Maciel molested seminarians, fathered children, and stole Legion money to support them.
The spiritual writings that he gave to the Legion to form its members turn out to have been written by someone else.
Catholic News Agency reports:
In an effort to distance itself from the wrongdoings of its founder, the Legion of Christ has recently circulated an internal memo detailing how a long venerated work of spirituality attributed to Fr. Marcial Maciel was actually a slight re-writing of a book from a little-known Spanish author.
“El Salterio de mis días” (The Psalter of my Days), according to the Legionary tradition, was regarded as written by Fr. Maciel during the period of the “great blessing,” (1956-59), when the Mexican founder was submitted to a canonical process by the Vatican that was finally called off.
The memo now reveals that the text, very popular among the Legion in its original in Spanish and partially translated into English for internal use, was “based” on the little known work of a Spanish Catholic politician, Luis Lucía.
What begins as tragedy ends as farce
To think that this was the man John Paul II held out as an “efficacious guide to youth”! Apparently the “heroic virtue” now ascribed officially by the Vatican to JP II did not prevent his being duped and taken in by a con-man of the worst sort. I pray the Church will go slow on canonizing the last pope. To do so would be, de facto, to canonize his papacy, about which there are serious questions. John Paul the great? I’m afraid I’m not convinced.
This men was a fraud, un fraude!!
JP2 aka (GFFM) The Great “Flim Flam Man”.
Father Michael and Deanna, I openly questioned the late Pope on several Catholic blogs in the final years of his tenure — and was castigated for doing so. Moreover, Rod Dreher wrote an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal saying that the late Pope “let us down” by being such a vociferous opponent of the 2003 invasion of Iraq (which Dreher supported at the time) while doing nothing about child molesters in the Church.
JPII’s cult of personality was extremely strong. It influenced a lot of good, devout, yet naive, people — even among intellectuals who should be expected to have some sense of discernment. I, for one, thought the whole “John Paul the Great” proclamation by his supporters was more than a bit much. It bordered on hero worship.