Apology -- no, not mine

Since Paul Lennon has revealed a little about Alvaro Corcuera's phone call to Juan Vaca (which I didn't have express permission to do) I will expand a little on the event. As far as we know, this is the only phone call of its kind, it was an "urgent" and perplexing event, and ended up being non-sensical in its entirety.

Despite the passage of many decades since MM was accused, and nine months since the Legion hierarchy admitted that the founder was not what he was purported to be, all of a sudden late last week, AC got a wild hair and had to talk to JV. In order to get his phone number, AC called Juan's sister who is a 3GF (explained below) and then the farce took place.

Yes, there has been an apology. But let me give the details, to which Mr Lennon has alluded. After expressing his sincere sorrow for all that JV suffered at the hands of MM, JV said, "And what about the lawsuit?"

"What lawsuit?"

JV, stunned, told AC about how the Legion sued ReGain and that that required an apology, etc. AC insisted that he knew nothing about the lawsuit and would look into it. Good-bye.

There are many points to consider:

• Too much time has elapsed for an apology to be other than contrived;
• The Legion knows how to contact each of us -- they practically shadow us when necessary;
• To ask Juan's sister for his phone number was disingenuous at best;
• Now the fact that there has been contact (and why) will trickle through the 3GF's;
• AC claiming to know nothing about the lawsuit against Regain offers two options:

1.  Either he was lying (and how could the head of an organisation not know what his organisation is doing? It made ABC News and the Washington Post, for crying out loud.) and if he was lying, then nothing he said over the phone can be taken as genuine;  -OR-

2.  He didn't know about the lawsuit (proving true the speculation of some that he's a figurehead) and if so, then the apology carries little weight because he isn't even aware of the extent of Juan's suffering from the Legion overall.

Neither option gives enough credence to the "urgent" contact to make it rise to the level  of a legitimate apology (and interestingly -- it was verbal, not written) but there was one more element that gave me suspicion about the timing:

• The American bishops were meeting this past week, which makes a Friday afternoon phone call perfectly timed for any rubbing of shoulders in corridors in Baltimore come Monday morning.

The last point, as I say, is sheer speculation, but those of you familiar with this saga won't blame me for mentally wandering down such a path. So in the end, has the Legion begun contacting victims? The answer must be yes. I had no intention of hiding the fact, but only with someone else breaking the story can I give the essential details that may put it in a different light.

Comments

[Another exLC]

I am floored hearing that Alvaro Corcuera supposedly knew nothing about the lawsuit against ReGAIN! Doesn't Fr. Peter Hopkins, LC --who assisted the lawyers in their claims against ReGAIN-- report to the LC's General Director? Give me a break.

[SS]

My take:

1) Fr. Alvaro is not very bright. Other Legionaries whistle and he skips to the tune.

AND:

2) He lies. He's given the impression over the past nine months on various occasions that wrongs were being righted. Juan Vaca not receiving squat until the recent past turns that impression into a lie.

AND:

3) He's being deceitful about Regain. It may be that in the past he thought "Regain" was an entity that tried to steal the Trademark (c)Integral Formation and the Legion had to sue to get it back. He may have been told any number of things about Regain, but who cares? A culture of deceit flourishes when things are painted other than they are. Who knows whether he knows what exactly happened with Regain. But the bottom line is, it was his job to know, and it certainly is his job to call his order on the corruption and lies. Doing anything less than getting to the truth of things makes him a liar, too. If he doesn't know, it's because he has chosen not to know, because then it makes it easier for him to deny certain things.

This is the way in which the Legion lies. For point #2, they call up (my surmise) all the people who they are on good terms with, and who in the past mentioned this or that complaint about Maciel, and apologize to them. It was pretty clear months ago on the AMP blog, when that priest from Regina Apostolorum posted a few times, that certain people who were "friends" of the Legion had been contacted and apologized to.

The Legion then uses that to portray the idea that they have universally made amends. When, in fact, they have not apologized to the chief victims at all.

[Mouse from Am Pap]

This is way too little too late for the Legion anyway-- if they'd done this in Feb, they might have been able to avoid the Visitation (at least for the near future.)

But now? While the Vatican is investigating financial misdeeds, the possibility that the constitutions as approved are NOT the ones their living under, the idea that they didn't obey and get rid of the fourth vow????

Seriously--- a few phonecalls can't save them now... but that they're making them at all probably means they're starting to realize that they're in trouble.....

[PaulM]

I don't know what the Legion charism is but I know what it is not:

FINESSE

[anonymous]

Well, we should definitely look at this as a step in the right direction. It's not enough, obviously, but it's an admission...however clumsy...that MM was a pedophile.

Talking to RC members, they think he was just a "weak" man who had a kid. Here there is an admission that he was more than a priest with a few kids, but a serial pedophile. I wonder how the RC crowd will spin this one.

[anonymous]

Also, the lack of knowledge about REGAIN is quite curious, although I'm not surprised. The Legion has a system that doesn't let the right hand know what the left hand is doing.

But, he is the head of the organization, and REGAIN is the biggest critic of the Legion...in the US and in Mexico.

When you are on the inside, you really don't think straight. I had no idea that REGAIN even existed until I found this blog, so how would I know about the lawsuit?

And as for the reports in the media, I was on the inside at that time, and I had no idea what was going on. We were told to ignore all attacks.

So, it's curious, but knowing the Legion, it kind of makes sense.

[Claire]

There is a saying that judges have for when a party comes in with something similar to what AV has done:

(While slamming the gavel loudly): "You're a day late and a dollar short."

Applies here.

