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	The Pope Investigates Hardline Catholic Order By Nick Squires Telegraph March 31, 2009 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/5084372/The-Pope-investigates-hardline-Catholic-order.html The Pope has taken the unusual step of ordering an investigation into an ultra-conservative Roman Catholic order after it revealed that its late founder had a mistress and fathered a child. The Legionaries of Christ revealed in February that its Mexican founder, Rev Marcial Maciel, who died last year at the age of 87, had a daughter who is now in her twenties. For decades he was also faced allegations that he sexually abused seminarians, and was disciplined by the Vatican on the charges in 2006. Pope Benedict XVI will now send senior clerics to all the institutions run by the influential order, one of the fastest-growing in the Church. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, wrote to the head of the Legion saying that the Pontiff was intervening to help "overcome the present difficulties." The Legionaries of Christ was much admired by the late Pope John Paul II for its conservative views, strict loyalty to Vatican teaching and success in enrolling recruits. It was founded by Rev Maciel in Mexico in 1941 and now operates in around 20 countries, enjoying particularly rapid growth in Latin America. It has 1,300 seminarians, 700 priests and runs a pontifical university in Rome. But the revelations about its founder having a sexual relationship with a woman, and fathering a daughter who now lives in Spain, have tarnished its reputation. Its current head, Rev Alvaro Corcuera, said the Legionaries welcomed the Vatican visitation "with deep gratitude". He said the Pope had offered his support as the order faces "our present vicissitudes related to the grave facts in our father founder's life." The Vatican spokesman, Rev Federico Lombardi, said the inspection was the process by which the Church obtained firsthand knowledge about a problem in an order, diocese or parish.
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