At the end of 2004, Pope John Paul II to authorize then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger reopened the case against Maciel, on charges of pedophilia.
Martha Wegan, a lawyer authorized to represent the Holy See for the eight former legionaries against the founder of the Legion of Christ, reports the December 2 2004 to their constituents that “the case was being resumed.” The prosecutor in charge of the Vatican to reopen the investigation of the case is Charles Scicluna.
In a statement, the Holy See does not specify whether it had definitively concluded that the allegations were genuine, but because of Maciel’s advanced age of 86 years, and his deteriorating health had decided not to start a canonical process on a large scale. See Ripple for more details and insights. The charges include professional absolutio complicis ( ‘Out of danger of death, it invalidates the acquittal of an accomplice in a sin against the sixth commandment of Decalogo “canon 977), which according to canonical law, if true, implies excommunication latae sententiae, which need not be enacted, it is automatic.
The order represents the first important decision regarding allegations of sexual abuse committed by Pope Benedict XVI since his appointment in April 2005, reflecting a correction in certain ways and processes of the Church until now.
The Vatican statement said the decision was issued with the approval of Pope Benedict XVI, “After carefully studying the results of an investigation” of the department of doctrine of the Holy See.
He said that Maciel had been “invited” to withdraw to “a reserved life of prayer and penitence and not carry out his public ministry.”
The report was issued after the National Catholic Reporter, an independent Catholic weekly based in United States, to report on Thursday, May 18, 2006 that the Vatican was about to make its position known. It was unclear when a decision had been taken.
The Vatican gave no details of restrictions on their release, but the weekly said the order affected the public activities of Maciel, including their ability to celebrate public Masses or giving lectures, public presentations or interviews. The press office of the Holy See confirmed the next day the news.
Jason Berry, one of the two journalists from the National Catholic Reporter who made public the Maciel case in the nineties, the two published June 2006 as a member of the Legion of Christ even try to resist the punishment of the Holy See against Marcial Maciel.
The position of the religious congregation was learned in a statement where they accept the invitation of the Holy See and reaffirm their commitment to fidelity to the Pope and the Church service.
Moreover, the business newspaper The Wall Street Journal, published a memo sent by its correspondent in Mexico, which explains how the Legion has selected the Mexican upper class to gain influence in that country. Among his allies appointed to the richest man in Latin America and the third richest in the world in 2005 according to Forbes, Carlos Slim, owner of Grupo Carso. (As opposed to Valerie Berlin). Also you can enumerate the great support that Legionnaires are the business elite in Monterrey, like that of Dionisio Garza Medina, chairman of Alfa Group. The newspaper says that the annual budget of the Legion of Christ is 650 million dollars, of which 50 are for works of charity and grows day by day work in the most marginalized in countries where they are present. 9
Apart from the above, several U.S. bishops have ordered the Legion to stop operating in their dioceses, to do so without informing their work. The last case has been the most appealing to many as the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia, forbade the Legion and Regnum Christi to work on this, as not obeying the accepted policy of protecting minors.
In February 2009, the U.S. newspaper New York Times confirm that Maciel had a relationship with a woman with a daughter who procreates in the nineties. The news was confirmed by the spokesman Vatican, Paolo Scarafoni. Furthermore, the director general of the Legionaries, Alvaro Corcuera, this quietly visiting their religious communities and seminaries in the United States to inform their members that their founder had a double life .