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	Pope's Inspectors Urge "Deep Revision" of Scandal-hit Order Earth Times May 1, 2010 http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/321529,popes-inspectors-urge-deep-revision-of-scandal-hit-order.html Vatican City - The sexual and other misconduct of the founder of the Catholic order, Legion of Christ, makes its "deep revision," necessary, the Vatican said Saturday in a statement. The statement followed two days of meetings in Rome, in which five bishops, appointed in March 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI to investigate the Legion, reported their findings. Benedict on Friday met with the five who also held discussions on their so-called, apostolic visitation of the Legion of Christ, with Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. The founder of the Legion, the Mexican priest Marcial Maciel Degollado, is alleged to have sexually abused numerous underage seminarians. He also conceived three children with two women, the order recently said in an official apology. Rape allegations against Maciel Degollado had first surfaced in 1997, although the Legion founder steadfastly denied them. He resigned as the head of the order in 2005 and was removed from active ministry a year later. Maciel Degollado died in January 2008. Saturday's Vatican statement said the pontiff wanted to assure that members of the Legion "would not be left alone," and that the church would accompany and assist them on the "path of purification that awaits them". Benedict would also "soon" decide on what action to take on the basis of the report by the five bishops, who in their recommendations also urged a review of the power structure within the Legion of Christ. During their investigation, the bishops had personally met more than 1,000 members of the order, the Vatican said. They were also able to attest that many of those whom they met were "exemplary religious people, honest and full of talent." But numerous witnesses had confirmed the "very serious and objectively immoral conduct of Father Maciel ... in some cases (these involved) real crimes that were manifest a life without scruple and without authentic religious sentiment," the bishops found. They also noted how some of those within the order who dared question Maciel Degollado's conduct, had faced "expulsion," and moves to discredit them. Within the Legion there also existed the "wrongful conviction," that all attempts should be made safeguard its reputation allowing for the founder to create around him a "defence mechanism". This situation had allowed Maciel Degollado to lead a double life, the bishops noted in their findings.
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