Hartford Courant
May 20, 2006
By GERALD RENNER, SPECIAL TO THE COURANT
The Vatican's sanctions against the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado serve notice that under the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI, such high-ranking insiders will no longer get a pass when serious allegations of sexually abusing children are raised against them.
The charismatic founder of the conservative religious order, the Legionaries of Christ, Maciel avoided for nearly 30 years answering complaints that he abused young boys in seminaries.
Pope John Paul II never responded to formal complaints against Maciel made through official church channels in 1978 and 1989, and a canon law case against him was quashed without explanation in 1999.
But now, in the wake of his experience handling sex abuse cases as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict is bent on removing what he called "filth" in the church in a widely publicized sermon last year.