In a report date stamped CNA/EWTN News that the order’s leaders are likely to step down at their next General Chapter meeting, which could be held as early as 2013.
“My hope is that we can continue serving the Church with the same enthusiasm, or even more, and with the same dedication but at the same time purifying all that was wrong and that we definitely need to change,” said Fr. Garza of the Vatican review process. “Religious life, as you know, has vows and you need to abide by obedience, by poverty, by chastity. So if you move away from those principles, virtues and vows then you destroy religious life.” He is also quoted as saying "“The fear, of course, is that due to our lack of prayer and to the idea of not being faithful to a charism that we’ve received, (we) could produce changes that are not according to what God would want and God’s plans.” The latter remark seems to refer to some discussion about the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience professed by all religious., including the Legionaries The context is not clear from the article.
Before the next General Chapter can be convened the on-going revision of the LC's constitutions needs to be completed. This means that the Chapter may not take place until 2013, at the earliest. It is also possible that it might be delayed until 2015.
Fr. Richard Gill, a former US Legionary now working in the archdiocese of New York, is also quoted. "By failing to remove major superiors, or at least some of them, Cardinal De Paolis failed to send to the whole Legion a clear signal that the manner in which the current superiors handled the revelations about Maciel was completely unacceptable."
I find myself in agreement with Fr. Gill's quoted remarks. The Legion may not be able to afford to wait another two or three years to change leadership by means of the General Chapter. Fr. Gill says "the future of the Legionaries depends as much on having good leadership as it does on having good constitutions."
Meanwhile, Fr. Garza says he and the rest of the Legion’s leadership will step down immediately if asked to do so by Cardinal De Paolis. So far they have not been asked to do so. Neither, though, have they tendered their resignations. But the vicar general agrees with Fr. Gill that the future of the Legion lies in good new leadership. “It’s not that, in a sense, I believe that I can do anything special or different from anybody else," he says. "The Legion has a lot of very good men to really follow this process and bring the Legion to betterment to better serve the Church.”
From the above, I deduce that the decision to keep current (top level) Legionary superiors in place must be attributed to Cardinal De Paolis. Either he is in charge or he isn't....
he Vicar General of the Legion of Christ, Fr. Luis Garza, confirmed to Monday, June 27, 2011
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment