There is, entirely understandably, a lot of bitterness about Maciel.
The problem is not in understanding a scoundrel (history is full of them) but in understanding his enablers.
The Vatican and John Paul II are among the most culpable, in approving constitutions that focus far too much on the personality of the founder, and then in refusing to investigate the serious complaints about Maciel.
Pius XII had removed Maciel from his order, investigated, and was apparently going to permanently remove Maciel when Pius died. The vicar of Rome covered up for Maciel, who then was in good graces when John XXIII appeared on the scene. The allegations about Maciel surfaced again under John Paul II, but no one took them seriously.
One issue is the difference between control and discipline. These are often confused both in theory and in practice, but the purpose and results are different.
Anyone who has been responsible for discipline in a family, a scout troop, or a middle school class, knows how difficult and thankless and necessary a task it is. Any organization needs discipline to achieve its purpose, and often to protect the weak. Discipline should also help those being disciplined to be disciples, to learn, to mature, to internalize rules, and eventually to be independent of outward disciple: the Law is a tutor.
But control, although it can look like discipline, is the tool of the narcissist or psychopath who wants to be the puppetmaster in his little (or big) universe. He wants to control even the minutest actions of those around him, and he keeps those around him infantilized and dependent.
In any organization, including the Church, narcissists tend to climb to the top, because they enjoy attention and controlling other people. I suspect that the Vatican has its share of narcissists, who saw nothing wrong with Maciel.
And Pope John Paul… No one knows why he failed. He was not authoritarian, despite that accusation against him. I suspect he was guilty of wishful thinking: The Legion looked so good, the accusations against Maciel couldn’t be true. A common human failing, but it can be disastrous when the self-deluder is in authority and is responsible for the discipline that protects the vulnerable.
I couldn’t agree more!!! It is Pope John Paul II who allowed this predator to remain in power. Who knows the reason? To say that he was a hopeless romantic, believing in the good in everyone – or at least in Maciel – just makes me want to question the authority of the pope. This was not just a matter of opinion, it was a matter of proven facts. If the Holy Father was not able to act on facts, then what about other aspects of his popehood?! Who knows what other errors he may have made?! True, he is not infallible in all things, but this is a BIG one!! This endangered many lives and souls, and if the pope was not able to protect them from a molester, then that is just plain scary!!
Pope John Paul failed because he was more interested in ‘protecting the church’ than he was in the message brought by Christ. In addition, he was ill, growing old and depended on the Office of the Inquisition, as it used to be known, which was headed by Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict IV.
Pope Benedict is failing, because he is more interested in obtaining the wealth of Maciel’s followers than he is in educating himself to the cause of the problems in the first place.
He is a marvelous actor, adequately gifted for the role of narcissist puppetmaster in his unimaginable wealth. For centuries the laity has been brainwashed to believe that a priest must lead an individual to God. For those who choose to remain brainwashed, so be it!
I just don’t get this. The guy was obviously a sociopath from a very young age. A blind man could see that. Okay, so we found out that he was a child molester, raped seminarians, led a double life, was a drug addict and had a child when he claimed to be celibate. He was a bad man. He was a liar. He was less than we hoped. So am I. Where is the news here?
Only a goof would have thrown their entire trust and life behind someone as cultic and nuts as this super right wing “Catholic”. Let me explain something to you people. A “Catholic” is in how you behave, NOT in what you say you believe. People can believe anything. We found that out in the Inquisition. What do I have to do to drag all the Legionnairies of Christ kicking and screaming into the 19th Century? The Legions’ vision of Catholicism is four hundred years old. I would settle for the Legion accomodating itself to Vatican I. Vatican II can wait till next century.
NO ONE reading this would want me as a fellow parishioner. I am a sinner, a liar, a cheat and a no good bum. No one realizes that better than me. But I have a hope that there is the One God and that he is merciful. NO ONE can earn heaven. It is not possible. Not even a member of the Legion of Christ. They are nutjobs that think that they are living a Catholic life. They are not, a Catholic is involved in the dirt and grime and struggles of the world. A Catholic gets his psyche dirty trying to witness to Christ. You cannot witness to Christ from an ideological platform that is about as real as the Easter Bunny. If your hands are not dirty and your brow is not sweaty trying to witness in some way genuine to yourself, you are a phony at worst and a moron at best.
Stop with all the whining about how bad a man Maciel was. It is not important. HE was not that important. That is my entire point. Let the man rest in peace. He was no worse than I am but he raised a hell of a lot more money for the church than I ever did. That has to count for something.
Full Disclosure: I am a victim of childhood sexual and physical abuse at the hands of nuns and an attempted and flubbed rape by a priest when I was in college. I was drunk…but I was not THAT drunk! Nothing happened. Lucky for him. I am a grandfather, a former seminarian for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and a non practicing anything.
http://www.themcgurk.vpweb.com
The guy was a sociopath. They are everywhere. Where is the news here?
t’s clear now that Maciel was a psychopathic narcissistic megalomaniac god-wannabe sick b*****d. Anyone who thinks this was a good thing and that he had “charisms” has been totally scammed by one of the slickest con artists and master manipulators ever born (manipulating specifically ardent religiousness and devotion) and had better learn to admit it. Learn to stop being religious and devout, and you will no longer be prey to nutjobs like Maciel and RCC Inc in general (or any religion who claims to have the One Right True and ONLY Way to a Ticket to Heaven(tm)). The only guarantee of protection from people like this is cult awareness and a lack of respect (nay even contempt) for religion and those in authority (of any kind – know people sucked into ManKind Project, a LGAT cult). What’s sad is that even smart people get sucked into cults, so intelligence is no guarantee of safety, just street smarts and contempt for the arrogant with unfounded claims. See rickross.com to learn about cults of all kinds, and look up Isaac Bonewits’s Cult Danger Evaluation Frame to see one of the best ways to evaluate *any* group (social, political, religious) for cultish tendencies (and a way to deliberately choose a cult for yourself if you’re so inclined and actually want to be sucked in of your own free will).
