Tag: Marcial Maciel

Secrets of the Vatican – Shady Financial Dealings, Sexual Abuse and the Bungled Reform of the Legionaries of Christ

An excellent documentary on PBS ? Frontlinehttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/secrets-of-the-vatican/
provides a comprehensive list of the horrendous challenges facing Pope Francis and those members of the hierarchy who have a sincere desire to reform the corruption inside the Vatican.

 

Much of it is disturbing to watch. Unless someone has had some inside information, he or she may be shocked to realize the level of corruption that exists. Some of us are familiar with the financial scandals historically and currently associated with the IOR Vatican Bank. Others find it difficult to understand how and why the Vatican Bank should have anything to do with the laundering of drug money. The information contained in this documentary raises the question: – how much of what is happening in the Vatican are we the ordinary faithful entitled to know? Perhaps ordinary parishioners would pray longer and harder if they knew what specifically needs to be prayed for.

 

We have increasingly been hearing reports concerning activities of homosexual priests in the Vatican and their actions conflict with the policy changes during the time of Pope Benedict XVI. Many of us would rather not know about such things and we hope that the stories we have heard are untrue. The documentary shines some light into dark areas most of us are not completely aware of.

 

Loyal practicing Catholics have become fed up with hearing about any more scandals involving priests sexually abusing innocent young people. Nothing seems to be more inconsistent with the teachings of Our Lord. But is the Catholic Church dealing with this awful problem in effective ways and if not what can we do about it?

 

The saga of Father Marcial Maciel, the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi continues finding new ways to pile further disgrace on the Church and on the good name of Pope John Paul II.

 

Somehow we know that we have not heard the last about Paolo Gabriele, Pope Benedict XVI?s butler and the Vatileaks scandal. Was it just a coincidence that Pope Benedict made a sudden decision to retire shortly after the stories of the leaked documents became public knowledge ? Was the butler acting in good conscience? Have we ordinary Catholics been shielded from the truth about what happens in the Vatican?

 

Is there a connection between all of the mysteries referred to above?

 

ReGAIN Comment

 

Frontline?s documentary has been produced by quality journalists who have selected people well qualified to speak about events that the Church would rather keep concealed from the general public. ReGAIN friends Jason Berry and Juan Vaca have both been quoted in the section dealing with the Legion.

 

According to Vatican II, we ( all of us)are the Church. If that is true then we have a right to be aware of problematic issues that affect the Church (which is us). Certainly, if our politicians attempted to keep secret the ways in which they spent the money we contributed in taxes and the way the politicians conducted themselves and the dealings they had with controversial organizations and powerful individuals, we would make every effort to bring things into the light so that we could hold them to account. Unfortunately, in the case of our elite Church leaders, by far the majority of Catholics tends to blindly trust in them, considering them to be much more holy than us and being above the sorts of scandals that we sometimes encounter with our political leaders. We forget that even in the presence of Jesus, the early apostles at times displayed human weaknesses such as cowardice, lack of faith and in one case the ultimate in treachery. So should we be surprised to discover that there may be modern day Judases who hold some very high positions in the hierarchy or that some of our spiritual leaders are unable to live up to the expectations we have for them regarding being faithful to the commandments.

 

The documentary reminds us that the Vatican is the last remaining example of an absolute monarchy in the world. At the senior levels, there is no accountability to any human power.

Anyone who regularly reads the articles posted on this website or on others that are critical of the Legionaries of Christ are well aware of the reforms needed in the Legion and Regnum Christi and many are puzzled at how the Catholic Hierarchy could allow someone such as Father Marcial Maciel to get away with such shocking behavior, deceit and crimes without appropriate disciplinary action.

 

If all members of the hierarchy and the clergy were living lives scrupulously in accordance with Catholic Church teachings, then the deceit, the abuse of children, the virtual enslavement and taking advantage of devout people using mind control techniques and shady financial dealings would be considered most unusual and totally unacceptable. However, assuming the information in the documentary to be true, then there is not as much difference as we would expect between the actions of some of the leaders of Holy Mother the Church and the leaders of the Legionaries of Christ. The beam in the eye of the Church hierarchy has been blocking their vision, preventing them from being able to discern the flaws in a religious order and movement that is accountable to them.

