May 3: The Vatican’s decision to assume leadership of the scandal-plagued Legi-onaries of Christ won acceptance on Sunday from the order itself and praise from those who abandoned the conservative movement now discredited by revelations that its founder sexually abused seminarians and fathered at least one child.
But the abuse victims of the Rev. Marcial Maciel said the Vatican didn’t go far enough in admitting its own alleged complicity in allowing Maciel’s misdeeds to go unchecked.
Maciel’s most prominent accuser called for an independent commission of inquiry into the broader church’s actions in the case.
The reaction came a day after the Vatican issued an extraordinarily blunt statement about Maciel and the religious order once championed by Pope John Paul II for its orthodoxy and ability to attract new vocations at a time when the number of priests was falling drastically.
The Vatican on Saturday announced that Pope Benedict XVI would name a papal delegate to govern the order and that a special commission would study its founding constitutions to reform it. The decisions were made after five Vatican investigators reported to the Pope about their eight-month global inquiry into the order after its late founder was so thoroughly discredited by revelations of his double life.
In announcing the papal takeover, the Vatican excoriated Maciel for creating a “system of power” built on silence, deceit and obedience that enabled him to lead a double life “devoid of any scruples and authentic sense of religion” and allowed him to abuse young boys unchecked.
But rather than closing the order down, which some critics had called for, the Vatican assured the Legion’s current members that it would help them “purify” what good remains in the order and would not be left alone as they undergo the “profound revision” necessary to carry on.
In a statement posted on its website, the Legionaries said they accepted Pope Benedict’s takeover.