Right-Wing Catholic Order Launches "Megamission"

by Diego Cevallos

(IPS) MEXICO CITY -- Some 50,000 followers of the Legionaries of Christ, a conservative Catholic congregation founded in Mexico and viewed with favor by the Vatican, will set out later this month to distribute donations and doctrine to the poor in 31 different countries -- while fervently striving to defend their founder, accused of pedophilia.

The Legionaries tend to recruit their members from wealthy families and are openly endorsed by Pope John Paul II.

During the upcoming Holy Week, Mar. 20-27, thousands of young people from the Legionaries-sponsored Missionary Youth and Families organization will take part in a so-called "Megamission," bringing "spiritual" and material aid, like medical supplies, to poor communities around the world.

This initiative "is a wide-reaching strategy for social penetration by one of the most conservative congregations in the Catholic Church, along with Opus Dei, and thus one of the most highly blessed by the Pope," Mexican academic and religious expert Pablo Mora told IPS.

The Legionaries believe in the need to take the "word of God" and charity to the poor, but do not question the political or economic roots of social injustice.

Like the Spain-based ultraconservative organization Opus Dei, the Legionaries of Christ, founded by Mexican priest Father Marcial Maciel in 1941, rapidly expanded throughout the world, and now comprises 600 priests and 2,500 seminarians.

The Missionary Youth and Families program was founded in 1993 to prepare social leaders who would promote the precepts of the Catholic Church and Christian "morality," with no room for "problems" like homosexuality, according to its precepts.

While missions like the one scheduled for Holy Week are energetically promoted by the Legionaries of Christ, one of the group's primary concerns today is defending the name of its founder, Father Maciel.

In the eyes of the Pope, he is an exemplary member of the Catholic Church, but according to a number of his former disciples, he is a drug addict who sexually abused them as children and adolescents.

The Vatican suspended Maciel as head of the congregation from 1956 until 1958 because of similar accusations, but he was eventually declared innocent and reinstated.

"All of these accusations are slanderous lies, but we understand, since our beloved founder is being persecuted just like Jesus Christ was," said Carlos Mijares, a Mexican university student and member of Missionary Youth and Families.

Mijares told IPS that he will defend Maciel's "morality and integrity to anyone who doubts them."

In 1997, new allegations surfaced within the Church and were subsequently made public. But Maciel's accusers did not pursue legal action, because the statute of limitations established by Mexican law for the crimes involved had elapsed.

In 2004, the Catholic Church reopened its investigation of the 84-year-old priest, because his purported victims, some of them former clergymen, pushed forward with their allegations, which have even been documented in a number of books.

The majority of participants in this month's Megamission will be young people from wealthy families who study at schools run by the Legionaries of Christ in Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Spain, Mexico, Ireland, Italy and Venezuela, among other countries.

There will also be participants from the U.S. sister organization Youth for the New Millennium.

Accompanied by priests, the young missionaries will go "from door to door in the most dispossessed communities, catechising families, children, teenagers and adults, visiting the sick and elderly and inviting everyone to receive the holy sacraments," according to publicity for the initiative.

The mission is sponsored by Regnum Christi, a lay organization affiliated with the Legionaries and made up of roughly 65,000 members, mostly members of the business community and alumni of Missionary Youth and Families.

Unlike the followers of other Latin American Catholic movements like Liberation Theology, who work closely with the poorest and most vulnerable sectors of society, the Legionaries of Christ align themselves with the economic elites, said Mora.

According to Liberation Theology, it is the Church's duty to take part in the struggle for economic and political justice. The fact that this stance often dovetailed with the efforts of leftist and revolutionary political movements in Latin American cast it into disfavor during the 27 years of the papacy of John Paul II, with many of its proponents excommunicated by the Vatican.

The Legionaries of Christ face no such problems, since their principal focus is to seek "spiritual communion with God" while offering charity to those in greatest need.

Regnum Christi members are found in the highest echelons of business and government, and include figures like Marta Sahagun, the wife of Mexican President Vicente Fox, as well as many of his closest allies.

In January, Maciel stepped down from the leadership of the congregation and designated fellow Mexican Alvaro Corcuera to replace him.

Alejandro Espinosa, one of the former disciples of Maciel now accusing him of sexual abuse, believes that this move is aimed at alleviating some of the pressure involved in the charges against him.

According to Jose Barba, another alleged victim, "Maciel wants his resignation to look virtuous and normal. But deep down, it is a response to the reopening of the case against him."