Legionaries Of Christ - The Unfolding Scandal

Hiawog

A friend told me the story last year and I've been following it since.

The Legion have three schools in Ireland, two retreat centres and a large rectory that doubles as a novitiate or seminary.

Briefly, the Order have always courted controversy. Its founder, Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, was investigated by the Vatican in the 1950's under charges of drug addiction and sexual abuse. Since then, it's been described as a 'cult of personality' given its fervour for recruitment, making money and its unquestioning devotion to a living person, namely Maciel who died in 2008.

The Order is ultra conservative and its Priests and seminarians take vows of obedience, chastity, poverty and a secrecy promise. This 'promise' relates to keeping secret the deeds and actions of a superior but involves the not keeping secret the misgivings or doubts of a peer.

A large body of work has built up, including books, magazine and newspaper articles and a filmed documentary, presented by journalists, ex-legionaries and other victims whose faith has been damaged. This work reveals a remarkable list of sexual, psychological and physical abuse, crimes involving drug running and money laundering and much criticism as to the level of influence such a small Order had in Rome.

It was revealed last year by the Order that its founder, Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, had fathered at least one child and now they generally accept that there are more. In fact, it is now claimed there are six as several families have come forward in Mexico claiming Degollado is head of their household. These 'families' are suing for inheritance rights from Degollados estate, a personal fortune estimated to be $20m (vow of poverty?) and currently held in Bahamian banks.

Cardinal Ratzinger began an investigation in the last years of pope John Paul II and as Pope Benedict he banned Degollado from religious mission. He has also begun an Apostolic Visitation to the Order - Vatican speak for investigation - with initial results expected next month.

There are a plethora of English and Spanish speaking sites available if you're interested.

www.legionariesofchrist.org (official site)
http://www.rickross.com/groups/loc.html
http://exlcblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.life-after-rc.com/
http://ourfathermacielwhoartinbed.blogspot.com/ (Irish Book)
http://exlcblog.blogspot.com/

http://translate.google.ie/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.periodistadigital.com%2Freligion%2Fmundo%2F2009%2F09%2F21%2Fguerra-por-la-herencia-de-maciel.shtml&sl=es&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8

(Spanish online newspaper)
http://exlegionariescom.blogspot.com/
http://www.regainnetwork.org/

adveniat

Since it was a friend who told you the story you seem to have a lot of detail in your post!. Including all the links to the varies websites that are hitting the Legion. Its a sad situation, the Legion was/is a sect dressed as a conservative congregation. In reality it was a tool used to maintain power in the church by Fr. Marcial. There are lots of good priests in the Legion of Christ and they congregation has done a lot of good work in the church, but at the moment it's crumbling, a friend of mine who is a priest in the Legion says there is a very large group of Priests about to leave it (up to 200), Fr. Alvaro Corcuera has convinced many of them to wait until the church gives its findings in March, but the fact remains that the legion of Christ was founded by a Mexican Peodophile Priest who lived the high life, with is apartments and numerous lovers (men and women) and his children in Mexico, spain. The Murphy Report here in Ireland is pale in comparison to what happened in the Legion of Christ since 1941. While there was a lot of abuse by its founder there was also a lot of good done by other priest who where not aware of the abuse by the founder, The was a vow not to criticise the Founder so those who knew about the abuse could not talk about it to others.

I would say in the history of the Church there has never been a priest like Fr. Macial. He had untold wealth (more than a billion dollars) and was able to stay in power for more than 60 years and was very close to the hierarchy of the Church. The only person he did not fool was the current Pope, who according to my sources ordered a private investigator to unearth the truth about him, he then confronted Fr. Alvaro Corcuera about the findings and ordered Fr. Maciel to exile.

chozometroid

adveniat wrote: »

Since it was a friend who told you the story you seem to have a lot of detail in your post!. Including all the links to the varies websites that are hitting the Legion.

In their defense, they said their friend told them last year, and they have been following it ever since. This means they may now possess their own knowledge and sources of information on the matter.

adveniat

chozometroid wrote: »

In their defense, they said their friend told them last year, and they have been following it ever since. This means they may now possess their own knowledge and sources of information on the matter.

Hi, Don't get me wrong, all the post is factually 100% correct. Just that it seems very detailed for a post. I have followed the scandal daily and did not have the range of links. But its a good post.

adveniat

One of the Legionary priests who helped Fr. Maciel was Father Raymond Cosgrave. He was present when the consititutions were approved by the church (see photo). Many say that the Legionary Hierarchy did not know about the double (or triple) life of its founder, but today it seems hard to believe that nobody knew nothing about the large sums of money that were transfered to keep his many lovers and his children quiet. One fact we know is that he had multiple indentities and his airline tickets 1st class were purchased by his assistants and his close circle of Legionary priests knew about aspects of his double life, as they purchased his tickets under varies names. As of today the Irish Priest Father Raymond Cosgrave has not given his account about his involvement with Fr. Maciel.

Fanny Cradock

I'm temporarily locking this post pending some advice. I don't know the ins and outs of this case, and we might be straying into potential defamation of character, which is not good certain individuals or for Boards.ie.