Legionaries of Christ
The Legionaries of Christ is a Roman Catholic religious congregation of pontifical right founded on January 3, 1941, by Mexican Catholic priest and sexual offender Marcial Maciel. It belongs constitutively to the spiritual family of Regnum Christi together with the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi and the Lay Consecrated Men of Regnum Christi. Its official name is the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ.
History
Foundation in fact
On January 3, 1941, the "Apostolic Missionary Mission of the Sacred Heart of Jesus" was founded in Mexico City as a separate section of the Diocesan Seminary of Cuernavaca. This initiative was promoted by seminarian Marcial Maciel, marking the beginning of what would later become the Legion of Christ. The creation of this new entity had the approval of Bishop Francisco González Arias, Bishop of Cuernavaca, and Archbishop Luis María Martínez, Archbishop of Mexico City. The "missionary work", as it was called at the beginning, was composed of a group of seminarians with the purpose of forming a new religious congregation. This objective was recorded in the diary of the founding community, where the seminarians referred to themselves as "future congregated".On March 25, 1946, a significant step was taken with the establishment of the first novitiate house, in what is called a "foundation in fact", since the congregation did not yet have formal recognition by the Catholic Church in Rome.
Affiliated groups
The Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ is a Roman Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men that forms part of the Regnum Christi Federation, founded by Maciel in 1959, which includes the Legionaries of Christ, the Society of Apostolic Life of the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi, the Society of Apostolic Life of the Lay Consecrated Men of Regnum Christi, and other Catholics who associate individually. Its members add the nominal letters after their names to indicate their membership in the Congregation. The "larger culture" is often referred to as "the movement" within the Regnum Christi Federation.Ethos
Members of the Legion take vows of humility, poverty, chastity, and obedience. The vow of humility, which is not one of the three vows taken by all major Catholic religious institutes, obligates Legionaries not to seek positions of power within the Legion or the Church as a whole. In addition, until 2007, all Legionaries were compelled to take "private vows", never to "speak ill of Maciel or any superiors, and to report to their superiors anyone who did", a policy that impeded the discovery of wrongdoing by Maciel and other Legionary leaders, according to investigative journalist Jason Berry. This vow was lifted by the pope, and has not been taken by new Legionaries.Love for Christ is, for Legionaries, a personal experience. Through the Gospel, the cross, and the Eucharist, Legionary spirituality teaches that the Legionary should seek to know Christ intimately, and love him in a passionate way by embracing him as their model of holiness. Their spirituality is Christ-centered with a particular emphasis on the Sacred Heart, which is the patron of the Legion, in their vocation as religious and priests.
Love for Mary is seen as arising from the imitation of Christ. In the Legion, Our Lady is venerated as both Mother of the Church and of the individual Legionary's vocation. Legionaries consecrate their spiritual and apostolic lives to her care, and seek to take on her virtues of faith, hope, charity, obedience to God, humility, and cooperation with Christ's plan of redemption and justice.
Love for Souls is defined in the Legion as an ardent desire to spread Christ's kingdom in this world. Legionaries focus on helping the greatest number of souls know and love Christ. In Legionary theology, time is a gift given by God which he wants to maximize to spread the Gospel and help bring the love of God to many souls.
Formation
According to the National Catholic Reporter, the Legion or Legionaries of Christ was founded so early in the career of Marcial Maciel, he was ordained as a priest after he was leading the order.The Legion has been described as "conservative" and focusing on "ministering to the wealthy and powerful in the belief that by evangelizing society's leaders, the beneficial impact on society is multiplied". Today the Legion purports its priests "are the confessors and chaplains to some of the most powerful businessmen in Latin America".
Legionaries have been described as "easy to spot in Rome, young men with close-cropped hair in traditional cassocks or double-breasted blazers, walking two by two like a spiritual army." Legion culture has been described as "insular" and "cultlike".
The Legion began in Mexico where its largest base remains. It is said to have created "a vast network" of private schools and universities for the children of the elite in that country, which provided funding for his movement’s worldwide expansion.
