And it occurred to me that it might be helpful to Regnum Christi members to have a blog site where they can vent and also share the REAL truth of what it's been like to be a Regnum Christi member for the last X years.... we're not drones or clones or separatists from the One True Church, or even (for the most part) faithful Catholics now in search of a new home within the Church. We're not in a "spiritual freefall", as one commentator suggested... though this IS a real crisis.
We're in love with our Movement -- with CHRIST'S Movement -- as it is now, at the service of His Church and of all mankind. We're hurting very deeply because we've just learned about our betrayal by a man whose heroic virtue is very well-known to us through anecdotes that we've been told for many years by people both inside and outside the Legion. And it's truly a grieving process -- there are waves of anger and resentment and frustration and confusion and sadness and helplessness and even peace... and then you go to bed and wake up the next day to start all over again.
I don't know where this will end up. I have full confidence that the Legion and Regnum Christi will continue, in large part because God has brought about these apostolic fruits which are available in few other places. And because our most recent instructions from Cardinal Franc Rodé, who oversees all religious orders and had full knowledge of Fr. Maciel's sins and the impending publicization thereof, were to "Cultivate and live your charism so that you do not extinguish the Spirit. Grow so that you can proclaim and extend the Kingdom of Christ more widely in this world."
But what kind of a transition this will represent for all of us is not known at this point.
I'll tell the story of my own vocation to Regnum Christi in a subsequent post. I just wanted to start off by saying to anyone who cares:
A) Regnum Christi people aren't drones, and aren't looking for a new home, we just need your prayers while we wait for the Church and our Legionary superiors to figure out all of the necessary next steps so that we can continue to serve the Church as we've started to do.
B) If you're a Regnum Christi member it's VITAL to grieve and to vent because we're human and we need that. Be sure that you keep living the charity that we've been taught WHILE you vent your legitimate anger and other emotions, because without charity the conversation ends up in a tailspin -- as we've all seen before. And as we vent we need to also accept responsibility for helping each other to work toward forgiveness rather than away from it.
C) If you're someone who's been hurt by the Legion or Regnum Christi in the past, I can't actually apologize for that unless it was me who hurt you, in which case I'd welcome a chance to apologize individually and personally. But in all cases I can offer my sympathy. More pertinent is that I'm also sincerely sorry for not having taken all of your complaints more seriously before now. There are those outside the Movement and the Legion whose true desire is to drag the rest of us out too in order to stop us from serving the Church; I'm deeply and truly sorry if I confused you with one of them just because you had a legitimate beef with something that an LC/RC member did to you. And I hope that this new crisis will represent the beginning of a true healing process for all of us.
Have a good day.
Jay, this is a very good start. Thank you so much for opening this internet space that I think will be very useful.
ReplyDeleteA couple of points: while many, perhaps even most RC people are not looking for a new home, some will be. If you can pull off supporting both those who want to stay and those who want to leave, you will be doing a great service.
To that end, you might link to Regain and life-after-rc.
While venting can be useful and it can be healing just to talk to someone who takes your concerns seriously, much more is needed. The concerns of people who have been hurt need to be addressed through reform. Priests and superiors who demonstrate a pattern of abusive conduct need to be removed from supervisory positions, either permanently or temporarily for proper training and reformation.
All members need to be instructed in what their canonical protections are and need to know that they have a way to report abuse without suffering repercussions: in other words there needs to be some kind of whistleblower policy.
Thanks and God bless you!
Mary Kochan
Thanks, Jay! I feel the same way.
ReplyDeleteJay, thanks for starting this. I look forward to reading your testimony and hope that others will feel inclined to share theirs here on this sight.
ReplyDeleteMary makes good points about necessary reforms. I understand what you're saying though, Jay, that as Lay RC members not a lot is in our immediate control except to work transparently with our team members and Parishes. So I appreciate your arranging this sight so people have a place to express their concerns and experiences, as you say, with charity and truth.
