Inside
NCR
Our letters pages this week contain
a wide sampling of reaction to our Nov. 3 cover story, “Hostile
takeover,” on actions of the religious order, the Legion of Christ, in
taking control of The Donnellan School in Atlanta.
Many of the letters echo the sentiments and language of a long
“open letter” on the order’s Web site that alleges, among other
points, that our story is unfair and incorrect and that Gerald Renner, the
reporter who wrote the piece, is unreliable.
We have not responded earlier to the open letter because the
Legion did not directly contact us about it. We did not receive a letter from
the order. But the attack on the story and the Legion’s efforts to malign
Renner are serious enough and are being widely enough circulated to warrant a
response.
Renner, a journalist for 40 years and a specialist in religion
reporting for 25 years, including 15 years for the Hartford (Conn.)
Courant, has written a full response to the Legion’s letter that
appears on our Web site:
http://www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/documents/index.htm.
If you don’t have access to the Internet and want the
response, call us and we’ll send you a printed version.
The length of both statements makes printing them in full
prohibitive. The Legion statement can be found on the Web at
www.legionofchrist.org.
But a few main points should be made here.
I asked Renner to take on the story when we began to receive calls
from parents in Atlanta who were upset at what was happening to their
school.
I asked him because he is a top-flight reporter, because his
recent retirement made him available for freelance work and because he had done
significant stories on the Legion in the past.
The Legion is upset with Renner because of those past stories. But
apart from vilifying the messenger, they have provided little credible evidence
disputing the stories, including one he did at the Courant about
allegations that Legionary founder Fr. Marciel Maciel Degollado sexually abused
seminarians (NCR, March 7, 1997). It would take far too long to go into
details here, but I recommend you read Renner’s full response. The church
and the order may choose to ignore the allegations and, instead, spend their
energy trying to impugn the messenger, but serious questions remain.
In the case of the school in Atlanta, the Legion makes it appear
that NCR took a cavalier approach to the story, did little checking and
refused to approach anyone who might have something good to say about the
order.
Those assertions are simply false.
Renner conducted extensive phone interviews with many of the
parties involved. We sent him to Atlanta to better understand the situation and
to try to get face-to-face interviews with Legion members, supporters and
Archbishop John F. Donoghue, who is solidly behind the Legion. No one on the
Legion side, including officials of the order, the school and the archbishop,
would speak to NCR. The only one who would speak was Matthew S. Coles,
lawyer for both the school and the archdiocese.
When the Legion learned that NCR indeed was going to
publish a story, a spokesman called from national headquarters in Connecticut,
complaining that we had not talked to anyone who supported the order’s
activities in Atlanta.
Though we had already made attempts to contact those with a
favorable view, we held up the story and, to accommodate the order’s
wishes, contacted people they recommended as sources friendly to their
cause.
It is telling, as Renner recounts, that one of the folks
recommended by the Legion refused to speak to him, saying she would speak only
after consulting with Legion leadership. When finally the supporters
recommended by the Legion felt free to speak, we incorporated their
comments.
We never expected the Legion to use this story in their recruiting
materials, and we can understand their wish to portray the order in a more
kindly light than it appears in the story. But Renner did his work well, and
NCR went out of its way to make sure all sides were represented.
-- Tom Roberts
My e-mail address is troberts@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, December 15,
2000
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