Although more prosaic, another question is what happens to the assets of the order. Under church law, if one juridical person is merged into another (e.g., parishes merging together) the continuing entity acquires the assets. But if a juridic person is suppressed altogether the next highest juridic person (often a diocese) acquires its assets, unless its statutes or agreements with donors says otherwise. If Miles Christi is merged into another order, that order would take over its property. But if not it would seem that the Vatican could do so unless its statutes or the rights of donors provides otherwise.
Hi, Legionary of Christ here. Thanks for all the reporting, you folks at the Pillar are the best. About those last couple of paragraphs (and even though everyone will say I am biased haha), I can truly say that our order has undergone a profound reform, and it's really beautiful to see the spirit that reigns among my brother Legionaries. Reform is never fully over of course - Ecclesia semper reformanda - but being obedient to the Church really saved us and I'm really excited about the future. Thanks again for all the awesome reporting!
I clicked into the comments transparently to comment on the LC situation. I’m replying to you directly because you’ve also commented on it.
I have always been of the opinion that the Legion ought to have been suppressed ages ago, but that the “ship has sailed” and thankfully most of the rot has (apparently) been dealt with.
But I feel like in some ways the success of the LC in reforming itself has the unintended consequences of stifling suppressions that need to happen, because now other new orders founded by bad actors or falling under leadership who are corrupt can point to the Legion and say, “Look! They fixed themselves, we can too!”
And I just don’t care for that state of affairs. I don’t think at this point it makes sense to suppress Maciel’s organization, but I do think the Legion needs to be treated as more of a cautionary warning of an order that should have been dealt with differently and is not on any way an exemplar of “what went right.”
My strong suspicion is that the vast majority of the good priests in the Legion would have been good priests outside of it, and the real lesson we should learn is probably that suppressing the order wouldn’t have left the church any worse off because those good men simply would have gone elsewhere, but that even now there are probably small ways in which a poorly founded group continues to be haunted and corrupted by an ill start.
Thanks for replying to my comment. Honestly, the fact that we're still around, with our founder and his terrible sins and crimes, is a story for us Legionaries of being redeemed. We could have been suppressed, but we were not. And because we can't look to our founder for inspiration, the consequence has been: look at Christ, put the focus on him.
I'm glad I don't have to be the one to make the call about troubled orders and movements being suppressed or not. It must be so hard for these people when that happens, I can't imagine. In our case, the Church's judgement was that our charism is a genuine gift of God, and we should keep going forward.
Thanks for the comment! Obviously the Legion will come up in stories like this, because the Legion story is the best known of religious orders with similar histories, but just to be clear, we're not advocating for or against.
Completely agree. I am grateful to the Legionaries who are a true band of brothers, strong priests with true love for Christ, the Blessed Mother, and the Church. My son attends the LC apostolic school which is a minor seminary and Maciel is never mentioned or quoted there. The one time he was mentioned was during the summer program in which the boys were discerning whether they wanted to attend the school. They were told about the crimes of Maciel to help them in their decision process. My son decided to attend and he loves being there because the priests there are the best group of strong Christian men I have ever seen who can serve as role models for my teenage son.
And let's not forget that the LC/RC had friends in higher places in the Holy See than Miles Christi or the IVE. Maciel had been handing out "bustoni" ("big envelopes") and whole "jamones ibericos" for decades. The IVE lost their biggest protector when Mr. McCarrick got booted from the College.
While Maciel was still around, the LC were more of a fundraising organization than a religious community. Everything was geared around extracting as much money as possible from their supporters and benefactors.
There should be concern among all Catholics that the only religious orders being reprimanded are the orthodox conservative ones who have been very successful in their evangelization methods, reaching in particular young people who have become stronger Catholics thanks to them. For example, Miles Christi which has a very prominent Ignatius retreat ministry which I have known about for over 10 years and which has been praised by some of the best diocesan priests out there. It is interesting that the Vatican is targeting especially religious orders approved in dioceses which were at the time of founding led by some of then Cardinal Bergoglio's (Pope Francis') greatest episcopal enemies like the Archbishop of La Plata Aguer and the Archbishop of Lima, Peru.
Recall that Pope Francis had previously suppressed the most orthodox and most successful seminary in Argentina in the Diocese of San Rafael, replacing the bishop there with a personal friend who has now turned up now to be a sexual abuser.
