Sydney Morning Herald
By Alistair Bell
April 21, 2005
A former trainee priest who has accused the founder of an influential Catholic order of committing sexual abuse said that the new Pope deliberately shelved an investigation into his claims for six years.
Jose Barba is one of eight ex-members of the Rome-based Legion of Christ, most of whom are Mexican, who accuse the order's founder, Marcial Maciel, of sexually abusing them from the 1940s to the 1960s.
The allegations are too old to be investigated under criminal law but the nine brought a suit against Maciel, 85, under the Vatican's canonical law in 1998.
The case was filed at the Church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, headed by Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope.
Posted by kshaw at April 20, 2005 11:45 AM