Marcial Maciel Degollado (March 10, 1920 - January 30, 2008) was a Mexican Catholic priest who founded the Legion of Christ and the Regnum Christi movement, serving as general director of troops from 1941 to 2005. Throughout most of his career, respected in the church as "the greatest fundraiser of the modern Roman Catholic church" and as a productive recruiter of the new seminarian. At the end of his life, Maciel was revealed to have sexually harassed boys and young men. After his death, it was revealed that he had maintained a relationship with at least two women, fathering as many as six children. He allegedly abused two of these as well.
In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI removed Maciel from active service based on the results of the investigation he had begun when the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, before being elected Pope in April 2005. Maciel was commanded "to accompany the life of prayer and penance, public, "and died in 2008. On March 25, 2010, a communiqué on the legionary website acknowledged Maciel's factual" reproachful act ", including sexual harassment of minor seminarians. In May 2010, the Vatican denounced Maciel's actions and appointed the Pope's Delegation to oversee his orders and governance.
Video Marcial Maciel
Initial life and training
Maciel was born in Cotija, MichoacÃÆ'¡n, Mexico, the youngest of nine children, a family with strong connections to the Catholic Church. Many relatives are priests in the Church. He has a troubled young man: his father taunts him and encourages his brothers to whip him. He sent the boy to work in the sugar fields to strengthen him, and years later Maciel told one of his own victims that the donkey driver on his father's farm had sexually harassed him. Maciel is the great nephew of Bishop Rafael Guázar y Valencia, who was canonized as a Mexican saint in 2007. There is speculation that Maciel's action at the age of 18 caused the death of this great uncle, who suffered a heart attack. According to the investigative report:
The day before Bishop Guizar died, he had heard angry cry at Marcial Maciel. She gave her eighteen-year-old niece dressed after two women came to the bishop's house to complain about Maciel, who was their neighbor. Father Orozco, who was among the group of native men to find the Legion of Christ in 1941, said he heard the women complain about the "fray" made by Maciel with the children he brought to his home to teach religion. He said that seminary officials blamed Maciel for his uncle's heart attack.
Maciel was expelled from two seminaries for reasons never revealed. He became a priest only after one of his uncles ordained him on 26 November 1944, in Mexico City after he completed his private studies.
Maciel founded the Legion of Christ in 1941, with the support of Francisco González Arias, Bishop of Cuernavaca. From the beginning, he served as general director. In 1959, Maciel founded the lay arm of Regnum Christi.
Through the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi, Maciel started many schools, university networks, and many charities.
Maps Marcial Maciel
Sexual assault and pensions scandal
In 1997, a group of nine people went public with allegations that they had been tortured as youth and youth by Maciel while studying under them in Spain and Rome in the 1940s and 1950s. The group, which included respected academics and former priests, filed an official indictment at the Vatican in 1998. They were informed the following year, in 1999, that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was then led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope. Benedict XVI, did not move forward with direct prosecution. It is not known generally whether this decision was made by Pope John Paul II or Cardinal Ratzinger himself.
However, in January 2005, Maciel was forced to resign as head of the order. A few days before John Paul II died, Cardinal Ratzinger announced his intention to remove the "dirt" from the Church; many believe he's referring specifically to Maciel. After the investigation was reopened by Ratzinger, the Vatican requested that Maciel withdraw from his active ministry. In May 2006, Ratzinger, then Pope Benedict XVI, disciplined him: the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith asked Maciel to live "a quiet life and a protected prayer, giving up all forms of public service." The canonical court was removed, officially because of old age and poor health. In January 2006, Maciel resigned as head of the Legion of Christ and proposed his leadership to the ÃÆ' lvaro Corcuera elder.
In 2007, the order was ordered to abolish the oath of obedience that requires religion never to criticize superiors and to inform about disagreements within the order. Maciel moved from Rome to a house he shared with other priests in Jacksonville, Florida, United States, where he died in 2008. He never made an apology and continued to deny the allegations. Corcuera apologized to the victims, both for Maciel's actions and the slowness of others.
