ROME
Catholic News Service
By Francis X. Rocca
Catholic News Service
ROME (CNS) — As the Legionaries of Christ started their extraordinary general chapter, the cardinal overseeing the troubled congregation said scandal had taken a toll on its finances, but that members had made progress in overcoming the moral and administrative legacy of their disgraced founder.
Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, the papal delegate to the Legionaries, spoke in an interview with Vatican Radio broadcast Jan. 9, the chapter’s first working day. The cardinal had formally opened the gathering by concelebrating Mass with members of the congregation the previous evening.
The chapter, expected to last six weeks, is the culmination of a reform process that began with a Vatican-ordered apostolic visitation in 2009. That investigation was prompted by revelations that the congregation’s founder, Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, had fathered at least one illegitimate child and sexually abused children.
In 2010, the Vatican announced that Father Maciel, who died in 2008, had been guilty of “seriously and objectively immoral behavior” and “real crimes,” and had lived a “life devoid of scruples and of genuine religious meaning.” That same year, Pope Benedict XVI named Cardinal De Paolis to supervise the Legionaries’ reform.
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