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	Founder of Legion of Christ Dies A Great-Nephew of a Saint, Rev. Marcial Maciel Founded the Legion of Christ - a Global Movement of Priests and Laity By Martin Barillas Spero News January 31, 2008 http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idarticle=14141 Rev. Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, died on January 30. In an official statement, Rev. Alvaro Corcuera - the current General Director of the Legionaries - said that Rev. Maciel went to heaven. The funeral for Rev. Maciel will take place in his hometown of Cotija in the state of Michoacan, Mexico, but a date has not been set. Rev. Maciel led the Legionaries of Christ, a Catholic religious congregation, since its founding in 1944 until 2005 when he refused re-election as its general director. Initially consisting of priests and seminarians, the Legion of Christ was joined in later years by the Regnum Christi lay movement. Having started in the highlands of Mexico over 50 years ago, the Legion of Christ now has a presence in over 40 countries around the world. Its ministries include schools, vocational training, and seminaries. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith settled certain accusations of misconduct made against him. Since 2005, Rev. Maciel "spent his final years in a private life of prayer, a spirit of obedience, submission, and reverence for the Catholic Church which he had so deeply loved and taught others to love", says an official statement. Rev. Maciel faced repeated accusations of abuse of narcotics, as well as sexual deviancy. Seven accusers, all of them men (one of whom was a priest) alleged that Rev. Maciel engaged in homosexual abuse begining in the 1940s and into the 1970s."I never engaged in the sort of repulsive behavior these men accuse me of," said Rev. Maciel in 2002. The allegations were examined by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, led by by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - who is now Pope Benedict XVI. Finally, in May 2006, the Vatican publicly invited Fr. Maciel to withdraw to "a reserved life of prayer and penitence and not carry out his ministry in public". Allegedly because of his advanced age, no church trial took place. Rev. Maciel was born in 1920.
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