ROME (ITALY)
The Australian
October 10, 2017
By Tom Kington
[Note: See also the Legionaries’ announcement and Turrión’s letter.]
A powerful order of Catholic priests hit by revelations that its founder had a secret family and abused children has now admitted that the head of its Rome seminary is the father of two children.
The Legionaries of Christ said Father Oscar Turrion, a 49-year-old Spaniard, would leave the priesthood.
It released a letter in which the priest asks “forgiveness for the scandal … forgiveness for my bad example and the negative witness I have given”.
The order said Father Turrion, who supervised men studying for the priesthood in Rome, was replaced after he admitted in March that he had a daughter.
Last week he confessed that he had also had a son with the same woman but had kept quiet due to “weakness and shame”.
He had not used church funds to support his family, he added, relying on donations from friends.
The priest said he had “lost his grounding” and started a family at the time when the first scandal emerged involving the order’s founder, Father Marcial Maciel, having fathered children.
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