Benedict XVI ‘was Prevented from Dealing with Maciel’

By Christopher Lamb
The Tablet
February 25, 2016

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/world-news/5/8057/benedict-xvi-was-prevented-from-dealing-with-maciel-


Benedict XVI made strenuous efforts to clean up one of the Church’s worst abuse scandals, Pope Francis has said, while hinting that his predecessor was prevented from taking tougher action.

During an in-flight press conference returning home from Mexico, Francis was asked about the case of Fr Marcial Maciel, the Mexican founder of the Legionaries of Christ, who sexually abused numerous seminarians.

He was also a drug addict, maintained relationships with two women and fathered up to six children, two of whom he was accused of abusing.

Despite this, he founded a successful and extremely wealthy religious order, which included a lay branch, Regnum Christi, and was close to Pope John Paul II and senior figures in the Vatican.

Allegations of abuse were investigated by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger during John Paul II’s papacy. After he was elected Pope, Benedict XVI removed Fr Maciel from public ministry, ordering him to live a life of prayer and penance. But there have been numerous reports that senior figures in the Vatican protected Fr Maciel.