I downloaded document excerpts from a wesite, organized them, and put them up as a pdf file. It is obvious I haven't stolen anything. The documents disturb me very much, so I also shared them with others. This was two years ago. I can't see why the LC would want my identity except to harass me.

The norms are very creepy.

I was a Legionary for 20 years. Not everything was good, not everything bad. That is the way it goes in all organized endeavors. However the results achieved by the Legion in today's Church are, for the most part, truly magnificent. I for one am very proud of my contribution. No major regrets! Regain's version of the "facts" is only one piece of a very complex puzzle. Regain is not lily-white pure - for instance, they (Glen F., Paul Lennon) have refused to take down an article written by me, from their website. It is conspicuously displayed, posted without my consent, against my wishes and written requests to have it removed. This suggests to me that more of their their stories and allegations may be tainted. Regain seems to focus exclusively on the negative and to manipulate the context. The Legion was quite typical of traditional religious congregations of the 1940, 50s and 60s. I am willing to believe that Regain's motives are well-meaning. However, in my view, so much anger and bitterness, expressed consistently and so publicly by a small group, are now doing more harm than good. Kudos to the Legion for taking this modest action. I truly hope my former confrères, affiliated with Regain, find peace and a constructive way forward. The rest of us former Legionaries are busy getting on with our lives and keeping a sense of perspective. Many of us wondered why it took the Legion so long to react.

ReGAIN does not claim to be "lily-white pure" as far as I know. The Legion of Christ and Marcial Maciel, however, do claim this of themselves. And then they need to sue to keep all this secrecy of their own goodness? This is "De Vinci Code", "Name of the Rose" kind of stuff.

So does one wonder why the catholic church is loosing members and is hurting for priests?
I shall not be a religious nut here, but I feel it a relion is false, one must run away from it, and as fast as possible.

Dear Gabon,
we do not see eye to eye, and that can happen in the best of families, and it is also allowed in America and most civilized societies. Although we are both former Legionaries, we are no longer bound by the Private Vow of Silence never to criticize Father Maciel and other superiors and to snitch on our brothers, or by that "Uniformity of Mind" which Father Maciel imposed on the membership.
The Articles posted on ReGAIN which you wrote circa 1992 for Fr. Peter Cronin's NETWORK, ipso facto became Fr. Peter's and NETWORK's property. I feel that ReGAIN, as the inheritor of Fr. Cronin's mission to expose the cult-like aspects of the Legion of Christ and the Regnum Christi Movement, has a right to post those letters. And I believe you do not have a legal leg to stand on despite your protestations.
What happened to change you from a harsh critic of the Legion and Father Bannon to one of its defenders?
At least I have been consistent

Once upon a time, a long time ago, in a faraway place, I met and fell in love with a beautiful woman. She was a member of Regnum Christi, and had agreed to teach in one of their schools for a year. We became engaged. But when the Legion found out we were betrothed, she was suddenly reassigned to teach at a school in Rome. She left without even taking the time to say goodbye to me.

I only ever saw her one time after that: almost a year had passed, and although I had written to her every day, she had not answered my letters. She had the glazed eyes of a brain-washed zombie, and pretended not to know me.

To this day, she denies that she ever loved me, let alone agreed to a marriage with me. I did not recover from this experience until ReGAIN made public the methods and teachings of the Legion of Christ and I saw the techniques they had used to turn her form me. I hope that no one else ever has to suffer the loss of a betrothal to such a denial. Now that I see the Legion suing ReGAIN, I no longer wonder how much of its own truth the Legion is afraid to see in public.

I was in the LC for 10 years. Two of my brothers were also in the LC. They took advantage of all three of us and lied to our families about us. I was treated so badly that MM, Alvaro, and other superiors had to personally apologize to me for the awful way I was treated.

Even after all of this I still wanted to believe that the LC and RC were something good, and that they came from God. I was brain washed and manipulated for 10 years. I wanted to leave the congregation for about 3 or so years before things got totally out of hand and I caught my superior red handed.

