By Michael Roberts
Denver Westword
September 3, 2009
http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2009/09/denver_archbishop_to_evaluate.php
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| Sixty Legionnaires of Christ receive their ordination from Pope John Paul II in 1991. |
The Legion of Christ made the wrong kind of headlines when it was revealed that the Catholic organization's founder, Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, who died in 2008, had fathered children -- which means he broke his vow of celibacy unless immaculate conception was involved. This, combined with accusations that Degollado had sexually abused seminarians, led the Vatican to order the Legion to undergo what's called "an apostolic visitation" -- essentially an investigation of the organization. And according to a new article from the Catholic News Agency, the man charged by Pope Benedict XVI to look into the Legion's operations in the United States and Canada is Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput. According to a September 1 letter signed by Father Scott Reilly and Father Julio Marti, territorial directors of Legion offices in Atlanta and New York, respectively, "Archbishop Charles Joseph Chaput of Denver has been appointed as Visitor for the Legion in the United States and Canada. Archbishop Chaput will visit our seminaries and religious houses, see our life up close and interview whomever he wants... His mandate will be to question, probe and assess with depth and objectivity. Legionaries are free to speak and write to him with all their comments and questions. He sets his own timetable and the points he wishes to probe, and he will present his findings and recommendations directly to the Holy See."
Sounds like a real-life version of an Andrew Greeley novel.
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