Replacing the "golden globes"

Just for fun (boy, do we have a twisted sense of fun in this place!) why don't we have a laugh over the stellar lines we've heard over the years -- the lines that we swallowed well enough at the time but now stick in our craws like the offal they are.

Perhaps we can offer awards at the end, not "golden globes" but "forked tongues." (We'll take this bad boy on the right and hang him where MM's pictures used to be, with the winning lines as captions). This includes the books we shouldn't open, the people we shouldn't befriend, the priests we must be wary of, the true intention of our apostolates, the reason for apostolic schools, the reasons why the Vatican depended on MM, the excuses why we should leave our children, the anecdotes about the founder's piety, the advice about marital strife, the vocations they could see on our behalf (and the vocations that disappeared overnight), the schmoozing techniques, the theological screw-ups, the explanation for the defection of various members, the psychological make-up of the victims, the reason why this Movement was the hope of the New Millennium.

I say this, fully knowing that we said or repeated these very things ourselves. The point is not to malign particular persons but to expose the methodology itself. (What put this idea in mind is "cynic's" comment, which said "the women have been told that it is a sin against purity to read these posts.") I promise you -- naming things is powerful, and even I have watched enough Harry Potter snippets to have seen the scene where they name their greatest fear and laugh at it. Consider this your daily dose of healing potion.

NEWSFLASH: The women in a certain [formerly thriving] section were just visited by their new priest. In addition to the other introductory information he passed along, he praised them for their fidelity, sadly noting that much of the RC leadership had defected out of sheer pride. They were there when everything was good, when the accolades were rolling in, when the limelight was on them. Once the road got a little rocky, they threw in the towel -- since they don't know how to deal with crosses.

Comments

[rc cynic]

God bless you, Giselle. My husband was going to start a twitter for things like that...we do need to laugh! And yes, I said so many of these things myself...

I was asked to help at an "unofficial" official RC apostolate. After being told that we need to be "open and transparent", there were suggestions about going underground in certain parishes since those parishes were "anti-Truth; anti-Magisterium".

[HH]

From Fr. Luis Garza Medina: "Some say that the Legion of Christ is the West Point of the Catholic Church. I say that West Point in the Legion of Christ of the US military."

[HH]

Infamous, from Fr. Owen Kearns: "The Legion of Christ is looking for a few excellent men. The good ones can go to the Marines."

[Not one of Maciel's children, I hope]

I nominate this entry from 'RC is not my life'

/////
I remember a whopper of a story I heard back in 2006, about the time the Vatican invited Father Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, to a life of prayer and penance.

The story, as was told me by several Legionaries and RC members, began with a clarification that the Vatican statement wasn’t anything special, and that Maciel was innocent, and that this would all be cleared up in the canonization process.

Maciel readily accepted the invitation, the story continued, which all thought was characteristically heroic of him. The Legion was praised for practicing what it preached: total and complete obedience to the Pope.

Although it hurt the Legion and RC to see its founder look guilty, they bore this, like so many other crosses, with serenity and peace.

Furthermore, the story went, it’s entirely possible Maciel asked the Pope to punish him so that all the allegations against him would just go away and thus clear up the backlog at the CDF.

/////

[Cult no more]

Thank you and I am laughing now after posting about my life since I ESCAPED FROM SLAVERY.
We have to have a laugh and it is good to be able to see others have shared the same journey and also felt betrayed and deceived.
Thank you so much Giselle for this web site.
I hope you will not be sued.L/C have had so many LAW SUITS it is awful.
We were out of R/C when fr M was repremanded and one day I met a ex friend from R/C and she said it was the same as Padre PIO and during MM canonisation it would all come out.
FYI I am infested with R/C space cadets in my Church and now all I hear is that Fr MM was seduced by these much younger women.
I have loudly replied WHAT ABOUT THE YOUNG BOYS WHO MM MOLESTED FOR YEARS.I SAID MM was a Homosexual and a boy molester.
NO ONE HERE WANTS TO HEAR THAT.
We have now realised after all this time NO ONE SAYS ANYTHING ABOUT THE BOY VICTIMS.ITS ALL ABOUT he was seduced by these women.

THE MIND is a terrible thing to lose.How are all these people going to live outside of this.

[m]

"None of you are going through a 'dark night of the soul.' You're just not trying hard enough."

"God can't work on you if you are filled with pride."

"You Americans are all about the rules, aren't you?"

These quotes by the [American-born & raised in Chicago] LC priest who was the assigned to Philadelphia, then sent to Hungary, and just left the Legion & is back in Chicago as a diocesan priest. He's written 2 books (so far). The first one published by Circle Media when he was in (Common Nonsense) and the second just being published by Sophia Institute Press.

[Frank I]

My memory is a bit foggy on this one, as it comes from my Summer Candidacy of 20+ years ago, so someone may need to weigh in and shore up some of the details if they heard the same story.

I remember the story being told how MM, prior to joining the seminary, bravely fought against the Catholic persecution going on in Mexico. He made spiritual visits to other persecuted Catholics, riding his horse through dangerous areas and carrying Holy Communion in his saddle bags. Young MM knew that if caught with Holy Communion, he would be shot on-site.

There was a related anecdote to this, something about Maciel riding for so many hours straight that he fell asleep in the saddle. His horse, the story goes, carried him to his final destination though dangerous, battle-torn areas. We were told that this was clear proof that the Holy Spirit favored MM, by guiding his horse for him through battlefields while the weary soldier rested.

