EDITORIAL Legionaries tactics best left in a past
era
In its long history, the Catholic
church has accommodated endless variations on faith, piety and religious
practice, so in many respects the religious order called the Legionaries of
Christ, an authoritarian, secretive and militant group, has counterparts in the
past. After all, this is a church in which, not so long ago, children barely
into their teens were encouraged to separate from their families to enter
religious training settings in which they were cut off from the outside world
and from the opposite sex, subjected to rigorous academic and spiritual
disciplines and ultimately sent out to lead and to serve communities of
Catholics in the real world.
Like an ecclesiastical throwback team, the Legionaries have
resurrected some of the old models, professing to be an army for Christ, highly
disciplined and holding unity as the highest value. The order will tolerate no
challenges to authority.
The Legionaries, acting out of presumptions of another era, are
ambitious, apparently well funded, and have friends in high places in this
papacy.
If the story about the takeover of The Donnellan School in
Atlanta, covered on Page 3, were an isolated incident, it might not be worth a
very long look. But the Legionaries have left evidence of a pattern of bullying
across the country, of a willingness to set themselves up against existing
Catholic institutions if necessary to achieve their ends, and of holding
themselves above accountability to either parents or to the wider church.
In Atlanta, the Legions deep involvement in the school and
the consequences of that involvement apparently were unclear to parents and
staff until early this year, when Legion officials made it clear that a new
agenda was in place. According to reports from former staff members, the Legion
tried to force a principal to sign a document containing a provision to snitch
on anyone who spoke ill of the Legion or its members. the order also allegedly
made it clear to the former guidance counselor that she would report private
conversations with children to the Legion priest in charge. Each said she
refused to go along with those absurd conditions.
Those tactics notwithstanding, an even more alarming aspect to the
story looms in the background -- the serious allegations of sexual abuse
leveled by nine men against Legionaries founder Fr. Marcial Maciel
Degollado.
The accusers, many of them professionals currently working in
responsible positions and including the former head of the Legionaries in the
United States, are not after money or legal retribution. They simply want
Maciel held accountable for his alleged actions, particularly since, in 1994,
he was declared by Pope John Paul II to be an efficacious guide to
youth. Maciel has refused to be interviewed. He has denied the
allegations against him through a law firm. The church has apparently refused
to investigate, instead bestowing further honors on him.
At the heart of the Legionaries operations is a dynamic
disturbingly familiar to secretive, militant organizations bent on asserting
and maintaining power. The order illustrates dramatically the difference
between legitimate authority, which aims at helping others to grow, and
authoritarianism, aimed at controlling others.
Some Catholics in Atlanta recognized an unhealthy use of authority
-- an abuse of power -- and reacted in a rational and healthy way. Their first
instinct, once they realized what was going on, was to protect their children.
It is interesting to note that in Atlanta and elsewhere the reaction against
Legionaries comes not just from progressive Catholics. The reaction against
their tactics often has nothing to do with ideology but is more fundamentally
human. Deceitful, secretive, controlling behavior does not sit well with
healthy parents -- traditionalists or reformers -- who are first and foremost
concerned with their childrens welfare.
It is a shame that the Catholic leader in Atlanta, Archbishop John
F. Donoghue, is so tolerant of the Legionaries authoritarian bullying and
so little concerned about the Atlanta Catholics, who had worked to develop an
exemplary school, and about their children.
It is difficult to figure out where Donoghue comes down in this
dispute. He is quick to hide behind the popes approval of the Legionaries
and separates himself from responsibility for the sale of the school and its
embarrassing aftermath.
At the same time, he has gone out of his way to open avenues into
his archdiocese for the Legionaries and has publicly defended the order. Too
bad he wasnt leading the way in asking the tough questions the order
should answer.
The Catholic parents and school faculty in Atlanta who decided not
to acquiesce quietly are the ones providing leadership in this case. They have,
as they intended, provided a warning to others.
National Catholic Reporter, November 3,
2000
|