A Comment on dotCommonweal

On Commonweal's blog, a letter was posted about changing The Legionnaires. Seven comments were made. Mine was the eighth.

dotCOMMONWEAL

http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/

Bombshell Letter

February 5, 2009, 7:37 pm

Posted by Robert P. Imbelli

 

The American Papist is carrying an open letter to the Legionaries of Christ by Dr. Germain Grisez. Here is part of what he says:

If I were you, I would bear in mind that your fundamental commitment is to Jesus and his Church. The question that should be uppermost in your minds is how to continue carrying out that commitment most faithfully and fruitfully.

You and all your good and faithful confreres share a common good that includes realities of great value: your communio with one another, your experience and habits of working together, and material means of carrying on your common service and life. All that should be protected, salvaged, and, if possible, kept intact. I do not think that good end can be realized by the juridical person, the Legionaries of Christ, and its present leadership.

Grisez concludes:

Some of your good and faithful confreres undoubtedly will tell you that following my advice would violate your vow of obedience and constitute grave disloyalty to your superiors. Those sincere men will be mistaken. Your vow is to obey morally acceptable precepts. In the present disaster, it is, in my judgment, your grave moral duty to appeal to the Pope, as your superior, to save the common good of the faithful members of the Legionaries of Christ by terminating the present juridical person, and seeing to the formation of a new institute. I am sure that most who were complicit in Father Maciel's wrongdoing were constrained by a false sense of loyalty. Do not follow their bad and disastrous example. Remember instead your responsibility to Jesus and to his Church and to all those whose souls are still to be saved by your service and that of the members of the new foundation.

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Comments

Posted by E. Paul Kelly
on February 6th, 2009 at 5:04 am

What if the letter by Dr. Grisez were sent to the College of Cardinals about the conduct of the "juridical person" they elected? Editorial changes would be required, "mutatis mutandis," but there is far more fodder among the derelictions of The Vatican than of the Legionnaires. Need I mention sexual abuse of children, denial of equality for women, refusal for accountability of bishops, unjust excommunications of some and lifting of same for others, etc., etc., etc. That poor outfit of Legionnaires are but one group led by one person. The Church deals with all groups, but is led by one "juridical person" and those who put him there. In borrowing Dr. Grisez' advice to the Legionnaires, we could recommend that they try "to save the common good of the faithful members of the … [Catholic Church] by terminating the present juridical person, and seeing to the formation of a new institute." What if such a letter were signed by The People of God?