Pope's Envoy Scrambles to Contain Legion Fallout

By Nicole Winfield
WSLS
February 17, 2012

http://www2.wsls.com/news/2012/feb/17/popes-envoy-scrambles-to-contain-legion-fallout-ar-1697341/

VATICAN CITY --

VATICAN CITY (AP) The pope's envoy to the disgraced Legion of Christ religious order is scrambling to contain fallout from the resignation of the head of the Legion's women's branch and the decision of 30 members to split from the movement.

In a letter released Friday, Cardinal Velasio De Paolis urged those leaving not to "try to persuade or proselytize" others to come along with them, and confirmed that the exodus wasn't just of rank and file members but included senior directors as well.

Pope Benedict XVI tapped De Paolis to take over the Legion in 2010 after a Vatican investigation determined that its founder, the Rev. Marciel Maciel, was a pedophile and fraud who had created a cult-like movement where members endured emotional, spiritual and psychological abuse. The revelations were particularly scandalous given that the Legion was one of the fastest-growing religious orders and that Maciel was revered in the Vatican for his ability to attract priests and money.

De Paolis has insisted that to survive, the Legion must reform itself from the inside out and he has refrained from imposing major changes from the outside. But he has faced criticism that he is moving too slowly, that the Legion's problematic internal culture hasn't changed, and that the same superiors who covered up Maciel's crimes remain in positions of authority.

Last week, in a bombshell move, Malen Oriol announced that she had resigned as the influential head of the Legion's consecrated women, some 600 lay women who live like nuns working in Legion schools, recruiting and fundraising for the Legion's lay movement Regnum Christi.

Oriol also revealed that a group of consecrated women had decided to leave the movement and live out their vocations under the authority of local bishops a blow to the Legion that suggests that disillusionment with De Paolis' reform process is only growing as superiors refuse to change.

Oriol said in her letter that the pope had approved of the decision, but De Paolis appeared to be caught off guard and concerned about its implications. Already there has been a hemorrhaging of more than 400 consecrated women who have left in the three years since the Legion admitted that Maciel sexually abused his seminarians and fathered three children.

"I would hope that those who intend to leave Regnum Christi don't give into the temptation to try to persuade or proselytize those who intend to remain firm and faithfully persevere in their commitments," De Paolis wrote. "Just as respect is required for the choices made by those who leave, the same respect is expected for those and they are the great majority who intend to persevere in the choice they already made in Regnum Christi."

Some of those who are departing are assistants to Legion territorial directors, some with 30 years inside the movement. De Paolis appeared concerned that they may still be able to exert influence on younger members and insisted in his letter Friday that Legion officials make sure that "those who have chosen to leave can no longer retain any positions of responsibility and authority that they may currently occupy."

He has reason for concern: there already is an informal network of former consecrated women who are providing practical, emotional and spiritual help to those who leave, according to a former member who spoke on condition of anonymity. In addition, an informal online network of former consecrated women is open to current members who have Internet access (not all of them do) to provide information a rare commodity given the Legion's restrictions on Internet use and information critical of the movement.

De Paolis also named a replacement for Oriol who will report directly to him not to the Legion's general director as had been the case previously. De Paolis has said the consecrated branch must become autonomous from the Legion.