Father Alvaro Corcuera

Rome, Italy, Jul 10, 2009 / 02:13 am (CNA).- The Legionaries of Christ has officially announced that the apostolic visitation of the troubled religious order will begin on July 15, as CNA previously reported.

Five prelates will take part in the visit. Archbishop of Denver Charles J. Chaput will be a visitor to the order in the United States and Canada, while Bishop Ricardo Watty Urqidi of Tepic, Mexico will be a visitor to the order in Mexico and Central America. Archbishop of Concepción, Chile, Ricardo Eszzatti Andrello will be visitor in South America.

The visitors will report to the Holy See, after which the order will be given appropriate guidelines.

Father Álvaro Corcuera, Director General of the Legion, invited the order’s members to “give thanks to God and to the Church for the help that the Holy Father is offering us, and to welcome the visitors to each and every one of our communities with sincere charity and faith as representatives of the Vicar of Christ.”

Earlier this year the Mexico-based order was rocked by revelations that its founder Fr. Marcel Maciel, who died in January 2008, had a mistress and had fathered a child out of wedlock. As far back as the 1980s, he was also accused of sexually abusing teenage recruits to the Legion.

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