Hi Jay, It is very hard to be charitable to LC/RC right now. For years I have brought up questions regarding Maciel and the "formation" to my friends and family, while I was involved in RC and when I left. The blanket answer I received was that criticism was from the Devil. The Devil was attacking the Legion. Thanks a lot, what does that make me? A conspirator to the devil. It turns out that the Holy Spirit was guiding me to all truth. Truth in Christ..Yes, perhaps there were good fruits, however, they were despite the movement, not because of it. My prayer is for all of you who still want to believe in this movement to listen to God and be guided to all Truth.
ReplyDeleteBurt, this is where outsiders and ex-members do need to really beg God for the grace to be forgiving. These are real wounds and insults. But consider that apart from their exposure to the Methodolgy of the Legion, most of those people would never have acted that way. Let's start putting the blame at the top where the lies came from and not be too rough on the people who were misled.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a Jehovah's Witness, I was so visciously insulting to Catholics (and other Christians too) that sometimes it makes me shudder to think about it. "Jesus mercy" is what we all have to cry out.
Having said that, you folks who are in, please don't minimize this pain and anger -- it is justified. You do need to ask forgiveness of those you have insulted, shunned, or disbelieved.
Mary Kochan
Jay,
ReplyDeleteLike you I find myself struggling to understand how something that has been the source of so much good in my life could be wrong or evil because it was inspired and communicated by a man we now know was unable to live the standards he professed.
I never met Fr. Marciel and I did not join the movement to follow him or any other person. I knew I was looking for more in my faith than I was finding and the movement found me. The me it found was a man who desired to live a good life and maintain balance between my career goals and family life but struggling to live the "Seven Habits" training I had recieved. God was first in my mission statement not because he was first in my life, but because I knew he should be. It was a member of RC who shared with me how his personal commitment to his own "Formation" (structured effort to become better and more consistent in imitation of the virtue of Christ)had a positive impact on his family. Not because he preached but because he progressively became more serene, gentle, patient, focused, productive, constant and attractive though his prayer commitments and other RC formation activities and experiences. He was living "say little and do much". When he shared this with me I realized that this was not about me. It was about the impact my commitment to living a more virtuous life could have on those I love most!
After eight years in the Movement thourgh which I have come to love my Catholic faith passionately and come to know my Savior personally I am still far from the holiness Christ calls us to. Thankfully I am aware that Fr. Marciel taught that Christ does not ask us to be perfect, he ask us to be faithful and to began again each day aware of his love, mercy and power!
I am eternally grateful to Fr. Jason Brooks who reached out gently to introduce me to the Movement and to David Karam and John Leblanc who "closed the sale" by sharing the grace RC was to thier families. I am also certain that the Holy Spirit has used Fr. Marciel's letters many times when I have struggled with a question and randomly opened to a letter and found inspiration that spoke directly to my concern in his writing. I can not explain this. It is a mystery to me that this man I believed to be so "Holy" could be the instrument of something so good, and so humanly imperfect.
Those who assume that this revelation about Father Marciel will derail the Movement sadly do not enjoy the grace, fruits, joys or passion of those we know who have truly surrendered themselves to the call we recieved from Christ to live this specific Charism within the Church. Regnum Christi will be stonger and more fruitful because we know with greater certainty that Christ is our leader, our model, our source of truth and inspiration and the center of our lives! All others are only the instruments he choose to use, in spite of thier frailty as he has throughout the history of the Church!
In Christ!,
Tony
Tony wrote: "Those who assume that this revelation about Father Marciel will derail the Movement sadly do not enjoy the grace, fruits, joys or passion of those we know who have truly surrendered themselves to the call we recieved from Christ to live this specific Charism within the Church."
ReplyDeletePlease, all of you for the sake of your souls and the good of the Church begin to grasp how obnoxious this attitude has always been and how disgusting it now appears. This elitism and arrogance is a serious spiritual infection you have caught from your founder who belived he was above all laws -- those of man and of God.
Mary Kochan
Mary, there have certainly been times when I and maybe other RC members fell into elitism and arrogance -- it's one of the reasons I felt the need to apologize in my initial post.
