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	Vatican to Hear from Victims of Legionaries Founder Latin American Herald Tribune February 2, 2011 http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=385732&CategoryId=12395 VATICAN CITY – The papal delegate for the troubled Legionaries of Christ has set up a commission to help the victims of sexual abuse perpetrated by the order's late founder, disgraced Mexican priest Marcial Maciel. The Outreach Commission will "listen to the people who are requesting a response from the Legionaries of Christ because of Father Marcial Maciel or in relation to him," the order said in a message posted Tuesday on its Web site. Panel members are to prepare a detailed report that will be submitted to the man named by Pope Benedict XVI to oversee the order, Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, who will then take decisions on what the Legionaries should do in each case. To guarantee "objectivity and impartiality," the commission will be presided over by Monsignor Mario Marchesi, one of the personal advisers of Cardinal De Paolis. The director-general of the Legionaries, the Rev. Alvaro Corcuera, said that the members of the order wish to face "with seriousness and responsibility our recent history as regards Father Marcial Maciel's conduct and the implications and consequences it has had on some people." "Insofar as it is humanly possible, we want to close this chapter in its more painful aspects, seek reconciliation and allow justice and charity to prevail," Corcuera said. In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI punished Maciel (1920-2008) for his "most grave and immoral" behavior and for the life he led "without scruples and with no genuine religious feelings." The sanction was in response to revelations that Maciel had sexually abused seminary students for decades. The Legionaries of Christ, founded in Mexico in 1941, currently has 900 priests and 3,000 seminarians, and is established in 18 countries, besides having 70,000 members in its lay branch Regnum Christi. EFE
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