RHODE ISLAND
The New York Times
By SHARON OTTERMAN
Published: February 15, 2013
When Gabrielle D. Mee, a wealthy Rhode Island widow, left her $60 million fortune to a powerful Catholic order called the Legion of Christ in 2008, revelations had already begun to surface that its charismatic founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, had molested under-age seminarians and fathered several children.
But a niece of Mrs. Mee, Mary Lou Dauray, came to believe that her aunt must have been kept in the dark about Father Maciel’s misdeeds, so that her fortune would go to the order. On Friday, thousands of pages of documents in a 2009 lawsuit that Mrs. Dauray filed were released to the public, shedding additional light on how the Legion managed information about its founder and came to control Mrs. Mee’s money.
The documents had been sealed by the court, but several news organizations, including The New York Times, sued to have them released. A Rhode Island judge ruled on Thursday that there was no reason they should not be made public. They had not been fully reviewed by The Times by Friday night.
They include depositions given by top leaders of the Legion, including the Rev. Luis Garza, the current head of the Legion’s North American operations.
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