"A Highly Amateurish Production"

A harsh review on Amazon by a reviewer may have doomed this useful booklet to obscurity. He has 'damned it with faint praise" as the saying goes.
The harshness is directed at the editing defects seen by the reviewer more than by the content - which he finds interesting.
In my defense I thought I made it clear that the booklet had no deep or far reaching intentions nor was it an analysis of the Maciel debacle in the press or public forum. It is limited to the writer's brief correspondence with RJN.

Hopefully a few brave souls will see beyond the form and go to the content: simply a sampling of RJ Neuhaus correspondence/discussion about a subject he held close to heart -the Accusations against Legion of Christ Founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel, circa 2002.

As his interlocutor I felt Fr. Neuhaus was fundamentally fair in his brief dialog with this obscure writer -me.
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[From the Amazon Books review]

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:


Useful insights, poor editorial work, June 23, 2010

This review is from: R. J. Neuhaus Duped by the Legion of Christ: His "Feathers of Scandal" defense of Legion of Christ Sexually Abusive Founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel Correspondence (Paperback)

When I recently decided to order J. Paul Lennon's first book, Our Father, who art in bed: A Naive and Sentimental Dubliner in the Legion of Christ, I noticed this new book had just been published. From the description, I thought the book was a record of Lennon's written dialog with Richard John Neuhaus, a prominent defender of Marcial Maciel. I was quite interested in the subject, because throughout the 1990s, I was an admirer of Neuhaus (though somewhat critically, since I never fully accepted his "neoliberal" version of Catholicism). I read Neuhaus' several written defenses of Maciel as they were published in First Things, and though I was a bit skeptical of the claims Neuhaus made, I thought he made some good points. As for Maciel and LC and RC, I had no experience of them, but the negative publicity they had received made me keep my distance. Yet I also wondered if it was possible Maciel was the saint his followers claimed, and that his detractors were part of a demonic conspiracy against him and his work.

In time, of course, I discovered the truth, as by now everyone has: that Maciel was not only not a saint, but that even his worst detractors underestimated by a large degree the seriousness of his crimes. The demonic activity in this case stemmed right from the heart of Marcial Maciel himself.

Sadly, this little book is not a very good account of the exposure of Maciel that has occurred over the past few years. Nor is it a record of a dialog between Neuhaus and Lennon. It turns out that Neuhaus only seems to have sent Lennon three very brief responses to the letters Lennon sent him. Those responses appear in this book, but they shed no light on Neuhaus' attitudes toward either Lennon or Maciel -- none whatsoever.

In addition, this book is extremely poorly edited and proofread. If I had to guess, I'd say the text consists of several pieces that Lennon has written for the internet over several years, cut and pasted into a new manuscript with no editing, and also includes a couple of official documents, also cut and pasted from the internet. Typographical errors and oddities abound. More significantly, the lengthy letters Lennon wrote have been edited several times since Lennon sent them to Neuhaus; sometimes Lennon notes that he added a few paragraphs here and there, but it's not always clear where the added passage end. The letters were first written in 2002, but Lennon mentions some additions dating from 2004, but he offers no explanation why he changed his own letters, and he doesn't say whether Neuhaus saw these revised versions. Lennon also doesn't make it clear whether he edited these letters again for publication in 2010.

In any case, despite these problems (and others), there is much fascinating material in Lennon's letters. He comes across as genuinely decent, gentle, and caring; he never expresses rage or even anger against either Maciel or Neuhaus, despite the harm they did. And his close experience of Maciel and LC made his testimony quite valuable.

I recommend this book to anyone as fascinated as I am by the Maciel horror story, but with the caution that this is a highly amateurish production.

De Paolis Duped by the Legion of Christ?

such might appear to be the case after reading his Second Letter to the order,

Bad Reviews

Not Fr. Maciel

Now I feel real bad, and I am getting the guilty feeling I used to have while in the Legion. A couple of reviewers have been hard on me. I must examine my conscience, fess up that I have been a bad editor....mea culpa, mea culpa...
Maybe people dont want to read me explain what pedophilia is, and what clerical sexual abuse it, and how strenuously the late great Dr Neuhaus defended Fr. Marcial Maciel. Neuhaus did so, not because he knew Fr Maciel personally but because he was the founder of a very doctrinally orthodox order and because Fr Maciel was 'close to the Pope' and the order, the members, and the followers were Conservative...
He got waylayed by the Glittering Images, by the sirens singing those reassuring songs or "we are with the pope, we have to be good".
Maybe I am just being prophetic again, like I was when I entitled my memoir "Our Father Maciel who art in bed" -that got a lot of flack. Until people had to admit that Fr Maciel was in bed too much, with his feigned illnesses, with his seminarians, with a few women, and even with his own children...

