Cover
story Maciel accusers seek accountability
By GERALD RENNER
Special to the National Catholic Reporter
In the lore of the Legionaries of
Christ, Marcial Maciel Degollado started his religious order in Mexico on Jan.
3, 1941, when he gathered 13 young boys around him to teach them theology.
He was only 20 years old and had not been ordained yet. In fact he
had been ejected from two seminaries for what the official history calls
misunderstandings about his desire to start a religious order. A
seminary in Vera Cruz, Mexico, dismissed Maciel in 1938. A Jesuit-run seminary
in Montezuma, N.M., dismissed him in 1940.
One of Maciels uncles, Bishop Francesco Gonzalez Arias of
Cuernavaca, Mexico, oversaw his training and ordained him a priest on Nov. 26,
1944. He was 24, a young age for a priest, especially one who had failed to
finish two seminaries.
On Feb. 23, 1997, in an article in The Hartford Courant, a
darker version emerged, tainting the official version.
The newspaper, based in Hartford, Conn., reported that nine
professional men alleged publicly that Maciel had molested them when they were
young men, as young as 12, in Legion seminaries in Spain and Italy during the
1940s, 50s and 60s. Maciels accusers included three
professors, a priest, a teacher, an engineer, a rancher and a lawyer.
One of the professors, a former priest who died in 1995, left
behind an accusatory deathbed statement.
The accusers said they had decided to go public because Pope John
Paul II had not responded to letters from two priests sent through church
channels in 1978 and again in 1989 seeking an investigation. In fact, they
said, it was after the pope praised Maciel in 1994 as an efficacious
guide to youth that they decided to make their accusations public.
Maciel, who is based in Rome, declined to be interviewed, but
denied any wrongdoing through a law firm. The Legion said Maciel was the victim
of a plot by disgruntled former members of the order to depose him.
In a letter to the editor of The Courant published on March
2, 1997, Maciel denied the accusations as defamations and falsities with
no foundation whatsoever and said he was praying for his accusers.
None of Maciels accusers filed legal action or sought
financial compensation from the Legionaries or the Catholic church. Many of
them remain loyal Catholics and said they were not blaming the religious order
or the Catholic church. They said all they seek is accountability by church
authorities for what they said was Maciels sexual misconduct.
The Vatican has maintained silence on the issue.
As head of a religious order with ministries in 20 countries,
Maciel reports directly to the Holy See and only the Holy See can order an
investigation into the allegations.
But an answer of sorts from the Vatican was forthcoming. In late
1997 Pope John Paul II appointed Maciel one of his special delegates to the
Synod for America, which involved a select group of 250 church leaders from
North and South America in talks about evangelization, economic justice and
church cooperation in the new millennium.
To me, this is their answer without saying that they
dont believe us, said Juan Vaca, one of the accusers and a former
priest who was president of the Legionaries in the United States until he quit
the order in 1976. Today he is a college guidance counselor on Long Island.
Fr. Owen Kearns, a spokesman for the Legion and publisher of its
newspaper, the National Catholic Register, said at the time that
Maciels appointment has brought great joy to the tens of thousands
of lay people who, with the Legionaries of Christ, spend their lives daily in
evangelization.
(Editors note: The story of the accusations against Fr.
Maciel in The Hartford Courant in 1997 was written by Gerald Renner, who
recently retired from that newspaper, and Jason Berry, author of the
ground-breaking 1992 book, Lead Us Not into Temptation: Catholic Priests
and the Sexual Abuse of Children. Berry includes the story of Fr. Maciel in
a newly revised paperback edition of his book that was published this year by
the University of Illinois Press.)
National Catholic Reporter, November 3,
2000
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