A scathing review on Amazon.com hit the author's R.J. Neuhaus Duped by the Legion of Christ below the waterline. Hence this second "revised and augmented" vessel. Leaving dry dock the old Neuhaus Duped is launched with a new name, the repaired hull sporting streamlined chronology: inserted late reflections were tidied up and consigned to the stern. A discussion of Pope Benedict XVI's comments on the Legion of Christ Founder provides greater ballast. Maciel's psychology is put under review showing that he was much more than a sexual deviant. And, finally, an excellent essay by Peter Kingsland on Maciel as an abusive leader pulled the chapters together making for a more seaworthy ship. The author's brief correspondence with Richard John Neuhaus took place in 2002 as a reaction to his then famous "Feathers of Scandal" defense of Fr. Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legion of Christ, accused of pedophilia. Fr. Neuhaus demonstrated his willingness to engage in correspondence with an unknown minnow of the Catholic world who dared "question him." He was always civil, respectful, and fair in the fray. His pointed questions made me reflect and he, in turn, reflected on my answers. Those 2002 corazonadas - heartfelt intuitions - regarding the immoral life of the Rev. Marcial Maciel - were borne out by subsequent revelations made by the Legion leadership itself, a Vatican Investigation followed by a Reform Intervention, and finally by the words of His Holiness Benedict XVI. Ever since their 1941 foundation Maciel and the Legion had been "a sign of contradiction" in Mexico, the Vatican, Ireland, the USA and many other countries. From the 1960's through the early 21st century the Legion sailed silently and swiftly to forty countries buoyed by the adulation of conservative Catholics. Even after a Vatican investigation into allegation of pedophilia against Fr. Maciel in 2005 and a subsequent slap on the wrist in 2006, many refused to doubt or question, attributing criticism to ill will, hatred, and even a desire to "destroy the Catholic priesthood and the Church." Not long after Maciel's death Legion leadership out of the blue revealed he had lovers and engendered children. Evidence of a cynically double life destroyed Maciel's image in the eyes of the public much more successfully than his detractors had ever hoped. A second Vatican "visitation" of the institution in 2009 put a further dent in the Legion's armor. Pope Benedict XVI in Light of the World tried to explain the mystery of Maciel to the faithful while saving the Legion he spawned. Did the pope succeed?

Romulo Lynch Solano, historian and cuentista Today, January 3rd, 2041, marks the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the now extinct Catholic religious order, the Legion of Crisis. Less than forty years ago the Legion and its Rice Crispies Lay Movement were prospering under the pontificate of the late John Paul II. Their growth, from twelve twelve-year-olds recruited by then 21-year-old Mexican seminarian, Marshall Assiel, in 1941, was staggering. By the late 1950s the Legion had weathered a Vatican investigation into the murky mysteries of its Founder, the same Fr. Assiel, and spread from Mexico to Spain to Rome to Ireland to the USA and twenty or forty other countries. Large numbers of young men and women continued to flock to its formation centers and thousands gave their money to the cause of Orthodox Catholicism and cute clean-cut celibate priests. Jim Flake, their PR officer with a flair for figures, touted their numbers as 850 priests, 2,500 seminarians of all ages and sizes, and 80,000 lay members: married, single, separated or secretly divorced. The jewel in the Legion's crown was the hundreds of pretty "consecrated women" tucked away in high-heeled residential neighborhoods who manned the order's many elite schools and Front Groups. . The peace of Legion Camelot was disturbed in 2002 when a group of disaffected former members, relatives and parents, and friends of current members launched a webpage, www.regainnetwork.org, and a discussion group, www.exlegionaries.com, offering a forum for the faithful to be heard. One of the most unique voices was that of my mother, Ellen Lynch de Solano, under the pseudonym Bene Factress. By no means a critic, she was a sample of the thousands of innocent widows responding to the Legion's bi-weekly mass-mailings emanating from Hampton Court. Her love for the Legion padres and the unstinting giving of her meager moneys helped to ease her exile in this strange country. Naive and heartfelt comments, delivered by her soaring soprano, lightened the often ponderous and pompous postings of others. Sadly her coloratura was silenced in 2008 when www.exlegionaries.com was choked by a Legion legal order. Ironically the retainer was paid for with dollars she had contributed. Bene became part of the collateral damage, and readers slowly became resigned to her absence. Paradoxically, the Legion of Crisis religious order that won the legal battle lost the war when it was unable to withstand a second Vatican Visitation in 2009 and ceased to operate as such three years later. Today, thirty years later, poetic justice was served when fragments of Bene's articles were uncovered during excavations at the Alexandria City Masonic Temple. Miraculously my mother's voice has survived lawsuit, hurricane and flood, and hopefully will continue to edify future generations. Out of respect for her memory I render it verbatim, unedited, unabridged and unexplained.

The author's life before the Legion of Christ, in Dublin, Ireland; during the LC in Salamanca, Rome, Connecticut, Quintana Roo, Mexico and Mexico City; life after the LC in Washington, DC Metro area, new identity, new career, new life