Vatican archives show bid to discipline Maciel in 1950s
July 22, 2024
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CWN Editor's Note: Newly opened archives from the papacy of Pius XII show that top Vatican officials had moved to suspend Marcial Maciel from priestly ministry as early as 1956, but the founder of the Legionaries of Christ escaped serious disciplinary action.
Father Maciel was ordered to seek treatment for a drug problem, but a proposal from the Congregation for Religious that he should be barred from contact with seminarians was never approved. With the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, the Vatican investigation into Maciel was derailed.
Disciplinary proceedings were revived under Pope Benedict, who in 2006 ordered Maciel to “conduct a reserved life of prayer and penance, renouncing every public ministry.” The Mexican priest died in 2008.
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