ROLLING PRAIRIE (IN)
Indianapolis Star
Associated Press
ROLLING PRAIRIE, Ind. -- An embattled, conservative Roman Catholic religious order has enrolled 18 seventh- and eighth-graders in its newly opened third U.S. boarding school for boys interested in the priesthood.
The Legionaries of Christ said the minor seminary, called Sacred Heart Apostolic School and located on a 51-acre campus 20 miles west of South Bend, plans to add a grade level each year with an ultimate goal of 100 to 120 students, order spokesman Jay Dunlap said.
The order's Immaculate Conception Apostolic School in Center Harbor, N.H., has several students from the Midwest, Dunlap said. That 23-year-old school enrolls 140 students in Grades 7 through 12. The order also operates schools in Colfax, Calif., and Cornwall, Ontario.
"We've started a school here because our school in New Hampshire is bursting at the seams," Dunlap said.
The Legionaries of Christ, which claims a membership of 65,000 people, including about 600 priests in 18 countries, was founded in 1941 by a Mexican priest, the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado.
Maciel stepped down earlier this year as general director of the order, shortly after the Hartford (Conn.) Courant and theAbuse Tracker , an independent newsweekly, reported that the Vatican had reopened an investigation into allegations that Maciel sexually abused seminarians. Maciel and the order have vigorously denied the allegations.