 

After all the horrors within the Church identified in the documentary, the last few minutes provide a glimmer of hope and a warning of possible terrible future events. Pope Francis has inherited all of the mind boggling situations and conditions referred to, including the difficulties of dealing effectively with the leaders of the Legionaries of Christ. The new Pope has shown a willingness to courageously accept the truth and to find new strategies to take effective action to bring true justice, holiness and goodness to the Vatican and to the Catholic Church. He will have to step on some powerful toes and he has already shown that he is not afraid to do so. If he is able to achieve some success in dealing with corruption, there will be reactions from those who are at present enjoying the fruits of such corruption. Those people wield considerable power and some are ruthless. We offer our prayers for Pope Francis for his safety and for the wisdom and other gifts of the Holy Spirit needed to deal with the spiritual warfare that is taking place.

 

Legionaries of Christ Denounce Founder, Marcial Maciel Degollado 02/06/2014

Legionaries Of Christ Officially Apologize To Victims: Catholic Order Denounces Founder Father Marcial Maciel

 | By Philip Pullella
Posted: 02/06/2014 10:47 am EST

ROME — A Roman Catholic order whose late founder lived a double life as a pedophile and womanizer officially denounced him on Thursday and apologized to his “many victims.”

The Legionaries of Christ, which former members said was run like a secretive cult, accused the founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, who died in 2008, of “reprehensible and objectively immoral behavior” as head of the order from its founding in 1941 until Pope Benedict XVI removed him in 2006.

Once a favorite of the Vatican because it drew many young Catholics to religious vocations and made sizable financial donations to the church, the order has been in Vatican receivership since 2010 and came close to being disbanded.

The apology, issued by delegates from around the world meeting in Rome to set a new direction for the order, came a day after a United Nations committee singled it out in a scathing report accusing the church of ignoring child abuse by priests.

Continue reading the main story
RELATED COVERAGE

Kirsten Sandberg, the chairwoman of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, in Geneva on Wednesday.U.N. Panel Criticizes the Vatican Over Sexual AbuseFEB. 5, 2014
The statement denounced “the magnitude of the evil and scandal caused” by Father Maciel and said the organization was now ready to turn a page. “We want to express our deep sorrow for the abuse of minor seminarians, the immoral acts with men and women who were adults, the arbitrary use of his authority and of material goods,” the statement said.

For decades, the Vatican dismissed accusations by seminarians that Father Maciel had abused them sexually, some when they were as young as 12. The order’s rules forbade criticizing the founder or questioning his motives. Pope John Paul II strongly backed Father Maciel, even as criticism of him mounted.

The order was long admired by the church for its dynamic growth and fund-raising prowess, and it had many wealthy conservative benefactors who saw it as a bulwark against liberalism in the church.

In 2006, a year after John Paul’s death, a Vatican investigation concluded that the previously denied accusations of molestation were true. Benedict ordered Father Maciel to retire to a life of “prayer and penitence.”

After his death, Vatican investigations found that Father Maciel had also fathered several children with at least two women, visited them regularly and sent them money.

The order’s newly elected general director, the Rev. Eduardo Robles Gil, has a long history with the group himself. According to its website, he helped establish the Legion in Brazil, and in 2011 he was named to a commission created to work with the victims of Father Maciel.

The Rev. John Stegnicki, a former Legion priest now working in the archdiocese of Brasília, was quoted by The Associated Press as saying that the outcome of the election was “disappointing” but predictable, given that the priests voting were by and large Maciel confidants or their protégés.

“Who else could they choose from?” he said. “All of them are entrenched in Legion-think.”

A version of this article appears in print on February 7, 2014, on page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: Catholic Order Denounces Its Founder. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe

United Nations and the Legion Denounce Founder Marcial Maciel (But Legion Leaders Elect a Maciel Loyalist As Their New Director General

Very recently, a United Nations committee has called on the Vatican to remove all child abusers from its ranks, report them to law enforcement and open the church’s archives so that bishops and other officials who concealed crimes could be held accountable. Reportedly, the UN committee singled out the Legion and its founder in a scathing report that accused the Church of ignoring child abuse by priests.

The UN report included the following wording: “The committee is gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators.?”

