Hartford Courant
May 19, 2006
By GERALD RENNER, Special To The Courant
Pope Benedict XVI has restricted the ministry of the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Rome-based Legionaries of Christ, who has been accused for years of having sexually abused young seminarians in his charge, according to a report published Thursday.
The Vatican would not confirm the report but said it would issue a statement about its investigation into the charismatic, 86-year-old priest as early as today.
The restrictions were reported online by theAbuse Tracker , an independent weekly newspaper, following a week of rumors of some kind of action against Maciel.
John Allen, Vatican correspondent for the newspaper, reported that Vatican sources said the restrictions placed on Maciel amount to a finding that at least some of the accusations against him are well founded.