Death
Marcial Maciel died in Jacksonville, Florida, on January 30, 2008, at the age of 87. He has a private funeral and was buried at his birthplace, Cotija, MichoacÃÆ'¡n, in early February 2008.
Controversy
Drug addiction
During his life, Maciel became the focus of several investigations of his behavior. There are allegations of drug abuse, which he investigated in 1956; she was hospitalized for morphine addiction. She was also researched for allegedly sexually abusing children. He remains back as head of the Congregation.
Madam and the children
In July 2009, a Spanish-language daily published an interview with a woman who had a child with Maciel in 1986 and lived in a luxury apartment in Madrid that Maciel bought for her. A day later, Mexican media reported that lawyer JosÃÆ'Â © Bonilla would represent three of the total six possible children of natural Maciel in a civil lawsuit to restore Maciel's property. Lawyers claim that Maciel has several properties in Mexico and around the world in its own name.
In February 2009, news broke that Maciel has lived a double life. ÃÆ' lvaro Corcuera, Director-General, visited each of the Legion Areas and publicly apologized for Maciel's behavior. In addition, the legions openly admitted that Maciel had been the father of a daughter. As a result of all these thanks, Pope Benedict XVI personally intervened and began the official Vatican visit of all the legion houses.
Plagiarism
In 1959 Maciel published a book, El salterio de mis dau ( The Psalm of My Days ), widely read among members of the legion and partially translated into English. It is a memoir about the experience of persecution.
On December 11, 2009, Agencia CatÃÆ'³lica de Informaciones from Lima, Peru, the sister agency of the Catholic News Agency, reported that the internal memorandum of the Legion of Christ was acknowledged, without the use of the word "plagiarism," that it copied memoirs of Luis Lucia, a Spanish journalist and Democratic politician Christian. Although the legion memorandum describes Maciel's book as "a bit of a rewrite", a Spanish legion familiar to him stated that it copied Lucia's memoir "80 percent in style and content."
Lucia's memoir is Spanish El salterio de mis horas ( The Psalter of My Hours ). He completed it in 1941 when a political prisoner of the Franco regime; it was published posthumously in Spanish in 1956; the edition is believed to have been used by Maciel as the basis of his own work.
Relations with the Vatican
Maciel accompanied Pope John Paul II on his visit to Mexico in 1979, 1990, and 1993, and was appointed by the Pope to the Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Formation of Priests in Today's Condition (1990). He is a member of the Interdisciplinary Commission for True Priestly Distribution (1991), General Conference IV of Latin America (CELAM) (1992), Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on Consecrated Life and His Role in Church and in the World (1994), Synod of Special Assembly of Bishops for America (1997) and (since 1994) as a permanent consultant to the Congregation for Pastors. The golden anniversary of his priestly ordination was celebrated on 26 November 1994, with 57 legionary priests ordained on memorial night. Maciel serves as the Pontifical Chancellor Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, based in Rome.
Maciel collaborated extensively with Pope John Paul II, either directly or through his organizational members, the Legion of Christ. The Pope admired Maciel for strictly following the magisterium and his call to the Legion of Christ. Maciel received a lot of donations from the richest people in Mexico. In addition, Maciel and the legion gave considerable funds to the Vatican over the years. While many believe that Pope John Paul II was blinded by the beliefs of the legion's founders, some journalists speculate that this financial influence is the reason the Church delayed acting on allegations of sex abuse by Maciel.
Investigative journalist Jason Berry wrote in an April 2010 article in the National Catholic Reporter that the charismatic "charismatic founder of Christ" sends a flow of money to Roman officials with a final calculation... Maciel is buying support for his group and defense for himself, should his amazing secret life be known. "Berry and his late companion Gerald Renner wrote the 2004 book
The New York Times reported a claim that even under Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was immediately attracted to the case, the investigation of Maciel remained stalled. "Other factors delay calculations, some question abuse accounts, one of the original nine reporters to resign."
Maciel wrote extensively about the formation of priests and other matters relating to the governance of the Church. The main purpose stated for the Legion of Christ is to form and motivate lay Catholic Church members to take an active part in the mission of the Church. In particular, this initiative focuses on members of the Regnum Christi movement, for example, through spiritual direction. Regnum Christi was founded by Maciel as well.