The UN panel has called on the church to report back on its progress in 2017

Meanwhile the Legionaries of Christ have officially denounced their founder, Father Marcial Maciel. They have issued a statement as reported by Catholic Culture apologizing to the victims of their late founder Father Marcial Maciel and acknowledging that the order was guilty of excessive exaltation of him. The statement acknowledges the damage that Father Maciel did, and mentions “the arbitrary use of his authority and of material goods, the indiscriminate consumption of addictive medicines and the act of presenting writings published by third parties as his own.” They went on to say that “the behavior of the founder, who maintained an appearance of piety while engaging in grossly immoral behavior, was ‘incomprehensible.'”

ReGAIN Comment
Anyone who is familiar with the Legionaries of Christ would realize how much it has taken for them as an organization to renounce their founder. Even after his double life had been exposed by a number of credible journalists and even by a Vatican investigation in 2005 – 2006, the Legion leaders (many of whom were fully aware of Maciel’s double life) pretended for years that he was innocent and was being falsely accused.

So, has there been a change of heart among the Legion leaders?

We would suggest that one should keep track of their actions rather than their words. The Legion has been given a golden opportunity to review their past, to make amends as much as possible and to come up with a plan to move forward and perhaps develop into a religious order with some kind of mission to serve God.

However, their choice of a new director general has indicated to the world that the Legion would like to go back to their inglorious past. Fr Eduardo Robles Gil, the man they have chosen has been described as “a Mexican long-time collaborator of the Legion’s disgraced late founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel.”

Rev. John Stegnicki, a former Legion priest now working in the archdiocese of Brasilia, the (capital of Brazil,) said the outcome of the election was “disappointing but predictable, given the priests voting were by and large Maciel confidants or their protégés.”

“Who else could they choose from? All of them are entrenched in Legion-think,” he said.

With this mounting pressure coming from the United Nations, the Legionaries of Christ and Marcial Maciel situation is becoming more than just an embarrassment to the Vatican and the Pope. Is the Catholic Church willing to needlessly suffer further loss of credibility and respect by continuing to prop up and defend an organization that never seems to waver from wanting to carry on its old Macielistic cult like methodology? We hope not.

Now that the new leaders are in place and the new constitutions are being finalized to submit to the Holy See for approval, Cardinal DePaolis’ role has ended. The renewal ( unfortunately not really a reform) for the time being has been completed.

In his letter last June, 2013, http://understandingthelegion.blogspot.ca/2013/12/letter-of-pope-francis-re-reform-of.html Pope Francis indicated that the election of new leaders and the constitutions will be fundamental steps towards the authentic and profound renewal of the Legion

Among the many who will be carefully watching to see what further action the Vatican will take include panel members from the United Nations, ex Legionaries, victims of the Legionary founder and members of SNAP – Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and many members of the news media. The stakes have increased and the if the Vatican opts to give the Legion a free pass once again there may be more serious consequences compared to what has happened historically.

Devastating Consequences (Because of Cover-Up) Statement From Peter F. Byrne LC

Those who did Father Maciel’s Bidding are All Eligible to be the New Leaders

 

On September 11, 2013, Father Peter F. Byrne, L.C. distributed a letter to those who have been seeking authentic reform in the Legion and justice for victims. With his permission, we are publishing a copy of it.

Dear Friends, Dissidents and Team Members,

This letter is just to thank you for all the effort that you have invested in the last 4 years in the struggle for truth and justice in the Legion of Christ.

Sadly I have to announce that one of the objectives we proposed will not come to be and the consequences for the future of the victims and of the congregation are devastating.

    – We had asked for a thorough investigation into the history of the congregation, into the corruption that had invaded practically every aspect its government and into the collusion of Vatican and Legionary officials. This effort entailed letters and interviews with Cardinal de Paolis, with the Cardinal Secretary of State and many other people whom we thought would see the need and the logic for a transparent investigation. It has never happened.
    – After 4 years we still do not know who else was responsible for the illegitimate and invalid ordinations of men to the priesthood in the Legion, for the reporting of the content of spiritual direction and the frequency of confessions, for the organization and realization of the smear campaigns against men of the Church, for the use of legionary school funds and donations to pay for the expenses of Fr. Maciel’s wives and families, for the systematic listening to the conversations between seminarians and their families, for the falsification of academic results . Bribes were paid, gifts were given; the names of ecclesiastic figures and important families were kept on lists and their

