In memoriam: Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, L.C. (1920-2008)
by Massimo Introvigne
Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, L.C., the founder of the Catholic religious order of the Legion of Christ, died on January 30, 2008. Born in Cotija de la Paz in the Mexican state of Michoacán on March 10, 1920, he was ordered a priest in 1944, after he had founded the Legion of Christ in 1941. The Legion and its companion association of laypersons, Regnum Christi, born under the difficult circumstances of anticlerical Mexico, enjoyed an international success which may only be called phenomenal. It includes today 700 priests and 2,500 seminarians in 20 different countries. Its cultural and missionary influence goes well beyond these figures, thanks to its high schools and universities (including the Pontifical Athenaeum “Regina Apostolorum” in Rome and its offshoot accredited by the Italian government, the European University of Rome), cultural centers, journals, missions and charities (most notably in the Mexican State of Yucatán and in a difficult areas of Italy’s Naples region through the “Children’s Village” in Maddaloni).
The strict fidelity of the Legion to Papal teachings, both on theological and moral issues, is seen by many as the root of the campaigns against its founder. Maciel was first accused of educational misconduct and suspended from his position of superior of the Legion in 1956, but was found innocent and reinstated in 1959. He went on to become a trusted advisor of Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) and one of the most respected figures in Roman Catholic circles.
In the 1970s, Father Maciel was accused of sexual abuses, most of them allegedly dating back to the 1950s, by several ex-Legionaries, while others have testified that money had been offered to them to confirm what they regarded as false accusations against Father Maciel. It is worth noting that the accusers, although part of a subculture infested by lawyers ready to seek millionaire damages from the Catholic Church in any case of real or presumed abuses, never tested their case in a secular court. They were well aware that they would have been thrown out of court, together with their clockwork stories of abuses “remembered” after so many years.
However, what would never fly in a secular court may still cause trouble and concern within the Roman Catholic Church. In 2005, the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, considering the age and health of Father Maciel, and no doubt also the statutes of limitation in canon law and the fact that not even an ecclesiastical court would have been able to reconstruct facts dating back to decades ago – while avoiding any statement about the facts –, “invited the father to a reserved life of penitence and prayer, relinquishing any form of public ministry”, at the same time emphasizing that “the worthy apostolate of the Legionaries of Christ and of the Association 'Regnum Christi' is gratefully recognized”.
The ways of the Church are not the ways of the tribunals of men. In the latter, Father Maciel’s foes would have been easily ridiculed. The Church, however, cannot afford even the shadow of a doubt about a religious leader which has inspired the life of millions. When in doubt, secular courts pronounce a verdict of not guilty. When in doubt, the Church – without issuing any statement on the facts – always acts with extreme caution. Even Father Pio (1887-1968), later canonized as a Saint, was immediately sanctioned when doubts were cast on certain of his financial transactions. The Lord and history will judge in due course. The Church regards as its sacred duty to act with the most extreme caution, as painful as this may occasionally be.
This being the case, it is also important to note, against superficial media reports occasioned by the death of Father Maciel, what the document of the Holy See does not say. Since Father Maciel has not been tried, it is false to say that he has been found guilty. Precautionary measures should not be confused with a verdict rendered after a trial where Father Maciel would have been able to present a full defense. Nor did the Holy See give any stamp of approval to the various lurid exposes of Father Maciel and the Legionaries of Christ. The press release does not imply in any way that what these books say about Father Maciel is true. These books attacks Father Maciel in order to attack the Legionaries of Christ, their theology, their apologetics, their schools and their universities. Most definitely this is not the position of the Vatican document, where the “worthy apostolate” of the Legionaries is on the contrary “gratefully recognized”.
Additionally, those campaigning against the Legionaries (as well as against the Opus Dei and other groups branded as “conservative”) argue that, in order to avoid ecclesiastical scandals, the Church should change its doctrines about celibate priests, abortion, homosexuality, and feminism. Obviously the position of Pope Benedict XVI is exactly the opposite. The very fact that the Church, in its own mysterious ways, acts with extreme caution in cases of alleged offences against chastity or even suspicions about past offences involving prominent Church leaders, in some cases by adopting painful cautionary measures against some of its most loyal and faithful sons, is a strong and firm statement against the moral relativism embraced by the Legionaries’ enemies. The common sense of the Catholic people, as usual, perceives it in a much better way than the media. Legionaries, with the immense good they have done in hundreds of charitable and cultural works, and other groups loyal to Pope Benedict’s campaign against relativism prosper, while liberal organizations lose members every day, some of them being on the very verge of disappearing.