After much reflection, prayer, and guidance from priests, bishops, friends and family I came to see the actual horror that is the Legionaries of Christ and their lay movement Regnum Christi. I pray for all of the good people that are in the LC or that have left but are unable to see the terrible truth about the LC and RC. They try to convince themselves but can never convince those of us that have been through the horrible ordeal and know the sad reality that MM has created and perpetuated by those in charge.

Gabon,
I suspect you and the other exlegionaries who are able to get on with their lives easily were not among the many victims of Legion child molesters. What is galling to some of us recovering from abuse by priests (non LC, for me) is the Legion's continued confidence in Maciel's eventual vindication; this confidence cannot be in place without believing that his abuse victims are liars.

In comparison, your complaints are petty and your admonishments cruel. If you faced the parents of the three year old boy who was abused at an LC school last fall, would you say the same thing to them?

I appreciate and have joined ReGAIN's "never again" efforts.

It sickens and saddens me to see the destruction that the Legion of Christ imposes on families and the Church. I have a close family member currently in the LC and he has become a different person, guarded in his interchange with people, distant from his family, with whom his every interaction is monitored and controlled: Limited visits of once a year for just a few days, no overnight stays, once a month phone calls, letters that are reviewed by a superior. They may not attend family wedding, often not funerals either of close family members, but they’ll travel for days to visit a benefactor! I only pray that the Lord will guard the hearts and minds of these young, idealistic and fervent men who only want to do God’s will, but are in fact coerced into doing the will of the Legion. There is no respect for the discernment of the individual, who is instructed not to trust himself or his heart. The Legion decides when you have a vocation and they decide when you don’t anymore. Shame on them for this uncharitable and scandalous action. How dare they demand to know the identity of people who have a right to share their stories anonymously? The people in the Regnum Christi Movement need to step out of denial and see the handwriting on the wall. It’s all smoke and mirrors.

Church Outsiders should probably approach this issue with a clear understanding that this issue is like no other in recent Church history. There have been various controversies over recent movements and orders in the Church but these pale into insignificance against the seriousness of the controversy over the RC/LC movement or order. Secular journalists should understand that the vast bulk of the LC's critics, are to this day, are faithful (if imperfect and sinful) and practicing Catholics, usually of a conservative or orthodox bent. The concerns and reservations of these critics focus on what they regard as very serious and grave institutional, constitutional and cultural violations of authentic Catholic spirituality and teaching and human anthropology. In addition there are urgent and practical concerns about the routine psychological manipulative techniques that sadly seem to be routine aspects of their modus operandi. Secrecy, deception and deceit are normal practices in the LC/RC's- although anyone who knows the legion understands that many in the movement are not able to recognise or understand the seriousness or extent of this deception- even when they are involved in it themselves. Many who have had a brush with the Legion tried for many years to give them the benefit of the doubt and hoped for reform. Yet to this day the Legion continues to engage in unconscionable recruitment techniques. Worse still is their ongoing practice of targeting children with the intention of loosening the influence of their parents and increasing the influence of the Legion on their development. Even worse is the continued Legion insistence on operation and expansion of its minor seminaries. This despite the overwhelming weight of social science, psychological, criminological and medical research that recognises the importance keeping children and adolescents in the home with their mum and dad. It is well understood that taking adolescents away from the protective sphere of the family and especially mother and father predisposes to heightened risks of negative outcomes, including a greater likelihood of sexual abuse.
Secular journalists should understand that this is not an issue whipped up by Church critics or anti catholic bigots or bitter ex Catholics.
This is an issue that is breaking the hearts of orthodox Catholics and also breaking up families. Many good people are used and spat out by the Legion.
It is often claimed that Legion must be good because a bad tree cold not produce such good fruit in the form of so many vocations. However, there is good story to be written about the Legion's rubbery figures and the real attrition, recruitment and retention rates. Large numbers of novices, priests and even senior figures have left over the years despite the severe and profoundly manipulative psychological techniques used to prevent their departure. Spat out and abandoned with absolutely no regard for their welfare, even though many gave the utmost of the best years of their lives to the Legion.
So it sickens me that the Legion now uses such strongarm bullying tactics to one little network of survivors who have done much to help ex legionaries. And secular journalists should note that Regain has also done a huge amount to help many ex Legionaries to recover, make sense of their experience and to keep holding on to their Catholic Faith. The thought that the Legion is suing them and specifically that it objects to documents being made public frankly turns my stomach. I pray that the Pope finally comes down very hard on the Legion and that a thorough reform is implemented.