I don't think anybody should be happy that Catholic organizations that have been most successful with evangelizing young people and drawing the most new vocations to the priesthood are being destroyed by Pope Francis. IUnlike Pope JPII and Pope Benedict, almost no young man enters the seminary today inspired by the current Pope, but rather enter it despite him. The fact that we will have less and less good priests thanks to the policies of the current Vatican should really be bothering every Catholic who loves the Church.
Miles Christi and SCV were founded by abusers. Their charisms were tainted by a will to accumulate and abuse spiritual power. Wasn't the community of sisters that Marko Rupnik founded (and abused) also dissolved?
What about the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculata and the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculata who have been repressed and greatly restricted from their activity (including not being allowed to accept new postulants)? There were no sexual crimes even alleged there, but the order did support traditional liturgy and theology.
What about the Knights of Malta, which was supposed to be independent of Pope Francis, being completely restructured with the Pope removing the Grand Master of the Order and removing its Cardinal Protector, Cardinal Burke from any role in it after an official was removed from using the order's money to distribute thousands of condoms in Malaysia. That corrupt man was then named by Pope Francis to lead the Knights of Malta to replace the man who rightly fired him.
I would like to see an independent panel of canon lawyers and abuse specialists take a look at these cases and make sure all the allegations are legitimate. Not only Cardinal Pell was falsely accused of abuse.
I don't trust a Pope who has protected abuser friends, promoted those who had hid the abuses of others (like naming Cardinal McElroy to Washington after he had purposely hid the crimes of former Cardinal McCarrick before they were publicly revealed).
I wander why the liberal religious orders, where hundreds of abusers were allowed for decades to abuse thousands of children and adults have not been investigated and disciplined.
All the investigated orders have two things in common: they support orthodox Catholic theology and they were supported by conservative bishops who opposed the activities of the liberal Cardinal Bergoglio before he became Pope.
I wouldn't defend what was done to the Franciscans of the Immaculate or the Knights of Malta, far from it. But I sure wouldn't slander those communities by mentioning them together with SCV or Miles Christi!
I am not slandering them. In fact, I have encountered all the communities you have mentioned except SCV and I would trust my kids and myself to be formed and taught by them and participate in their activities, something I cannot say about most Jesuits, Franciscans, Dominicans, Benedictines, Divine Word Missionaries, and other mainstream religious orders. In fact I know a good orthodox Catholic serving the poor Franciscan priest who trusts Legionary and Miles Christi priests more than his own wishy washy liberal Franciscans.
The good priests in these communities, I pray, will be able to find new ministries, unburdened by the darkness of their former order. I know a diocesan priest who was at one point a part of the Legion. He's a good, orthodox priest- he was in the Legion, I'm sure, and he is now. The good parts of the charism can be carried forward into new works without continuing to sustain an institution with an abusive founding.
Right that's what I meant to convey, that it's not just traditionalist orders that are dissolved when their founding is revealed to be tied up in abuse
And yet Rupnik continues to be coseted and remains a priest in good standing, as do other abusers who have found favor with this morally incoherent pontificate.
If Miles Christi were completely Orthodox it would not have been a founding based in the abuse of its members and those for whom it cared. It was a poisoned tree from a poison root so of course it produced poisoned fruit.
I've made at least three Ignatian retreats with MC in the past 10+ years. Priests always reverent, balanced, and well formed. The late Fr. John Hardon, SJ turned over his life's work of Ignatian retreats to MC when he grew old, a well deserved vote of confidence from all I've experienced.
Is Pope Francis, a Jesuit, afraid that Miles Christi does a much better job with traditionally Jesuit Ignatian retreats than the Jesuits do? My 17 year old son participated in a MC retreat this year and he also spoke highly about it.
This is a shame. Pitfalls of their founder aside, this small but mighty group does some amazing work here in the US: campus ministry, spiritual direction (notably for many FOCUS missionaries), and authentically preaching the Spiritual Exercises (something a much larger and well known order should be focused on, but I digress).
Just two weekends ago I was on a retreat hosted by MC. Kinda explains why the transitional deacon said he didn’t know when he would be ordained a priest.
Other orders in the history of the Church have had their suppression lifted, so I hope that’s not beyond the realm of possibility for Miles Christi. I’m looking forward to Pillar updates on this one!
