Damning programme on Legionaries

On Sunday between 22.25 and 23.25 RTE1 showed a film on the Legionaries of Christ and their founder.

Presumably the programme was factual and accurate. It was an expose of the Legionaries. It gave some insight into the life of the founder. It showed the link there is between pseudo conservatism, pious deceit and an ability of making large sums of money.

Between 1974 and 1976 this blogger studied with members of the Legionaries of Christ in Rome. At the time he was convinced there was something seriously wrong with the institute. The behaviour of the young men was most unusual and not at all in keeping with the behaviour of young men of that age.

And today there is a great similarity between the 'style' of a significant number of young men studying for the priesthood with those Legionaries in the mid 1970s.

Saturday's Irish Times reports the pope's spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi, saying that the greatest incidence of clerical child sex abuse cases coincided with the sexual revolution of the 1960s.

How does he explain the behaviour of the founder of the Legionaries of Christ?
It is most unedifying and upsetting to see the Vatican involved in lies and spin.

The RTE programme is one of the first documentaries to make that link between a pseudo conservatism, sexual perversion and an inordinate ability of collecting money from people. The programme makers may well not be aware of the discovery they have begun.