From the combox:
Lest anyone still harbor delusions as to the Machiavellian underpinnings of the LC power structure and the hallucinatory charade of auto-reformation left by the Vatican in the scandal stained hands of Maciel’s minions, consider the most recent hierarchical hypocrisy being played out for all to see:
Rev. Pablo Pérez Guajardo, ordained an LC priest in 1991, has been removed from priestly ministry and denied all recourse in the Prelature of Quintana Roo, Mexico, where he has labored tirelessly as pastor and social advocate of some of the poorest indigenous communities of the LC mission territory for over 15 years. Padre Pablo’s crime? Speaking out truthfully and courageously about the nightmarish legacy of Fr. Maciel and the frustrating farse of the LC’s phantom reform to anyone who would listen… and to more than a few who wouldn’t.
The only glimpse of the rationale behind the heavy-handed sanctions so gratuitously deposited on Fr. Pablo’s slight but steadfast shoulders appears in a carefully choreographed exchange of letters between Rodolfo Mayagoitia, LC (LC superior) and Mons. Pedro Pablo Elizondo, LC (bishop of the Prelature). Fr. Pablo was never received personally by the bishop regarding his elimination, despite his request for an interview. Elizondo disingenuously cites CDC n.682 to justify this travesty, accusing Padre Pablo of ‘upsetting the ecclesial harmony of the Prelature’. He is ominously advised in a post script to adhere to his punishment or suffer the full force of a Canonical clobbering.
[Full letter below; click on it for enlargement.]
Compare this, if you will, with the LC’s non-handling of the Thomas Williams affair.
The TW debacle is a bona fide, old-school scandal in the painful but historically repeated infamy of clergy incapable of honoring its fundamental commitment to priestly celibacy and human decency. For over seven years, the LC not only covered up TW’s licentious and overtly un-canonical behavior -– Maciel knew about it, Corcuera knew about it, other LCs in Rome knew about it -– but it honored him with a prestigious position in the Atheneum (professor of moral theology!!!) and made him a shining star on the LC global conference/TV/publishing circuit. Only when confronted this year by the imminent release of the story by the AP did the LC gently escort him home to ‘reflect on his situation’. No sanctions, no removal of faculties, no Canonical threats or ecclesiastical execution. No expression of the slightest concern for the woman and child or children he sired. Nothing but a few incomprehensible babblings by an inept Superior General in the way of a vague and pathetic ‘apology’.
The ‘scandal’ which so horrifies the LC in Fr. Pablo Pérez’ case is the telling of an inconvenient and bothersome truth. For that, he has received the equivalent of a canonical beat-down. He has been publicly chastised and put out to pasture having done no wrong. He got under the PTB’s skin and they felt they could afford to bully and ‘make an example’ of him to discourage other honorable LC dissidents. After all, Padre Pablo is neither a staple on MSNBC nor an author of books on how to tell right from wrong. He is simply a good and decent priest who could not turn a blind eye and sincerely thought that speaking the truth might actually make a positive difference in the Legion of Christ.
The nerve of the guy.
[Further information here.]
FLASHBACK
Fr Pérez was discussed in the com box of this blog. There you can see the three requests he made of Fr Corcuera. http://www.life-after-rc.com/2010/12/course-correction-or-headed-for-the-shoals/comments/page/2/
Scroll down to almost the end of the comments.
Posted by: Fr John | September 03, 2012 at 05:17 PM
What happens to him now? Can he incardinate into a diocese or leave the Legion to join another order? And is there any way to reach out and offer support to Fr Perez?
Posted by: les | September 03, 2012 at 08:06 PM
What a disgrace!
Posted by: Ohh | September 04, 2012 at 03:00 AM
Fr Pablo remains in the Parish of Playa del Carmen until the 8 of September. He is now deciding what to do next.
Posted by: Scipio's Buddy | September 05, 2012 at 03:22 AM
The delegate seems to be trying to send a very clear message that reform will not be permitted. However, priests who follow the charism of sex, drugs, and rock and roll WILL be tolerated until they are caught by non-LC media.
