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Father Marcial Maciel And The Popes He Stained
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of The Daily Beast/Newsweek


The Daily Beast/Newsweek, March 11, 2013
Posted: March 19th, 2013
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/03/11/father-marc...

A life ... out of moral bounds, is how Pope Benedict XVI described Maciel in a 2010 interview, two years after Maciels death. A wasted, twisted life. And a life that exposed shocking flaws in the Vatican and the papacy. The saga of Father Maciel opens a rare view onto the flow of money in the Roman Curia across the last half century. In the late 1940s, Maciel began sexually plundering teenage seminarians in the religious order he founded, the Legion of Christ. He also shuttled between Mexico, Venezuela, and Spain ... portraying his Legionaries as a force of resurgent orthodoxy, himself a fearless foe of Communism. Maciel won government support for seminary scholarships in Madrid, after the Spanish Civil War cemented ties between Francisco Francos dictatorship and the Catholic hierarchy. Wealthy industrialists and patricians from the Spanish-speaking world poured money into Maciels fledgling order. Legionaries called their leader Nuestro Padre (Our Father). They were taught that their founder was a living saint. They took private vows, swearing never to criticize Maciel or their superiors and to report on anyone who did. The cultlike insular culture Maciel molded would reward spying as an act of faith and shield Nuestro Padre from scrutiny as the youngest victims grew up and left the order, returning to Mexico and years of grappling with his traumatic impact on their lives.

Note: Jason Berry is author of Render Unto Rome: The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church.


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