ROLLING PRAIRIE (IL)
South Bend Tribune
By JEFF PARROTT
Tribune Staff Writer
ROLLING PRAIRIE -- An ultraconservative and controversial Catholic group has opened a new boarding school for boys interested in the priesthood at the former Le Mans Academy.
The Legionaries of Christ is calling this "minor seminary" school, its third in the United States, Sacred Heart Apostolic School. It ultimately is to contain grades 7 through 12, but has begun this school year with a group of 18 boys in seventh and eighth grades. The school plans to add a grade level each year with an ultimate goal of 100 to 120 students, spokesman Jay Dunlap said.
The orthodox religious order, which claims 600 priests and 2,500 seminarians in 20 countries, has been embraced by conservative Catholics such as the late Pope John Paul II and actor/director Mel Gibson, whose movie, "The Passion of the Christ," enraged many Jewish people over how they were portrayed.
But critics say the Legionaries of Christ recruits boys at too young an age for the priesthood, isolates them from their families and "brainwashes" them to follow its conservative doctrine, forbids members from criticizing their leaders, is ruthless in its fundraising, and, among other things, violates the confidentiality of confession by forcing seminarians to confess their sins to priests who also act as their superiors.
On top of those concerns are sexual abuse allegations from at least eight men -- some of whom went on to become priests -- against the congregation's powerful founder, Rev. Marcial Maciel.The men, most of whom are Mexican, say Maciel molested them in the 1950s, '60s and '70s while they were seminarians.