians were living close by the Trappist Monastery and studying at the University in Comillas, where their teachers were Jesuits.

For me it has always been very significant that MM, who usually tried by all means to string people along -keeping them in the Legion as much and as long a possible- in the case of the 1948 – 1950 Cobreces boys did just the opposite. In a very short period of time he energetically sent back to Mexico and dispersed about ten seminarians.. Pedro Anaya, Pedro León, Cesar Fernandez, Fernando Perez Olvera, Hector Lozano, Antonio Alcala?, Guadalupe Herrera, Javier Bilbao, Salvador Mendoza. Seminarians were in the group mentioned by Fernando Perez Olvera. According to what Fernando Perez Olvera told me, early in January 1994, it was a member of this group who revealed Maciel’s immoral behavior to the Jesuits at Comillas. Three other students, either from this group or one near it, were interned for a while at the Psychiatric Hospital in Madrid run by military doctor Antonio Vallejo Nájera: Juan Hernandez, Octavio Garcia, and Ricardo Ojeda. Other students were sent to same mental institution later: Francisco Lapez and Rodolfo Sada. Ricardo Ojeda was given electroshock at that hospital, a method used by the Mussolini regime on its dissidents, and one that, it was believed, could make them lose certain parts? of their memory.

We also have a very important testimony given in July 2002 by the then octogenarian priest Francisco Montes de Oca, himself a former graduate student of theology at Comillas in the late forties. According to Montes de Oca, when the Jesuits first suggested to MM that he and his boys had to leave Comillas, MM fabricated false letters that he presented to the Comillas authorities as purportedly written by His Eminence Joseph Spellman, the archbishop of New York, who had been recently made cardinal by Pius XII in 1946. The Cardinal’s prestige was enormous. He and NY major Fiorello La Guardia had saved Italy from starvation on two occasions. And Rolf Hochhuth in a note to his drama The Deputy? says that the diocese of NY alone contributed with more money for the financial support of the Holy See than the rest of the Western World together.
The false letters presented by MM to University president, Fr. Francisco Javier Baeza and to the dean of the School of Theology, Fr. Lucio Rodrigo, alleged that Card. Spellman would gladly receive MM and his boys into his diocese if the Jesuits expelled them from Comillas. MM knew through his contacts in Madrid that Cardinal J. Spellman was considered by Martin Artajo, the Spanish
minister of Foreign Affairs, as a key political factor in achieving certain political leniency from the US towards Spain, and economical help for a country that was practically excluded –with the exception of Argentina and Santo Domingo from the community of nations, and suffering from hunger and dire living conditions.

Very probably, through their contacts at Fordham University (also a Jesuit institution) in NY City, the Jesuits in Comillas discovered MM’s machinations. The fact is that MM and his boys were never taken by Card. Spellman to NY, and MM had to search for a new place for the “Major Mexican Seminary” in Spain. MM and the boys had to move to theInstituto Agracola Quiroz?, a property of the Trappist Monks of Santa Maria de Via Caeli, in Cobreces, Santander, in 1948. There we students lived and studied for four years with former U. of Comillas teachers, now laymen, except for former Jesuit, Fr. Jose Maria Casado, our prefect of studies. Information similar to that of Comillas regarding MM’s misconduct probably reached Fr. Yague, the Abbott of Santa Maria de Via Caeli. After a while, he in turn asked MM to leave the Trappist premises before the summer of 1952.

Thus we Legionary students were forced to leave Cobreces township on October 7th 1952. MM had found the old 19th Century Spa of Ontaneda-Alceda in the foothills of the Cantabria (Santander) range. Maciel befriended Don Leopoldo, the paterfamilias of the formerly wealthy Cortines family. In his usual way, MM tried to charm his son, Leopoldo, into the LC. He failed. But, with the Cortines family financially ruined, he got another wonderful deal, and bought the Gran Hotel? for peanuts. It was the ex-Comillas seminarian now LC priest, Gregorio Lopez, Superior at Ontaneda, who actually made the payment in CASH. (In Franco Era Spain financial operations of this kind were illegal)

And about MM going to confession or not, I simply have this to say: during the fifties in Rome, we knew that Pius XII’s confessor was Cardinal Bea. But in the fourteen years I lived in the LC I never witnessed or heard of MM having a confessor.

One day I might finish a book on many points on MM and the LC that I know need clarification. If God gives me time, health and concentration, I will try to write it in a methodical, perhaps academic manner, different from these fast e-mails of mine, most of the time written on the road, like an Edwin Newman reporter of the seventies- but looking further into the past…

The imminent Christening of my first grandson, Daniel Thomas, this Easter Sunday, 2003, has made me meditate
on the meaning of being a Christian, though I am a poor disillusioned Catholic.

