Published: RC director encourages members to offer "spiritual bouquets"

Someone has created a website to offer "Spiritual Bouquets" for LC priests and RC consecrated members. I'm told it began as a Facebook group and crossed-over onto a full website. The individual who registered the website lives in Connecticut, near where the Legionaries of Christ are based in the United States.

This email was sent by a national-level director of Regnum Christi to their women members:

Many of you have told me about the beautiful initiatives of individuals and local sections and cities to support your local legionaries, consecrated, and the Church as a whole during this difficult time. Thank you for your love for Christ and the Church!

One city decided to start a website to gather a spiritual bouquet in gratitude for the vocations of the Legionaries of Christ, and Consecrated members. It is http://www.spiritualbouquet.net/. I wanted to share it with you in case you’d like to participate, and in any case, to encourage you to pray for the perseverance of all priests, consecrated and religious, and for Our Church. Below is a message from the organizers:

“Let us join the thousands of other Regnum Christi Members from around the world by offering up a spiritual bouquet for the Holy Catholic Church and especially for the Legionaries of Christ and the Consecrated Men and Women of Regnum Christi in gratitude for their vocations and as a means for their perseverance in faith.

You can include the number of Masses, Rosaries, Holy Hours and sacrifices that you would like to offer up on the website. The website will keep a runny tally of all the prayers and sacrifices offered. (This is a continuous spiritual bouquet so you can later go back and offer more if you would like.)

The spiritual bouquet will then be sent to Pope Benedict XVI, Fr. Alvaro and the Legionaries of Christ priests and Consecrated Men and Women of Regnum Christi so they could see the continuous number of prayers and sacrifices offered for them and the whole Catholic Church.

Not our will, but God’s Will be done. Let us entrust this into the hands of Our Mother.”

God Bless, you are all in my prayers.

Yours in Christ and the Movement,

[name]

Note how "movement-centric" this innitiative is, with no mention of those outside the movement who have suffered, beginning with Maciel's own victims. This is how the petition reads:

"Considering the painful times that we suffer together as the Mystical Body of Christ and a Regnum Christi family, please join in gathering and assembling spiritual flowers. This spiritual bouquet of prayers and sacrifices will be offered especially for the Legionaries of Christ and the Consecrated Men and Women of Regnum Christi in gratitude for their vocations and as a means of perseverance in faith. Not our will but God's Will be done."

The website also contains a quotation from a speech Pope Benedict XVI made during his visit last year to the United States. I will quote a line from this speech (that appears on the website):

Charisms are bestowed by the Holy Spirit, who inspires founders and foundresses, and shapes congregations with a subsequent spiritual heritage."

Maciel certainly left a heritage.

update: from "Dominus Flevit" in the comments:

The spiritual bouquet is quite revealing. The immediate, overriding concern of the LC leadership is clearly the retention of its priests and RC consecrated members ("perseverance").

The leadership realizes what the Deep Denial crowd does not: A significant number of LC priests are likely to head for the exits over the next several years, if not sooner. Some of them (Fr. Berg?) may even make noisy exits. That in turn will shake what remains of the faith RC members have in the Movement.

This catastrophe could be averted with a thorough and credible housecleaning, including identification and removal of all LCs who knew or should have known of Maciel's double life. Sadly, the LC leadership doesn't look capable of taking the steps necessary to salvage credibility.