Vows of Silence : The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II

Rating:
Summary: just read--
Review: I don't know how much good this, my opinion, might do, but here goes: My name is Jonathan Brunk, and I WAS A LEGIONARY FOR TWO AND A HALF YEARS--from '96-'98--spending that time in Ontario, New York, Connecticut, Wisconsin and New Hampshire at various noviciates and apostolic schools and "centers of higher learning" and I NEVER, EVER encountered anything like what one would read in this book. While in the order I was never pressured to stay (I mean, they wanted us to make sure we were doing what we felt was God's Will [not something your secularist would understand anyway] and not leave on a whim) and after I left (simply, I didn't feel I had a vocation to the priesthood) I was NEVER pressured to join Regnum Christi or otherwise keep in touch with the Legion in any way. In fact, I've heard ex-legionnaries complain that they never again heard from the Legion after they left, as if the Legion owed them something--so one can't win for losing. About the founder, referred to by legionnaries as "Nuestro Padre" or "Our Father": I met the man myself, several times, and there was never a hint of the "lavish" lifestyle talked about in this book. I cooked for this man (a special diet, as he had an easily upset stomach) and served him--so I saw WHERE and HOW he lived: a simple bed and priedieu in his room like the rest of us! I know the scandals of the recent years have hardened all of us to the realities of pedophilic priests and the bishop-cronies who shipped them from diocese to diocese and while not truly qualified to discuss those issues, I KNOW AND LIVED AND BREATHED the Legion of Christ and KNOW, REGARDLESS OF WHO WOULD OR NOT BELIEVE ME, that this book, inasmuch as it deals with the Legion, is a terrible distortion of the truth. Do I know, for a fact, that Fr. Maciel has never committed the crimes he's been accused of? No. Do the authors know, for a fact, that he did? No. So we're at an impasse, having to take an individual's word for it. Why can't these "unbiased" authors give someone the benefit of the doubt, as we do in a court of law? After all, no court would convict Fr. Maciel on the "evidence" available, namely, the hearsay of a handful of people--and that's all his detractors are left with: a mere handful of critics and accusers, out of the THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of people Fr. Maciel has met with and who know him on a personal level.
What is truly disturbing about VOWS OF SILENCE is that the authors know that, in light of the recent scandals a book with such a sensationalist heading will sell, and sell well: the Legion is too obscure for most people to know anything about so they are an easy target, and they're too discrete to publically refute their accusers, choosing to allow their works to speak for themselves. And folks, please ignore the idiot's comments about not seeing the fruit of the Legion or Regnum Christi in the Catholic milieu: go to the Chiapas region of Mexico, where the Legion has (as of 1998) it's only bishop--appointed by this pope to one of the world's most depressed areas and underprivileged people and ask them how much they have benefited from the "Mano Amiga" or "Friendly Hand" program in their neighborhoods, or ask the rich kids who study at the Legionary school in Switzerland how much they've benefited from their pilgrimages to Lourdes and the help they offered the pilgrims. And the clincher is that the Legion is not NEARLY as secretive as the authors claim: their houses offer retreats almost year-round, they hold "family conferences" all the time in major cities, and anyone can get into their "Test Your Call" summer retreats as a candidate. They openly advertise their apostolates on the internet! In short: VOWS OF SILENCE is a sham.

Rating:
Summary: One man's first-hand experience.
Review: I have been a member of Regnum Christi for a number of years, and I have many friends and acquaintances in Regnum Christi. If you are interested in the truth, let me offer my own first hand experience for your consideration. Regnum Christi has been a life changing force in my life. It has helped me to become a better man, father and husband. It has given me a concrete means to deepen my prayer life and my relationship with Christ. I have a renewed commitment to raising my boys to be the finest they can be in all areas of their life. The people I know within Regnum Christi are of sterling character. It is an honor to have them as my friends. They are normal everyday folk who are committed to a life of service within their own families and in the public square. The Legionary priests are exemplary role models: men of self-sacrifice who work tirelessly to help youth and build up families. Never in over five years have I witnessed a hint of scandal or anything that is remotely cultist. Regnum Christi does have an agenda: it is to spread the Gospel and Christ's kingdom in men's hearts.

Rating:
Summary: Time will tell
Review: I have read the book and I have the feeling that it is a well orquestrated plan to destroy a very positive force in the Church. Just like when the Jesuits came out many centuries ago. Something tells me that in a couple of decades many of these people will be eating their words and we will see the Catholic Church name this priest Maciel as a true saint. Maybe I'm wrong but there are many similiar cases in the history of the Church. Time will tell.

