Will the "Dissidents" get the boot?

Who said "freedom of expression"? That, my dear boy, is a folly of the American system. In the Legion and theVatican it is the hand of authority

Will the dissidents aluded to by Cardinal De Paolis be allowed to stay and Reform the Legion from the Inside?


Sandro Magister wrote recently on his blog Chiesa:

But even more disappointing for those who expected clearer and more rapid decisions from Cardinal De Paolis was the closed door speech he gave on July 2 at the general headquarters of the Legionaries.


In sketching a summary of his first year as commissioner of the Legion, De Paolis aimed his most severe criticisms at a few internal opponents, referred to as "dissidents," accused of sowing disobedience to the superiors and mistrust and discord among the confreres.

In reality, these "dissidents" are few in number and have a modest following, held together through e-mail.

 Some of them teach in the faculties of bioethics and philosophy of the pontifical university "Regina Apostolorum." The most prominent are the professors Victor Pajares, Spanish, dean of the school of bioethics, Cristián Borgoño Barros, Chilean, and Alfonso Aguilar, Spanish.

Another circle of opponents implicitly put under accusation by Cardinal De Paolis is the one connected to the extremely wealthy Oriol Muñoz family in Spain. They are four brothers: Santiago, Ignacio, Alfonso, and Juan Pedro, all priests who have left the Legion, one after another, in recent months. One of their sisters, Malen, is still the assistant of director general Corcuera for consecrated virgins. About sixty Legionaries and former Legionaries have coagulated around the Oriol brothers, centered in Cordoba. But according to what they say and write, they seem to be creating not a renewed Legion, but yet another group of devotees to the Madonna of Medjugorje.

In attacking the "dissidents" shortly before removing Garza from the cockpit, Cardinal De Paolis made an astute move. The message that emerged from this is that Garza's ouster was an autonomous decision of himself and the Vatican authorities, not a concession to confused grassroots pressure.

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Note on Fr. Alfonso Aguilar [LC?]
from the SSM web page:


Fr. Alfonso Aguilar, Professor, History of Western Civilization and Chaplain at Università Europea di Roma.



· Fr. Aguilar is an energetic and motivating priest and teacher with experience in youth counseling. He is the founder of the Pascal Center, an apologetics cultural association where young people can freely debate about the big questions of life and the proposals of the Catholic faith.


· Fr. Aguilar's areas of expertise include: Philosophy (particularly in the area of knowledge and metaphysics), Apologetics where he has published various works, taught courses, organized an international conference, and created a Diploma on Apologetics), and research on three contemporary cultural trends: gnosis, secularism and relativism.


· He has 5 years experience teaching Latin, Greek and liberal arts, and 13 years teaching philosophy at two universities. He has published and edited several books and over 100 articles in specialized journals and newspapers in English, Italian and Spanish. He has given courses and delivered lectures in various different countries in Europe and the Americas.


· Father Aguilar has a Doctoral degree in Philosophy, a Masters degree in Bioethics, and a Bachelors degree in Theology from Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University; and has earned a Diploma in Liberal Arts in Salamanca, Spain.


· He enjoys working with the youth, organizing events, travelling, learning about art, leading debates in a cine-forum, and cooking (particularly Spanish paella).