The Vatican has asked the Mexican founder of the conservative order Legionaries of Christ to renounce celebrating public Masses and live a life of "prayer and repentance" following its investigation into allegations he sexually abused seminarians.
The Legionaries said in a statement that the Rev. Marcial Maciel, while declaring himself innocent of charges spanning several decades, accepted the Vatican decision "with faith, complete serenity and tranquility of conscience."
Pope Benedict XVI approved the sanctions against Maciel making it the first major sexual abuse disciplinary case he has handled since taking office last year. The move was first reported yesterday by the US newspaper National Catholic Reporter.
Victims of clerical sex abuse hailed the decision.
"Maciel is the most powerful Catholic official to ever face Vatican sanctions for child sexual abuse," said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a US victims' support group.
However, the group said it hoped the Vatican would go further by defrocking Maciel.
The case is significant because Maciel is one of the most prominent Roman Catholic Church officials disciplined by the Vatican for alleged involvement in child sexual abuse. It is also noteworthy because Maciel was so warmly regarded by Pope John Paul II.
Benedict's approval of the sanctions showed that he is not beholden to John Paul's legacy when it comes to dealing with what he once called the "filth" in the Catholic Church a widely understood criticism of clerical sex abuse.
Since 1998, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which Benedict headed before he became pope, has been investigating allegations by former seminarians that Maciel sexually abused them decades ago.
Nine former seminarians first accused Maciel in 1996 of having abused them when they were boys or teenagers during the 1940s to 1960s. Later, other alleged victims came forward.
The Vatican did not say specifically whether it found the abuse allegations against Maciel to be true. And it said that because of Maciel's age and ill health he is 86 it decided against a full-fledged church trial, or "canonical process."
Instead, it said the congregation had "invited the priest to a reserved life of prayer and repentance, renouncing every public ministry."
But such a serious sanction against as prominent a churchman as Maciel which would prohibit him from celebrating Mass and other sacraments in public is a clear indication, some say, that the Vatican found at least some validity to the charges.
The Legionaries said Maciel considered the Vatican decision "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."