ReplyDeleteBut that isn't what I read in Tony's comment. The graces and gifts of the Holy Spirit that I've received through Regnum Christ are available to everyone in the Church, through whatever channel God chooses for them.
The fact that God chose the RC channel for me is the basis for my confidence that the movement is a work of God. And like Gamaliel said in Acts chapter 5, if it truly IS a work of God, then it won't be brought down by man, even by a man with sins such as our founder's.
It sounded to me as though Tony was just feeling a bit defensive based on some people's assumption that the movement WILL be derailed by this. I'll admit that I've felt some of that defensiveness myself.
And I just have to ask for your patience with all of us as we work through the strange churn of emotions that have accompanied this event. It's not as though there's a handbook that we can follow or anything. Our spiritual directors are as shaken as we are, which was probably evident to everyone who saw the interview on EWTN the other night.
Thanks be to God, at this moment and for the duration of this transition, we have a very holy general director to lead us, who himself has a very holy Pope to lead him (or even to replace him, if he sees fit). Our faith in the movement has always been derived from our faith in the Church who approved it. And that won't change.
Thanks again for your hard work to keep the dialogue open.
Jay, you are a dear person and we should put the best construction on what people say. But Tony did say that those who assume the Movement will be derailed lack certain graces, fruit, joy, and passion.
ReplyDeleteWell first of all, the Movement IS derailed. I mean think about the meaning of the word. The whole thing is off track. Now does that mean that the personal spiritual life any individual member is therby off track? Not at all. But our spiritual life at this time is going to be on track in proportion to how much you can separate it from RC and MM and be tapped into other resources.
As for your organization there is more bad news every day. Now even George Weigel is calling for the pope to appoint new leadership. It is becoming more incredible day by day to think that there aren't others at the top of the Legion who are complicit in Maciel's crimes. Today news breaks in Spanish papers that the girl he impregnated was 15. According to canon law he should have been debarred from the priesthood for that alone. http://www.canonlaw.info/2009/02/maciel-was-criminal-or-sociopath-but.html
No one in RC can even figure out anymore what your charism is supposed to be. You can't make any serious claim anymore to trying to carry forward the spirituality of MM.
You are a Movement without a founder, and without a charism. Can you guys put this train back on a track? Maybe. You will need a lot of help. And you will need to make a lot of changes. But seriously, you can't get much more derailed than you are right now.
Mary Kochan
Maybe if you focus on a practical issue, it will help to get everyone grounded. Plus it will give people the chance to their brains to come up with ideas instead of just reeling around in emotional turmoil. Here is one question to consider:
ReplyDeleteWhat do you, as rank and file members, intend to demand in the way of transparency and accountability from your leaders?
Mary, all I can do is reiterate what I said above: the Church is in charge. The Vatican knew all of these facts when they removed Fr. Maciel from public life in 2006, and they saw no urgent need for action beyond that.
ReplyDeleteMy expectation is that full information will all be available in time, and that very good decisions will be made in time. And that no amount of information and no combination of decisions are going to satisfy everyone, especially the Spanish newspapers. :-)
That's just the way the world works.
Now I have to get back to being a Dad, so I may not be able to respond for awhile. But I want you to know that I've enjoyed our discussions, and I'm grateful to you and everyone else who's working to make the truth known, in charity.
Thanks most especially for your continued prayers.
Mary, all I can do is reiterate what I said above: the Church is in charge. The Vatican knew all of these facts when they removed Fr. Maciel from public life in 2006, and they saw no urgent need for action beyond that.
ReplyDeleteMy expectation is that full information will all be available in time, and that very good decisions will be made in time. And that no amount of information and no combination of decisions are going to satisfy everyone, especially the Spanish newspapers. :-)
That's just the way the world works.
Now I have to get back to being a Dad, so I may not be able to respond for awhile. But I want you to know that I've enjoyed our discussions, and I'm grateful to you and everyone else who's working to make the truth known, in charity.
