Pope Decisive on Delicate Issue Mexican Priest's Discipline over Sexual Abuse Claims Is Benedict's Move out of the Shadow of John Paul, by Rachel Zoll, Ian Fisher and Laurie Goodstein, The Detroit News, May 20, 2006

Pope Decisive on Delicate Issue
Mexican Priest's Discipline over Sexual Abuse Claims Is Benedict's Move out of the Shadow of John Paul

By Rachel Zoll, Ian Fisher and Laurie Goodstein
The Detroit News
May 20, 2006

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20060520/LIFESTYLE04/605200356/1041

The Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado has declared his innocence.

ROME -- The Vatican announced Friday that it had disciplined the most prominent priest to be accused of sexual abuse, taking a step that Pope John Paul II had long resisted.

Without addressing specific allegations, the Vatican statement said the priest, the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, 86, the founder of the conservative Legionaries of Christ, had been asked to give up his public ministry in favor of a quiet life of "prayer and penitence."

But in veering so close to a finding of guilt, the decision was widely seen as a defining moment for Pope Benedict XVI on a delicate issue for the Roman Catholic Church.

The statement said that Maciel, who started the order in Mexico, would be spared an ecclesiastical trial because of his "advanced age" and "weak health." The Vatican did not disclose the allegations, but at least nine men have accused him of molesting them as youthful seminarians. The case against Maciel had been building for years, with no official response from Vatican leaders.

The statement said the Vatican's doctrinal office had decided "to invite the father to a life restricted to prayer and penitence, renouncing any public ministry."

"The Holy Father has approved these decisions," it added.

The Legionaries, based in Connecticut, issued a statement noting that Maciel had long "declared his innocence," but had decided not to defend himself, "following the example of Jesus."

The group said he "has accepted this communique with faith, complete serenity and tranquility of conscience, knowing that it is a new cross that God, the Father of Mercy, has allowed him to suffer."

"I never thought the Vatican would decide to take such a significant step," said Alejandro Espinosa Alcala, who came forward for the seminarians.

"We told the truth and Maciel was lying. That's the position, the great truth that is being revealed, that he is the victimizer and we are the victims."