UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
Jason Berry | Jan. 22, 2014
Under the dictatorial personality of Legion of Christ founder Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, and during the decades of allegations that he abused his own seminarians, four Irish priests, now in their 60s and 70s, were among his closest confidantes. The four priests wooed wealthy donors, carried out Maciel’s orders and put out fires when troubles flared.
Irish Frs. Anthony Bannon, Owen Kearns, Raymond Cosgrave and John Devlin became powerful men in the order Maciel founded in Mexico.
Bannon was the chief fundraiser in America.
Kearns led the media attack against Maciel’s pedophilia victims.
Devlin was Maciel’s secretary for decades, a keeper of the secrets for whom no detail was too small, according to former Legion insiders.
Cosgrave was Maciel’s point man in establishing the Legion in Chile during the 1973-90 dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
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