Rating:
Summary: Book, reviews full of distortion
Review: I have scoured Vows of Silence and if you read it carefully you find that its attempt to rewrite history fails with regard to the Legion of Christ and Father Marcial Maciel. The authors use hearsay and inuendo to cast doubt on the entire life and life project of Father Maciel without any hard evidence of anything. In fact, the historical evidence all points to his innocence, as documented at legionaryfacts.org. And the there's the problem with the false reviews posted here. Reviews falsely attributed to faithful members of the Legion of Christ -- Luis Garza and Malen Oriol -- are posted and protected here. Hmm.

Rating:
Summary: A Gift to the Church
Review: I lived in a rectory with Father Juan Vaca, a major character in this book, 15 years ago. He poured his heart out to me about the abuse he now describes and was wounded to the heart. Those who love the church love the truth, this book tells the truth. I hope it is a beginning of a cleansing of our church and the replacement of a sick clerical culture with true gospel values. We priests must demand integrity of our leaders, it is the only way to restore the good name of the church. I would like to thank the authors, and especially Father Thomas Doyle who have helped to bring the cleansing light of day to this dark moment in the history of our church. I couln't put it down.

Rating:
Summary: Non-Catholics, check it out
Review: I picked up this book from a friend who is a former Legionaire. I am a practicing Lutheran who was curious about the sex abuse scandals (a media darling of a subject) that have been reported over the past several years. I recommend the book to anyone who is not Catholic. The book follows the lives of two devoted Catholics (although Father Maciel is devoted mostly to himself); the narrative requires no prior knowledge of church hierarchy or doctrine--though it would be helpful, I'm sure.
What I liked most about the book is its balanced view. It certainly indicts the church hierarchy with no apology, but it also mentions the fact that abuse is perpetuated by individuals and is wrapped up with a host of other social problems and evils. It offers some solutions, which are mostly hinted at rather than suggested outright due to the "reporter's" style of the authors. It does not appear to embrace the notion that there is one easy solution to the problem; it points out ways in which church officials could have prevented abuse and corruption in their ranks if they had dealt with these situations openly and honestly to begin with.

Rating:
Summary: Renner was right all along
Review: I read a newspaper report today that puts all questions about the credibility of this book to rest -- Vows of Silence turns out to be right on the money!!! Read for yourself:

MONDAY, JANUARY 3, 2005
The Vatican has reopened an investigation into charges first reported nearly eight years ago that a powerful Mexican priest close to the pope sexually abused seminarians.

The allegations focus on the actions of the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, now 84 and based in Rome. He leads a religious order known as the Legionaries of Christ, which claims 600 priests in 18 countries. Its U.S. headquarters is in Orange and it has a seminary in Cheshire.

The allegations surfaced in a Courant report in February 1997. Nine former members of the Legion said Maciel first abused them years ago when they were young boys or teenagers, ages 10 to 16, in seminaries in Spain and Italy.

The accusers, all professional men - two Mexican-Americans, five Mexicans and two Spaniards, one now deceased - tried for years to call their accusations to the attention of Pope John Paul II, who nonetheless has remained effusive in his praise of Maciel. Just five weeks ago, on Nov. 27, the pope praised Maciel in a letter on the 60th anniversary of his priestly ordination, citing his "intense, generous and fruitful priestly ministry."

A week later, the complainants against Maciel were told the Vatican was reopening a canon law investigation that had been squelched without explanation in 1999.

The canon law case had been lodged formally by the former Legionaries against Maciel in November 1998. A high-level Vatican agency, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, accepted the complaint as credible for further investigation. But it never proceeded and no investigation was made.

Under a 2002 policy adopted by the U.S. hierarchy, an American priest facing allegations such as those made against Maciel would be suspended immediately while an investigation was conducted. The Vatican has no such policy.

In a letter dated Dec. 2, Martha Wegan, a Vatican-approved canon lawyer who is an advocate for the men's case, informed them that a new "permanent promoter of justice" for the congregation has been appointed and wanted to know if they wanted to proceed.

"It seems to me that now the case is being taken seriously," she wrote.

"They say now they are taking it seriously? Before it wasn't serious?" scoffed Juan Vaca, a former priest who headed the Legion's U.S. operations in Connecticut from 1971 to 1976. He now teaches psychology at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.

