Archive of NCR stories about Fr. Marcial Maciel
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Archive of NCR stories about Fr. Marcial Maciel
DateArticle TypeHeadline and summary
May 19, 2006EditorialThe sad truth about Maciel
The decision by the Vatican in the case of Fr. Marciel Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, that he be restricted in his public ministry after being found guilty of multiple acts of sexual abuse spanning decades brings some resolution to a particularly disturbing chapter in recent church history.
May 18, 2006News ReportVatican restricts ministry of Legionaries priest founder
Capping a decade-long on-again, off-again investigation of accusations of sexual abuse, the Vatican has asked Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, to observe a series of restrictions on his ministry. In effect, Vatican sources told NCR this week, the action amounts to a finding that at least some of the accusations against the charismatic 86-year-old Mexican priest are well-founded.
June 10, 2005 News Report The Word From Rome June 10, 2005
Vatican sources say, the current superior of the Legionaries of Christ, Fr. Álvaro Corcuera, who succeeded Maciel in January 2005, contacted the Secretariat of State to inquire about recent media reports that an investigation against Maciel was underway
June 3, 2005 News Report Special Report -- The Maciel Case: Legion eager to get past founder's sex abuse charges
The Vatican's announcement May 20 that Legionaries of Christ founder Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado will face no canonical trial for numerous accusations of sexually abusing seminarians put a spotlight on the new papacy of Benedict XVI, raising questions and drawing harsh criticism from victims.
June 3, 2005 News Report Special Report -- The Maciel Case: Legion's news traced to Vatican ally
In a potentially significant twist to the case involving the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, NCR has learned that the office that recently released a statement saying there is no case against Fr. Marcial Maciel regarding sex abuse accusations is not the office with responsibility for making that judgment.
June 3, 2005EditorialEDITORIAL: Maciel scandal won't go away
If Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the religious order the Legionaries of Christ, were a priest in the United States, he would not be permitted in active ministry.
June 3, 2005 Editor's Note Inside NCR: From the Editor's Desk
Last week reports began surfacing that the Holy See had determined that no canonical action would be brought in the sexual abuse accusations against the Mexican priest Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the religious order the Legionaries of Christ.
May 27, 2005 News Report The Word From Rome May 27, 2005
Chronology of the latest news about Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado
May 25, 2005 Breaking News Breaking News May 25, 2005
New Legionaries intrigue: Statement on Maciel not issued by agency responsible for sex abuse cases
Jan. 28, 2005 The Word From Rome The Word From Rome January 28, 2005
When Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado declined reelection on Jan. 20 as head of the Legionaries of Christ, some observers concluded he did so to avoid sex abuse charges directed against him by several former members, or that he acted under Vatican pressure.
Jan. 14, 2005 Perspective Perspective: NCR and the Legion: an explanation
One might come away with the impression that NCR and the Legion are engaged in meaningless rounds of gainsaying. Perhaps an explanation from our perspective is in order. Why do we do what we do? Why all the stories on the Legion?
Jan. 7, 2005 News Report World: Vatican to reopen case against Maciel
A canon lawyer representing eight former members of the Legionaries of Christ who filed pedophilia charges in 1998 against the order's founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, recently informed the men that a Vatican prosecutor has agreed to reopen the dormant case.
Jan. 7, 2005 The Word From Rome The Word From Rome January 7, 2005
With respect to the accusations of sexual abuse lodged against Maciel, I wrote: "I think the only honest answer is that the pope and his senior aides obviously do not believe the charges." That comment brought a response from Jason Berry, who along with fellow journalist Gerald Renner co-authored the book Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II, which is in part about the Maciel case.
Dec. 03, 2004 The Word From Rome The Word From Rome December 3, 2004
Several readers have written asking about recent signs of approval from the Holy See for the Legionaries of Christ and their founder, Mexican Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado. Among other things, the pope recently entrusted to the Legionaries the administration of an important church institution in the Holy Land, Jerusalem's Notre Dame Center.
Jan. 10, 2003 The Word From Rome The Word From Rome
All leaders have their ways of signaling favor, and over the holidays there were a number of small but telling gestures that suggest deep papal affection for the Legionaries of Christ, a religious order founded by Mexican Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado in 1941, and its lay branch, called Regnum Christi.
Nov. 14, 2003 The Word From Rome Word From Rome November 14, 2003
A top Vatican official praised Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, for the "great work that you do" Nov. 11 at Regina Apostolorum, the university operated by the Legionaries in Rome.
Nov. 21, 2003 News Brief Sodano lauds Legionaries founder
ROME -- Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's secretary of state and hence the second most powerful figure in the Catholic church after the pope, praised Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, Nov. 11 at Regina Apostolorum, the university of the Legionaries in Rome.
Nov. 21, 2003 Editorial Maciel case belies church promises to combat abuse
Perhaps in some arcane Vatican understanding of things lies the explanation for how Fr. Marcial Maciel cannot only remain a priest in good standing but be heralded by one of the highest authorities in the church for the "great work that you do."
Sept. 27, 2002 The Word From Rome The Word From Rome
Without much fanfare, the Congregation for Bishops sponsors a workshop every year for all the new bishops appointed by the pope in the previous 12 months. As in the past, this year the 10-day orientation was organized in cooperation with the Legionaries of Christ, and held at the Legionaries' university in Rome, Regina Apostolorum.