Is the Legion setting precedence by suing a Catholic lay group in court? How many Catholic religious groups have 1.5 million dollars in extra revenue at their disposal? Why is it that within two weeks of the August 22 court date, FOUR solicitations for money were called for in words such as, "Hurricane Dean will slam into poverty stricken people...Catholic World Mission [LC]- you and I - cannot wait for the hurricane to hit before we put our faith into action for Christ...".
This is reminiscent for me of the alarming rain of solicitations I received from the LC right before the election of Vicente Fox in Mexico. Try to trace the LC money trail! Someone aught to audit their bank accounts!

I am proud to be a Legionary co-founder. Soldiers for Christ must follow in their Master's footsteps. They must be salt and light for the world to see, and give glory to God even when not respected or understood.

I find it very intresting that ABC is allowing these posting when most times you try to post you have to sign up for it and log on. Hum? I would also like to point that the article failed to mention that the reporter had grabed Cardinal Ratzingers arm, hence he slapped his hand. And as I recall from the original report the Cardinal told him something to effect, "Not now, at the proper time, not now." It seems to me that the article, ABC News, and many people above have an axe to grind and the target is not the LC's but the Catholic Church and Christ. It needs "usefull idiots" as the communist use to say to help it. Have humans made and will continue to make mistakes? Sure. Does this mean that Christ and His Church are guilty by association? No way! Even Christ had a man who was stealing from the poor amoung his group, Judas. It will all work out and those who with Him will eventually be made clear. What is clear here is the bias and lack of charity and truth.

Many thousands of us wonder why it took the Legion so long to be found out publicly. God's timing turns out best. All of us souls who suffer from the Deep Lesions of the Legion ( and that includes Gabon and all who believe: "Gee, I do not see a problem with Fr. Maciel, his actions or his written orders that command his faithful to make the whole 1 billion Catholics belong to his kingdom!"), all of us need God AND each other to heal each lesion, to heal each lesion with truth, the whole truth.

Count the wounded. And then pray (even though popes have been fooled and cardinals have been bought by Legion 'charity'), pray that all Legion and Regnum's supposed 50,000 members and priests will have to disband and/or join another Movement and get on with their healing and living a new, clean and honest life.
May God grant pardon to the many members whose serious delicts follow in the footsteps of their founder's.

You might have seen "Father Jonathan" on Fox TV, or his blog on their site. Why does he never reveal his connection with the Legionaries? It is apparently a secret that he is, indeed, Father Jonathan, LC. Why the secrecy?

Jesuits, Dominicans, and Franciscans don't hide their affiliation like that. But "Father Jonathan" won't talk about it.

A loved one of mine has been entrapped in one of these groups (RC)for over ten years. Even though we are strong practicing Catholics highly involved in evangelization activities, we are only allowed to see her 2 days per year and to speak by phone once a month. She comes home (at our expense) jet lagged and exhausted then has to go back after 2 days. I am not allowed to speak to her about anything "controversial".
She and the others are subject to mind control techniques, including control of behaviour, (must conform to dozens of restrictive rules), information (all letters opened before she receives them), thoughts (e.g. spiritual "direction" from immediate superior who has total control of her entire life) and her emotions. For further information about mind control refer to Steve Hassan's website. He is a mind control and cult expert.
LC and RC match up on every check list I have seen for cults, including extreme secrecy, isolation, restrictive rules, idolization of leader (who has had his privileges of practicing his priesthood publicly taken away by the Pope following an investigation of his pedophilia). The Legionaries are listed along with other well known cults on the websites of several cult experts.
If one of her brothers or other close family members (except for birth parent) died, she would not be allowed home for funeral. She is not allowed home for baptisms, weddings, confirmations of close family members. We don't know her anymore and she doesn't know us. We grieve for her.