Miles Christi priests have been a blessing to me and to my family in San Diego. In February I attended a 3 day silent retreat led by two wonderful, faithful, orthodox Miles Christi priests. This was my second Miles Christi led retreat. I am heart-broken that Pope Francis has suppressed Miles Christi. There are many, many Bishops who deserve to be "suppressed" for their unfaithful leadership, but Pope Francis remains quite friendly to them (see Cardinal McElroy - who (just one example0 doesn't want to "politicize" the Eucharist, so he is quite happy to allow very public abortion supporters to receive Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament). This is a grave mistake by Pope Francis that hurts many. I will pray for the Miles Christi Priests. As I pray for the conversion of Cardinal McElroy.
This is copied from a recent Miles Christi newsletter which came to my email
“ Through his consecration, the priest has mystically ceased to be merely a man and has begun to be another Christ. A kind of transubstantiation has taken place in him: the appearances are human, but the substance is Jesus.”
I too have been to 2 Miles Christi retreats and I found them very beneficial but once I read these words I won’t be going again.
I'm not sure that's entirely inaccurate, as the priest acts in persona Christi when, for example, he performs the act of consecration. However, I could see this notion being abused by priests who seek to use this elevated role for their own vices.
I’ve read two articles in two different publications on this situation and neither explained, as far as I can tell, what “suppression” is and the practical implications thereof.
🇪🇸 Spanish police arrested a former private secretary to Legion of Christ founder Fr. Marcial Maciel March 6, after he was accused of abusing five students at a school where he served as chaplain (Spanish reports 1 & 2, losangelespress.org, Wikipedia).
Thanks for this reporting. Did the suppression document include what happens to the priests of Miles Christi?
working on it.
I'd love a Pillar Explainer on incardination in general, and this question in particular
Although more prosaic, another question is what happens to the assets of the order. Under church law, if one juridical person is merged into another (e.g., parishes merging together) the continuing entity acquires the assets. But if a juridic person is suppressed altogether the next highest juridic person (often a diocese) acquires its assets, unless its statutes or agreements with donors says otherwise. If Miles Christi is merged into another order, that order would take over its property. But if not it would seem that the Vatican could do so unless its statutes or the rights of donors provides otherwise.
Hi, Legionary of Christ here. Thanks for all the reporting, you folks at the Pillar are the best. About those last couple of paragraphs (and even though everyone will say I am biased haha), I can truly say that our order has undergone a profound reform, and it's really beautiful to see the spirit that reigns among my brother Legionaries. Reform is never fully over of course - Ecclesia semper reformanda - but being obedient to the Church really saved us and I'm really excited about the future. Thanks again for all the awesome reporting!
I clicked into the comments transparently to comment on the LC situation. I’m replying to you directly because you’ve also commented on it.
I have always been of the opinion that the Legion ought to have been suppressed ages ago, but that the “ship has sailed” and thankfully most of the rot has (apparently) been dealt with.
But I feel like in some ways the success of the LC in reforming itself has the unintended consequences of stifling suppressions that need to happen, because now other new orders founded by bad actors or falling under leadership who are corrupt can point to the Legion and say, “Look! They fixed themselves, we can too!”
And I just don’t care for that state of affairs. I don’t think at this point it makes sense to suppress Maciel’s organization, but I do think the Legion needs to be treated as more of a cautionary warning of an order that should have been dealt with differently and is not on any way an exemplar of “what went right.”
My strong suspicion is that the vast majority of the good priests in the Legion would have been good priests outside of it, and the real lesson we should learn is probably that suppressing the order wouldn’t have left the church any worse off because those good men simply would have gone elsewhere, but that even now there are probably small ways in which a poorly founded group continues to be haunted and corrupted by an ill start.
Thanks for replying to my comment. Honestly, the fact that we're still around, with our founder and his terrible sins and crimes, is a story for us Legionaries of being redeemed. We could have been suppressed, but we were not. And because we can't look to our founder for inspiration, the consequence has been: look at Christ, put the focus on him.
I'm glad I don't have to be the one to make the call about troubled orders and movements being suppressed or not. It must be so hard for these people when that happens, I can't imagine. In our case, the Church's judgement was that our charism is a genuine gift of God, and we should keep going forward.
Thanks for the comment! Obviously the Legion will come up in stories like this, because the Legion story is the best known of religious orders with similar histories, but just to be clear, we're not advocating for or against.