Aug. 16, 2002 Editor's Note Inside NCR
Given the current climate of crisis in the U.S. church, it is noteworthy that Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado attended the papal Mass in Mexico City.
Aug. 9, 2002The Word From RomeThe Word From Rome July 9, 2002
Maciel gets front-row seat at canonization Mass for Juan Diego in Mexico
Dec. 7, 2001 Editorial 'Open, just procedure' needed in Maciel case
It is coincidental, though fitting, that Pope John Paul II would issue a dramatic apology for sex abuse by clergy the same week NCR planned to run a story detailing how the case stemming from sex abuse charges against Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado has been stalled in the Vatican bureaucracy.
Dec. 7, 2001 News Report Sex-related case blocked in Vatican
Without explanation, the Vatican has halted a canon law investigation of one of the most powerful priests in Rome, accused by nine men of sexually abusing them years ago as young seminarians. The allegations focus on the actions of Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the 81-year old leader of the Legion of Christ, a wealthy religious order known for its theological conservatism and loyalty to the pope. Maciel has been praised by Pope John Paul II as "an efficacious guide to youth."
Dec. 15, 2000 Editor's Note Inside NCR
Our letters pages this week contain a wide sampling of reaction to our Nov. 3 cover story, "Hostile takeover," on actions of the religious order, the Legion of Christ, in taking control of The Donnellan School in Atlanta.
Dec. 11, 2000 Related Document Gerald Renner's response to an open letter that appears on the Legion of Christ Web site
Nov. 3, 2000 Editorial Legionaries' tactics best left in a past era
In its long history, the Catholic church has accommodated endless variations on faith, piety and religious practice, so in many respects the religious order called the Legionaries of Christ, an authoritarian, secretive and militant group, has counterparts in the past. After all, this is a church in which, not so long ago, children barely into their teens were encouraged to separate from their families to enter religious training settings in which they were cut off from the outside world and from the opposite sex, subjected to rigorous academic and spiritual disciplines and ultimately sent out to lead and to serve communities of Catholics in the real world.
Nov. 3, 2000 News Report Cover story: Maciel accusers seek accountability
In the lore of the Legionaries of Christ, Marcial Maciel Degollado started his religious order in Mexico on Jan. 3, 1941, when he gathered 13 young boys around him to teach them theology.
Nov. 3, 2000 News Report Cover story: Tactics aside, the Legion is growing
Since his ordination in Mexico in 1944, Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legion of Christ, has pursued passionately his vision to build a militant new movement within the Catholic church to ward off her enemies -- including communists, socialists, Masons, secular humanists and even Catholics considered to be "dissidents."
Nov. 3, 2000 News Report Cover story: Turmoil in Atlanta
In the past, when the controversial Legion of Christ has taken over Catholic schools, teachers and administrators who objected have quietly gone elsewhere. Parents who couldn't accept the new situation transferred their children to other schools. In Atlanta it was different.
Nov. 07, 1997 Editorial Editorial: Can synod survive Vatican manipulation?
The appointment of Fr. Marciel Maciel Degollado, founder and superior general of the Legionaries of Christ, to a high-profile position at the Synod for America is beyond any reasonable explanation.
March 14, 1997News ReportMaciel denies sexual abuse allegations
The founder and head of the Legionaries of Christ has categorically denied recently published allegations that he sexually abused several former Legionaries when they were teenage seminarians in the 1940s, '50s and '60s.
March 7, 1997 News Report Legionaries founder accused of sex abuse
An extensive investigation by The Hartford Courant, a major daily in Connecticut, revealed last week that Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder and superior general of the Legionaries of Christ, has been accused by former students of molesting them when they were attending the order's schools.
March 7, 1997 Inside NCR Inside NCR
A caveat with regard to the investigation of Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado on page 6. Maciel, founder and current superior of the Legionaries of Christ, is accused of sexually molesting former students of the order. The details of the allegations are frequently explicit to a degree that may be unpleasant for some readers. Yet, to cloak the story in unspecific accusations and generalities would compound an already serious problem.
   
Nov. 11, 2005 Related Editorial Vigilance called for when Legion priests visit
A reader from the Southwest e-mailed recently to inform us that two priests who are members of the Legionaries of Christ recently celebrated Mass at his parish. This reader was concerned that the order might have designs -- as it has demonstrated elsewhere -- on taking over a parish school.
Aug. 5, 2005 Related story The Word From Rome August 5, 2005
If so, this would be the third high-profile incident since the election of Benedict XVI in which the Secretariat of State has generated controversy. The first came with a May 20 declaration stating that there is no canonical case against the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado.
March 25, 2005Related story The Word From Rome March 25, 2005
Afterwards, I met Juan Vaca, one of a handful of ex-members of the Legionaries of Christ who have brought sexual abuse allegations against Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the order's founder. Vaca, once the head of the Legionaries in the United States, today lives on Long Island.
Oct. 15, 2004 Related Essay Church in Crisis: 'The power of purifying memory'
The pope's concept is thwarted by a hierarchy that refuses to confront its own dark underworld
Feb.20, 2004 Related Essay Church in Crisis -- Essay: How deep will the bishops' review board dig?
Only major structural overhaul will alleviate church's crisis
Posted May 12, 2006, National Catholic Reporter
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