RHODE ISLAND
Inquisitr
A Legion of Christ lawsuit will move forward, with a judge ruling that the family of a late Yale University professor may sue the religious order for $1 million.
The family of the late mechanical engineering professor, James Boa-Teh Chu, claims that the Legion of Christ coerced and defrauded the man into leaving his assets to the Legion. This week a federal magistrate judge in Rhode Island gave the go-ahead for the lawsuit to proceed.
The family claims that members of the order convinced their devout father that the founder of the Legion of Christ, the late Rev. Marcial Maciel, was a saint. In reality, the church was investigating allegations of sexual abuse against Maciel and within a few years the Vatican would seize control of the order.
“After Dr. Chu’s death, Paul found documents evidencing that the Legion was fostering this image of Father Maciel in Dr. Chu’s mind at the same time that it was aware of the facts being uncovered by the Vatican’s investigation,” wrote U.S. Magistrate Judge Patricia Sullivan in her decision.
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