Marcial Maciel

During his life, Maciel was the focus of several investigations of his behaviour. There were allegations of drug abuse, for which he was investigated in 1956; he was hospitalized for morphine addiction.[14] He was also investigated for allegedly sexually abusing children. He was nonetheless returned as head of the Congregation.

In July 2009, a Spanish daily published an interview with a woman who had a child with Maciel in 1986 and was living in a luxury apartment in Madrid which Maciel had purchased for her.[15] A day later, Mexican media reported that attorney José Bonilla would represent three of a possible total of six of Maciel's natural children in a civil lawsuit to recover Maciel's estate. The lawyer claimed that Maciel owned several properties in Mexico and around the world in his own name.[16][17]

In February 2009, news broke that Maciel had led a double life.[18] Álvaro Corcuera, the General Director, visited each of the Legionary Territories and publicly apologized for Maciel's behaviour. Additionally, the legion has publicly acknowledged that Maciel had fathered a daughter.[19] As a result of all these acknowledgements, Pope Benedict XVI personally intervened and initiated a formal Vatican visitation of all legionary houses.[20]

In 1959 Maciel published a book, El salterio de mis días (The Psalter of My Days), which was widely read among members of the legion and partially translated into English. It was a memoir of experiences of persecution.

On December 11, 2009, the Agencia Católica de Informaciones of Lima, Peru, sister agency of the Catholic News Agency, reported that a Legion of Christ internal memorandum acknowledged, without using the word "plagiarism", that the book copied the memoir of Luis Lucia, a Spanish journalist and Christian Democrat politician.[21] Although the legion's memorandum described Maciel's book as "a slight rewriting", a Spanish legionary familiar with it stated that it copied Lucia's memoir "80 percent in style and content."[21]

Lucia's memoir was titled El salterio de mis horas (The Psalter of My Hours). He completed it in 1941 while a political prisoner of the Spanish State; it was published posthumously in Spain in 1956; that edition is believed to have been used by Maciel as the basis of his own work.[21][22][23]

In 1997, a group of nine men went public with accusations that they had been abused as youths and young men by Maciel while studying under him in Spain and Rome in the 1940s and 1950s. The group, which included respectable academics and former priests, lodged formal charges at the Vatican in 1998. They were told the following year that the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), was not moving forward with a direct prosecution. It is not publicly known if this decision was made by Pope John Paul II or Cardinal Ratzinger himself.[24]

In January 2005 Maciel was required to step down as head of the order. A few days before John Paul II died, Cardinal Ratzinger announced his intention of removing "filth" from the Church; many believed he was referring specifically to Maciel.[4] After an investigation had been re-opened by Ratzinger, the Vatican requested that Maciel withdraw from his active ministry. In January 2006 Maciel stepped down as head of the Legion of Christ and tendered its leadership to long-time follower Álvaro Corcuera. In May 2006, Ratzinger, as Pope Benedict XVI, disciplined him: the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith asked Maciel to live "a reserved life of penitence and prayer, relinquishing any form of public ministry",[25] and published a press communique to that effect.[26] A canonical trial was ruled out, officially because of his advanced age and poor health,[27] and Maciel was never defrocked.[28]

In 2007 the order was told to remove the charity vows requiring religious never to criticize superiors, and to inform on any dissent within the order. Maciel moved from Rome to a house he shared with other priests in Jacksonville, Florida, where he died on January 30, 2008, at age 87.[12] He had a private funeral and was buried in his birthplace, Cotija, Michoacán.

He had never made any apologies, and had continued to deny the allegations. Corcuera apologized to the victims both for Maciel's actions and the inaction of others.[29]

In December 2019, the organization accepted responsibility for 175 cases of child sexual abuse by 33 priests, including 60 minors who were abused by Maciel.[30] Former Vatican Secretary of State Angelo Sodano was accused of leading the effort to shield Maciel and other sexually abusive Legion of Christ clergy.[31][32][33]

In March 2009 Pope Benedict XVI ordered an apostolic visitation of the Legionaries of Christ.[36] Five bishops from five different countries, working independently of each other,[37] conducted an extensive investigation which took them to nearly every one of the religious order's houses[38] and on March 15, 2010, submitted their report to the Vatican. On March 25, 2010, the Legion of Christ and the Regnum Christ issued a joint statement acknowledging Maciel's history of sex abuse and apologized.[39]

On May 1, 2010, after a two-day meeting in Rome with the bishops, the Vatican issued a statement on the report[37] and announced that the Pope would name a delegate to the legion and a visitator to Regnum Christi,[40] because the "conduct of [Maciel] has given rise to serious consequences in the life and structure of the Legion, such as to require a process of profound re-evaluation." In its statement the Vatican denounced Maciel for having created a system of power that enabled him to lead an "immoral" double life "devoid of scruples and authentic religious meaning."[37][38] The Vatican statement was unusually explicit in its denunciation of Maciel's crimes and deception.

The "very serious and objectively immoral acts" of Maciel, which were "confirmed by incontrovertible testimonies", represented "true crimes and manifest a life without scruples or authentic religious sentiment", the Vatican said.[38] The Vatican also stated that the legion created a "mechanism of defense" around Maciel to shield him from accusations and suppress damaging witnesses from reporting abuse. "It made him untouchable", the Vatican said. The statement decried the "lamentable disgracing and expulsion of those who doubted" Maciel's virtue. The Vatican statement did not address whether the legion's leadership would face any sanctions.[41] The Vatican acknowledged the "hardships" faced by Maciel's accusers through the years when they were ostracized or ridiculed, and commended their "courage and perseverance to demand the truth."[13]