Vaca said there was no question the men wanted the case to go forward. He said Jose de J. Barba Martin, spokesman for the men accusing Maciel, informed Wegan they wanted to proceed. Barba is a Harvard-trained professor of Latin American studies at Instituto Tecnological Autonomio de Mexico in Mexico City.

Vaca raised accusations against Maciel in letters to Pope John Paul II in 1978 and 1989 but never got a response. He named 20 others who he said had been abused by Maciel, his superior. His accounts of sexual improprieties were supported by another priest, the Rev. Felix Alarcon, who said he also was abused.

Alarcon, now a retired priest in Madrid, established the Legion's U.S. headquarters in Milford, Conn., in 1965. It moved later to Orange. The letters were sent by diplomatic pouch through the Diocese of Rockville Center in New York via the papal nunciature, the pope's representative, in Washington and acknowledged as having been received.

Maciel and the Legionaries of Christ have vigorously denied the allegations of abuse. Maciel has accused the nine men of a conspiracy to defame him.

Barba said it appears to him that Vatican authorities are heavily divided about how to handle the complaints against Maciel, accounting for praise from the pope one week and a decision to investigate him the next.

There is such a division in the church in Mexico. It was not until 2002 that the charges against Maciel were aired at a meeting of the Mexican hierarchy, when it was acknowledged for the first time publicly that the Mexican church had a problem with priestly sexual abuse, as did the U.S. church.

Two Mexican priests who helped Maciel's accusers advance their complaints say their careers suffered.

One, the Rev. Antonio Roqueni, who helped draft the canon law complaints, lost his job as a canon lawyer for Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City.

The other, the Rev. Alberto Athie, was an adviser on social-justice issues to the Mexican bishops' conference and an officer of Caritas, the bishops' national charity. He said he was marginalized and felt compelled to resign his positions after he tried to bring to the attention of church authorities accusations by a dying former priest that Maciel had abused him as a teenager.

Rating:
Summary: Let's cut to the chase
Review: I recommend your close reading of this very detailed and factfilled account of the long history of homosexual clergy who
preyed on prepubescent and teenage boys. The authors have concluded that the very structure of the Roman Catholic Church is at fault and the evil we are witnessing emanates from the Popes and cardinals who control that structure. This relentless
criminal assault on the innocent is a product of a sinful leadership agenda that is more concerned with power, money and secrecy than protecting children and teenagers from being sodomized. That's basically what the authors are reporting. That's where the authors come up short in their analysis. The
root causes of this evil are hinted at in the book, but the authors are afraid to explore it out of fear of ridicule
by their progressive colleagues or friends in the media. What
Berry and Renner will not factor in to their analysis is the
deadening and corrosive influence Satan has played in all this
nightmare. Without taking into account Satan's role and simply
saying that all of this horror was created and promoted by men
is to only look at a single aspect of what's going on. Of course, if you don't believe there is a Satan around us promoting evil acts, then you convienently are ignoring what
Christ himself told us about evil. Since Vatican II, Satanic influence has all but been forgotten. Our writers would applaud
this development and do. It just doesn't fit with their view
of Christianity and salvation. Sorry gentlemem, but your premise that the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church is a collection of lowlife bloodsuckers who got that way on their own by
hoarding power and secrecy seems a little naive. It's much deeper than that. Somewhere that few of us dare to tread.

Rating:
Summary: A Tale of Two Priests
Review: I wish I had read this book earlier when the clergy abuse scandal was in the headlines. This "Tale of Two Cities" - that of God and that of man - could really have been entitled "A Tale of Two Priests." Jason Berry and Gerald Renner tell the story of two men of the cloth, Thomas Doyle and Marcel Maciel - one a lonely advocate for victims of sexual abuse, the other credibly charged with being a serial sexual abuser - and the surprising fate that the Catholic Church under John Paul II has reserved for them. The courageous pastor to the marginalized is himself marginalized, moved from assignment to assignment, each time farther and farther from centers of influence; the cowardly child molester receives accolade upon accolade and is all but canonized while he's still alive. Fortunately for both - and for all of us - there's a life to come with judgment.

This book is well-researched and clearly written. It deserves a wide readership.

Rating:
Summary: Truth and Charity
Review: If you want to learn the truth about Fr. Maciel I would highly recommend the book "Christ is My Life" by Jesus Colina. I would also recommend that readers visit www.legionaryfacts.org for the truth regarding the Legion and Regnum Christi. It is hard to understand the vitriole and calumny directed toward these good men and women but I urge you to at least seek some balance while exploring this book.