If you have been keeping up on recent news you are aware of the admission by the Legionaires of Christ that their founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel, lived a double life, keeping a mistress and fathering a daughter, now twenty years old, I believe. That, in addition to other accusations over the years of abusive behavior on Fr. Marcial’s part, has left not only the Legionaires reeling, but has deeply wounded the Church. There is question as to whether the Legionaires will need to dissolve and reorganized under a new and different charism.
Then there is the continued SSPX controversy. After Pope Benedict lifted the excommunications on the four bishops, Bishop Williamson’s denial of the realities of the Holocaust has come to light. This draws into real focus the whole of the SSPX and whether they will in obedience and integrity accept the whole of the Church’s authority, the nature of the Church as defined in Vatican II, the teaching on ecumenism and the Church’s condemnation of Anti-Semitism. Even though the excommunications have been lifted, the SSPX remains in schism. They, the SSPX, will have to come to terms with themselves also, and recognize they cannot be “cafeteria Catholics” of the far right, picking and choosing Church teachings to which they will adhere.
Finally, there is the very sad news of the abortion clinic in Florida which threw out with the trash a newly born infant. As you know, few things anger and hurt me more than this kind of thing, and I ask each of us, “How can we, even in the remotest manner, support this with our votes and other political actions?”
Let us pray for each other, the Church, and all those harmed by anyone of the Church.