With best spiritual wishes for all of you,

Your brother,
Joseph of Jesus B-M
The Disciple

Damage Caused By Fr. Maciel And The Legion Of Christ That Will Not Go Away

ReGAIN envoy to Mexico, August, 2014

While Fr. Juan Solana LC was writing without thinking, minimizing the Founder’s crimes and comparing him to Mary Magdalen, I was paying my way to Central Mexico to relax and then meet with a few of Maciel’s most damaged victims now in their 70’s whom I have gotten to know and care for

Encounter With Maciel Victims

Arturo Jurado & his wife, Chela, warmly hosted our informal encounter at their home above San Miguel Allende on August 24th, topping it off with succulent paella. Some of those invited could not make it for reasons of health or expense. The former Legionaries I met were all Mexican founding members.

Alejandro Espinosa (Cd. Aldama, Tamps. & Celaya) author of at least two books describing his experiences: El Legionario* and El Ilusionista*: these recount in gory detail Maciel’s sexual depredations, the dynamics of his harem and his gift, charism, of creating illusions to exalt himself, deceiving and manipulating others in the process. As a young Legionary and budding writer Alejandro had considered becoming Fr. Maciel’s biographer. An illusion that stroked Maciel’s ego.

Later Sunday evening in San Miguel I strolled around the new shopping mall chatting one-on-one with Francisco Gonzalez-Parga (Guadalajara), author of Yo acuso al Padre Maciel y a la Legion de Cristo*, who was ordained a priest in the Legion. One of Fr. Maciel’s victims and sexual slaves he has made a miraculous recovery from abuse and a conscience-taken-hostage. As we discussed the enigma of Maciel he told of Maciel’s uncanny gift of seduction and suggested that some of the events in Fr. Maciel’s life point to the presence of a Malignant Spirit. He also explained how Maciel was able to blackmail Vatican Cardinals with his knowledge of their sexual depravities, specifically to gain the canonical approval of the Legion May 25, 1948. Gonzalez-Parga was also one of Maciel’s male nurses; he often bought Dolantin (morphine) and on occasions helped the Founder inject several phials into his veins before falling into a catatonic stupor.

Arturo Jurado (San Miguel Allende), as a Legionary seminarian in the 1950s and 60s, often roamed Rome’s clinics and pharmacies late at night in search of the medicine that Fr. Maciel desperately needed and demanded to dull the pain of his sufferings for Christ.
Jose Antonio Perez-Olvera who fell at the feet of Vatican prosecutor, Mons. Charles Scicluna, in 2005 crying: Monsignor, I am here to accuse Fr. Marcial Maciel, the man who destroyed my life! was unable to make the Sunday meeting. Pepe-To?o is a humorous individual who also regaled me and my wife with anecdotes and memories at Chucho el Roto restaurant in Queretaro the following day.
My intention was for us to spend some fun time together to continue our healing process. By showing my solidarity to these brave men and by listening with empathy I wanted to contribute to their full recovery from child sexual abuse, sexual exploitation and a myriad of other abuses. As a former Legionary myself I sought healing with them from Multiple Post Traumatic Stress Disorder brought on by the oppressive system implemented by Maciel and cruel superiors.

The Cost of Damages

Because of the damage suffered in the Legion and the lack of any moral, psychological or financial support after leaving (a walk- away) or being kicked out (a throw-away), some of these men are now living in poverty.

When I asked Gonzalez-Parga why he would not meet with the Outreach Commission to Victims set up by Cardinal De Paolis, he reminded me that four Legionaries (including superiors hand-picked by Maciel such as Frs. Corcuera and Florencio Sanchez-Soler) were sitting on the board of six examining the legitimacy of the claims: It is so humiliating! Why should I subject myself again to my abusers in order to seek compensation clearly due in all justice?

Francisco & Maria Esther are a good example of the plight of many aging former Legionaries. While presently solvent, they have a lot of catching up to do financially. At retirement age they must continue to work full time. They do not have pensions, health insurance or protection against unforeseen crises in their later years. They have paid out of pocket for costly medical interventions. But there are other survivors who are even less fortunate.

Some of the survivors I met, as well as many other former members, seem to be cursed by their Legion involvement -not unusual for victims and people with PTSD ? and depend on the kindness of strangers for bed and board. If any of our readers would like to send financial support, please make out tax exempt checks of any amount to non-profit Regain, Inc (501(c)(3), and post them to acting treasurer
Marita La Palm, 2500 20th Rd. N. #502, Arlington, VA 22201.

ReGAIN will find a way to get the help to those in need in a discreet and respectful way. Thank you for your support of the forgotten victims of Fr. Maciel, the Legion of Christ and the Regnum Christi Movement.

