Mexico City, Mexico, May 9, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Members of the Legion of Christ are confident that “a full and fair examination of the facts” will clear their founder of allegations of sexual abuse, reported the Globe.
Eight former seminarians with the Legion of Christ allege that the order’s now 85-year-old Mexican founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel, sexually assaulted them in the 1950s.
Fr. Maciel denied the allegations in an open letter posted on the order’s Web site in 2002. He stepped down as the Legion's leader in January, due to advancing age.
The priestly order, founded in 1941, has welcomed the investigation launched by the Vatican last December by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. The investigation had been shelved previously in 1999.