Marcial Maciel Degollado (March 10, 1920 – January 30, 2008) was a Mexican Catholic priest and sex offender. Maciel founded the Legion of Christ and the Regnum Christi movement. He was general director of the Legion from 1941 to 2005. Throughout most of his career, he was respected within the church as "the greatest fundraiser of the modern Roman Catholic church" and as a prolific recruiter of new seminarians.
Late in his life, Maciel was revealed to have been a longtime drug addict who sexually abused at least 60 boys and young men in his care. After his death, it came to light that he had also maintained sexual relationships with at least four women, one of whom was a minor at the time. He fathered as many as six children, two of whom he is alleged to have sexually abused.
In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI removed Maciel from active ministry, based on the results of an investigation by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in April 2005. Maciel was ordered "to conduct a reserved life of prayer and penance, renouncing every public ministry". He died in 2008. On March 25, 2010, a communiqué on the Legion's website acknowledged as factual the "reprehensible actions" by Maciel, including sexual abuse of minor seminarians. In May 2010, the Vatican denounced Maciel's actions and appointed a Papal Delegate to oversee the order and its governance.
Early life and training
Maciel was born in Cotija, Michoacán, Mexico, the youngest boy of nine children, to a family with connections within the Catholic Church in Mexico. Numerous relatives were priests, and four of his uncles were bishops. He had a troubled youth. His uncle molested him. His father ridiculed him and encouraged his brothers to whip him. He sent the boy to work in the sugar fields to toughen him up, and years later Maciel told one of his own victims that mule drivers on his father's ranch had sexually abused him.</blockquote>
Maciel was expelled from two seminaries for reasons that have never been revealed, and became a priest only after one of his bishop uncles ordained him after private studies, on November 26, 1944, in Mexico City. The ordination was filmed and used in later years for publicity.
In 1941, Maciel founded the Legion of Christ, a Roman Catholic religious congregation of pontifical right, with the support of Francisco González Arias, Bishop of Cuernavaca. <!-- Explain what it was -->From the beginning, he served as its general director. In 1959 Maciel founded its lay arm Regnum Christi. All Legionaries were compelled "to take private vows, never to speak ill of Maciel or any superiors, and to report to their superiors anyone who did", facilitating a "cult of personality" according to Jason Berry. In Regnum Christi discussion groups, followers studied Maciel's letters. much of which Maciel and the Legion passed on to the Vatican over many years.
When Pope Pius XII's archives were opened to the public in 2024, documents were found showing Maciel was protected by Giuseppe Pizzardo, the then No. 2 of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, from a judgement proposed by . A 1956 draft of the memo describes a measure originally requiring Maciel to cease any contact with his students and attend treatment for his morphine addiction, or be suspended a divinis. By October 2, 1956, the measure was edited to remove the prohibition against contact with seminarians, and later documents say further action against Maciel was superseded by "recommendations and interventions by high-ranking personalities".
Fundraising
Jason Berry reports that early in his career, only two years into being a priest, Maciel visited the Vatican in 1946 to donate $10,000 from "several of Mexico's wealthiest families and its president, Miguel Aleman Valdes", appealing for support for scholarships for seminarians to study in Spain. Former Vatican Secretary of State Angelo Sodano was accused of leading the effort to shield Maciel and other sexually abusive Legion of Christ clergy.
In 1976, Juan Vaca, a former student of Maciel, who states that Maciel molested him from the age of 12 to 24, wrote a 12-page letter to Maciel attacking him for his abuse and the "aberrant and sacrilegious abuse" of 20 other "good and gifted young boys." Vaca's letter was included in a dossier sent by Bishop John Raymond McGann to the Vatican suggesting that it investigate the accusation. "The letter was acknowledged; nothing happened." In 1978, when John Paul II became pope, the bishop and Vaca wrote again. "But again, nothing happened."
