RHODE ISLAND
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)
Unsealed records show founder of disgraced Catholic order lived double life and fathered three secret children as Vatican ignored allegations of abuse
By Daily Mail Reporter and Associated Press Reporter
Documents released Friday shed light on the inner workings of a secretive and now-disgraced Roman Catholic order called the Legion of Christ.
They include details on how the founder of the organization, the Reverend Marcial Maciel who died in 2008, lived a double life, fathering three children, and was accused of abusing seminarians. The Legion kept this information hidden.
Also revealed are allegations that theorganization solicited money from an elderly widow, eventually persuading her to bequeath it $60 million.
The scandal, which has tarnished the legacy of Pope John Paul II, is cited as an especially egregious example of how the Vatican ignored decades of reports about sexually abusive priests because church leaders put the interests of the institution above those of the victims.
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