Legionaries of Christ director in Chile laments revelations about Father Maciel
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Santiago, Chile, Sep 22, 2009 / 02:47 pm (CNA).- Father Jose Cardenas, the director of the Legionaries of Christ in Chile, has lamented the recent revelations about the order’s founder, Father Marcial Maciel, as well as the “pain and confusion caused in the Church and in society.”
 
In a written questionnaire published by the Chilean daily “El Mercurio,” Father Cardenas said, “The recently revealed facts about the private life of our founder seem incomprehensible and deeply sadden us. We cannot help but decisively reject them as contrary to Catholic morality and to the duties of the priestly and religious state,” he wrote.
 
He also explained that the desire and purpose of the Legion continues to remain the same: to serve the Church and society through education, evangelization and other apostolic works; and in addition to rejecting the scandal this has caused, they ask for forgiveness for all of the pain this caused the victims and the Catholic Church.
 
“As our general director has already done, we ask forgiveness of all those who have been affected, and likewise, we lament the pain and confusion caused in the Church and in society,” Father Cardenas continued.
 
He went on to note that the Legionaries in Chile are undergoing a review from the Apostolic visitor appointed by the Holy See, as are members of the order and of the Regnum Christi movement in other parts of the world.
 
Father Cardenas expressed thanks for the spiritual support the order has received from the Chilean bishops, clergy and the laity, which has helped  them to look towards the future with hope.
 
“Father Maciel was instrumental in beginning the Legion of Christ and the Regnum Christi movement in the Church, and therefore we must be thankful.  But it is also evident that he cannot be an example to us in these unfortunate events,” he said.
 
“This does not exempt us from discerning and conserving the good we have received from him as our founder. It is a good time to confirm our conviction that Jesus Christ is our center, our guide and our model,” he added.
 
Regarding the Apostolic Visitation ordered by Pope Benedict XVI and being carried out in Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil and Venezuela by Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati of Concepcion in Chile, Father Cardenas said Archbishop Ezzati is being received in humility, gratitude and total openness. 

“We are thankful for his fatherly presence among us as the Holy Father’s envoy,” he said.

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Subscriber comments:
Published by: Ginger
Salt Lake City, UT, USA 09/24/2009 10:16 AM EST
BabyCakes, This is not about Maciel anymore. It's about a system he created that allowed his abuse to go on unabated for 65 years. It's about cover-up, corruption, and the defamation of Maciel's sexual abuse victims, who tried to sound the alarm for decades. Note that the Legion leaders have not made any effort whatsoever to thank these heroes who tried to warn us all about the deviancy of Maciel. They haven't even retracted the libelous accusations they made against these victims all those years. Maciel is dead. He never made any attempt to publicly repent or make restitution to all those one-time children he raped. We will let God judge him and leave it at that. But what's left is the order of priests he structured in such a way that he had access to boys, women, money, drugs, and power. The very "virtues" he taught (as his very twisted notion of the virtue of charity exemplifies) allowed this abuse to go on. Structures like the 4th Vow (a vow he created while he was under Vatican investigation for the first time, back in the 50's, by the way. How convenient!) created an environment in which he could live a life of debauchery and abuse with impunity. The Legion's pitiful response to the crisis has proven to me just how endemic the methodology of Maciel is to the order. To have an order of priests continuing to express their deep gratitude to a child molester is beyond scandalous. What an embarrassment to our Holy Church.
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Published by: damien karras
boston MA USA 09/23/2009 09:13 PM EST
Fr. Cardenas is a fine example of all that is wrong with the LC. He is a politically astute opportunist, void of the most human sentiments and convictions. He has achieved a certain level of comfort and autonomy in the LC system and will do or say anything to maintain the status quo. He is shallow and callous, he looks out only for himself and he threw Fr. Maciel under the bus as soon as it became impossible to defend him. Cardenas and his ilk run the LC, but they are held in secret contempt by their subjects and brother priests who see them for what they really are, even when the circumstances prohibit them from taking a more valient stand.
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Published by: Amos
USA 09/23/2009 05:22 PM EST
What is really scary is that people with such diminished discernment ability are able to vote!
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Published by: babycakes
manchester CT USA 09/23/2009 03:10 PM EST
At least they're trying to fix what went wrong. Even our role model celebrities and saints made mistakes. Although he did wrong, I'm sure God forgave him. Why can't we and move on?
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Published by: Lorenzo
NY/NY/USA 09/23/2009 12:09 PM EST
What a pathetic and puny apology when measured against the magnitude of the offenses of Maciel. We still have not heard the whole story as other children he allegedly fatherd come forward along with many more victims of his sexual abuse that stretches over 60 years. This is one of the biggest frauds commited against the Church. He fooled the highest levels of the Vatican, even the pope. Of course the higher echelons of the Legion knew of Maciel's sexploits and thievery. A Spanish bishop visitator has recently said this. The Legion needds to apologize profusely not only to Maciel's progeny and vicitms but to the whole Church for so stubbornly and deceitfully refusing to admit their founder's hypocracy until they were forced to. They knew of his fraud for a long time. Their repeated denials over many years caused inestimable damage and pain to victims. They were defending him as a martyr even after Pope Benedict sentenced him to a life of penance and took away his priestly faculties. The Legion just needs to disappear. Anything grown from such a diseased trunk has nothing to offer the Church. Their members, good people taken in by theis opous fraud, neeed help to get their lives back on track. At the very least all current and past Legion superiors need to resign, never again to hold authority if the Legion survives. And Cardinal Rode, head of the Vatican Congregation for Religious, also needs resign in shame. He defended this charlatan even after his fall.
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Published by: elleblue
Canada 09/22/2009 07:29 PM EST
I don't believe for one moment that there are any members of this community that either didn't know or at least suspect that something rotten was going on from within. The higher ups covered up and promoted the abuses and they will have to answer to God for their part in this scandalous and shameful behaviour.
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