The Vatican refused to comment on the American report, while Maciel claimed innocence but refused to be interviewed. He was also investigated for allegedly sexually abusing children. But there was no public notice of his suspension, A day later, Mexican media reported that attorney José Bonilla would represent three of a possible total of six of Maciel's natural children in a civil lawsuit to recover Maciel's estate. The lawyer claimed that Maciel owned several properties in Mexico and around the world in his own name. According to José Bonilla, whose son was attacked by a teacher at one of Maciel's schools, Maciel took an adoptive son and a natural son—Omar and Raúl—on trips to Europe, using an assumed name of "Raúl Rivas". From the ages of 8 and 14 they were molested by him and were photographed in the process, but "as teenagers they began pushing him off".
In February 2009, news broke that Maciel had led a double life. Álvaro Corcuera, the General Director, visited each of the Legionary Territories and publicly apologized for Maciel's behaviour. Additionally, the Legion has publicly acknowledged that Maciel had fathered a daughter. As a result of all these acknowledgements, Pope Benedict XVI personally intervened and initiated a formal Vatican visitation of all legionary houses.
Plagiarism
In 1959 Maciel published a book, ' (The Psalter of My Days), which was widely read among members of the Legion and partially translated into English. It was a memoir of experiences of persecution.
On December 11, 2009, the Agencia Católica de Informaciones of Lima, Peru, sister agency of the Catholic News Agency, reported that a Legion of Christ internal memorandum acknowledged, without using the word "plagiarism", that the book copied the memoir of , a Spanish journalist and Christian Democrat politician. Although the Legion's memorandum described Maciel's book as "a slight rewriting", a Spanish legionary familiar with it stated that it copied Lucia's memoir "80 percent in style and content."
Forced retirement
In January 2005, Maciel was required to step down as head of the order. A few days before John Paul II died, Cardinal Ratzinger announced his intention of removing "filth" from the Church; many believed he was referring specifically to Maciel. After Ratzinger re-opened an investigation, the Vatican requested that Maciel withdraw from active ministry. In January 2006, Maciel stepped down as head of the Legion of Christ and tendered its leadership to long-time follower Álvaro Corcuera. In May 2006, Ratzinger, now as Pope Benedict XVI, disciplined him: the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ordered Maciel to live "a reserved life of penitence and prayer, relinquishing any form of public ministry", and published a press communique to that effect. A canonical trial was however ruled out, officially because of his advanced age and poor health, and Maciel was never defrocked.
In 2007, the order was told to cancel the vows of its members to never criticize their superiors, and to inform on any dissent within the order. Maciel moved from Rome to a house he shared with other priests in Jacksonville, Florida, where he died on January 30, 2008, at age 87. He had a private funeral and was buried in his birthplace, Cotija, Michoacán.
Maciel never made any apologies, and continued to deny the allegations. Corcuera apologized to the victims both for Maciel's actions and the inaction of others.
Later relations with the Vatican
Investigative journalist Jason Berry wrote in an April 2010 article in the National Catholic Reporter that the "charismatic" founder of the Legion of Christ "sent streams of money to Roman curia officials with a calculated end. Maciel was buying support for his group and defence for himself, should his secret life become known."
The New York Times reported claims that even under Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who took an immediate interest in the case, the investigation into Maciel remained stalled. "Other factors delayed a reckoning. Some questioned the accounts of abuse; one of the original nine complainants recanted."
Denunciation by the Church
In March 2009, Pope Benedict XVI ordered an apostolic visitation of the Legionaries of Christ. Five bishops from five different countries, working independently of each other,
On May 1, 2010, after a two-day meeting in Rome with the bishops, the Vatican issued a statement on the report because the "conduct of [Maciel] has given rise to serious consequences in the life and structure of the Legion, such as to require a process of profound re-evaluation." In its statement the Vatican denounced Maciel for having created a system of power that enabled him to lead an "immoral" double life "devoid of scruples and authentic religious meaning." The Vatican statement was unusually explicit in its denunciation of Maciel's crimes and deception.
The "very serious and objectively immoral acts" of Maciel, which were "confirmed by incontrovertible testimonies", represented "true crimes and manifest a life without scruples or authentic religious sentiment", the Vatican said. The Vatican acknowledged the "hardships" faced by Maciel's accusers through the years when they were ostracized or ridiculed, and commended their "courage and perseverance to demand the truth."