PS. The most trenchant analyses of the Maciel and the Legion phenomenon are in Spanish, including the outstandingly well researched Marcial Maciel: la Legion de Cristo, documentos y testimonios in?ditos by Fernando Gonzalez, an historian at Mexico’s UNAM University. That is one of the reasons www.regainnetwork.org makes articles and testimonies available in English and also provides summaries of important documents.

The writer, J. Paul Lennon, is co-founder of ReGAIN and author of Our Father Maciel who art in bed, A Naive and Sentimental Dubliner in the Legion of Christ* and Fr. Maciel, Pedophile, Psychopath and Legion of Christ Founder* He checked with the survivors for fidelity to content and edited in their feedback before publishing.

*Books available on createspace, Amazon and Kindle.

Legionary Priest Compares Maciel to Magdalene and Later Apologizes

Father Juan Maria Solana, the Legionary priest who is in charge of the Magdala Center in the Holy Land raised a few eyebrows recently when he chose to make a comparison between Mary Magdalene and the Legionary founder, Marcial Maciel. The National Catholic Reporter published an article by Jason Berry at http://ncronline.org/news/global/roll-holy-land-legion-compares-maciel-magdalene.

Based on the article, the Legion is conducting a major fund raising drive to develop the complex, that includes newly discovered ruins of a synagogue where Jesus may have visited. Benefactors have already contributed $ 40 million of a total $ 100 million required to complete the complex.

Jason Berry points out that as they collect millions of dollars for this project, the Legion has been selling off assets including seminaries, schools, universities in different countries since their disgraced founder’s exposure as a sexual predator and a fraud.

In a pamphlet for the Magdala Center, Father Solana, LC included the following statements:
Marcial Maciel’s initials are also MM, just like Mary Magdalene. She had a problematic past before her deliverance, so there’s a parallel. Our world has double standards when it comes to morals. Some people have a formal, public display and then the real life they live behind the scenes.
But when we accuse someone else and we are quick to stone him, we must remember that we all have problems and defects. With modern communications so out of control, it is easy to kill someone’s reputation without even investigating about the truth. We should be quieter and less condemning.

ReGAIN Comments

Many people who are familiar with the Legionaries of Christ reacted in disbelief that the Legion would try to whitewash their founder’s history by comparing him to a saint, who was close to Jesus and His disciples and shocked with the ignorant manner that they referred to Mary Magdalene’s problematic past

Wikipedia states: It is almost universally agreed today that characterizations of Mary Magdalene in Western Christianity as a repentant prostitute or loose woman are unfounded and that the seven demons that she was freed from in scriptures may refer to a complex illness, not necessarily to any form of sinfulness

The inclusion of such a comparison demonstrates that in spite of some efforts to reform the Legion, many on the inside still don’t seem to understand that their founder remained unrepentant throughout his life, reportedly refusing the sacraments when he died, with an exorcist present.

Had Saint Mary Magdalene actually had a sin filled life before she met Jesus, there still would be no point in comparing her to Father Marcial Maciel. Whatever Saint Mary Magdalene’s past life had been, she became one of of Our Lord’s most devout followers. Father Maciel in comparison, in a blasphemous manner suggested that he was like Jesus because he too was falsely persecuted, while he used religion to gain power money and sex from minors in his care.

Perhaps Father Solana is not aware that the Vatican made the following statement on their website after extensive investigations:incontrovertible evidence has confirmed, sometimes resulted in actual crimes, and manifests a life devoid of scruple and of genuine religious sentiment. Does Father Solana still question the Vatican’s findings and is he now suggesting that they should have been less condemning?

Had Fr. Maciel at some point repented of his past and attempted to make amends, he might have earned some credibility and possibly become a new creation in Christ. Unfortunately, the evidence of his life indicates that he did not have such a change in heart. ReGAIN takes no joy in mentioning this but we find it hard to stomach any Legionary priest at this stage implying that he was harshly judged.

Perhaps the Legion leaders can find better ways to promote themselves, rather than making nonsensical comparisons of their disgraced founder to holy people who happened to have the same initials as him.

On August 28, Father Solana later made an apology as reported in the National Catholic Reporter. http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/legionaries-christ-apologize-maciel-magdalene-parallel and later added: I was trying to make a point about compassion and forgiveness in light of the Legion’s history, but realize now that my words were awkward and suggest a reverence for our founder that we clearly reject. Again, I’m sorry for any hurt this has caused, he said.

We expect that Father Solana wrote what he believes, i.e. that his founder was judged harshly. The wording of the pamphlet and of Father Solana’s weak and forced apology indicate a lack of understanding of basic Christianity 101, regarding forgiveness and repentance, a lack of awareness of the facts and a lack of sensitivity towards the many victims of the Legionary founder.

