When it became public that Legionaries of Christ founder Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado had fathered a daughter, the order's former communications director, Jay Dunlap, decided he had to apologize for defending him.The National Catholic Reporter reports that four days after the news broke, Dunlap used his blog to apologize to those who said they had been sexually abused by the priest and to the people he said were "misinformed by statements I made" defending Maciel.
On Feb. 4 Legionaries of Christ officials said they only recently learned their late founder had fathered a child. In the past, Maciel had been accused of sexually abusing young seminarians in the order.
A spokesman for the order in Rome said the allegations "have never been proven definitively," but Dunlap told Catholic News Service Feb. 10 that "in my conscience I had to come forward to apologize to any victim who was being denied or doubted."
"Given the Holy See's determination that it appears some of the allegations are credible, I felt a moral obligation (to apologize)," he said. "Because we were going with the best information at the time, there was no reason to question the credibility. I was the spokesman out front saying otherwise."
Dunlap was hired as the Legionaries' first communications director in March 1998, 13 months after published reports detailed allegations of sexual abuse against the Mexican-born Maciel.
He said in his blog that the Legionaries had prepared a 32-page executive summary making the case for Maciel's innocence.
"Suffice it to say that, while there always remained some holes in the argument, there seemed to be adequate evidence to support these claims," Dunlap said in his blog.
In Rome, Fr. Paolo Scarafoni, spokesman at the Legionaries' headquarters, told CNS Feb. 4 that the accusations "have never been proven definitively." Despite the late priest's failures and flaws, he said, members of the order are grateful to him for having founded the order.
"It is now clear," Dunlap concluded in his blog, "that Fr. Maciel did in fact abuse his power and abuse young people in his charge."
Maciel died Jan. 30, 2008, at the age of 87. After its own investigation concluded in May 2006, the Vatican decided against conducting a canonical trial, but rather ordered the then-frail Maciel to withdraw to a life of prayer and penance.
Dunlap left the Legionaries in 2006 and now is a teacher at Sacred Heart Apostolic School in Rolling Prairie, Ind., and an assistant professor of communications at Mater Ecclesiae College in Greenville, R.I. The college is a Legionaries-sponsored formation center for consecrated women.
"(I feel) grief. (I'm) trying to understand," Dunlap told CNS. "A number of people compared" the news about Maciel, he said, to hearing that "your father was not the man he appears to be."
Meanwhile, Dunlap's blog post found its way to journalist Jason Berry, who for more than a decade has chronicled sexual abuse allegations against Maciel. Berry welcomed the statement and said he hoped to discuss it with Dunlap.
"What is so striking about this is that people who wanted to say Maciel was so wrongly accused now are offering their apologies," Berry said about the statements from former and current Legionaries officials.
"I'm encouraged by it," he added. "It's a sign of the split within the Legion."
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(Source: CTHUS)