Legionaries of Christ founder almost removed from priesthood in 1950s, Vatican documents show

Father Marcial Maciel. / Credit: DominikHoffmann, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

National Catholic Register, Jul 25, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).

Pope Pius XII’s Vatican was on the verge of removing from the priesthood the founder of the Legionaries of Christ over sexual abuse allegations in 1956, 50 years before he was removed from active ministry, documents from the time show.

Father Marcial Maciel (1920–2008), who founded the religious congregation as a young seminarian in Mexico in 1941, was investigated in the mid-1950s on claims that he sexually abused boys and abused morphine, according to a story published Sunday by The Associated Press. He was temporarily removed as head of the Legionaries but later regained control over the congregation not long after Pius XII died in 1958.

In 2006 — 50 years after that Vatican investigation — Pope Benedict XVI removed Maciel from active ministry based on an investigation the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith conducted when Benedict headed it before his election as pope in 2005. Benedict invited Maciel to a life of prayer and penance.

Maciel sexually abused at least 60 minors, most between the ages of 11 and 16, according to a report issued by the Legionaries of Christ in December 2019. He also carried on sexual relationships 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 denials of wrongdoing and his ability to cultivate friends in high places in the Church, including bishops and cardinals, during his long time as head of the Legionaries. He also had the confidence of St. John Paul II, who died in 2005.

The AP story noted that, in 2012, Mexican victims of Maciel published 200 leaked Vatican documents online and a related book called “La Voluntad de no Saber” (“The Will Not to Know”).

The Vatican opened its Pius XII archives in March 2020.

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

“In the Legion of Christ we continue to want to know of any revelations about our past that would allow us to know and be able to live in the truth about our history, and we thank the Holy See for opening these archives in 2020 and for the possibility of accessing them,” the Legionaries spokesman said in a written statement.

Between 1995 and 2011, the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, was owned by Circle Media, a ministry of the Legionaries of Christ.

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.