Formal violations
In March 2009, Pope Benedict XVI ordered the apostolic visit of the Legionary Christ. Five bishops from five different countries, working independently of each other, conducted an "extensive investigation that took them to almost all religious order homes" and on March 15, 2010, submitted their report to the Vatican. On 1 May 2010, after a two-day meeting in Rome with bishops, the Vatican issued a statement on the report and announced that the Pope would appoint a delegate to a legion and a visitor to Regnum Christi, because "[Maciel's] behavior has serious consequences in life and structure of the Legion, such as requiring a profound re-evaluation process. "In a statement, the Vatican denounced Maciel for creating a system of power that enabled him to live a double" immoral "life" without objection and authentic religious meaning. " The Vatican statement was very explicit in terms of its allegations against crime and Maciel's fraud.
"A very serious and objectively immoral act" from Maciel, "confirmed by an indisputable testimony", represents "true crime and realizing a life without objection or authentic religious sentiment," the Vatican said. The Vatican also stated that the legions created a "defense mechanism" around Maciel to protect it from allegations and suppress destructive witnesses from reporting abuse. "It left him untouched," the Vatican said. The statement denounced the "disappointment and expulsion of the doubters" of Maciel's virtue. The Vatican statement did not say whether the legionary leadership would face any sanctions. The Vatican acknowledged the "difficulties" faced by Maciel's accusers for years when they were excommunicated or ridiculed, and praised their "courage and persistence to demand truth."
Note
References
- (in Spanish) ACI Prensa . 2009 December 11th. LegiÃÆ'³n de Cristo da conocer a sus miembros plagio de P. Maciel en libro espiritual (The Legion of Christ announces to the members of Father Maciel's plagiarism in spiritual work).
- Associated Press . 2006 16 October. Pope Benedict granted purity in the ceremony.
- Berry, Jason. Money paves the way for Maciel's influence in the Vatican (First of Two Parts). National Catholic Reporter, 06 April 2010
- Berry, Jason. How Fr. Maciel built his kingdom (Second Part Two). National Catholic Reporter, 12 April 2010
- Berry, Jason, and Renner, Gerald. 2004.
The Silent Oath: Abuse of Power in the Pope John Paul II . Media freedom. ISBNÃ, 0-7432-4441-9 - Oath of Silence , a one-hour documentary in Pastor Maciel and the Legion of Christ
- Catholic News Office . 2009 February 3. The legions of Christ recognize the 'inappropriate' behavior of its founders.
- Catholic News Office . 2009 March 31st. The Pope embarked on the Apostolic Visit of the Legion of Christ.
- Conde, Angeles, and Murray, David. 2005. The Legion of Christ: A History . Circle Press. ISBN: 0-9743661-2-9
- (in Spanish) La Jornada (Mexico). 2009 August 11th. Reclaman derechos hereditarios tres hijos mÃÆ'¡s de Marcial Maciel (Three more children from Marcial Maciel demanding an inheritance).
- Los Angeles Times . 2008 February 1. The founder of the Catholic order was rebuked for sexual harassment.
- Maciel, Marcial. 2003. Christ is My Life . Circle Press. ISBNÃ, 1-928832-97-0
- (in Spanish) Milenio 2009 August 11 Tres hijos de Maciel pelearÃÆ'¡n sus bienes.
- (in Spanish) El Mundo (Madrid). 2009-12-12. Maciel plagiÃÆ'³ el libro de cabecera de los Legionarios.
- (in Spanish) Digital Periodista (Madrid). 2009 August 9th. La hija del pecador Legionario de Cristo.
- Telegraph (English). 2008 February 2. Obituary of Reverend Marcial Maciel
- Thompson, Damian. 2009 February 4th. The Legion of Christ faced a disaster after the founder's double life was revealed
External links
- Works by or about Marcial Maciel in the library (WorldCat catalog)
- The Legion of Christ
- The National Catholic Reporter's article on its ability is limited
- Regnum Christi
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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