If this isn't a deliberate Vatican strategy to get people off the sinking ship, it must be a deliberate strategy by the Holy Spirit....
Posted by: Deirdre Mundy | September 05, 2012 at 08:56 AM
There is enough of a mess to last at least a generation, if not more, imo. Hubris is human. But it seems to me that one can not fight hubris with more hubris (not that I am saying you are, dear DM). Is the Holy Spirit chastising the Church? Could be… Sinking Her, I pray not and would think not.
Perhaps getting people together to sponsor this poor priest to get a visa, so he can incardinate in a US dioceses would be an idea? Have him do a trial period, and if all checks out, keep him. There is a shortage of priests, isn’t there? There are large US Hispanic communities, no?
Posted by: Tom | September 05, 2012 at 09:21 AM
Tom-- I wasn't talking about the Church as a sinking ship, but the LEGION as a sinking ship.
Maybe a better analogy is the Legion as a dysfunctional bathtub trying to drown people. The plumber says it's beyond repair and should just be tossed, but some people refuse to leave the tub, towel off, and step out into the larger house?
Posted by: Deirdre Mundy | September 05, 2012 at 09:37 AM
I am wondering exactly what Fr. Perez was doing since his famed letter some months ago that has them chasing him out of a mission parish in the jungle? Did he have any further message or a new audience that was problematic for him after that letter? was he rebellious to the the Bishop in the ordinary ministry of the parish? Or was it just payback?
Well it is time for him to find a good bishop with a healthy diocese and let this group go forever... He can be a better witness to the truth outside, and perhaps do so by adding to the known historical accounts of doings of the PTB over the last three decades. He probably has his own stories to tell there.
Posted by: AnonObserv | September 05, 2012 at 10:37 AM
I second Tom's 9:21 am comment (re: helping Fr. Perez), in case anyone is interested in passing the hat.
Posted by: Frank I | September 05, 2012 at 11:27 AM
Deirdre, your larc posts over lo these many, many months have been consistently thoughtful and have offered me fresh insights into this mess. But I can't buy the notion that there is some "deliberate Vatican strategy" to get people out of the kingdom of the blind. The only strategy I detect is Vatican Damage Control.
I've never heard an official Vatican "plumber" say l/r is beyond repair and should be tossed. Instead, the official Vatican appointed "plumber" instructs this corrupt outfit to continue to recruit. The official Vatican-appointed "plumber" has also said it's not worth it to investigate the legion inner power circle and its role in fostering a personality cult, covering up for mm, manipulating its members, and withholding pertinent information from the delegate until circumstances force the legion's hand.
No, what I see is the Vatican “reform” of l/r attempting to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. That's so it won't have to explain -- to l/r members, ex-members, family and friends of l/r members, concerned on-lookers -- the Vatican's own negligence/complicity/corruption in allowing the legion to conduct business for seventy-plus years, despite the presence of plenty of smoke indicating fire in the hold.
Wouldn't it be refreshing if the Vatican dumped the current ducking-and-dodging “strategy” and began to act a little more like Christ's Church by trying something a bit more direct? Like telling the truth? People deserve the truth.
Posted by: reid | September 05, 2012 at 11:43 AM
reid,
Well said. As I've said before, most of us on this blog have learned to stop covering for LC. It's time to stop covering for the Vatican as well.
Posted by: Sick and Tired | September 05, 2012 at 04:22 PM
When I left about a year ago the LCs were trying to learn how to speak openly about the situation. Open disagreement, transparency and meaningful dialogue had been frowned upon for so long that you had to teach yourself by baby steps how to do it.
I was in Rome the last couple of years, which is the most straight-laced community. Some superiors were very thin skinned, and lots of perfectly nice young LCs had such raw nerves that I never felt it was prudent to shout my opinions to the wind.
In an ideal world the superiors would have been trying to little by little foment an atmosphere of free opinions. They didn't. Having never dealt with internal criticism before they were clueless as to how to deal with it now, and tended to react as they had been trained.
