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	Catholic Group Regnum Christi Rocked by Sex Scandal By Bruce Nolan The Times-Picayune February 22, 2009 http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/02/catholic_group_rocked_by_sex_s.html Hundreds of local families affiliated with a conservative lay spiritual movement within the Catholic church have been rocked by the disclosure that the movement's revered priest-founder for decades led a secret double life -- and has a daughter. The news has shaken an estimated 200 families in metro New Orleans and Baton Rouge belonging to Regnum Christi, or Kingdom of Christ, said Jim Fair, a Chicago spokesman for Regnum Christi and an affiliated order of priests, the Legion of Christ. Fair estimated there are about 9,500 Regnum Christi families in the United States. "You know the Kubler-Ross stages of grief -- anger, denial, depression and so forth? We've got all those bases covered all at once," Fair said. The disclosure also is a measure of vindication for New Orleans writer Jason Berry, who, with Connecticut newspaperman Gerald Renner, began uncovering evidence in 1997 that the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the charismatic founder of the two groups, was not who he appeared to be. Their 2004 book, "Vows of Silence," and a later documentary of the same name marshaled on-the-record interviews with nine former legion seminarians who said they had been sexually abused as youths by Maciel decades ago but could not win a hearing on their accusations at the Vatican. On Maciel's word, the legion denied the allegations, dismissed the accusers as conspirators, and attacked Berry and Renner, who died in 2007. Disturbing truth However, earlier this month members of the legion's leadership quietly began informing legion priests and members of Regnum Christi around the world that they had confirmed disturbing findings about Maciel. Legion leaders said they learned Maciel had a daughter in her 20s. They did not explain how they came by the information or whether an investigation was continuing. And they did not address the seminarians' old sex abuse charges. In the communiques, the legion's leaders stress that the communities still owe a debt of gratitude to Maciel, in spite of his flaws, for the work he accomplished. "One of the mysteries that we all see in life is that God does good works with less than perfect human instruments," said the Rev. Paolo Scarafoni, a legion spokesman in Rome. Fair said the legion and Regnum Christi have no intention of renouncing Maciel. "I see his impact on my own family and my kids, and that's not going away. That's still there," said Fair, a Regnum Christi member for 10 years. For many members, the blow to Maciel's integrity opened the door to the likelihood that the seminarians' accusations of sexual abuse were true as well. Jay Dunlap, a former spokesman for the organization, e-mailed a personal apology to Berry and asked him to forward a similar apology to the men who had accused Maciel. The Rev. Thomas Berg, a prominent legion priest, posted on the Internet an open letter critical of the legion's handling of the crisis and its continuing refusal to address Maciel's accusers in a new light. "You feel betrayed? You feel rage? I can only say that the rage and raw emotions that I have felt these past days .A¤.A¤. are only a glimpse of the unspeakable hell that victims of priest sexual abuse must go through." Efforts by The Times-Picayune over several days to reach nearly a dozen local Regnum Christi families to discuss the disclosures about Maciel were fruitless. Fair said it was too soon for many families to talk publicly about the shock. "I sympathize," he said. "It's like trying to interview folks at the wake." Group grew quickly For decades, the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi movements were famous inside the church for their explosive growth, their enthusiasm and their rigorous conservatism. Beginning in 1941, Maciel functioned as their spiritual director. He cultivated generous donors to finance their expansion, and so deeply stamped the linked organizations with his personal spirituality that members read his personal letters as spiritual guides. Members refer to him as "Nuestro Padre," or "Our Father." The groups sponsored faith-building retreats, ran schools and did missionary work. Their vitality, devotion to the Gospels, and the priestly vocations they gathered won the special approval of Pope John Paul II, who lavished praise on Maciel. But they were also controversial. Critics -- all inside the church -- saw an insular culture that fed too deeply on Maciel and seemed institutionally disposed toward secrecy. In 2004, the administration of Catholic High School in Baton Rouge cautioned students' parents that Regnum Christi was operating in Baton Rouge with little contact with diocesan authorities, and was recruiting students for various activities without fully disclosing the group's identity. The legion and Regnum Christi were welcomed in the New Orleans area, archdiocesan spokeswoman Sarah Comiskey said. But a few American bishops elsewhere barred them from their dioceses because the groups were not always forthcoming about their activities. Former members, alarmed by their experience, set up Web sites to warn others that the organizations were deceptive or controlling. The Vatican's embrace of Maciel abruptly reversed in 2006. John Paul's successor, Pope Benedict XVI, finally investigated the years-old sexual misconduct charges against the aging Maciel and "invited" him into a forced retirement -- but without any disclosure of wrongdoing. Maciel died in early 2008 at the age of 87, portraying himself as an innocent suffering on behalf of the church. "The internal marketing campaign they plunged into was that Maciel was falsely accused, and in the spirit of Christ he would not defend himself -- that in time this would pass and he would be made a saint," Berry said. That's where the matter stood until the legion's leadership began its disclosures early this month. Conservative outrage Yet only a few oblique references to the crisis have appeared on the legion's Web site, and the revelations have received similarly scant attention in the legion's newspaper, the National Catholic Register. But the conservative wing of the Catholic blogosphere has exploded with indignation at Maciel, denouncing what it calls his betrayal of the church. For many, a fundamental question is whether the spiritual ethos, or "charism" of Regnum Christi and the Legion of Christ is lethally tainted by Maciel's deceit, or whether the organizations can be restructured and saved. "The spirituality and charism of the movement is fully approved and recognized by the church, and that's still valid," said Fair, the legion spokesman. "I don't think suppression (an order to disband) is an issue." But George Weigel, a leading conservative Catholic intellectual, called for putting the two organizations into a church version of receivership while they undergo an independent examination of Maciel's leadership, the culture he bequeathed and whether other legion leaders assisted his double life. "Until the Vatican comes up with a thorough accounting, which they owe the people in Regnum Christi and these legion priests, a cloud of question marks hangs over all of them," Berry said. "These are orthodox Catholics, and they've been monumentally betrayed." The Rev. James Bradley, the rector of a community of 24 New Orleans Jesuit priests, said he recognizes the good done by Regnum Christi and the legion, while acknowledging they face a crisis. "This certainly will create immense difficulties for members of that order. It'll probably cause them to do a lot of soul searching within themselves," Bradley said. "All founders have feet of clay. Now they have to find out how much clay rubbed off on the charism of the order." Bruce Nolan can be reached at bnolan@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3344.
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