And really, thanks for the comment.
Isn't this Pillar community just great!
Completely agree. I am grateful to the Legionaries who are a true band of brothers, strong priests with true love for Christ, the Blessed Mother, and the Church. My son attends the LC apostolic school which is a minor seminary and Maciel is never mentioned or quoted there. The one time he was mentioned was during the summer program in which the boys were discerning whether they wanted to attend the school. They were told about the crimes of Maciel to help them in their decision process. My son decided to attend and he loves being there because the priests there are the best group of strong Christian men I have ever seen who can serve as role models for my teenage son.
Awesome. Now do the same to the IVE. (I feel like I've said this before, but this particular dead horse warrants further beating.)
Francis’s approach here seems ultimately pragmatic: if the institute is small, it’s not worth the trouble, and it will be suppressed.
And let's not forget that the LC/RC had friends in higher places in the Holy See than Miles Christi or the IVE. Maciel had been handing out "bustoni" ("big envelopes") and whole "jamones ibericos" for decades. The IVE lost their biggest protector when Mr. McCarrick got booted from the College.
I believe Maciel was protected primarily because of his fundraising skills. I wonder if the order is still sitting on a pile of money.
While Maciel was still around, the LC were more of a fundraising organization than a religious community. Everything was geared around extracting as much money as possible from their supporters and benefactors.
There should be concern among all Catholics that the only religious orders being reprimanded are the orthodox conservative ones who have been very successful in their evangelization methods, reaching in particular young people who have become stronger Catholics thanks to them. For example, Miles Christi which has a very prominent Ignatius retreat ministry which I have known about for over 10 years and which has been praised by some of the best diocesan priests out there. It is interesting that the Vatican is targeting especially religious orders approved in dioceses which were at the time of founding led by some of then Cardinal Bergoglio's (Pope Francis') greatest episcopal enemies like the Archbishop of La Plata Aguer and the Archbishop of Lima, Peru.
Recall that Pope Francis had previously suppressed the most orthodox and most successful seminary in Argentina in the Diocese of San Rafael, replacing the bishop there with a personal friend who has now turned up now to be a sexual abuser.
I don't think anybody should be happy that Catholic organizations that have been most successful with evangelizing young people and drawing the most new vocations to the priesthood are being destroyed by Pope Francis. IUnlike Pope JPII and Pope Benedict, almost no young man enters the seminary today inspired by the current Pope, but rather enter it despite him. The fact that we will have less and less good priests thanks to the policies of the current Vatican should really be bothering every Catholic who loves the Church.
Miles Christi and SCV were founded by abusers. Their charisms were tainted by a will to accumulate and abuse spiritual power. Wasn't the community of sisters that Marko Rupnik founded (and abused) also dissolved?
Totally agree. Sheep being led astray by wolves. The evil one knows who to target.
What about the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculata and the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculata who have been repressed and greatly restricted from their activity (including not being allowed to accept new postulants)? There were no sexual crimes even alleged there, but the order did support traditional liturgy and theology.
What about the Knights of Malta, which was supposed to be independent of Pope Francis, being completely restructured with the Pope removing the Grand Master of the Order and removing its Cardinal Protector, Cardinal Burke from any role in it after an official was removed from using the order's money to distribute thousands of condoms in Malaysia. That corrupt man was then named by Pope Francis to lead the Knights of Malta to replace the man who rightly fired him.
I would like to see an independent panel of canon lawyers and abuse specialists take a look at these cases and make sure all the allegations are legitimate. Not only Cardinal Pell was falsely accused of abuse.
I don't trust a Pope who has protected abuser friends, promoted those who had hid the abuses of others (like naming Cardinal McElroy to Washington after he had purposely hid the crimes of former Cardinal McCarrick before they were publicly revealed).
I wander why the liberal religious orders, where hundreds of abusers were allowed for decades to abuse thousands of children and adults have not been investigated and disciplined.
All the investigated orders have two things in common: they support orthodox Catholic theology and they were supported by conservative bishops who opposed the activities of the liberal Cardinal Bergoglio before he became Pope.
I wouldn't defend what was done to the Franciscans of the Immaculate or the Knights of Malta, far from it. But I sure wouldn't slander those communities by mentioning them together with SCV or Miles Christi!
