No. Really. The Legion Should be Dismantled

Here’s why:

•It is deeply tragic that a priest has broken his vows, but as important as the matter is, it is the surrounding duplicity that is of far more concern, especially from a group that is trying to reform after decades of monstrous deceit;
•The most troubling element of the affair itself is that the child is referred to as “hers.” For a congregation that associates itself with the New Evangelisation, they have dropped the ball grievously on this point, since fatherhood is a particular area where the culture is lacking;
•Since it has been admitted that the child was born some years ago, recent events (book tours, speaking engagements, television appearances, promotional material) had to have been approved with the full understanding of the monumental hypocrisy involved;
•Either TW did this alone, or the Legion was complicit — and although they refuse to say when they knew, in such a case the refusal is damning in itself;
•We also know that the Legion only acted when their hand was forced by Patricio Serda, despite their laughable insistence that this, too, was the result of an internal investigation — if that were the case, then it would have come out a long time ago. The timing is clear: they could no longer maintain the pretense;
•Cardinal dePaolis’ response, “these things happen” beggars belief. One expects to hear that when sportscasters are announcing a quirky aspect to the game they’re covering — not from a “Prince of the Church” when responding to a grave breach of trust in a theological matter;
•The fact that TW taught Moral Theology at a seminary while harbouring such a secret is deeply unsettling; but another professor of moral theology scandalised LARC readers years ago by saying that the sexual abuse suffered within the Legion was known to him and not that bad;
•For years, TW has been the model Legionary, the “poster boy” as it were, filling the gap left by the previous model Legionary — MM himself; since the Legion hierarchy cannot find a model Legionary who is a man of integrity, are the superiors deliberately telegraphing something, or just confounded in their choices?
•It has to be noted that once again the temptation from within the L/R ranks is to cast aspersions on those who are horrified by this tragic news. Their own reactions are deflected so that critics are called mean, scandalous reactions are called “judgemental,” and there is the hasty [irrelevant] call for forgiveness;

The Legion leadership goes on doing what Maciel built that monstrous robot to do. It’s a fine piece of workmanship built by an organizational genius who also happens to have been deeply depraved. The robot continues doing what he built it to do long after he is dead. And so all the same stupid and evil defensive measures are taken on Williams’ behalf as they were on Maciel’s. And Legion defenders assist the robot by (still! after multiple lessons from Maciel, Euteneuer, and Corapi) indulging the foolish cult of Folk Hero worship, of attacking those who question the Folk Hero as enemies of the Faith, of being crushed yet again when the idol has feet of clay, and then battening on the *next* celebrity Folk Hero.

Take the Robot Monster apart piece by piece till there is nothing left. If the Legion, at this late date, still cannot confront these evils with anything other than the same wicked measures it took to defend Maciel, then it appears to be structurally incapable of doing so. Therefore, dismantle the structure. Machines don’t do what we want them to do. They do what they are designed to do. There are a lot of other apostolate out there that are *not* designed by monstrous fiends to exploit decent and good people. Let the many decent and good Legionaries devote their energies to one of these.