Victims of Sex Abuse Say Pope Benedict's Plan to Take Over Legion of Christ Is Not Enough
Pope will change order's leadership; critics want investigation of Vatican.
May 4, 2010 — -- Critics and victims of Father Marcial Maciel, late founder of the powerful Catholic order known as the Legion of Christ, say that Pope Benedict XVI's decision to overhaul the leadership of the group is inadequate, and does not explore the role of high church officials in allowing Maciel to lead the Legion for more than half a century.
The pope's decision to appoint an outside commissioner to run the order, announced this weekend after consultation with five bishops who have been investigating the Legion, comes after he promised action against sexual abuse. The Legion has admitted that Maciel sexually abused young male seminarians, and also fathered at least one child.
But Juan Vaca and Jose Barba, two of a group of eight seminarians who sent sworn affidavits to the Vatican in the late '90s alleging sexual abuse , asked why the decision did not include making an inquiry into long-time Maciel's network of support among high Vatican officials.
Said Vaca, "I would have liked to see the Vatican admit that they did wrong. ...That they screwed up."
"The Vatican alludes to Maciel's mechanisms of corruption and silence," said Barba, "but does not explain how it was possible for the Holy See's eminent personalities . . . to come under Maciel's control."
Author Jason Berry, who recently published two pieces in the National Catholic Reporter alleging that specific Vatican officials, including former Secretary of State Angelo Sodano, had accepted large gifts from Maciel over the years, said he was troubled by the way the Vatican's statement about the decision "seem[ed] to lay all the blame on Maciel.
CLICK HERE and HERE TO READ BERRY'S ARTICLES IN THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER
"The Vatican helped create Maciel," said Berry.
Vaca claims he personally delivered gifts and money to Vatican officials in the 1950s.
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