cultivation

    was reviewed in meetings with the results, plans and objectives being kept in data bases. The Vatican was lied to over the situation of the congregation and the over the situation of Fr. Maciel. Fr. Maciel was buried as a saint with funeral orations and eulogies. Legionary superiors, cardinals and other figures justified his actions and his abuse.. But to this day no one has been held responsible. No one knows what happened.
    – The cover up has been so complete that now the legion faces into its general chapter with the possibility that those very people who for years surrounded Maciel, did his every illicit bidding and defended him against any accusation are eligible to be the new superiors of the congregation. The very ones who aided and abetted him in his calumnious destruction of the character of his sexual and moral victims are now poised to become again the

cupula

    of the Legion.
    – As one of you pointed out at the beginning of this process time was on the side of those who had covered up for Maciel. All they had to do was lay low and wait. Soon those disaffected would leave; the Vatican would want expediency and would resist any attempt to allow the true extent of Maciel’s power to be revealed. Gradually the figure of Maciel would be redeemed and his life would be benignly interpreted, his crimes would be justified and his victims would be condemned forever to suffer the horror of abuse, the torture of calumny and the terror to see their violator revered while they were forgotten.

With the recent Mass celebrated by 40 legionary priests around Maciel’s tomb the regeneration of Maciel has already started

    and with the recent interview with the acting Superior General the benign interpretation has already taken hold.
    – Maciel is compared to other flawed founders. Why the Cardinal and the Superior general would allow a psychopath to be compared to other historical figures is a mystery. The corruption is partially explained as

weakness of infancy

    . The facts have been forgotten. How a legitimate charisma can be given to the Church through a “false prophet” has not been clarified.
    – The hopes we had of a new beginning for the congregation have been dashed. The radical purification has not taken place. The future generations of Legionaries will have to live under the shadow of the biggest fraud the Vatican has ever allowed and in the midst of doubts about the congregation’s authenticity.
    – I know that all of you had wished that justice be done for the victims and that reconciliation with them could be attained. I know that all of you had wished that a purified congregation would become a humble servant of the Gospel and of the Church. Maybe someday, maybe somehow those dreams will be attained. For the moment we have to admit defeat.
    – Thank you again for all your efforts and time. Thank you for the risks you have taken and the pains you have endured. Silence was not an option as it was the cowardly silence of generations of legionaries that had allowed Maciel damage our own brothers, stain the Church and construct a lie.
    –

All it takes for evil to advance is for good men to do nothing

– P.Peter F. Byrne LC

– P.S Greetings to all in USA, Chile, Brasil, Mexico, Spain, France, Central Europe, Ireland and Rome

ReGAIN Comment

The future generations of Legionaries will have to live under the shadow of the biggest fraud the Vatican has ever allowed and in the midst of doubts about the congregation’s authenticity.

Fr. Peter Byrne has advised ReGAIN that there was a Mass in Cotija celebrated by 40 Legionary priests around their founder’s tomb. Father Byrne advised us that the whole problem of the victims has been a mess.
As always the Cardinal has not taken any direct responsibility.
The terrible truth is that the majority of the Legionaries do not know what we are talking about when we speak of victims, they have no idea of what happened. Now we face a future where the victims will be forgotten and the sociopath will be remembered.

Over the years at ReGAIN, we have provided reports and opinions about events and people associated with the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi. The statements and sentiments expressed by Father Peter Byrne LC match closely our thoughts and feelings about what has been happening. We were elated when Pope Benedict XVI decided to proceed with a reform of the Legion and Regnum Christi after details of their founder?s secret life could no longer remain hidden. Unfortunately, soon after the reform was initiated, we began to realize that powerful elements inside the Church intended to use their power to assist in the cover up as much as possible about the real workings of the Legion and to protect those in the Legionary inner circle who had deceived their members and shared the wealth and power with Father Maciel. After so many years, we felt this waste of a unique opportunity to put things right was agonizing, frustrating and disappointing to say the least.

We continue to be hopeful and to pray that Pope Francis in his efforts to reform the Vatican Curia will include an authentic reform of the Legion and Regnum Christi on his to-do list.

