The general council assisting the superior general of the Legion of
Christ will be temporarily expanded with the addition of two priests
recommended by members of the religious congregation.
Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, who is the papal delegate to the Legion,
chose Fr. Juan José Arrieta, LC, and Fr. Jesús Villagrasa, LC, from the
15 candidates who received the most votes from all voting members.
Voting members included all priests, religious with perpetual vows and religious who have made their first renewal of vows.
The two priests will join the current four advisors assisting the
Legion’s superior general Fr. Álvaro Corcuera, LC, in the governance of
the congregation.
Fr. Arrieta was born on August 19, 1956 in Spain. He joined the
congregation in April 1973 and was ordained to the priesthood in August
1983.
He has held responsibility in the congregation’s Center for Higher Studies and in the Legion’s apostolate in Rome.
Since 2007, he has been a pastor at the parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Philip the Martyr in Rome, the Legion reports.
Fr. Villagrasa was born in Spain on April 5, 1963. He joined the
Legion in September 1981 and was ordained to the priesthood in November
1994.
Since 1999, he has served as a metaphysics professor in the
philosophy department of the Pontifical Regina Apostolorum College.
He is a confessor and spiritual director at the Center for Higher Studies in Rome.
The Legion is discerning its future after revelations that its
founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel, led a double life which included sexual
abuse and fathering children.
Cardinal De Paolis has also created an outreach commission whose
members will listen to those requesting a response from the congregation
because of Fr. Maciel or in relation to him.
They will write a detailed
report for the papal delegate, who will decide what the Legion should
do in each case.
The commission will not intervene in cases awaiting decisions from civil or ecclesiastical courts.
Msgr. Mario Marchesi, one of the papal delegate’s personal advisers,
will head the commission in order to ensure impartiality in its work.
Fr. Corcuera said that the commission’s purpose is to “continue
facing with seriousness and responsibility” regarding Fr. Maciel’s
conduct and the consequences it has had on some people.
“Insofar as it is humanly possible, we want to close this chapter in
its more painful aspects, seek reconciliation, and allow justice and
charity to prevail.”