Legionaries to be dissolved or refounded

Sources in Spain say Rome’s investigation into the Legionaries of Christ will result in either the dissolution or the re-founding of the order. There is apparently a disagreement between the Americans and the Spaniards over which course to take and whether to keep any of the order’s current leaders.

Roman Catholic journalist Austen Ivereigh writes for the Jesuit magazine America:

According to a former Legionary quoted by the Spanish religious journalist Jose Vidal, the ordinary priests and members of Regnum Christi, want a root-and-branch reform –if necessary, by means of a dissolution — in order to give a new institute a fighting chance. But the order’s leaders are fighting a defensive rearguard action, arguing that they knew nothing of the double life led by Maciel, and were therefore neither accomplices in his abuses nor did they attempt to cover them up.

The investigation, called an “apostolic visitation,” is being conduded by Basque Bishop Ricardo Blazquez in Spain and by Archbishop of Denver Charles Chaput in the United States.

Current leadership is in apparent denial about the full scope of Marcial Maciel’s offenses, is “aware that no order has ever survived the repudiation of its founder” and with actions like a recent letter to the Legionaries lay organization Regnum Christi is fighting to stay in power.

The denialist strain still evident in their actions affirms that “the current Mexican leadership of the Legionaries is not up to the challenge of dissociating the organisation from the sexual and financial wrongdoings of the founder.”