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	Visitation of Legionaries Draws to a Close; Papal Decision to Follow By John Thavis Catholic News Service March 17, 2010 http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1001126.htm VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- As the Vatican-ordered apostolic visitation of the Legionaries of Christ draws to a close, Roman Curia cardinals were preparing to examine the findings of the investigators and present recommendations to Pope Benedict XVI. At issue is how the sexual improprieties by the Legionaries' late founder, Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, will affect the future of the religious order. The Legionaries have welcomed the visitation as part of a "process of purification," while critics have said it should lead to a dissolving of the order in its present form. The five bishops who conducted the investigation, including Denver Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, are expected to meet with top Vatican officials toward the end of April to hand in and discuss their report, said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, March 16. He said Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, was coordinating the follow-up work on the visitation, and that two other Vatican officials would also be involved: U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Cardinal Franc Rode, head of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Father Lombardi said the cardinals, in light of the visitation results, would recommend to the pope what measures to take. The spokesman said there was no timetable for final decisions, which will be made by the pope. After investigating allegations that Father Maciel had sexually abused young seminarians, the Vatican in May 2006 ordered him to stop practicing his ministry in public and to live a life of prayer and penitence. Father Maciel died in January 2008 at age 87. In early 2009, the Legionaries acknowledged that its founder had fathered a daughter; other paternity claims, as well as allegations of financial irregularity, have surfaced in recent months. The Vatican ordered the visitation to the institutions of the Legionaries in March 2009, saying the pope wanted to help the order deal with its problems with "truth and transparency." Archbishop Chaput conducted investigations of the Legionaries' centers and institutions in the United States and Canada. Mexican Bishop Ricardo Watty Urquidi covered Mexico and Central America; Italian Bishop Giuseppe Versaldi covered Italy, Israel, South Korea and the Philippines; Chilean Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati Andrello covered South America; and Spanish Bishop Ricardo Blazquez Perez covered Europe outside of Italy. A key question for the future, according to Legionaries and Vatican officials, is to what extent a religious charism based on Father Maciel's teachings is still viable. The order was intensely dedicated to Father Maciel, who founded the Legionaries and its lay branch, Regnum Christi, in 1941 and was its superior until 2005. Vatican officials, speaking on background, have speculated in recent weeks about a number of possible directions the pope could take on the Legionaries' future. Most expect a major reorganization of some kind, probably with direct oversight by the Vatican. The Vatican has intervened in religious orders many times in church history. In the 18th century, for example, the Jesuit order was suppressed, primarily for political reasons; it was restored in the early 19th century. Sometimes orders have been suppressed for lack of new members. In other cases, the Vatican has interceded when a religious order was mismanaged or seen to stray from its original mission. What makes the investigation of the Legionaries unusual, and possibly unique, is that it involves serious moral accusations against the founder of a recently formed order that was apparently thriving in membership and viewed favorably at the Vatican. Father Maciel was the subject of a major canonical investigation by the Vatican from 1957 to 1959. He was suspended as the order's superior during that time, but was reinstated when the investigation ended. In 2006, after examining the allegations that Father Maciel had abused seminarians, the Vatican ordered him to renounce public ministry as a priest and spend the rest of his life in prayer and penitence. At that time, the Vatican did not confirm whether sexual abuse had occurred. But in a recent interview, Msgr. Charles Scicluna, a top official of the Vatican's doctrinal congregation, said this type of punishment should generally not be seen as an "absolution." "If a person is obliged to a life of silence and prayer, then there must be a reason," he said.
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