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	Man Who Claims to Be Son of Priest Sues Legionaries of Christ By David Owens The CTNow June 21, 2010 http://www.ctnow.com/news/connecticut/hc-legionaries-of-christ-sued-0622-20100621,0,6856957.story The Legionaries of Christ and the estate of the priest who once led the Roman Catholic order, the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, are being sued by a man who says he is one of several children whom Degolladofathered. The lawsuit, brought in state court by New Haven attorney Joel T. Faxon on behalf of Jose Raul Gonzalez Lara, 30, of Mexico, accuses Degollado of repeatedly sexually molesting Lara. The lawsuit was filed in Connecticut because the Legionaries U.S. headquarters is in the state, Faxon said. The organization also has property in Orange and Hamden and a seminary in Cheshire. The organization also has custody of Degollado's estate, Faxon said. The Vatican last month ordered an overhaul of the Legionaries after an investigation into decades of sexual abuse complaints against Degollado and alleged efforts to cover up the crimes. Degollado engaged in "very serious and objectively immoral behavior," the Vatican said, and led "a life devoid of scruple and of genuine religious sentiment." That conduct included fathering at least one child and sexually molesting boys and seminarians into the 1990s. Degollado died in 2008 at age 87. Lara's mother, Blanca Gutierrez Lara, gave birth to two children with Degollado, who used the alias Raul Rivas, according to the lawsuit. The biological sons — and another boy whom Degollado did not father — claim that Degollado sexually abused them, according to a report in the National Catholic Reporter. Only Lara is bringing a suit, however. At a press conference in Minnesota Monday, Lara said that Degollado explained his long absences from the family by saying he was a CIA agent and an oil company executive. Lara said he did not know his father's true identity, or that he was a priest, until 1997. Lara said at the press conference that the abuse began when he was 7 and continued over the next nine years. Degollado would ask Lara's mother to send him on trips with Degollado, Lara said. Although seminarians and others urged Pope John Paul II to investigate Degollado and the Legionaries of Christ for abuse, the pope instead praised Degollado in 1994 as "an efficacious guide to youth." Pope Benedict XVI appointed a special envoy and commission to oversee "purification" of the order and to deal "sincerely with all those who, within and outside the Legion, were victims of sexual abuse and of the power system devised by the founder." Critics have described the order as secretive, controlling and cult-like, with seminarians largely cut off from contact with their families and the outside world. The lawsuit claims that by allowing Degollado to remain as its leader, the Legionaries of Christ "intended to represent to children, including [Lara], that [Degollado] was fit, qualified and competent in all respects" and that the Legionaries "were aware that was using the power and resources gained from the Legionaries to meet with children around the world, including [Lara]." The lawsuit alleges that the Legionaries were careless and negligent because the organization, among other things: •knew or should have known that Degollado had a propensity to sexually batter minors, yet failed to take steps to prevent his sexual battery of Lara; •failed to properly and adequately supervise Degollado in order to prevent the sexual battery of minors; •allowed and encouraged Degollado to freely interact and have unsupervised one-on-one contact with minors; •failed to establish, maintain and enforce a policy of reporting, investigating and removing priests engaged in sexual misconduct, and instead adhered to a policy of discouraging the dissemination of information regarding the sexual misconduct of priests with minors. Jim Fair, a spokesman for the Legionaries of Christ, said the order would have no comment on the lawsuit. He did say that Lara's claim that he is Degollado's son seems credible. Faxon, the New Haven lawyer representing Lara, said Degollado was "an international child predator" and that his son has brought the case to gain compensation for the abuse he endured and to "protect children across the world from these types of abusers." The Legionaries of Christ, Faxon said, has been "very secretive and dishonest for decades." The Legionaries of Christ said earlier this year that Lara approached the order and asked for $26 million — $6 million that he claimed his father intended to leave him as a bequest and another $20 million in compensation for the abuse. "If you give me the money, I will keep quiet about the truth," Lara told the Rev. Carlos Skertchly, according to a January letter to Lara in which Skertchly recounted an earlier conversation that the two had. The Legionaries provided the text of the letter to The Courant on Monday. The Legionaries of Christ declined to make the payment. "As I affirmed in our meeting and on the phone call, we want to understand your situation, try to shed light on the still obscure aspects we are facing, seek the truth, and reach out to people," Skertchly wrote to Lara. "However, in no way can we accede to your request for money in exchange for silence. While we value all of the pain and suffering that you have shared with us, and we deplore the evil of scandal that may follow, we will never accept petitions of this sort, which are also illicit. We prefer to seek and face the truth, no matter how painful it may be." Faxon said Gonzalez's attempt to solve the case privately were because he fears for his live. The order would not compensate him and "so he's hired us to prosecute this case aggressively and get him appropriate compensation for what's occurred to him." "The Legionaries of Christ knew that [Degollado] was attacking children for decades," Faxon added. "Pope John Paul II knew that [Degollado] was attacking children for a substantial period of time. [Lara's] father was a priest who claimed to be a CIA agent and his father sexually attacked him. The idea that a payment for that type of abuse could be considered extortion is outrageous." Contact: dowens@courant.com
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