 

Letter to Pope Francis regarding Reform of the Legion of Christ

By Xavier Leger
Lyon, Sunday March 31, 2013
Solemnity of the Resurrection of Christ

Most Holy Father,

It is now two weeks since the College of Cardinals chose you to be the new bishop of Rome. Your benevolent pastoral concern for the most unfortunate, for the most fragile and the poorest has caused many of us to entertain new hopes. That is why I decided to write you on behalf of my old companions from the Legion of Christ who, like me, have seen their lives deeply affected, if not shattered, by this congregation and whose sufferings have not been to this day understood or taken care of by the competent church authorities.

We hoped that on discovering the endless list of Fr. Maciel’s crimes, your predecessor would have launched an investigation into the heart of the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi to discover the effects of the founder’s vices on the life, customs, actions and thoughts of his disciples. However, it has been our painful experience that Fr. Maciel’s faults were facilitated by his entourage of the time who to this day go unpunished. Even more, the twisted spirit of the founder has sown in the hearts of his followers ambiguous and anti- Gospel behaviors hidden under a veneer of apparent holiness. Real discernment was needed, together with strong and appropriate measures, in order to bring an end to so much psychological and spiritual damage done to myriad souls.

Today, all the signs lead us to believe that the Apostolic Visitation was not intended to really search for truth and justice but to save the Legion and prevent Legionaries from jumping ship.

The least that should have been done was to put a halt to recruitment and priestly ordinations, at least for the duration of the investigation and spiritual reform. Was it reasonable to allow young people to join the Legion while it was still evident the congregation was affected by seriously devious sect- like dysfunction? Is it logical to continue to ordain young men to the priesthood knowing that they have not freely chosen their path?

The conclusions of the investigation seem to have been reached prematurely and haphazardly. Of the five Visitators only one met with Maciel’s victims: Mons Watty Urquidi. He was ill at the time and according to the victims, listened to them in an absent- minded way, without taking notes. The other Visitators interviewed Legionaries of Christ exclusively. So they only wanted to believe the infatuated members of a controversial organization, without having any knowledge of what a sect- like organization looks like. The Visitators should have started with those who had experienced the founder’s crimes and who had been able to step back and take a critical look at the situation.

Unfortunately, none of the latter was ever consulted. Worse still: in France, a dozen individuals and families explicitly asked to meet with the Visitators but they were never listened to.

Holy Father, the same mistake that had exonerated Fr. Maciel in 1958, at the end of the first Apostolic Visitation, was made again in 2010. In fact, in 1956, the superiors at the Congregation for Religious, alerted by several accusatory letters (from superiors and professors at the Jesuit University of Comillas, Spain, from some bishops and from two important members of the order) had sent Fr. Anastasio Ballestrero of the Holy Rosary, superior general of the Carmelites to carry out an investigation. Fr. Anastasio was not taken in by Maciel’s and Legion superiors’astuteness and his report dated February 11, 1957 is devastating. Later, in an effort to save the Legion, the Congregation for Religious sent more investigators, less perceptive than the first, who put together a new dossier from scratch, adopting the erroneous version defended by Maciel and the superiors appointed by him, despite the evidence at their disposition. The Legionary members, all of whom were under Maciel’s influence, lied so as to protect the Legion and the Founder. And that is how, after having white- washed Fr. Maciel in 1958, and continuing to let him prey on his seminarians and other vulnerable people, once again in 2010 the Vatican has white- washed an organization which continues to attack the integrity of the people who fall into its clutches. When will the nightmare end?

Most Holy Father, do not trust appearances. Blackmail, lies, manipulation, self- deception, guilt, ideology, moral harassment? all these techniques, working together, produce a devastating and deceptive effect which specialists call cult infatuation and which lies behind the prima facie success of the Legion of Christ. The true fruits of the Legion of Christ are not the hordes of seminarians who invade St. Peter’s Square to declare their love for you, but rather the thousands of human lives which are scorched by the infernal flames of this system and who no longer possess the strength to raise their voices. There are also innumerable collateral damages: specifically, broken families, as well as a number of people Fr. Maciel manipulated to get at their inheritance. And even more, although the damage is not quantifiable, there are the sins of omission: such as everything the Legion of Christ has not done and prevented from happening, such as the fight against poverty, against social injustice and corruption, particularly in Latin American countries. By systematically aligning with the rich and powerful has not the Legion of Christ ultimately aided and abetted iniquity? Is it enough for this religious congregation to produce a few charitable works, which are rarely effective in the long run, to erase that dreadful reality?

