13 Accused in This Religious Order
- National Catholic Register 12.05.13
- Hartford Courant 12.05.13
- Statement by Legion of Christ 12.05.13
- The Raw Story 12.06.13
- Nachrichten 12.07.13
- Vatican Insider 12.08.13
- Hartford Courant 01.22.19
- Legionaries of Christ List 12.21.19
- Catholic News Service 12.23.19
- Archdiocese of Baltimore List 11.03.20
- Legionaries of Christ List 03.22.21
- MD Attorney General’s Report 04.05.23
- Hartford Courant 02.23.97
- El Universal 04.27.02
- Catholic Exchanged 02.07.09
- OSV Daily Take 02.27.09
- Gambit Weekly 03.09.09
- El Mundo 08.12.09
- Legionaries of Christ 03.25.10
- El Pais 03.24.12
- El Universal 10.23.12
- Global Post 02.15.13
- Irish Times 03.10.14
- FL Attorney General’s Report 11.06.20
- Associated Press 01.21.20
- Associated Press 02.23.22
- Legionaries of Christ 06.29.22
- Legionaries of Christ Report accessed 03.04.22
- Tampa Tribune 02.11.97
- Sarasota Herald-Tribune 02.12.97
- Sarasota Herald-Tribune 02.22.97
- Sarasota Herald-Tribune 03.07.97
- Sarasota Herald-Tribune 03.27.97
- Sarasota Herald-Tribune 09.05.97
- St Petersburg Times 11.08.97
- Sarasota Herald-Tribune 12.09.97
- Tampa Tribune 04.22.02
- News Press 10.26.03
- Legionaries of Christ List 03.22.21
- CatholicPhilly 03.23.21
- FL Dept of Law Enforcement 02.14.23
Seminarian Francisco Cardona
Seminarian. Rector and staff member at Immaculate Conception Apostolic School in Center Harbor, NH. Left the order in 1987, before ordination. Deceased. On 10/27/16 the Legionaries announced that Cardona was credibly accused of abusing two teenage students at Immaculate Conception in the 1980s.
Fr. Benjamin Cieply
Named publicly as accused by the Legionaries on 9/6/2018. Ordained in Dallas TX in 2008, transferred to the Archdiocese of Miami in 2015. Report to Child Protective Services in late 2016 of child sexual abuse. CPS could not substantiate the allegations. The Archdiocese removed Cieply from ministry after their internal review. Returned to the Legionaries. Cieply would not participate in the Order's investigation, claiming innocence. In 6/2018 the Order determined a "high probability" that abuse occurred and Cieply was not to return to ministry. He was dismissed from the Legionaries. Case sent to the Vatican, which in 2023 determined that it could not "reach moral certainty that abuse occurred." In 4/2023 Cieply remains a priest, but without faculties.
Seminarian David Consoli
Seminarian. Accused in three lawsuits filed in 4/21 of sexually abusing boys in the mid-1990s, at Immaculate Conception Apostolic School in Center Harbor. Per the order, it first learned of allegations in 2018. Was not ordained, "return[ed] to lay life." Ordination had been scheduled for 2004.
Br. Fernando Cutanda
Named publicly as accused by the Legionaries in 8/15, of abusing two boys in the 1980s at the order's Immaculate Conception Apostolic School in Center Harbor. Accused in a lawsuit filed 8/17/17 of sexually abusing a boy repeatedly over a 3-year period, beginning when the boy was a 13-year-old student in 1984 at Immaculate Conception Apostolic School. The abuse allegedly included rape. The suit claims another boy was also abused. Plaintiff said he told Rev. Patrick O'Carroll at the time, who did nothing but tell him to pray "five rosaries for his sins." Included on the order's list 12/21/19, as "former member now laicized."
Fr. William Izquierdo
Also known as Guillermo Izquierdo. Novice director at the Legion of Christ novitiate in Cheshire, CT 1982-1994 and in Ireland before then. Order announced in 12/2013 that a claim of abuse of a minor student received in 2012 had been substantiated. Another claim was under investigation. On restricted duty from 2005, when Order received allegation involving an adult. He had not ministered since 2008 and was said to have advanced dementia. Died in 2015. On the Hartford archdiocese's list 1/22/2019. On the Legionaries list 12/21/2019. Added to the Baltimore archdiocese's list in 11/2020. Mentioned in the 4/5/2023 MD Attorney General's Report.
