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	Can the Work of Maciel Be Saved? By Rod Dreher Beliefnet February 9, 2009 http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2009/02/can-the-work-of-maciel-be-save.html George Weigel writes a powerful piece demanding a complete accounting from an independent source about what, precisely, Father Maciel did, and who in the Legion of Christ's leadership knew what was going on and covered up for it. Weigel does not think that the Roman curia can be trusted with this task. Excerpt: And, as the flailings and failures of the past ten days have made clear, that audit cannot be conducted by the Legion leadership, which is likely beset by a maelstrom of internal and external pressures. It must be mandated by the pope, and it must be conducted by someone responsible to the pope alone--not responsible to the relevant parts of the Vatican bureaucracy, not responsible to the cardinal secretary of state, but responsible to the pope alone. There is simply no other way open to an accounting that will be both scrupulously honest and publicly credible. Why not work through the normal curial processes with, perhaps, an apostolic visitation of the Legion being mandated by the pope and run through the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life (typically called the Congregation for Religious)? Because, according to reliable sources, senior curial officials resisted that solution in the years leading up to CDF's 2006 action, and the Congregation for Religious has been resisting it ever since the latest Maciel firestorm broke. Such reluctance hardly befits any curial office for a supervisory role in a credible moral and institutional audit of the Legion. Moreover, the last several weeks of curial chaos, confusion, and incompetence in the wake of the lifting of the excommunications of four Lefebvrist bishops have made clear just how dysfunctional the curia remains in terms of both crisis analysis and crisis management. A curia in which no one in authority had the sense to Google "Richard Williamson," and no subordinate had the nerve or capacity to compel the superiors to pay attention to a potential landmine, is not a curia capable of getting to the roots of the Maciel betrayal. Nor, candidly, is it a curia capable of conducting an investigation that can command public credibility. It is regrettable that this is the case, for there are many honorable people working in the Roman curia. But it is the case. Lee Podles believes it likely that the entire Legion will have to be suppressed, given the magnitude of the scandal involving its founder. I have no doubt at all that many, many good priests and laypeople are part of this movement. I don't see how they can remain together as the LC or Regnum Christi after this.
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