New Document: Vatican Officials Took Homosexuality of Marcial Maciel Seriously
Maciel later also fathered three children and used his religious order to hide and finance a double life. Maciel founded the Legion of Christ in Mexico in 1941.
In 2012, some of Maciel's Mexican victims published on LaVoluntadDeNoSaber.com about 200 documents from the Congregation for Religious from the 1940s to 2002 .
Corriere.it (20 July) added to the known information one new document from the Vatican archives of the papacy of Pius XII (1939-1958).
It is the original draft of a note dated 1 October 1956, written by Monsignor Giovanni Battista Scapinelli of the Holy Congregation for Religious. This was the day that Maciel arrived in Rome after being removed by the Vatican as superior of the Legionaries of Christ.
The note called for Maciel to be barred from any contact with young seminarians or in case of infringement to suspend him from the priesthood. It proves again that by 1956, the Vatican was taking reports about Maciel's homosexuality seriously.
However, in the later, final version of 2 October 1956, Monsignor Scapinelli had removed the original punishment of staying away from students and only ordered Maciel to seek medical treatment for a morphine addiction.
A few weeks later, the Vatican appointed outsiders to investigate Maciel and the Legionaries.
Other documents stated at the time that the Congregation for Religious could not take further action against Father Maciel "because of the recommendations and interventions of high-ranking personalities".
Monsignor Scapinelli suggested that Pius XII was fully aware of the Maciel affair and had approved his removal as the Legion’s superior.
Pius' death in 1958 allowed Maciel's supporters to bring him back. Maciel was reinstated as superior of the Legion of Christ in early 1959.
Only 50 years later, in 2006, Benedict XVI finally condemned Maciel to a "lifetime of penance and prayer".
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