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Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado
From Mexico. Rejected by multiple seminaries, ordained by his uncle. Founder of the Legionaries of Christ in 1941. Called the "most brilliant fundraiser in the modern church." By 1997 the Legion had seminarians - as young as age 10 - in 18 countries. Maciel sexually abused young boys throughout his career and fathered at least three children with two women. Nine men came forward publicly in 1997 to allege abuse as young boys when they were seminarians. Maciel was suspended from Legion leadership by Pope Pius XII in 1956 reportedly due to accusations of drug abuse and abuse of boys in Mexico. Reinstated in 1958. Pope John Paul II ignored reports of his abuse and, in fact, celebrated Maciel. Removed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006, given life of prayer and penitence in Jacksonville FL. Died 1/30/2008, age 87. By 2019 all but three of the men who had come forward accepted settlements from the Legionaries. The three called on the order to retract its "lies" about them to the media and called their low five figures offer a "humiliation."
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Fr. Daniel McCallion
Accused in a federal lawsuit filed in 4/21 of sexually abusing a girl, age 13, in the 1990s while she was a student at the Legionaries Immaculate Conception Academy in Rhode Island. Per the suit, the girl was abused during confession.
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Fr. Timothy Meehan
Named publicly as accused by the Legionaries of Christ on its list in 3/2022. Removed in 2013 from his assignment in Italy as a minor seminary rector after the order's North American Territory was informed that Meehan was in a "sexual relationship" in the mid-1990s, prior to ordination, with a person under age 18. Meehan's victim was under Meehan's supervision in his role as assistant formator in the LC's United States novitiate. Meehan admitted the "relationship" to his superiors in Rome yet was encouraged to pursue ordination. He left the order in 2017 to become a diocesan priest. (Not to be confused with Hartford Priest Timothy A. Meehan, ordained in 1959.)
Seminarian Shane Patterson
Named publicly as accused by the Legionaries of Christ in 3/2021. Substantiated allegation of abuse of a "pre-candidate" in Cheshire CT while assistant dean of students at the order's Immaculate Conception Apostolic School in the mid-1990s. Laicized.
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Fr. Jeremiah M. Spillane
Chaplain at a Catholic high school in Sarasota (Diocese of Venice) when charged in early 1997 with internet solicitation of a 13-year-old boy, who was actually an undercover policeman. Pleaded no contest to charges. Sentenced to two years house arrest and two years' probation. Admitted abuse in prior assignments in Mexico. Did parish work and taught in schools in Spain, Italy and from 1990 to 1995 in Cozumel, Mexico in the Archdiocese of Yucatan. Dispensed from religious vows in 1998. In March 2021, the Legion of Christ announced that it was adding Spillane to its list of credibly accused priests. It is not clear if that was the result of the 1997 conviction or another more recent allegation. The Florida Sex Offender database lists Spillane's last reported address as Merida, Yucatan (released from probation in 2005).
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Fr. David Steffy
Accused in a lawsuit filed in 4/21 of sexually abusing a boy in the 1990s at Immaculate Conception Apostolic School in Center Harbor NH. Working in Atlanta when transferred in 2019 to an assignment in Jerusalem.
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Fr. Oscar Turrion
From Spain. Full name Oscar Juan Turrión Pablos. Accused in a lawsuit filed in 4/21 of sexually abusing a boy in the early 1990s at Immaculate Conception Apostolic School in Center Harbor. A boy reported to school authorities in the early 1990s that Torrion had abused him. Turrion was then a seminarian; he was allowed to progress toward ordination. Per the order in 2021, Turrion was assigned to work with adults outside of the U.S. Worked 2007-14 at Pontifical International College Maria Mater Ecclesiae in Rome. He left the priesthood in 2017 after fathering two children.
Fr. Patrick Walsh
Accused in 2002 of abusing at least one youth at a high school in Center Harbor NH 1992-93, per records released by NH Attorney General's office in 3/03.