Newly Ordained Legion Priests Still Deceived by Fr Maciel

A correspondent penned the following note re testimonies by recently ordained Mexican Legionaries. They seem to live in a time warp that never knew or believed the 'accusations' against Fr. Maciel, the Founder...
They found him always edifying:

"

Two local [Mexico] interest articles about two LCs recently ordained deacon who are from Celaya in Mexico. I'm unsure which of these gems is the best: "Rogelio remembers having known the founder of the Legion personally having spent a year en the General Direction when Marcial Maciel was still the director. 'Personally I never received  a bad example from him, in fact the opposite, his concern for others, to help them, edified me.' " (Rogelio Aguilera Jimenez, 30 years old) or: "I knew our founder in person, I received a great testimony from him and he motivated me a great deal to commit myself to a generous answer to Christ as a priest in the Legion." (Juan Carlos Duran, 31 years old.) The correspondent comments: I believe it is worth noting that these have lived their entire life under LC censorship and did not know any of the allegations/scandal about Maciel before entering. I believe that this is very significant and is an indication as to why there are still "large" groups of ordinations. I notice that the groups have never been more then 60 so there is no indication of growth and, as I have said, they do not yet take into consideration the effects of the scandal on admissions. I believe that vocationally the Legion is at its peak - we are seeing today the fruits of the expansion and recruitment drive of 12+ years ago in the pre-scandal days. http://www.am.com.mx/Nota.aspx?ID=424458 http://www.am.com.mx/Nota.aspx?ID=424459

[video] Vatican Prosecutor Scicluna not Duped by Maciel or Legion

The Scicluna/Ratzinger partnership brought Fr. Marcial Maciel to ground, beginning with launching an investigation effective April 2005 into the Legion of Christ Founder's behavior.

Recent interview of Mons Scicluna re how then Cardinal Ratzinger became increasingly sensitive [2005-2008] to the plight of victims of clergy abuse and how he determined to bring abusers to justice

Here is a July, 2010 video of Mons Scicluna discussing the new norms emanating from the Vatican re handling Priestly Pedophilia

Scicluna personally carried out the investigation beginning in New York with Juan Jose Vaca and continuing in Mexico City with other victims; his findings led to a public reprimand for Maciel and ultimately to an Visitation into the Legion of Christ this year which concluded with a communique on May 1, 2010

Neuhaus Stood by his Man Maciel

Fr. Maciel gives Holy Communion to the author, at the time an ordained LC Priest; "such was the honor of receiving Holy Communion from Nuestro Padre's hand"

Thanks to folks who have purchased a copy of the booklet. Not earth shattering BUT

You get a glimpse of Neuhaus engaged in discussion;
of what he thought about the sex abuse scandal;
of how he minimized the offense;
how he stauncly stood by Maciel and the Legion impressed by the Glittering Images and Pontifical Approval

Praise for this book and Questions re Vatican Action re Legion

[from a member of the Catholic hierarchy]

unto thee, my ghostly father, that I have LIED. I will NOT be taking NEUHAUS with me tomorrow. Why not? Because I finished it this morning.

I think that the little volume is a precise compilation of the pertinent facts re: Maciel/LC/RC. The whole situation is so deviated from all that is good & right that I wonder if I will ever have it all sorted out.


I further confess that I thought suppression of LC/RC would have been the proper outcome of the Vatican Investigation. But, I guess there is at least a part of me that can sympathize with the innocent victims within LC/RC of Maciel's criminal, really diabolical, behavior. We will have to wait & see what B16 comes up with by way of commissioner, administrator, or whatever. I am not ready to make any predictions.

R, J. Neuhaus Duped by Legion and Fr, Maciel

I had already written a couple of articles on REGAIN, INC: my debate with this champion of Catholic Conservatism regarding his defense of the Rev. Fr. Marcial Maciel, Founder of the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi Movement, accused of sexually abusing his seminarians. So I decided to go whole hog and publish a booklet  containing that correspondence, successive revelations, and Vatican actions.