RHODE ISLAND
National Catholic Reporter
Jason Berry | Feb. 16, 2015
The Legion of Christ has emerged from several years of high-stakes litigation in Rhode Island after a period in which the order founded by Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado sold off major property assets because of scandals surrounding his history of pedophilia and siring out-of-wedlock children.
In one case, brought by Paul Chu, the Legion paid an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed sum to end the litigation.
In the other, more high-profile case brought by Mary Lou Dauray, the state Supreme Court on Feb. 6 affirmed a 2012 ruling that she did not have the legal standing to contest the disposition of her late aunt Gabrielle Mee’s estate and dismissed her claim.
Dauray sought the return of $30 million from the Legion, roughly half the value of the gifts and bequests from Mee in her later years and as specified in her will. In 2013, a judge revoked a protective order that made public a huge trove of sworn testimony by Legion officials, a rare viewfinder into the order’s unsavory methods of grooming wealthy people for donations.
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