Thursday, September 29, 2011

Founder of Zenith News Agency resigns

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CNS (Catholic News Services) in a bulletin dated today, September 29 2011, reports Spanish journalist Jesus Colina, who established the Catholic news agency Zenit in 1997 and helped build it into a seven-language agency with about 450,000 email subscribers around the world, says he has been asked to resign because he resisted pressures to identify the agency and its work more closely with Zenit's sponsoring organization, the Legionaries of Christ.
According to CNS, Colina said 
One issue of contention was that Legionary officials were less than candid with Zenit about the facts regarding the scandal surrounding the late Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legionaries, who was discovered to have sexually abused seminarians and fathered children.
Another issue, Colina said, was a debate over the financial transparency of Zenit. He said that two years ago, Zenit had asked that its finances be clearly separated from the Legionaries order; the concern was that accusations of financial scandal connected with the Father Maciel case could undermine the trust needed in its annual fundraising efforts.
According to Zenith's website:
Our team is made up of writers and editors, translators, technical staff and administrators. All are committed to making their best effort in offering ZENIT their professional collaboration or volunteer services. 
Staffers come from a variety of spiritualities in the Church. Some are religious or consecrated men and women, others are lay people who come from Church groups, both young and ancient (Franciscan and Ignatian spiritualities, Opus Dei, communities from the Charismatic Renewal, Regnum Christi, the Teresian Institute, or parish leaders). Others are committed Catholics with no particular affiliation. Several married couples work for ZENIT. 
ZENIT is promoted by the religious congregation of the Legionaries of Christ. Two Legionary priests offer consultation services and collaborate in writing the "Analysis" and "Liturgy" columns. 

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