Pope Orders Probe into Conservative Order Report, AFP, March 31, 2009

Pope Orders Probe into Conservative Order: Report

AFP
March 31, 2009

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jVnjtX6f3Jf12jPkdVSRhPcBDQUw

Marcial Maciel founded the Legionaries of Christ in 1941

ROME (AFP) — Pope Benedict XVI has ordered a probe into the ultra-conservative Legionaries of Christ after allegations that the order's late founder Marcial Maciel secretly fathered a child, the Zenit agency reported.

A team of bishops and priests will carry out the inquiry into the movement after reports that Maciel, who died in January 2008 aged 87, had fathered a daughter, the agency reported.

Benedict's right-hand man, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, announced the decision in a letter which the movement published on its web site.

Maciel founded the Legionaries of Christ in 1941 in Mexico, where they are especially active.

The leadership recently admitted that Maciel, a cult figure among Legionaries, led a "double life" after the discovery of his liaison with the mother of his daughter.

At stake in the investigation is the significant estate that Maciel left behind, which his daughter could have a claim to.

Maciel enjoyed the protection of Pope Benedict's predecessor John Paul II, who appreciated the dynamism of the Legionaries.

But the pontiff asked Maciel to retire in 2006 following an investigation into accusations by members of the group of sexual abuse of seminarians.

About 10 complaints reached the Vatican in 1997 and 1998, addressed to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, headed by then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, elected pope in 2005.

The group, present in 22 countries with 800 priests, 2,500 seminarians and 70,000 lay members, runs 12 universities including a pontifical university in Rome.

Bertone stressed in his letter the breadth of "educative and apostolic works that the Legionaries of Christ promote in various parts of the world."

The investigation is aimed at overcoming "existing difficulties... through truth and transparency, in a brotherly and constructive dialogue."

The head of the congregation, Alvaro Corcuera, thanked the pope "for this assistance... aimed at facing current vicissitudes with respect to the serious events of the life of our founding father," in a letter published on the movement's web site.