[SS]

BTW, lest anyone think I'm a hard a-double-s, when I first saw the heading and "Apology," and my eyes scanned the names "Alvaro" and "Vaca," my heart leaped. I went to the crucifix, and kissed Christ, and thought, "Finally!" The joy lasted about 7 seconds, the time it took me to cross the room. Then I realized it was all more of the same. And if that's how I feel, can you imagine how Juan Vaca must have felt?

[Daniel]

I think Juan Vaca must have felt something along the lines of:
"Different day. Same bull****."

[Love Christ]

Maybe he felt used.

[Jane]

I am sorry if this sounds like a really dumb question, but here goes - How do we know it was really Fr A? Couldn't anyone call and identify themselves as Fr A?

Just askin'

[Polish Pilgrim]

Help us casual readers out a bit: Who is Juan Vaca? Is he one of the original eight who were abused by MM? And why would Vaca care about an apology for the Regain lawsuit? Was he involved actively involved with it? I thought Regain was a U.S. based website.

[giselle]

Yes, Juan was one of the original victims (if you don't count the first class of recruits who all disappeared from the radar). He is in the opening clip of this film preview:

http://vowsofsilencefilm.com/

ReGain is a group of many people either previously associated with the Movement, family members or interested parties. The lawsuit was not only expensive and insulting, it was highly traumatic to those who had previously been abused in a variety of ways -- ripping open wounds that were in process of being healed.

[gregorbo]

What county in Viriginia was the suit originally filed?

[giselle]

City of Arlington, I forget the county. Fairfax?

[gregorbo]

Thanks--I thought I might access the case to see who was/were listed as Plaintiff(s). But, weirdly, on the Virginia state website (which allows for the searching of cases by county), Fairfax is not listed. And I didn't get a hit on the Arlington site . . .

[giselle]

I think the plaintiffs were Paul Lennon and Glen Favreau. The info was on the Regain site but I can't find it (the search engine is not very helpful there) and I can't even find the post I put out on it here. Weird, but thanks for looking.

[SS]

Was Regain forced to settle? That may be why I can't find it on Westlaw...which has pretty much everything...

[giselle]

Fascinating. The answer us yes; the details are unavailable (as per usual).

[gregorbo]

I spent a couple of hours trying to find the case materials--I do know it was settled--so, perhaps that explains. The Legion successfully had it sealed.

sigh.

[Jeannette]

It was City of Alexandria Circuit Court, Legion of Christ, Inc vs ReGAIN

[gregorbo]

Thanks, Jeanette.

[Jeannette]

a few things: 1) back at the top of this thread, anotherex mentioned Peter Hopkins. He didn't just assist the lawyer (Bruce Morris), he signed all the papers as head of the group "Legion of Christ, Inc" so he had to know every nasty thing they did, from attempting to seize Paul Lennon's computer, to trying to find out which LC priests were snitching on them, to trying to find out the identity of that salsa guy and the dingbatblonde. One of the dirty tricks that LC,Inc used was claiming (successfully) that "LC Inc" was a legally separate entity from the Legionnaries of Christ, so the ReGAIN side was not able to subpoena any members of the LC. (But why did the original papers talk about the order on the front page, is what I don't get.) I suspect that Fr Alvaro will use this as an excuse for his vincible ignorance. And then throw Peter Hopkins under the bus. (figuratively speaking. It's usually a tragic car accident, isn't it?)

2) I think the timing of this call to Juan Vaca is exactly what you would expect if the pope looked at the AV report and exclaimed "WTF!" ("what the Fatima", of course) "That snake Bannon has been claiming the victims were apologized to, but they haven't done a thing in the two years since they realized the truth! Georg! Get that idiot Corcuera on the phone right now. He's got some 'splainin' to do."

The pope is much holier than I am, so I'm sure he used a lot more of that pastoral sensitivity stuff than I did.

[SS]

I absolutely agree that someone "big" called the LC's on their so-called apologies. It probably went something like this:

Somebody important in the Church inquires to Alvaro about what they've done to make amends.

Alvaro rattles off a bunch of nonsense, including that the big-time victims have been apologized to.

Somebody big in the Church responds that the big-time victims say they haven't heard squat from the Legion.

Alvaro, in his way, begins to spout more nonsense about such and such person told him that...

At which point, Somebody big in the Church says, what do you mean? You didn't apologize yourself? You don't know first hand, for yourself, that wrongs have been righted???? (Because, people, this is how a normal commander in chief operates. When your sub-commanders fail to capture all the bridges in Holland, you go in and do it yourself.)

So Alvaro hems and haws and gets all nervous because his bum is in the fire and he realizes the Church powers that be actually do expect him to have real answers to real questions and he should have spoken, himself, to certain victims a l-o-o-o-n-g time ago because ding-dong Maciel & his influence is dead, Rhode is sitting in the naughty chair in the corner doing his time, and the Vatican is not amused.

So that's what I'm guessing happened. That everyone with a heart and common sense expected that Alvaro himself talked sincerely and repentantly to Vaca, himself, 11 months ago. And he didn't. And now he's panicking because his doe eyes and simpleton expression have run their course and no one is making excuses for him anymore.

[Jeannette]

SS...and now Corcuera a)looks completely retarded because he really didn't know that Peter Hopkins launched a lawsuit against the victims and their allies (which was going on WHILE THE POPE WAS APOLOGIZING TO ABUSE VICTIMS in the US)

or b) is a nasty liar because he really did know that Peter Hopkins was launching said lawsuit.

Yes, while the pope was meeting with abuse victims at Catholic University, the Legion of Christ, Inc, was negotiating how to SHUT UP Maciel's victims and their allies, only 10 miles away!