DePaolis Calls For Intense Reflection Period for LC and RC As Part of Reform

According to an article in CathNews, New Zealand Click Here the Legion has been told it must undergo a brief but intense period of reflection in conjunction with its associated lay movement, Regnum Christi, before its reform can proceed. The article makes reference to external criticism regarding the slow pace of the reform. The letter from Cardinal DePaolis, has been posted on the Regnum Christi website.

Click Here for Regnum Christi Website

The letter summarizes the reform process to date and explains that the Apostolic Delegate had clearly identified that all members of LC and RC share in the same charism (but which continues to be elusive). He explains that as he was focusing his energies on the problems related to the Legion, he found that the problems with Regnum Christi, especially the consecrated (3gf) members has distracted us more than a little from the problems of the Legion. Later in his letter he points out that it is impossible to properly and completely consider the government, apostolate and administration of the Legion of Christ without also taking the broader reality of Regnum Christi into account. Nor is it possible, on the other hand, to think of the reality of Regnum Christi without referring to the Legion.
ReGAIN Comment

The fundamental question about charism keeps popping up like an annoying mosquito buzzing around your ear in the dark as LC and RC continue their business as usual. It refuses to go away.

The two groups founded by Fr. Maciel are still joined at the hip like Siamese twins and you can?t have one without the other. The reference to the plight of the 3gf women as a distraction to the real business of reforming a Roman Catholic religious order of men is shocking to those whose lives hang in the balance. The recent publicity from the 49week blog site has made more people aware of the damaging effects of mind control in the 3gf methodology. As the Apostolic Delegate champions and promotes the beautiful reality of life in Regnum Christi, perhaps he is realizing that valid criticism of their structure and methodology is increasingly being directed towards him personally. Some of his comments indicate that perhaps some lights are switching on inside him as he identifies himself more closely as their leader. Is he willing to be a new Maciel in his defense of the Legion or is he having second thoughts?

As he is going to sleep each night perhaps he is being haunted by some of the questions that have been discussed for years on ReGAIN and life-after-rc and other sites.

Have any of the Legion’s upper echelon leaders indicated that they have any more genuine interest in spiritual matters and desire to see justice than the fraudulent founder did?

How can the Apostolic Delegate dissociate himself from the deceitful environment that he is trying to reform if he continues to act as their cheerleader, while leaving their old guard leaders in place?

Is he willing to accept valid criticism coming from very credible sources, including ICSA and high profile former members about the methodology and structure (e.g. mind control) as some of these are now being aimed at him personally for his part in their continuance?

Is it likely that the Holy Spirit acted through Father Marcial Maciel to do something beautiful for God and if so where is the evidence? If not, how long can everyone including him continue to keep up the pretense?

If (as seems obvious to us at ReGAIN) there never was a spiritual charism that came from the Holy Spirit, is it possible to develop one by a committee?

Is he willing to continue disappointing all of those members and their families who had hoped for real changes?

How long will he be able to withstand valid criticism that is coming from the media as the reform process drags on?

How can the issues regarding the fraudulent form of consecration of the 3gf women be resolved?

Are the Apostolic Delegate and the Vatican over their heads in some areas of the attempted reform process, considering available in-house expertise?

Are any of the victims of sexual, emotional, psychological and spiritual abuse (e.g. those mentioned on the 49week blog) by the founder and by his well intentioned followers being addressed?

How can the freedom of conscience issues (as identified in the May 1, 2010 Vatican communique be resolved?

As we wonder these things, we realize the need for prayers of intercession and guidance from the Holy Spirit for all of those who are involved in the reform process.

RTE Documentary “Would You Believe” About the Legionaries of Christ Irish Roots

In the early days of the Legionaries of Christ, their founder Father Marcial Maciel saw an opportunity to break into the English speaking areas of the world by establishing the Legion in Ireland. An exceptional documentary aired on RTE Irish Television includes exclusive interviews with current and former Legionaries with Irish backgrounds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc15RT9q7SY

 

ReGAIN’s president, Paul Lennon and several other friends of ReGAIN including Glenn Favreau, Juan Vaca, Isaac Chute, Genevieve Kineke and others as well as the Legionaries’ spokesperson and former editor of The National Catholic Register, Owen Kearns share some of their thoughts and memories. Jack Keogh who publishes his blog The Monk Who Stole the Cow http://www.monkwhostolethecow.com/ offers his personal recollections and insights about the Legion’s history in Ireland.

 

Some of the information included in the documentary came as a result of leaked Vatican documents about the Legionaries of Christ. Juan Vaca shares his testimony about the long term sexual abuse he endured from Father Marcial Maciel, starting when the Legion founder took him away from his family at the age of ten.

 

Genevieve Kineke in one of her interviews made a classic statement that we feel sums up the Legion’s intention when he founded the Legion: – to con people out of their money and families out of their children.

 

The documentary explains how three successive popes ignored compelling evidence about the Legionary founder, enabling him to achieve his desires.

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