[Anon in STL OUT 6-09]

Easy, two pop right into my mind.

"We're all called to prayer. We're all called to penance." Fr. Scott Reilly, explaining the Vatican communique asking Fr. Maciel to retire to a life of prayer and penance.

"One of the biggest lies the devil tells you is 'your first apostolate is being a wife and mother.' Mary Pieczynski at a regional womens conference in St. Louis

[HH]

"There are two kinds of Apostolic Visitation: a high one and a low one. We are going through the low one."

--Scotty "Beam me up" Reilly.

[HH]

Sold by the RC:

"Reality Check: The Truth About Sex Video
The video, "Reality check: The Truth About Sex," is a necessity for those who want to promote chastity. It is a must for CCD teachers, youth directors, directors of religious education, as well as anyone who wants to be a leader and promoter of chastity. A practical guide, "A Challenge for the New Millennium: A Practical Guide for Chastity Promoters" is [sold] separately."

(am I hijacking the combox?)

[Mouse from Am Pap]

ANON in STL-- someone really SAID that??? !!!! ???? So then when the husband asks for more attention, it's the devil talking, or when the mom really wishes she could pull back to spend more time with her newborn, it;s demonic????

Ack!!!!! Shoot, that's not even in keeping with Church teaching!!!! Sheesh.....

[Frances]

How about the story of mm going begging from door to door for "his boys"?

One welcoming person spat in his face.

His response: "that's for me; what about my boys?"

(I wonder from what saintly life, this was stolen? St. John Bosco?)

[Jill]

Frank. MM was most likely stoned out of his mind and that is the reason he could not remember how he reached his final destination.

[PaulM]

This wasn't said but I've imaged that this would be a great comeback for the consecrated and the LC if they were ever asked to leave the Providence, RI diocese:

"Hurumph! We've been kicked out of better dioceses than this before."

[HH]

Frances, it has been attributed to St. Phillip Neri, see the book Vows of Silence for the citation.

[Sane in St. Louis]

I remember hearing (in 2005) that some people think Fr. Maciel is all about rules and doesn't want children to have fun. Well, that's not what he's about at all. He very much wants children to enjoy themselves. He's all about family.

Well, he sure was ALL about children and family, wasn't he?

[anonymous]

Frank,

That's the famous Veracruz story, where MM had to carry the blessed sacrament to the next town and he carried the Eucharist close to his heart, and he could hear his heart beating next to Christ's heart. Years later Fr. Evaristo took a horse and followed the exact same path. There's a video about it somewhere.

[anonymous]

I love this one:

"I did not have sexual relations with that woman"

Opps, maybe that wasn't MM.. ;)

[Dominus Flevit]

"Far from being a sign that they are cults, the new movements’ focus on the teachings of their founders is a sign that they have received their unique vocation or charism. It has worked in the same manner for other charisms in the history of the Church: Benedictine, Dominican, Franciscan, Jesuit, Carmelite, Salesian, et cetera. The gratitude and enthusiasm members feel for their founder is natural. Each member owes much to his founder’s generous response to God’s call."

- Jay Dunlap in 2003 defending RC's devotion to Maciel against the charge that it's a "cult."
http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2003/0301fea2.asp

[anonymous]

When our directress in RI was talking about Mrs. Mee she felt the need to justify how Mrs. Mee got special treatment. She explained that Mrs. Mee was very wealthy, and hadn't given all her money to the Legion b/c MM thought it was prudent not too. They didn't want to give the impression that they were just after Mrs. Mee for her money...

http://frvanhove.wordpress.com/2009/06/29/more-from-the-hartford-courant-on-the-legionaries-of-christ-courant-comnewsnation-worldhc-legionaries-mee-0628-artjun2806998819-story/

[M.I.]

This is unbeatable.
A story that circulated widely in slightly different versions among the vocational recruiters:

'There was this family that would not let the son go off to the apostolic school with the LC recruiter because they wanted him to 'remain in the world' until he was a bit older. One year later, these same parents call the LC recruiter to beg him to take the boy... except now he absolutely couldn't: the boy had had a terrible experience in Summer Camp (in hushed tones they implied it was sexual abuse) so now he was really affected and could not be accepted in the apostolic school anymore... If only those irresponsible parents would have been sensible enough to let him go when he was first invited!....'

The first time I heard this story from an LC brother (well after the 2006 communiqué) I almost choked....

[Bigtex]

I heard someone say, "Maybe it's a good cult."

I heard someone say, "You know he's holy if even the good people are persecuting him."

At a Familia garage sale, an obviously poor immigrant mother was buying clothes. Her 3 year old daughter wanted a teddy bear but the mother didn't have any more money. The organizer of the garage sale said, "Sorry, I can't go down on that price. It's for charity."

[anonymous]

"Sorry, I can't go down on that price. It's for charity."

I really hope someone got out three dollars and gave it to that b*#*% (the organizer, not the immigrant mother). What hypocrisy!!

[giselle]

"Sorry, I can't go down on that price. It's for charity."

That gets a nomination, Bigtex! It summarises so much, especially the standard scenario of calming the clingy child who wants to be with his mum. "No dear, Jesus wants me to go and help families!"

[anonymous]

When I sent an email to a RC member about the newest allegations about MM's other children, the RC member merely sent me back a reply with a frowny face ... that was her response:

:(

Another friend just ignored it altogether.

Just more sticking their heads in the sand.