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Catholic World News News Feature

Baltimore archbishop explains suspicion of Legionaries June 13, 2008

The Archbishop of Baltimore has revealed that he planned to banish the Legionaries of Christ (LC) from his archdiocese before Vatican officials persuaded him to impose restrictions on the Legionaries instead.

In an unusually candid interview with John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter, Archbishop Edwin O'Brien disclosed that he had gone so far as to inform the priests' council of the Baltimore archdiocese that he would tell the Legionaries to leave. The archbishop said that the announcement was warmly received.

However, after consulting with Vatican officials, Archbishop O'Brien agreed to discuss his concerns about a "lack of transparency" in LC operations with the superior general of the order, Father Alvaro Corcuera. Those discussions eventually led to the archbishop's decision that the LC could remain active in the Baltimore archdiocese only under explicit conditions, which he outlined in a letter to Father Corcuera, made public by the archdiocese this week.

Archbishop O'Brien made it clear that if LC priests do not adhere to those guidelines, he will expel them from the Baltimore archdiocese.

In the interview the archbishop was frank in expressing his own suspicions about the Legionaries of Christ. "I’ve always suspected the flaws in the organization are endemic to it," he said. "There’s no remedying them, because it’s so deeply ingrained."

[The full text of John Allen's interview with Archbishop O'Brien is available on the web site of the National Catholic Reporter.]