America Legion

The Legionaries Survive, by Austen Ivereigh May 02, 2010

While it is obvious that almost all Legionaries were ignorant, it strains credulity to believe that Maciel's close companions were. Many had taken vows of loyalty to him, vowing never to speak badly of him. 

Deeds, Not Words, by Fr John F. Kavanaugh, S.J. May 03, 2010

We are at a crossroads: the way of Maciel or the way of Romero. Like all great reforms in the history of the church, we may well be called to repent of the ways we have “lorded” it over others.

News Briefs , April 10, 2010

Top officials of the Legionaries of Christ acknowledged on March 26 that the order’s founder, the late Marcial Maciel Degollado, sexually abused young seminarians, and they asked forgiveness for failing to listen to his accusers.

News Briefs, March 15, 2010. 

On Feb. 21 the Rev. Evaristo Sada, secretary general of the Congregation of the Legion of Christ, apologized to anyone whom the order’s founder, Marcial Maciel (1920-2008), “harmed with the immoral acts of his private life.”

News Briefs, November 16, 2009

On Oct. 30 Miami’s Archbishop John C. Favalora barred the Legionaries of Christ from exercising any ministry in the archdiocese.

Current Comment, May 11th, 2009

The visitation of the Legion of Christ, announced in March, will investigate issues of “truth and transparency” linked to sexual abuse and financial malfeasance by the order’s founder.

A Symphony of Church Life, By Vincent Gragnani, August 14, 2006 

Rev. Eugene Lauer, director of the National Pastoral Life Center in New York, calls some of the “fringe” lay movements “questionable.” In the Rev. Andrew Greeley’s book The Catholic Revolution, published in 2004, the sociologist implies that groups like Cursillo attempt to brainwash participants. Some bishops have banned the Legionaries of Christ and their lay association, Regnum Christi, from parishes in their dioceses.

Cleanse Us From Our Sins, by Thomas H. Stahel, S.J. April 19, 2004

Father Maciel has done such good, why bring up this dirty stuff? In the U.S. context, it would be like saying: Why make an issue of Bruce Ritter, seeing all the good that came from Covenant House? If Father Maciel were a priest in the United States and subject to the U.S. bishops’ protocols, he would now be on administrative leave at least. But he is not in the United States, and Italian rules of legal discovery are different.