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	Legionaries of Christ Advised to Reorganize into a New Order Western Catholic Reporter February 12, 2009 http://www.wcr.ab.ca/news/2009/0216/order021609.shtml EMMITSBURG, MD – A leading moral theologian has called on the Legionaries of Christ to disband and to reorganize themselves into a new religious order. Germain Grisez, Flynn Professor of Christian Ethics at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, said unless the order is terminated “the common good you now share will begin to decompose: very few new men will join you, many in formation will leave, some professed members will separate, and the collaboration and support of the lay faithful will shrink.” He made his comments in a Feb. 5 online post that was written as an open letter to the Legionaries of Christ. Members of a religious order, he noted, continue to serve in the spirit of their founder even after the founder has died. Grisez said Father Maciel’s “objective betrayal of his commitment makes it impossible for you and other good and faithful Legionaries any longer to carry on your service and life as cooperation with him.”ROOT OUT ACCOMPLICES Moreover, Grisez said, “Father Maciel’s double life required the complicity of associates, some of whom surely are still members of the institute, and some of whom probably are functioning as superiors. Unless those who shared in the betrayal are identified and faithful Legionaries cleanly separate from them, the latter group’s common good will not continue receiving the support of faithful Catholics, and will not be preserved.” Grisez asked the members of the Legionaries to appeal to the pope to oversee “termination of the Legionaries of Christ, the salvaging of its faithful members and other assets, and their reconstitution into a new institute.” (The full transcript of Grisez’s letter is available online at www.americanpapist.com/2009/01/text-open-letter-to-legionaries-by-dr.html.)
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