Houses of formation were established in Spain and Italy within its first decade. In the 1960s, chapters of the organization were founded in Ireland and then in the United States. In the 1970s and 80s the congregation expanded throughout Latin America. In the 90s it expanded to France and Central Europe.
The Legion presents itself as dedicated to advancing the Church's mission in the world, and to this end claims to submit candidates to a rigorous formation of four dimensions: human, spiritual, intellectual, and apostolic. Critics accused the Legion of producing priests and religious who all spoke and behaved in the same way. The Legion's defenders argued that, just as members of a family receive similar upbringing, so the members of the Legion were formed in like ways, but still respected the freedom of the individual. The new constitutions approved by Pope Francis present a more balanced approach to the formation of members.
As is the practice in many religious congregations of the Roman Catholic Church, Legionaries may visit their family according to their superiors' discretion and the norms of the Congregation, the average being for about 4–7 days a year not counting special occasions. Regular contact with their families is encouraged with respect to written, verbal, and video communication.
Apostolates
The apostolate of the Legionaries has many aspects, but focuses on the following:In the US, the congregation runs four schools. In 2012, all three of its high schools were named in the list of top 50 Catholic High Schools developed by the Cardinal Newman Society.
In Mexico, the Legionaries administer the Anahuac University Network. Legionaries operate centers of education in Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Korea, Ireland, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, the United States, and Canada.
In 2006, the Legion launched a test phase of Mission Network in the United States. Catholic Mission Network, Inc., is the umbrella organization that oversees and approves Legionary-endorsed apostolates that are not stand-alone like a school or retreat center. Its purpose is to provide both structure and supervision of the apostolates, and an overview as to what the Legion/Regnum Christi does as a whole, with brand-name-type recognition.
The youth wing of Regnum Christi, offering spirituality for youth 11 to 16, is called ECYD. The commitments in ECYD vary over time, adapting to the ages of the members. Many ECYD members are involved in clubs run or overseen by Legionaries or consecrated members of Regnum Christi.
Founder
Marcial Maciel was born in Cotija, Michoacán on March 10, 1920, into a devout Catholic family—four of his uncles were bishops—during a time in which the Mexican government was fiercely anticlerical. He became a priest after a troubled youth.Maciel was expelled from two seminaries for reasons that have never been explained, and became a priest only after one of his bishop uncles ordained him after private studies.
Maciel was ordained a priest on November 26, 1944, in Mexico City, but had already founded the congregation in 1941, with the support of Francisco González Arias, Bishop of Cuernavaca. Two years later in 1946, he presented a donation to the Vatican for $10,000, "a huge sum in a city reeling from the war."
Pope John Paul II praised him in lavish ceremonies and called him an "efficacious guide to youth". In general, the Holy See held Maciel "up as a model of sainthood for the faithful" in large part "because he brought in money and vocations to the priesthood."
In the Legion of Christ, Maciel was called "nuestro padre". Members of the congregation were taught "the Legion message"—that Maciel "had his enemies, but that he was a living saint for his leadership as an evangelist, drawing the church back from liberal abuses of the Second Vatican Council and attracting young men to a strict religious life."
After Maciel's abuses came to light, Pope Benedict XVI sentenced him to a life of "prayer and penance" in 2006. Maciel died in Jacksonville, Florida, on January 30, 2008, aged 87, and was buried in his hometown of Cotija de la Paz, Michoacán, Mexico. Immediately following Maciel's death, the Legion's leaders proclaimed "his ascent to heaven".
Abuses
According to the BBC, the 2019 report by the order found that Marcial Maciel had abused at least 60 children, and that another 33 priests of the order abused minors, bringing the total number of children abused by the order since its founding in 1941 to at least 175.One of the first English language public reports of abuse came in 1997 exposing abuse that happened in the 1950s. Juan Vaca and seven other early victims of Maciel "gave graphic accounts" in the Hartford Courant of how they watched Maciel inject himself with a morphine painkiller in Spain and Rome in the 1950s and finally had to be hospitalized. Cardinal Valerio Valeri received reports "from an older seminarian in Mexico City" and the head of the one Legion high school at the time, who were concerned about Maciel's drug use and "overly affectionate behavior with boys". Valeri suspended Maciel but in 1959 he was reinstated by Clemente Micara, the interim vicar of Rome.
