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	Pope Names Interim Leader Straits Times July 9, 2010 http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_551528.html POPE Benedict XVI named a commissioner to revamp the ultra-conservative Legion of Christ order whose late founder Marcial Maciel was disgraced by sex abuse scandals, the Vatican said on Friday. Italian Velasio De Paolis, Archbishop of Thelepte in Tunisia and president of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See, will take over the Legion as the Church faces intense pressure to crack down on abusers and their protectors in the hierarchy. The Mexican-born Maciel, who died in the United States in January 2008 aged 87, was accused of molesting eight seminarians and secretly fathering and abusing of his children. In 2006, a year after John Paul II's death, Benedict ordered Maciel to renounce all duties and lead a 'quiet life of prayer and penitence'. But a canonical trial was ruled out because of his advanced age and poor health. Maciel always denied any wrongdoing. In May 2010, after a nine-month probe into the order was completed by an investigating team of five bishops, the pope decided to overhaul the institution. In addition to naming an interim leader, the Vatican said it would review the order's constitution and offer help to any victims of sexual abuse. -- AFP
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