Thanks most especially for your continued prayers.
A very loving and encouraging letter is posted today on another blog.
ReplyDeleteThe introduction outlines the topics considered: A non-Legionary priest shared some excerpts of an email he sent to a friend in Regnum Christi that addresses some of the questions those inside and outside Regnum Christi may be having, namely: (1) how to understand how a man through whom so many graces flowed could be capable of such evil; (2) why it's crucial that a full disclosure of all the facts be made; and (3) how to maintain a sense of trust in superiors while also wanting a full investigation to be made of their possible complicity in the Fr. Maciel's sins. The title of this post is not meant to call Fr. Maciel "Judas" as a form of hyperbole, but to bring out the fascinating overlap in their "good works."
Go here to read the letter:http://www.life-after-rc.com/2009/02/consider-judas.html
Jay,
ReplyDeleteYou said, "the Church is in charge. The Vatican knew all of these facts when they removed Fr. Maciel from public life in 2006, and they saw no urgent need for action beyond that." Yet the Legion saw it fit to ignore what the Pope/Church said. He said, "Apart from the founder....." but the Legion and RC at that time refused to separate itself and be "apart from the founder" and now there's a whole bunch of mess that ya'll have to deal with.
Stepping back from the whole thing, I feel like God was trying to be merciful back then. He said, "separate from your founder" but the Legion thumbed it's nose. Now God has no choice but to show His Justice.
marythemom,
ReplyDeleteIs it eliteism to share a passion for Christ and the Church that I have come to know through the people and methodology of the Movement? I in no way meant to imply that we have an exclusive on this love for our faith, but neither do I feel a need to apologize for the many good fruits that I enjoy in my life and witness in the lives of other members, their families, parishes and the Church.
I once asked a Cannon lawyer to help me understand why the Church does not impose more discipline on abuses of Liturgical norms. The essence of his answer was that the Church possesses truth as revealed by God, but that our human limitations prevent any one of us from from possesson of all known knowledge, much less the fullness of truth God chooses not to reveal. As a result the Church must tolerate some dissonance, seeing things in 50 to 100 year time frames and resisting a human desire to know or act now. He said that in doing so truth is revealed in the fruits that become apparent or in the lack there of.
I enjoy the liberty to place my faith in God's providence and in obedience to the authority of the Church. I will not demand anything from the Church or it's appointed leaders! I will accept humbly, as God's will what those God has placed in authority decern relative to RC, even if it does offend my American sense of liberty and justice.
Please pray for me, as I will for you.
God bless.
Tony
Tony, the methodology of the movement is indefensible at this point. What good you have received (and I do not doubt there is real good) is in spite of it, not because of it.
ReplyDeleteDon't confuse humility with infantilism. Every confirmed Catholic has the Holy Spirit and an adult responsibilty for his faith. If people are taking an authority over others that is not legitimate, you not only are NOT obligated to submit to it, you may very well be obligated to resist it for the good of yourself and the good of the Church.
You have my prayers and best wishes.
Mary Kochan
Tony,
ReplyDeleteFr. Thomas Berg LC wrote a letter in which, among other things, he advises:
"Finally, I encourage you to speak to Legionary leadership, and even in the form of petition letters, demand nothing less than full transparency regarding the case of Fr. Maciel. Demand that Fr. Alvaro seek an independent third party investigation (perhaps in the form of a temporary review board or Visitation team from the holy see) into uncovering any Legionaries who may have been accomplices to Maciel. Demand that a similar body guide Legionary leadership in introducing any needed reforms into the internal culture, methods and religious discipline of the Legion."
So here you go Tony, even a Legionary is giving you permission to "demand" things. Or are these orders? Not sure, but whatever. Now that someone in Legion has said it, you'll know it was ok.
I'll be praying for your freedom.
