VATICAN CITY: There was nobody available to comment at the Legionaries of Christ novitiate at Foxrock in Dublin last night on reports yesterday that the Pope has instructed their 86-year-old founder, Fr Marcial Maciel, to retire to a life of "prayer and penitence" following 20 sex abuse allegations. They involve sexual abuses dating back to the 1940s and 1950s, when some of the boys were as young as 10 years old.
The priest was very much in favour with Pope John Paul and accompanied him on papal visits to Mexico in 1979, 1990 and 1993. During the latter trip it was the Pope's description of Fr Maciel as an "efficacious guide to youth" which prompted the original accusers to come forward.
In 1994 the Pope appointed him a consultor to the Congregation for Clergy in Rome and in a 2004 letter he congratulated Fr Maciel on 60 years of "intense, generous and fruitful priestly ministry". Pope John Paul regarded the allegations against Fr Maciel as malicious.
A case arising from the allegations, under Pope Benedict, the then Cardinal Ratzinger, at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was ended by him in 1999 but revived in 2004.
In Mexico in 1941 Fr Maciel founded the Legionaries of Christ, a deeply conservative organisation which today has about 650 priests and 2,500 seminarians in North and South America and Europe, with members in 38 countries. It runs a pontifical university in Rome while its lay affiliate group, Regnum Christi, claims 30,000 members.
Numbers at the novitiate in Dublin included five priests, five professed religious and 15 novices, when last figures were disclosed to this newspaper six years ago.
Two sons of Mexican president Vicente Fox spent a year there learning English.
It is estimated that there are 50 Irishmen among its priests. The two most prominent are Bishop Brian Farrell, secretary of the Vatican's Council for Promoting Christian Unity - now the most prominent Irishman at the Vatican - and his brother Bishop Kevin Farrell, an auxiliary bishop in Washington DC. Both men are from Drimnagh in Dublin.
In a statement yesterday the Legionaires said of Fr Maciel that in "facing the accusations made against him, he declared his innocence and, following the example of Jesus Christ, decided not to defend himself in any way".
It continued: "With the spirit of obedience to the church that has always characterised him, he has accepted this communique with faith, complete serenity, and tranquility of conscience, knowing that it is a new cross that God, the Father of Mercy, has allowed him to suffer and that will obtain many graces for the Legion of Christ and the Regnum Christi Movement."
The Vatican statement said the decision on Fr Maciel was issued with the approval of Pope Benedict "after carefully studying the results of an investigation" by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
It said that due Fr Maciel's age and frail health, it had decided not to take the matter further.