Edit.. or the Legion or IVE
I am not slandering them. In fact, I have encountered all the communities you have mentioned except SCV and I would trust my kids and myself to be formed and taught by them and participate in their activities, something I cannot say about most Jesuits, Franciscans, Dominicans, Benedictines, Divine Word Missionaries, and other mainstream religious orders. In fact I know a good orthodox Catholic serving the poor Franciscan priest who trusts Legionary and Miles Christi priests more than his own wishy washy liberal Franciscans.
The good priests in these communities, I pray, will be able to find new ministries, unburdened by the darkness of their former order. I know a diocesan priest who was at one point a part of the Legion. He's a good, orthodox priest- he was in the Legion, I'm sure, and he is now. The good parts of the charism can be carried forward into new works without continuing to sustain an institution with an abusive founding.
I thought the community of sisters founded by Rupnik was dissolved after so many of the sisters there made known what he had done to them.
Right that's what I meant to convey, that it's not just traditionalist orders that are dissolved when their founding is revealed to be tied up in abuse
And yet Rupnik continues to be coseted and remains a priest in good standing, as do other abusers who have found favor with this morally incoherent pontificate.
If Miles Christi were completely Orthodox it would not have been a founding based in the abuse of its members and those for whom it cared. It was a poisoned tree from a poison root so of course it produced poisoned fruit.
I've made at least three Ignatian retreats with MC in the past 10+ years. Priests always reverent, balanced, and well formed. The late Fr. John Hardon, SJ turned over his life's work of Ignatian retreats to MC when he grew old, a well deserved vote of confidence from all I've experienced.
Is Pope Francis, a Jesuit, afraid that Miles Christi does a much better job with traditionally Jesuit Ignatian retreats than the Jesuits do? My 17 year old son participated in a MC retreat this year and he also spoke highly about it.
Sexual abusers and predators are not conservative. Instead of giving power and authority to Jesus they give it to themselves.
This is a shame. Pitfalls of their founder aside, this small but mighty group does some amazing work here in the US: campus ministry, spiritual direction (notably for many FOCUS missionaries), and authentically preaching the Spiritual Exercises (something a much larger and well known order should be focused on, but I digress).
Just two weekends ago I was on a retreat hosted by MC. Kinda explains why the transitional deacon said he didn’t know when he would be ordained a priest.
Other orders in the history of the Church have had their suppression lifted, so I hope that’s not beyond the realm of possibility for Miles Christi. I’m looking forward to Pillar updates on this one!
Devout people have been duped so many times by seemingly holy people who turn out to be frauds and psychopaths. Will people ever learn?
And shouldn’t people be keeping an eye on MC’s founder, making sure he hasn’t gone on to abuse and defraud others?
Miles Christi priests have been a blessing to me and to my family in San Diego. In February I attended a 3 day silent retreat led by two wonderful, faithful, orthodox Miles Christi priests. This was my second Miles Christi led retreat. I am heart-broken that Pope Francis has suppressed Miles Christi. There are many, many Bishops who deserve to be "suppressed" for their unfaithful leadership, but Pope Francis remains quite friendly to them (see Cardinal McElroy - who (just one example0 doesn't want to "politicize" the Eucharist, so he is quite happy to allow very public abortion supporters to receive Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament). This is a grave mistake by Pope Francis that hurts many. I will pray for the Miles Christi Priests. As I pray for the conversion of Cardinal McElroy.
This is copied from a recent Miles Christi newsletter which came to my email
“ Through his consecration, the priest has mystically ceased to be merely a man and has begun to be another Christ. A kind of transubstantiation has taken place in him: the appearances are human, but the substance is Jesus.”
I too have been to 2 Miles Christi retreats and I found them very beneficial but once I read these words I won’t be going again.
I'm not sure that's entirely inaccurate, as the priest acts in persona Christi when, for example, he performs the act of consecration. However, I could see this notion being abused by priests who seek to use this elevated role for their own vices.
Yes it is only true in the sacraments. Otherwise priests are human.
I’ve read two articles in two different publications on this situation and neither explained, as far as I can tell, what “suppression” is and the practical implications thereof.
From today's "Starting Seven" March 11, 2025
🇪🇸 Spanish police arrested a former private secretary to Legion of Christ founder Fr. Marcial Maciel March 6, after he was accused of abusing five students at a school where he served as chaplain (Spanish reports 1 & 2, losangelespress.org, Wikipedia).