ROME
Chicago Tribune
By Tracy Wilkinson, Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times; staff writer Hector Tobar in Mexico City contributed to this report
Published May 20, 2006
ROME -- The Vatican announced Friday that it was disciplining the Mexican founder of an influential Catholic order after an investigation into decades of allegations that the now-elderly priest sexually abused boys in his care.
Rev. Marcial Maciel appears to be the highest-ranking priest to be sanctioned in an abuse case. Maciel enjoyed protective support from the Pope John Paul II for many years, but Pope Benedict XVI, in his first major decision in the church's sex-abuse scandal, put aside his predecessor's wishes.
Maciel has denied the allegations, and his organization, the Legion of Christ, repeated that position Friday.
The Vatican said in a statement that Maciel, 86, has been instructed to refrain from all public ministries and to adopt a "life of prayer and penitence." The statement did not specify whether the charges were true, but experts said the Vatican's decision indicated that church investigators believed at least some of the accusations.