I found it interesting to learn that Maciel impregnated a 15 year old. No doubt he thought he could sire the Second Coming just like Yahweh – imagine his disappointment when the baby was born a filthy, sinful, disgusting, and ***evil*** (according to RCC Inc’s doctrine, and no offense to the young lady who can’t help the circumstances of her birth) instead of a good, holy, perfect, messianic, and pure male child with male parts. I’ve been saying here and elsewhere that RCC Inc is an organized criminal child rape cult that worships a pedophile god and whose central myth is the rape by said god of a young, underage girl to make a male clone of himself in flesh to cure a nonexistent disease and that every member of clergy takes their Alter Christus status to heart and wants to emulate their god in as many ways as possible. Maciel is the perfect example of just that – he believed himself to be god on earth, commanded worship of a personality cult, fully exploited his membership by controlling their sexuality (NO sex for thee at all unless its sex with me), and acted out his sick “I am god on earth” fantasies with boys, men, and now we know, little girls.
I really feel sorry for his daughter – I hope he didn’t rape her too (one can only hope he was too old to function by then). Girlfriend, if you’re out there, I love you and I hope you have a great life free from the shackles of RCC Inc, LC, and RC. You’re just a normal young woman who wants to have fun in life, and you’re never gonna have it in religion. Get chock-full of free will and have a beautiful and *happy* life. Love and Hugs to you! There is a good life possible free of any cults.
Maciel was a cash cow for the Vatican.. THAT’s why JPII did nothing.
I have read in at least one place that Pope John Paul II was generally reluctant to believe sex abuse accusations, because in Communist Poland, a common tactic that was used to ruin someone’s political career was to accuse him of being a homosexual. Has anyone else heard this theory?
I am a US-born Catholic priest who has worked in Mexico for over 30 years. The first time I met a Legionary priest I could sense something was wrong. As time passed, my conviction of something being wrong with the Legion became greater. I have known young Mexicans and Americans who went into the Legion and who came out with a lot of psychological damage. I have also met Legionary priests who seem very humble and well-balanced. I have read the book Legionario by Alejandro Espinoza, (a close inmate of Maciel for six years) which I don’t think has been translated into English. This book as well as many other first-hand testimonies by Mexican priests are really worth reading in the original. I believe it was possible for almost any normal person to be taken in by Maciel. Even Fr. Neuhaus was so totally convinced of Maciel’s innocence “after reading all the pertinent documents.” When Fr. Neuhaus wrote that defense of the Legion in First Things, I sent him an extensive email affirming that I believed it was rash to take such a stand before examining much more information down here in Mexico where the tragedy started, because it would seriously undermine his statement. Fr. Neuhaus replied to me in words that made me convinced he was taking me seriously. However, he never actually retracted his statements; it would have been hard to do so without further investigation. Remember, the Legion has always been hermetically sealed from the outside world. The eight priests who went to the Hartford Courant several years ago were not heeded. They were considered slanderers. The only defense I have for the Pope: many of us do not realize that a spiritual wall surrounds superiors: the Superior is usually the last person to be informed about miscreants in an Order. I was a superior for 23 years and I was not informed of a serious problem until everyone else knew about it, and the priest in question had already left my jurisdiction. Only when he was gone for good would anyone dare approach me. He was a perfect con-artist and knew how to act around me so that I could never dream what he was up to. Meanwhile, his victims were artfully threatened by him not to report anything to me. When it comes to the Holy Father, far away in Rome, and far above the grass-roots reality of daily life in the church, he may remain ignorant for years of what happens down here below. I’ve worked in a Chancery Office and I have seen to what extent a Bishop can ignore what is going on, even under his nose. The more letters he signs, 99% of them written by someone else, the less he may realize what he is signing. This is what “being out of touch” means in the Church. Whoever is at the top of the pyramid is the furthest away from everyday life in parishes, religious communities, Catholic schools, etc. When they make pastoral visitations, they are shown all the best than can be prepared along their path. This does not excuse them from not having what St. Thomas Aquinas calls the “necessary suspicion” of superiors about their subjects. The first Legionaries, it should be added, were inducted into their order at 11 years of age. Such an age makes them very vulnerable to brainwashing. It was only later in life that they were capable of overcoming the cultic daze and report to the Hartford Courant. Last Sunday at supper we discussed this whole crisis. An Italian lady present said that child sexual abuse was something that was simply never mentioned anywhere, even less at the dinner table. Latin cultures are famous for living in denial. Even in the U.S., this topic only blossomed about 20 years ago. Quite possibly, if Maciel had died 50 years ago, no one would have ever known anything about his crimes. A certain amount of historical relativity is needed when studying any age. In the 19th Century, no one lost any sleep about black slavery. Just as today, polls show that Catholics believe a person can be a good Catholic without obeying Church teachings on birth control (75%), on divorce and remarriage (66%), and abortion (53%). How many people live in denial about sexual abuse of minors? It’s rampant. And when it’s a priest who is the offender, I cannot think of any worse delict. Benedict XVI speaks of this as: “abominable crimes.” Maybe the death penalty would be the only adequate punishment.