Legionaries of christ
The Legionaries of Christ are a Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right that belongs to the Regnum Christi Federation along with two other Federative Entities: Regnum Christi Consecrated Women and Regnum Christi Lay Consecrated Women. [citation needed] It was founded on January 3, 1941 in Mexico City by the Mexican priest Marcial Maciel. Its official name is Congregation of Legionaries of Christ.
History
The Legionaries of Christ congregation was founded in Mexico City on January 3, 1941 by the then seminarian Marcial Maciel Degollado, originally from Cotija de la Paz. The initial name of the congregation was 'Missionaries of the Sacred Heart and the Virgin of Sorrows'.
The first novitiate was created on March 25, 1946, also in Mexico City. A few months after that same year, 1946, part of the congregation moved to the north of Spain, to Comillas, to live near the University of Comillas and carry out part of their studies there. It would be in this country where the congregation would found a novitiate in 1958, specifically in Salamanca, the location of the UPSA headquarters.
The congregation received its canonical approval from the Holy See in May 1948. The canonical establishment took place on June 13, 1948 in the city of Cuernavaca, Mexico. Its first priests were ordained in 1952.
The first educational work of the Legionaries of Christ was the Cumbres Lomas Institute, which opened its doors in February 1954 in Mexico City. Years later, in 1964, the Anahuac University was also opened in Mexico.
The approval that gave the current name to the Legionaries of Christ took place in 1965. In that approval (Decretum laudis, in Latin) it began to be a congregation of pontifical right, since until then it was only by diocesan right.
In the 1960s, the congregation opened houses in Ireland and the United States. In the following years they founded houses in other countries of America and Europe. Houses were founded in the Philippines and Korea in the first decade of the 21st century.
In 2009 the superiors of the congregation officially recognized the immoral facts of the founder's life. The knowledge of them provoked a series of reactions that led the Holy See to carry out an apostolic visit, which took place between 2009 and 2010. At the end of the visit, a statement was issued on May 1, 2010, in which Among other things, the following was stated:
The Apostolic Visit has been able to verify that the conduct of Father Marcial Maciel Degollado has caused serious consequences in the life and structure of the Legionaries, to the point of making it necessary a path of deep review.
The most gracious and objectively immoral behaviors of Fr. Maciel, confirmed by incontestable testimonies, sometimes represent authentic crimes and reveal a life lacking scruples and true religious sentiment. This life was largely unknown by the Legionaries, especially by the relationship system built by Fr. Maciel, who had skillfully been able to create an alibi, gain the confidence, familiarity and silence of those around him and strengthen his own role as charismatic founder.
In 2017 the Legionaries of Christ announced that the rector of their seminary María Mater Ecclesiae in Rome had left the priesthood. This happened after she confessed that she had two children.
Foundation
Marcial Maciel Degollado was born in Cotija (Michoacán, Mexico) on March 10, 1920. Maciel grew up in Cotija at the time of the Cristero War, caused by the cooling of relations between the Mexican State and the Catholic Church. In 1936 he founded the antecedent of the Legionaries of Christ, although this would not be established until 1941, with the support of Francisco González Arias, Bishop of Cuernavaca. Three years later, Maciel received the priestly order from González Arias himself.
Maciel held the position of superior general of the Legionaries of Christ during almost the entire period of development of the congregation and participated in several general chapters (1968, 1980, 1992 and 2005).
Maciel was part of the entourage that accompanied Pope John Paul II on his visits to Mexico in 1979 and 1990. In 1993 Maciel was invited to the Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the formation of priests. In 1994 he celebrated the 50th anniversary of his priesthood.
Since 1997, several accusations against Maciel for sexual abuse of minors began to be known, which included his own children.
In 2005 Marcial Maciel, 84, left the general direction of the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi. His position at the head of the General Directorate was occupied by the priest Álvaro Corcuera Martínez del Río, a Mexican national.
At the instruction of Benedict XVI, Maciel retired from the priesthood in 2006 to dedicate himself to "a life of prayer and penance."
He died in the United States on January 30, 2008, involved in a scandal that included drug addiction, accusations of sexual abuse of minors and the reputation of the paternity of a young woman in Spain, recognized by the congregation itself.
Cases of sexual abuse
Acknowledgment of sexual abuse committed by Marcial Maciel
Since 1997, various accusations of sexual abuse by its founder, Marcial Maciel, began to be revealed, including several children and seminarians, and even his own children. In February 2009, the congregation acknowledged that its founder had procreated several children while a priest, as well as the accusations made against him up to the time of his death. Through a statement in March 2010, the Legionaries of Christ acknowledged the accusations of sexual abuse of minors and broke ties with its founder. In January 2014, after a General Chapter, he reported in more detail the procedure of Fr. Maciel and the renewal that his foundation had faced, accompanied by those responsible designated by the Holy See.
