RELIGION / JOHN DART : Encino-Based Catholic Papers Sold to Group Tied to Legion of Christ

Two Catholic newspapers published in Encino have been sold to a group said to have ties with a fast-growing but low-profile religious order whose traditionalist views are held in high esteem by the Vatican.

The National Catholic Register and Catholic Twin Circle, owned for more than two decades by wealthy businessman Patrick J. Frawley Jr. of Los Angeles, have struggled financially in recent years, though the right-of-center Register has earned plaudits in the religious press for its news coverage.

According to several sources in Catholic journalism, the two newspapers have been sold to the Legion of Christ, an international religious order most often called the Legionaries of Christ, although official reports list the new publisher as a nonprofit organization based in New York.

The Legion order, founded in 1941 by a Mexican priest, has gained notoriety for its tight discipline and demanding training, which can last up to 15 years, according to the Rome-based magazine “Inside the Vatican.� The order has only 300 priests but 10 times that many in training, the magazine said in its May issue.

Critics describe the Legionaries as a relatively unknown, rigidly conservative order that supports the most traditionalist elements of the Vatican while shunning public scrutiny. Some bishops are wary of the order much in the way some Catholics are concerned about the influence of the Opus Dei lay movement, which opponents characterize as a secretive group of ultraconservative church loyalists.

But former Register Editor Francis X. Maier, now directing public relations for the Denver Catholic Archdiocese, said, the Legionaries “are not a fringe organization in any sense of the word, and they have a lot of energy.

“I think the Legionaries probably will be able to take the papers to a new level of competency because the Frawley corporation had done everything it could do for the papers,� said Maier, who edited the National Catholic Register for 14 years before leaving in 1993.

Under Maier’s editorship, the National Catholic Register won a number of Catholic Press Assn. awards and carved a niche for itself between the better-known National Catholic Reporter on the left and the acerbic Wanderer on the far right.

The officially stated combined circulation of the Register and family features-oriented Twin Circle is just under 50,000, but most Catholic editors say the circulation must be boosted soon if the two papers are to survive.

The official new publisher, which takes over from Frawley’s Twin Circle Publishing Co., is Circle Media, Inc., which managing director Jay Schwarz described in a brief telephone interview as “a nonprofit lay organization out of New York.� In church circles, the term “lay organization� indicates a lack of clergy direction.

“There is no official link� to the Legionaries, Schwarz said, though he added that Father Anthony Bannon of Orange, Conn., the leader of the order’s U.S. province, “was involved in the negotiations. The Legionaries know the Frawleys and helped to facilitate the purchase.�

When asked weeks ago to respond to reports that the order had acquired the papers, Brother John Curran, a spokesman for the province, suggested that a list of questions be faxed to Bannon. But Curran said this week that the provincial leader was recently called away to Europe and that answering the questions was “just not one of his priorities right now.�

However, Robert P. Lockwood, president of Our Sunday Visitor, which publishes a rival national Catholic weekly newspaper in Ohio, said Friday that his sources within the old Twin Circle Publishing Co. told him that the two papers “were purchased directly by the Legionaries.�

The change in ownership was not announced in either the Register or Twin Circle. Starting with the August issues, the names of Publisher Gerardine Frawley, wife of Patrick Frawley, and General Manager Michael Frawley, the couple’s son, were dropped from the two papers’ masthead. Circle Media, Inc., was listed as publisher.

Schwarz, who said he is a former marketing professional and nonprofit fund-raiser from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., has moved into the publications’ Ventura Boulevard high-rise offices where the new owners have a three-year lease.

“We are trying to get subscriptions up and a fresher image to the newspapers without any substantive changes in staff and editorial policy,� Schwarz said. “First of all, we want to reduce lag time between the printing and delivery.�

Editor Joop Koopman and Associate Editor Gabriel Meyer of the National Catholic Register have declined to comment on the change of ownership. Calls to Michael Frawley were not answered.

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Our Sunday Visitor’s Lockwood, who chaired the annual convention of the Catholic Press Assn. held in Los Angeles this year, said he believes “the Legionaries have no plans to interfere with the editorial policies or content of either paper. How long they will maintain an arm’s length approach to editorial matter remains to be seen.�

The Rome-based magazine “Inside the Vatican� said the Legionaries’ expansion and growing influence at the Vatican is unparalleled. “No other religious congregation [order] has registered such rapid expansion in recent decades. Every 10 years, the number of vocations [priest recruits] has doubled,� the magazine said in its May article.

The magazine said the order operates six seminaries, 80 schools, 98 mission centers, 10 universities and 640 lay training centers in 15 countries. The order’s lay movement, Regnum Christi, now numbers 45,000 members worldwide, the publication said.

The Legionaries’ new university in Rome, Regina Apostolorum, was granted the coveted status of “Athenaeum� by the Vatican in record time, according to the magazine.