Catholic hero now faces Vatican inquiry

It was nearly 50 years ago, but José Barba winces as he remembers Father Marcial Maciel, founder and icon of the Legion of Christ, the secretive Roman Catholic order said to be second only in papal influence to Opus Dei. 'Oh, I felt so very unhappy,' he said, after describing one incident just before the priest said Mass one Easter Sunday. 'I wanted to run, but he was everything to us. He was Our Father and we thought he was a saint. I went to my room and I cried and cried, and then I went to Mass.'

The fear, pain, humiliation and resentment that Barba says once tormented him have faded over the years, but for the Catholic church the abuse he and others claim to have suffered threatens to erupt into a child abuse scandal that reaches the highest Vatican ranks.

Barba wants the church to recognise publicly the crimes he and many others claim Maciel committed. 'We want people to know that the founder of an institution so close to the Pope and who has written so much about chastity is in fact a pederast.'

Along with seven other former seminarians - all now in their sixties - this mild-mannered university lecturer has been trying to get the Vatican to investigate Maciel for years. Several of the eight plaintiffs approached bishops as early as the 1960s, only to be told to leave it all in God's hands. One of the group, Juan José Vaca, sent several complaints to the Vatican and got no response. The group lodged formal charges at the Vatican in 1998. A year later they were informed the case had been shelved with the extra-official justification that their suffering could not compare to the risk of disillusioning thousands of Catholics.

In December, however, the group was told that a prosecutor at the Vatican's Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith is to head a formal probe that could lead to a trial. If it goes ahead, this could take the scandal over paedophilia in the church to a whole new level.

'This is a very delicate case,' says José Luis González, a Mexico-based expert on the Catholic hierarchy. 'None of the other scandals has involved someone so close to the Pope.'

Maciel, now 84, formed the ultra-conservative Legion of Christ in Mexico in 1941 in the wake of religious wars that pitted Catholics against the anti-clerical revolutionary regime and ended with an uneasy mutual tolerance. The order grew quickly, fed by deeply religious families happy to put their boys under the protection of its charismatic young leader. The recruits, too, were enthused by the prospect of a life fighting for God.

'At the time the idea of missionaries conjured up images of hunters and explorers and it sounded adventurous to us boys,' recalled Barba, who was 12 when he joined the Legion in 1949. 'We were told we were going to save the world from the communists, and that gave us a sense of importance.'

Maciel picked out his favourite pupils and took them to study, first in Franco's Spain and then in Rome. They lived in tightly controlled isolation, instilled with the belief that their leader was the epitome of holiness. But at the same time as preaching the strictest moral code for others, Maciel allegedly indulged an addiction to morphine and a warped sexuality.

Initiation typically began, the plaintiffs claim, with Maciel saying he had an illness in his groin. 'He would say he had received special dispensation from the Pope to have nuns massage out the pain, but that his total commitment to his chastity vows obliged him to ask us for help instead,' recalled Vaca, in a telephone interview from New York, where he teaches psychology in Mercy College. Vaca claims he was abused from the age of 12 until he was 24. He became a priest and stayed in the legion for a further 15 years.

The defining moment came, he says, when he was promoted to be head of the Legion in the US as a reward for successfully covering up a case of abuse involving one of his colleagues.

Vaca left in 1976, throwing himself into psychological research in part to try to understand Maciel. Meanwhile, the Legion was cementing its influence. Maciel had cultivated close ties with some of the richest families in Mexico, setting up schools for the elite across Latin America. Today it boasts a presence in 20 countries with 500 priests and 2,500 seminarians, and has become one of the few orders that is expanding in a time of crisis for the church.

'The Legion of Christ is a closed, secretive organisation with lots of money that offers the Pope unconditional service,' says González. In power and influence, he says, it is second only to Opus Dei, whose founder was canonised last year.

Legionnaires vigorously deny the sexual abuse charges, presenting Maciel as a martyr suffering in silence the calumnies of bitter ex-students in search of financial rewards.

Last November Maciel received a series of elaborate tributes in Rome for the 60th anniversary of his ordination. John Paul II congratulated him on his 'intense, generous and fruitful priestly ministry' and 'integral promotion of the person'.