For a long time, the Vatican dismissed accusations by seminarians that Father Maciel had abused them sexually, some when they were as young as 12. After years of denial by the Congregation and the Regnum Christi movement and dismissal of accusations made by many former members, an investigation prompted by the Vatican concluded that allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Maciel were true. On 1 May 2010, the Holy See issued a communique on its year-long investigation of the Legionaries, condemning "system of power" created by Marcial Maciel, that hid "true crimes" and a private life "without scruples or authentic religious sentiment." The communique called for the Legionaries to follow a "path of purification", including a "sincere encounter" with Maciel's abuse victims.
The superiors of the congregation did not officially inform the rest of the congregation until a year after his death, during which time, they continued to permit an internal culture of revering him as a saint. The Legionaries of Christ eventually acknowledged their founder's "reprehensible and objectively immoral behavior" as head of the congregation. As a result of the scandal, Pope Benedict XVI also removed the vow of charity, which required members to maintain secrecy, impermeability, and refrain from criticism of superiors. The "very serious and objectively immoral acts" of Maciel, which were "confirmed by incontrovertible testimonies", represented "true crimes and manifest a life without scruples or authentic religious sentiment", the Vatican said.
After the scandals of Maciel came to light, some priests and seminarians left the congregation. Several schools and centers of formation closed.
In 2019, the organization admitted that Father Fernando Martínez Suarez had abused eight minors between 1990 and 1993. A month later, they admitted that members of the organization had sexually abused 175 children between 1941 and 2019. Sixty of those were abused by its founder, some of whom were his own children from several relations. Six of the priests had died, eight had left the priesthood, one left the Congregation, and 18 continued in their posts but had been removed from tasks where they interacted with the public or with children. The 2019 report by the Legion noted that 14 of the 33 priests who abused minors had been victims themselves when they were young, thus highlighting what it called "chains of abuse", where "a victim of a Legionnaire, over time, becomes in turn an aggressor".
The Legion of Christ also singled out former Secretariat of State Angelo Sodano for leading efforts to cover up the reports of abuse.
In 1998, nine men lodged formal charges at the Vatican that Maciel had abused them as youths and young men while studying under him; Maciel was initially investigated by the Holy See and suspended from his ministry in 2006. In 2009, an apostolic visitation was ordered by Pope Benedict XVI and shortly after Cardinal Velasio De Paolis was delegated to impose "structural changes".
In 2014, the five-year renewal process was completed with the approval of amended constitutions; five years later, Pope Francis referred to the new Constitutions approvingly.
On December 21, 2019, the Legionaries of Christ released the "Report 1941-2019 on the Phenomenon of Sexual Abuse of Minors in the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ from its Founding to the Present Day".
According to the report, an internal commission "verified the various accusations of sexual abuse of minors throughout the history of the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ. It collected the global statistics of cases of abuse by its priests between 1941 and 2019 and included an appendix with the steps taken to prevent future abuse and guarantee safe environments."
When the report was released, Father John Connor released a communication compiling a list of all of the previously released names of Legionaries of Christ who were active in ministry with substantiated sexual abuse allegations in the United States.
One month later, Father John again addressed the North American territory in a letter saying, "We must pray that these victims receive the healing they need and that those who are still trying to find the courage to come forward are able to find it. This is an important part of the healing process for victims and it’s important for the Congregation to listen to the experiences of victims so that we can make reparation and be further purified."
In his letter, Father John also affirmed that the organization is "committed to transparency about the abuse that has been perpetrated by Legionaries of Christ, to working towards a culture in which all our priests deeply understand the effects of sexual abuse and their role as spiritual fathers dedicated to nourishing God’s people, and to helping those who have been harmed to heal from their wounds."