Dear Mary,
ReplyDeleteFYI - In eight years I have never recieved an "order" from anyone associated with RC. Our inablility to communicate is clearly rooted in a lack of understanding of Movement Spirituality. I am free to choose how to respond to the current circumstances. I simply choose to stay focused on my prayer life & sacraments (movement spirituality), seeing my family as my first apostolate (movement spirituality) and making my best effort each day be docile to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit and a better instrument through which Christ may reach others (more movement spirituality) - gee wait, are not all these things consistent with the traditions of the Church? So, could it be that, just maybe, the Movement is just a means through which I have been invited to live my faith more fully??? Not better or worse than another - just right for me? Is it possible that you lack a fair and balanced understanding of the RC Movement and the role Legionairie Priest actually play in their relationship with RC members?
I will trust that good people like yourself, George Wagel and others will make whatever demands they feel compelled to make on the Vatican and the Legion, and I welcome your right to express your free will in that way. Please don't assume that my freedom has been diminished becuase I choose not to participate. It is offensive and uncharitable to imply that I am a puppet and surely that is not what you intended.
The Church and it's member parts have survived over 2000 years of trails and persecutions. What is true and good survives. What is not of God passes. Time will tell what the future holds for the Legion. As for me I suffer for the damage done that only God can heal in those who were victims, and for the pure intentions of many Legionairies and RC members who are committed to spending themselves to build up Christ Kingdom on earth and who's efforts will be fustrated by this trail. I pray for the decernment of the greater good for us all and I trust in providence as I am instructed by faith and the Church.
God bless,
Tony
Tony,
ReplyDeleteI hope that you are choosing it and that you realize you have that choice -- to demand or not to demand. However, I have also been made aware by the comments of ex-members that being demanding of the leaders is considered undesirable in the LC/RC and that even questioning the leaders was wrong.
So I make my comments to you in the context of what I have learned of the very destructive nature of the methodology. I do see you still defending it and at this point it is simply not defensible. The methodology is poisonous.
That doesn't mean that I think you are not sincere or that you are a bad person. I agree 100% when you talk about "the pure intentions of many Legionairies and RC members who are committed to spending themselves to build up Christ Kingdom on earth." They deserved better than to be put under the spiritual authority of a serial pedophile con artist. You deserved better! For your sincerity and your desire to serve God's kingdom to be manipulated and diverted into building up the power of this evil, perverted creep and his minions at the top (who are scrambling right now to figure out how to cover their weasely tails) is horrible. I am appalled at people being used in this way. Aren't you?
You are not a puppet; but you were deceived and used. So were the vast majority of people in the LC/RC. The leaders even led you into disobedience to the pope who told them to separate from the founder several years ago. If they had started this process of revelation and amendment then, all of you would not be in the situation of shock and hurt you find yourselves in.
I am going to stay away from this blog for a few days. You folks need to face the reality of this and talk amongst yourselves, and comfort one another. God bless you all.
Mary Kochan
A wise man once said "finding the truth requires the hard work of taking ideas apart and putting them back together again to learn to see truth and think truth". I would hardly call basing your opinion on reports of some disaffected "former" members suggest you have a well formed opinion of the Spirituality of Regnum Christi. Remember - we are all entitled to our own opinion, but not all opinions are well formed.
ReplyDeleteBest regards,
Tony
Thanks for everyone's purity of intention in all this. I'm so happily surprized by the sense of the church family helping us to sort through all of this together and to love each other RC or non-RC. I am RC. I want people to find Christ's will for their life...HIS mission for them, RC or NON-RC....there is soo much richness in the body of Christ. ONE THING that I don't see brought up ever is one of the hazards of lay organizations. It pains my heart so much to hear of the people being 'shunned' or cold shouldered or whatever. What has occurred to me is that in a lay organization is that everyone comes in at a different level of formation. In the religious life there is a time of prepartion and teaching...sort of a standardizing of at least the basic knowledge and formation one can expect from a particular religious. There just isn't that in lay organizations...no test to pass to 'get in'....they take you were you are...or aren't. I think recognizing that could help a bit when we are so puzzled when someone else's experience differs so widely from our own.
ReplyDelete