Marcial Maciel, founder of Legionnaires of Christ, was almost expelled from the priesthood in the 1950s

The Vatican during the pontificate of Pope Pius show documents from the time.

Father Marcial Maciel (1920-2008), who founded the religious congregation as a young seminarian in Mexico in 1941, was investigated in the mid-1950s for accusations that he sexually abused children and for disorderly use of morphine. , according to a article published Sunday by The Associated Press. He was temporarily removed as leader of the Legionaries, but later regained control of the congregation shortly after the death of Pius XII in 1958.

In 2006, 50 years after that Vatican investigation, Pope Benedict XVI removed Maciel from active ministry, based on an investigation that the Congregation—now the Dicastery—for the Doctrine of the Faith carried out when Benedict XVI directed it, before after being elected Pope in 2005. The Pontiff invited Father Maciel to a life of prayer and penance.

Maciel sexually abused at least 60 minors, most between 11 and 16 years old, according to a report published by the Legionaries of Christ in December 2019. He also had sexual relations with several women and fathered several illegitimate children and lived in luxury while ordering other members of the congregation to live a life of prayer, poverty and mortification.

Maciel survived largely through denial of his wrongdoing and his ability to cultivate friends in high places in the Catholic Church during his long time at the head of the Legionaries, including bishops and cardinals. He also had the trust of Saint John Paul II, who died in 2005.

The AP article notes that in 2012, Maciel’s Mexican victims posted online 200 leaked Vatican documents and a book titled The Will not to Know.

The Vatican Opened his Pius XII archives in March 2020.

A spokesman for the Legionaries of Christ said the information published in the AP article last weekend was already known through the publication of Vatican documents in 2012 “by unofficial sources.”

“In the Legion of Christ we do not cease in our desire to know any revelation about our past that allows us to know and be able to live in the truth about our history, and we thank the Holy See for the opening in 2020 of these archives and the possibility of access to them,” said the spokesman for the Legionaries of Christ in a written statement.

From 1995 to 2011, the National Catholic Register — now a service of EWTN News — was owned by Circle Media, a ministry of the Legionaries of Christ.

Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published by National Catholic Register.