Posted by: Another ex-LC | September 05, 2012 at 05:18 PM
Fr Pérez: If you are reading this blog, please know that you have friends who are concerned for your well-being and future. Please get out. Keep your passport next to you at all times. Go to a Western Union office (there are plenty of them) and we can arrange to have money wired to you so that you can leave. Giselle, can you pass the hat if he contacts you? God bless!
Posted by: MariGold | September 05, 2012 at 09:43 PM
...for that matter, Giselle, do you need money yourself to keep the blog up and running???
Posted by: MariGold | September 05, 2012 at 09:44 PM
How kind, but all's well.
Posted by: giselle | September 05, 2012 at 10:05 PM
hm of course we know the mission territories to be gulags for the troublesome members, but what happens when you make trouble in the gulag? where do you go from there..?
i would guess that the major major was that it was made public - if he had only preached toto the indigenous then that would have been ok...
Posted by: Aaron | September 06, 2012 at 03:59 AM
No, they don't like it when the truth is revealed over and over again. They are really trying to hide any connection to their great founding father and others who lived as he did. Yes, MM was the pride and joy of their clean orthodoxy. He and the fashion in which he lived was the model or the image of how his minions should live. Anyone who speaks out, who has a voice, who has a brain, is the enemy. How Christian!
Posted by: Dingledore | September 06, 2012 at 08:35 AM
Just to help everyone out, here are the 3 requests Fr. Guajardo made in 2010, as reported in the link above, that got him in trouble.
Fr. Guajardo asks three things: that Maciel be definitively disowned as "founder" of the Legion; that every Legionary be authorized to confess to a priest selected by him instead of by the superiors; that the Holy See be given back the Notre Dame institute in Jerusalem, taken "by deception," he writes, from John Paul II in 2004.
(Back to me) I can't read the Spanish language documents, but it seems sadly plausible that he would be forced from priestly ministry for these statement (and I gotta presume others) that called for change.
Wow. I do indeed hope his priestly ministry can flourish elsewhere.
Posted by: Polish Pilgrim | September 06, 2012 at 10:10 AM
Are other LCs ok to just stand by and watch their superiors bully Fr Perez out of active ministry?
Posted by: les | September 06, 2012 at 11:58 AM
Basically, all you can do is watch, the superiors do the acting. But we can also follow his example, more or less our way....
Posted by: Scipio's Buddy | September 06, 2012 at 12:47 PM
MariGold,
It's my understanding that ReGAIN could use a few dollars.
Posted by: Jeannette | September 06, 2012 at 08:51 PM
Seems that his parishoners are protesting Fr. Pablo's dismissal:
http://irishmexican43.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Frank I | September 07, 2012 at 07:49 PM
To contact Fr Pablo
padre.pablo@hotmail.com
Posted by: caro | September 08, 2012 at 08:22 AM
This sounds familiar -- the truth teller being sanctioned by the criminals.
But Father Pablo will emerge the hero. People are now wise to cover-ups of clerical crimes -- and the ones covering up are themselves criminals:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/08/us/in-pedophile-case-church-failed-to-stop-priest.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2_20120908
Posted by: HonestyPlease | September 08, 2012 at 08:40 AM
Translation of Fr. Pablo's response to the canonical sanction, taken from Paul Lennon's blog:
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"Accepting the decision of Bishop Pedro Pablo Elizondo, LC, on Saturday, September 8, 2012, I will say good bye to my church community as far as exercising my priestly ministry. I am not completely sure why this drastic decision has been taken as I have had no personal meeting (with the bishop, my superior, to explain it), even though I asked for one. I hope in God to be able to spend some time in Playa del Carmen to pray, reflect and plan.
"I consider it a beautiful coincidence that I can conclude my priestly service on September 8th, the day on which the Church commemorates the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of God. Let these words be a testimony of my gratitude to so many wonderful people in Playa del Carmen. And I am writing to "show my face" because I have nothing to hide or to feel ashamed of in my work for (the state/diocese of) Quintana Roo, a work which covers both the spiritual dimension and also the promotion and defense of human rights."
"Your servant in Christ the Priest,
"Pablo Perez Guajardo, LC. (Legionary of Christ)"
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http://exlegionariescom.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Frank I | September 08, 2012 at 03:22 PM