Many of you probably have heard about the Vatican’s statement concerning Father Maciel and the investigation done into the charges made against him.
 
Father Maciel is the founder of the Legionaries of Christ and of Regnum Christi, the lay movement of the Legionaries.
 
The National Catholic Reporter assumes his guilt and condemns him along with John Paul II and the Church’s leadership in general. You can almost hear the glee in their article about him–the charges and the Vatican’s decision serve their purposes well, so they are happy.
 
Even many orthodox blogs seem resigned to accepting that at least some of the charges against Father Maciel are true.
 
I’m not so quick to condemn him.

Here’s why:
 
1. The devil can stir up 5 people, 20 people, or even 100 people to make allegations against someone whom the devil hates. Sheer numbers of people making accusations do not make them anymore plausible in my mind. How many people shouted “Give us Barabbas, and Crucify him” when our Lord was handed over by Judas?
 
2. Father Maciel denies the allegations. This means that either
  a) the people making these accusations are liars, or that
  b) Father Maciel is a liar.
 
Whichever is the case, the situation is horrible. It is more horrible if Father Maciel is lying because that means these people were abused and also that Father Maciel’s soul is in great peril for having lived this lie for decades–it would cast a pall over everything he had done.
 
However, what if the people making the allegations are lying? It has happened before, and in that case, Father Maciel is innocent and his good name is being dragged through the mud by twisted people.
 
What do you do if you are the one doing the investigation into the veracity of the charges against him, and you are unable to determine with certainty whether they are true or not–after all, they were made decades ago? What if you analyze what evidence there is and think that there is even a chance that the allegations are true?
 
Without enough evidence to know the truth and having essentially one person’s word against another’s, one choice is to suggest that Father Maciel retire from public life and live out the rest of his years in prayer and penitence. It’s the middle-ground option that neither condemns him without compelling evidence nor exonerates him without surety of his innocence.
 
If he did not commit these sins, his good name is not completely smeared, and he will grow in holiness in the last years of his life offering this injustice to Jesus’ own sufferings.
If he did commit these sins, he is removed from public ministry and lives in repentance for them with the victims given some measure of justice.
 
I am bothered by the assumption of guilt that I am hearing from some people. If he is guilty, then why was he not accused and tried in the justice system where the crimes allegedly took place? Why isn’t he in jail now?
 
I think that what the Vatican did is what we should all do: Leave the situation in God’s hands to deal with justly and mercifully in his perfect wisdom and love.
 
My beloved fiancée, Katie, may weigh in on this matter as well.