A week later the group received a letter from their lawyer in Rome telling them the case had been reopened and 'is now being taken seriously'. The Vatican, however, will not even confirm the existence of an investigation.

How far any investigation will go is still far from clear and Maciel's accusers are reluctant to get their hopes up. 'I have absolutely no confidence in the bureaucracy of the Vatican,' said Vaca. 'Even now they are trying to cover up the fact that the Pope is dying,' Vaca said.

But for all his scepticism, Vaca cannot help but savour the idea that he may one day be called to give his testimony in the Holy See.

'I have put the past in its place now, but the wounds will be there for the rest of my life,' he said. 'I would love to come face to face with Maciel again to see if he had the nerve to tell me that what I say happened isn't true.'

For those interested, here's the "other side of the story":

STATEMENT OF THE LEGIONARIES OF CHRIST
From: Fr. Thomas Williams
We would like to express our regret for the recent declarations by a group of former members of the congregation of the Legionaries of Christ, repeating once again false allegations against our beloved founder and general director, Father Marcial Maciel, LC, of misbehavior approximately 40-50 years ago.
In the spirit of Christ, it is not our task to pass judgment upon their intentions, but we deeply grieve for these men and for the unjust harm they are inflicting on us and on the Church. With society at large, we deeply deplore any abuse of minors whether it takes place in or outside the Catholic Church. As Legionaries of Christ, we are dedicated to serve society and the Church.
Father Maciel categorically denies the allegations made against him and expresses compassion for his accusers. Father Maciel continues to pray for his accusers and wishes them light and peace.
Here are the facts:
The good name of Father Maciel and the Legion was cleared by a thorough Vatican investigation more than forty years ago.
From 1956-1958, Father Maciel and the Legion underwent a thorough, two and a half-year investigation. The investigators were sent to live with the Legionaries and interview each member personally under oath. Bishop Polidoro Van Vlierberghe, OFM, one of these Vatican-appointed investigators, concluded: "In the process of investigating the charges against Father Maciel, the Apostolic Visitators questioned every member of the Legion. That questioning was direct and probing. Our interest was either to prove or disprove the charges against Fr. Maciel conclusively, once and for all. At no point in our extensive and searching interviews about the character and deeds of Father Maciel did a single allegation of sexual impropriety ever surface." This is particularly important because neither the men currently accusing Father Maciel, then aged 17-24, nor anyone else alleged such misconduct during the investigation. This 1956-1958 investigation found no aspect whatsoever of Father Maciel's behavior to be contrary to Christian morals.
What is also telling are dozens upon dozens of letters written by today's accusers to Father Maciel for twenty years after the alleged acts occurred. The letters are dated in the 60's and 70's and are exceptionally warm, friendly and grateful in tone—hardly the kind of writing an adult would send to someone who supposedly abused him in his childhood. At the time many of these kind letters were written, some of the accusers had already left the order and had no other reason but friendship and gratitude to maintain contact with Father Maciel. It stretches the imagination that adult men (in their 30's or 40's) who were sexually abused would write such gratuitously friendly letters to their abuser, especially those who were no longer associated with the order and therefore had nothing to gain by being friendly.
In fact, Miguel Diaz, originally an accuser, recanted his accusation and regretted having "given in to the insistent urgings of those involved." Four other men also came forward to testify that accusers recruited them to lie about Father Maciel.
The Legion of Christ struggles to express how deeply we regret that the accusers attempt to tar the Vatican, Cardinal Ratzinger, and even Pope John Paul II with the stain of these false allegations.
Father Maciel and with him the Legionaries of Christ keep no ill will against those who have brought allegations. Rather, we offer our prayers for them and express our gratitude to the numerous men and women of good will who offer us their support and friendship.

and CWN: Legionaries Offer Rebuttal to Charges Against Founder

Probably the most powerful argument in the Legionaries' rebuttal is the fact that one man who had originally joined the nine former Legionaries who accused Father Maciel, Miguel Diaz, later recanted his earlier statements. In a new statement, Diaz said that the accusers were engaged in a deliberate attempt to defame Father Maciel through false testimony, and had sought to entice other former members of the order to join in that effort. However, the Hartford Courant reproduced the charges which Diaz had made-- even after hearing that he had retracted those charges.

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