Most Holy Father, there are two ways to disobey you: the first, simple and direct, is to reject your authority and to walk out slamming the door behind. This way has at least one advantage: it is explicit and clear. The second way, Fr. Maciel’s and his disciples? way, is more perverse: it consists of playing the seduction card, going up front and telling how much they love you, promising you unconditional loyalty and so forth with the sole intention of influencing your judgment and selling you miracle solutions to all the Church’s problems; miracles which are no more than smoke screens. For the love of God do not make the same mistake your predecessors made! The fruits of this order may appear to be beautiful and attractive but behind the appearances they are ineffective, counter- productive, and even deadly.

The situation is dire because the Legion of Christ has had immense responsibilities entrusted to it during the past decades. For example, it ran a month- long summer course in Italy to train future leaders of diocesan seminaries. What a tremendous responsibility for the Church’s future! How not to be concerned when we realize that the instructors are almost all Legionaries of Christ, who live isolated in their own community without hardly any pastoral experience! To train a priest you need more than doctrinal knowledge because faith is not an ideology. What is most important for a priest is to know how faith takes on life in a parish, that is, to become a humble servant as you have reminded us last Thursday by washing the feet of the youth at a Roman prison!

Most Holy Father, all this is shocking, but it is only the beginning of the nasty surprises. Although the coercive system of the Legion conditions the religious to convince themselves that they are happy, the reality is that they suffer a martyrdom that has gone on for too long. I beseech you to start the investigation of the Legion all over again, radically changing the investigative method; we have to begin by spelling out very clearly the real story of Maciel and the congregation and this involves using independent outside experts, as well as psychologists well versed in the cult phenomenon. It entails doing justice to all the victims of the Legion and Regnum Christi, seeking their true well- being and not the institution’s material interests.

After I began to discharge my grave duty of conscience denouncing the sectarian aspects of the Legion, I was contacted by a number of former members of other Catholic religious communities, for the most part new, who have had similar experiences to mine in the Legion of Christ and so I realized that the Maciel debacle is not an exception or an isolated case; there are other, maybe worse, scenarios. Just as with the Maciel affair, their letters of denunciation sent to the Vatican were not heeded. All controversial Catholic religious communities should be investigated. As for those Vatican prelates who did not take the accusations seriously, they should be demoted for grave negligence and abuse of power.

Though grave, the situation can be overcome. Antidotes exist. I would like to inform you that for some time the International Cultic Studies Association, ICSA, a prestigious world- wide psychological and sociological organization, has been looking closely at cultic tendencies within the Catholic Church, in collaboration with competent priests and religious.

The explosion of studies targeting the cult phenomenon has created a marvelous opportunity for humanity and for the Catholic Church in particular. This research, the result of a multidisciplinary approach, offers us precise knowledge about the psycho- social processes at work in sectarian groups, and thus to grasp and identify the elements involved. The Church has a lot to gain by embracing these studies; they also provide her with an excellent examination of conscience with which to analyze her own practices with a critical eye. I truly believe that the Church could play a saving role in society, as Mother of Mercy, if she were to support and encourage combating and preventing sectarian groups.

I thank you for your attention and I hope you realize that this letter, just like all the other efforts I have made over the past few years, is nothing more than the exercise of my prophetic mission as a baptized Christian, following the dictates of my conscience. Be assured that I am willing to go to the Vatican, if you so desired, to answer all your questions in person.

Your humble servant in the Lord,
Xavier Leger

ReGAIN Comment:
ReGAIN feels that Xavier Leger has accurately expressed in his letter to Pope Francis in a respectful manner the key issues that have been on the hearts and minds of many of us former members and family members of Legionary and Regnum Christi consecrated members. We sincerely hope that those who are still concerned about the failed reform process will take similar actions to express their concerns to Church officials.

There are a number of recommendations stated or implied in the letter including the following:

Recommendations:

  • Stop recruitment until the reform process has been completed.
  • Stop ordinations (and consecrations) until the reform process has been completed.
  • Consult with those who have been victimized by Fr. Maciel and by his organizations and take action to provide justice.
  • Review the information from previous investigations.
  • Consult with qualified psychologists as well as knowledgeable cult and mind control experts.
  • Review especially the coercive methodology and use of manipulation and deceit.
  • Make further investigations into other controversial cultic groups within the Catholic Church and take action to bring effective reform (or suppression) as needed.
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