May 22, 2006

Legionaries of Christ Founder Smacked on the Knuckles

I've been quiet about the founder of the Legionairies of Christ, who was undeniably found guilty of molesting seminarians by a Vatican review. However the Vatican chose to not go forward with a full cannonical process because of his age, instead opting to ask Fr. Maciel to live a life of quiet penitence and place restrictions on his public ministry.

John Allen has details

It seems that the founder got off easy to me. Yet I admire the CDF's mercy in this case at the same time. Some thoughts:

1) If this guy was a Jesuit or a Paulist he'd be defrocked almost immediately and they would never issue a statement about how wonderful those communities are as the Vatican did with the Legion.

2) If it's obvious that he did something wrong than I think he should be forced to make a public apology to those he abused and THEN go live his life in quiet solitiude. But that won't happen because Maciel continues to deny the charges as do the Legionaries.

Sad. Denial is not just a river in Egypt.

No comments:

Googling God

Googling God
Buy Your Copy Now!