A letter circulating in the congregation analyzes the work of the pontifical delegate and indicates that the old guard of the order used the techniques of Maciel to involve the man recently elevated to the purple. The means of control inside the Legion, like blocking the internet, examining mail, putting "the uncomfortable" at a distance, hiding elemental facts of finance, and keeping up the cult of Marcial Maciel, are practices which were not eliminated with the naming of the pontifical delegate Velasio de Paolis, who was seen as a good sign. But only a few months were needed for this man to be captured by the top level of the Legion and alienated from those at the base, and for those at the base to lose the faith they had deposited in him. The old guard used the techniques of Maciel to enwrap the now cardinal, who has not been able to put the brakes on the departure of Legionaries from the order; in the last three years 60 priests have left, more than 100 consecrated, and more than 100 consecrated and Legionaries in training.
Moreover, the directors of the Legion, having been reaffirmed in their posts, have put to use a strict watch over those they consider "uncomfortable," and have transferred some to remote locations where they don’t have access to the delegate.
A letter circulating in the congregation, entitled “Valasio de Paolis, from anticipation to loss of focus” [trans: with connotations of getting off track or derailing], analyzes the work carried out up to the present moment by the pontifical delegate.
The text highlights that the naming of De Paolis filled the Legionaries with hope because of his career as a professor of canon law, but hope began to fade because “he neither speaks nor reads nor understands Spanish,” and it was his job to examine and revise the norms in that language.
Moreover, he began to dedicate little time to his unpleasant task, only three mornings a week, and those from Rome, without leaving the seat of the general directorate, where “the Legionaries of the nomenclatura began to cultivate him,” the letter points out. “They helped him manage his correspondence, they flattered him, and they were converting him into one of them. He was happy with what he saw, a Legion of dreams. Without leaving the Roman bubble, it is very difficult to grasp the reality of the congregation and that is his principal problem.” The letter adds, “Little by little he began to confide more in those around him. He went so far as to ask some brothers who came to him for help to take the matters to their superiors.”
Thus they achieved the "conquista" of De Paolis for the cause of keeping the status quo, and he, according to the text, ought to “recognize that this was a true work of art, using the same techniques that Maciel used." Isolated by his ignorance of Spanish, and immersed in the Roman bubble, “De Paolis was changed into one more member of the nomenclatura. His mission was reduced to - in his words - modifying a few numbers of the consitutions … He joined the old guard left by Maciel, more by confusion {trans: with connotations of being tricked] than by conviction.”
In the power vacuum, the superiors began to move: they named two new territorial directors, they expelled four consecrated, and they moved the "incomodos."
In his message to the Legionaries, he invites them to discernment; nevertheless, this has become a source of problems for “superiors, like those of the community of Fuego….they had a terrible fear of this process. They did not want to hear anything about discernment.”
The situation within the Legion began to be spoken of in this way: The territorial director is invited, each one speaks by turn, and that’s all. No conclusions are drawn, and there is no discussion. “It is a dialogue of the deaf in which each one says something and no one arrives at any agreement.”
To the surprise of the members, the top level was ratified, the level integrated by Maciel, the ones who “had expelled consecrated in an arbitrary way, who did not follow the common life, who had used lies with their subjects, who managed the internal forum with total impunity, who hid elemental facts of administration, who still promote the cult of the founder, who don’t respect the consitutions concerning their term of office and the manner of exercising it, and, finally, the same ones who had driven us to the state in which we find ourselves,” concludes the text.