In the first weeks of 2009, the superiors of the Legionaries of Christ recognized the existence of immoral behavior on the part of their founder.
The following year, on March 25, 2010, the congregation acknowledged in a public statement that Marcial Maciel had committed acts that harmed several people. In the same press release, the congregation accepted that Maciel had a stable relationship with a woman with whom he had a daughter and that in recent times two brothers had appeared who also claim to be his children. The statement omits the names of the people and the number of victims of Maciel's acts, including sexual abuse against seminarians and minors. The statement also omits the names of these people: it is Norma Baños and her daughter Norma Hilda Rivas Baños who were Maciel's family in Spain. In the case of the pair of brothers referred to in this statement, it is José Raúl and Cristian González Lara, although according to the former's statements, Maciel also recognized Omar González Lara as his son from Blanca Estela Lara —Maciel's partner in Mexico— in a first relationship.
The congregation says it has taken time to assimilate the accusations made against Maciel, which they hoped were unfounded. However, the resolution of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of May 19, 2006 left no doubt about Maciel's responsibility in the acts that were imputed to him, resulting in Maciel's separation from the priestly exercise. In the communiqué of March 26, 2010, the Legionaries of Christ apologize to the victims of their founder's conduct and promise to act in accordance with "Christian justice and charity" in case complicity is discovered.
We want to apologize to all those who accused him in the past and to those who did not give credit or were not heard because at the time we could not imagine these behaviors. If it turns out that there has been some guilty collaboration, we will act according to the principles of Christian justice and charity by holding these people accountable.
The communiqué, signed among others by Álvaro Corcuera, was issued ten days after the apostolic visit to the establishments of the congregation ordered by Benedict XVI concluded.
Acknowledgment of sexual abuse committed by other members
In March 2021 the Congregation published a report detailing the names of 27 priests accused of committing sexual abuse of minors from its founding in 1941 until that year. This report was the product of an internal investigation by the Legionnaires and acknowledges abuses of 170 victims by 27 members of the order, including Marcial Maciel. These occurred in Mexico, the United States, Spain, Brazil, Italy, Chile, Colombia and Venezuela.
Pandora Papers
In October 2021, within the journalistic investigation linked to the Pandora Papers, it was discovered that the congregation of the Legionaries of Christ had created an 'offshore' structure with 295 million dollars in assets, despite having assured that It no longer had that type of financial architecture after the death of its founder Marcial Maciel. This occurred in 2010, while the Vatican was investigating the opacity of its accounts, after the scandals of sexual abuse of the congregation were uncovered.
Membership
The first time that the Legionaries appeared in the Pontifical Yearbook, (which includes the official figures of the Catholic Church), was in 1967, more than two decades after its foundation. In this edition, where the figures for 1966 were collected, there were 303 religious, of whom 42 had been ordained; and they had 14 parishes.
Since then a rapid growth can be observed up to the 2,273 religious in the 2009 Yearbook, of which 814 had been ordained priests; in addition to having 128 parishes assigned to the congregation. In 1997, complaints against the founder began to be published, in 2006 Benedict XVI removed him from the priesthood, with public ministry limiting him to a life of prayer and penance; and in 2009, a year after his death, the leadership of the Legionaries recognized the crimes of Maciel, who had left it in 2005.
Due to scandals, the Legion registers numerous abandonments and a drop in vocations. In the 2017 Pontifical Yearbook, which records the figures for 2016, the Legionaries appear with 1,729 religious, of whom 984 were priests, and at the head of 122 parishes.
Educational work
Since its inception, the Legionaries of Christ and the Regnum Christi movement dedicated a large part of their efforts to the creation of educational institutions aimed at the upper classes, mainly in the Spanish-speaking world and specifically in Mexico such as the Irish College, in the Mexican capital, where Álvaro Corcuera (who was General Director of the Legion) studied.
Normally, the congregation founds private schools for all classes, counting in 2017 with 128 educational centers where 37,000 students were educated. The Legionnaires also run the "Mano Amiga Schools", in which social promotion is sought by assisting with high-level educational scholarships for low-income children.
In higher education, they direct the Anahuac Universities Network, made up of universities and other higher education institutions from Mexico, Chile, Spain, Italy and the United States. In 2017, 19,000 students were trained at these universities.
Movies
- 'The best you can do with your life' ('The Best Thing You Can Do with Your Life'), Address: Zita Erffa, Photography: Bruno Santamaría. 93 min, Mexico/Germany 2018.
- 'Obediencia Perfecta (2014)' ('Obediencia perfecto', Address: Luis Urquiza, Guion: Ernesto Alcocer, Luis Urquiza. 99 min, Mexico 2014.
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