I recently joined Regnum Christi and am both happy to be in this eccesial movement and saddened by the people who have been hurt by its members or the Legionaries.

I came upon the ex-legionary forum some time ago and and was surprised and a bit alarmed when I saw that my own blog was linked to with the directive given by an ex-legionary member to "monitor" it for, I presume, some Legionary propaganda.

It is alarming when someone immediately presumes, who does not know you at all, that you are a suspicious character who needs "monitoring". I bet if I met any of these ex-legionaries in real life, we would hit it off well and be friends. But they have been hurt by people in Regnum Christi or the Legion and so all people who are members are treated with mistrust and suspicion.

The ex-legionaries' forum says that it is for the healing of its members, but there can be no healing where bitterness, resentment, and suspicion reign.

I converted to Christianity after long years of ardent atheism, then to the Catholic Church. After learning about Regnum Christi for 5 years, reading about them, and meeting people in the movement, I decided to join it. I did so with eyes and ears wide open. The movement and the religious community are not evil of themselves, nor are the great majority of its members.

The same is true of the Catholic Church, though if you only read the SNAP website and others, you might be tempted to think so. The same is true of Opus Dei, though if you read the ODAN website (which is strikingly similar to the ReGAIN one in anger and accusations against these respective groups and their founders), you would be tempted to think so.

I hope that the members of ReGAIN and the ex-legionary forum find healing and peace from Christ, and I hope if we meet, one day, we will be friends and brothers in the Lord.

Dilbert, and so many other painful stories - when I left the legion I showed symptoms of having gone through a multiple and complex bereavment. These symptoms came to a head about two years after I left the legion.

Reading books like On Death and Dying, by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross were a great help and eye opener.

As to why did it take so long for the legion to be found out? Personally I believe that it has to do with the internet, without which ReGAIN would have restricted effect. No wonder the LC is trying to stop ReGAIN.

Andrew Goddard - maybe you should reference the hackneyed phrases that we learnt in the legion which you have shared with us in your post. You might get sued by the Legion for copyright infringement. :-O

The boys group, Conquest, is affiliated with RC and LC. I am curious about anyone's thoughts on that group. My son attended for a short time and it was not the good experience we had hoped for. It was a cliquesh (sp?) group. The adults barely acknowledged or welcomed us. We felt invisible. It's too bad because the goals of the group were good- mainly to teach Christlike virtues to these young boys and make them good leaders. Anyone else have similar experiences?

Devin,
i appreciate your peaceful and conciliatory approach, but there is a time to fight and a time to make peace as Ecclesiastes says. Right now I am in the legal fight of my life with the Legion of Christ who are trying to break me. I must fight to survive. I cannot reach out right now when they are kicking me.
But of course you are my brother, and i have nothing against you. And i have nothing against the Catholic Church. For the love of Christ do not mistake the Legion and Regnum for the Catholic Church or for God's real kingdom of truth and justice! Read the preface to the Feast of Christ the King in Catholic liturgy, and remember Pope Paul VI: "There can be no Peace withoug Justice!"
Perhaps the Legion does do a lot of "good"; but at what expense? ReGAIN is an organization that, among other things, walks the beach picking up the Legion/Regnum's shipwreck survivors. On the other hand, I am happy for you if you are safely in the Legion ship sailing placidly towards paradise. Why does the LC/RC keep saying we are bitter. We are not blind or Pollyanish. As Saint Paul says: "which of you is sad and I am not sad?" We are not into making numbers or quotas. We are concerned about people, like Jesus was. We have heard the cries of distress of our shipwrecked brothers and sisters and we want to heed their call. Tell your brothers in the LC and Regnum to let REGAIN continue to do its job.
You know, many, if not most, LCs have not even heard about the accusations against Fr Maciel, or these have been minimized and benignly interpreted. How many rank-and-file members know now that I am being really harassed by the Legion superiors because I dared speak out? Few. Because of secrecy and information control, signs of a cult...