Category: Critique of LC/RC

Maciel was born in Cotija, Michoacán, Mexico, the youngest boy of nine children, to a family with connections within the Catholic Church in Mexico. Numerous relatives were priests, and four of his uncles were bishops. He had a troubled youth. His uncle molested him.^[8] His father ridiculed him and encouraged his brothers to whip him. He sent the boy to work in the sugar fields to toughen him up, and years later Maciel told one of his own victims that mule drivers on his father’s ranch had sexually abused him.^[9][10]

Maciel was the grand-nephew of Bishop Rafael Guízar y Valencia, who was canonized in 2007. There has been speculation that Maciel’s scandalous conduct at age 18 contributed to Guizar’s fatal heart attack. According to an investigative report:

The day before Bishop Guizar died, he had been heard shouting angrily at Marcial Maciel. He was giving his eighteen-year-old nephew a dressing down after two women had come to the bishop’s house to complain about Maciel, who was their neighbor. Father Orozco, who was among the original group of boys to found the Legion of Christ in 1941, said he heard the women had complained about the “noise” Maciel was making with children he had brought into his home to teach religion. He said that the seminary officials blamed Maciel for his uncle’s heart attack.^[11]

Maciel was expelled from two seminaries for reasons that have never been revealed, and became a priest only after one of his bishop uncles ordained him after private studies,^[12] on November 26, 1944, in Mexico City. The ordination was filmed and used in later years for publicity.^[10]

In 1941, Maciel founded the Legion of Christ, a Roman Catholic religious congregation of pontifical right, with the support of Francisco González Arias, Bishop of Cuernavaca. From the beginning, he served as its general director. In 1959 Maciel founded its lay arm Regnum Christi.^[13] All Legionaries were compelled “to take private vows, never to speak ill of Maciel or any superiors, and to report to their superiors anyone who did”, facilitating a “cult of personality” according to Jason Berry.^[14] In Regnum Christi discussion groups, followers studied Maciel’s letters.^[10]

Maciel wrote extensively on the formation of priests and other matters pertaining to Church governance. His main stated purpose for the Legion of Christ was to form and motivate enterprising lay members of the Catholic Church to take an active part in the Church’s mission, in particular the members of Regnum Christi.

Through the Legion of Christ and the Regnum Christi, Maciel started many schools, a network of universities, and numerous charitable institutes.^[15]

Until his misdeeds became public, Maciel was well-regarded by the Papal See. He accompanied Pope John Paul II on his visits to Mexico in 1979, 1990, and 1993, and was appointed by the Pope to the Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Formation of Priests in Circumstances of the Present Day (1990). He was a member of the Interdicasterial Commission for a Just Distribution of Clergy (1991), the Fourth General Conference of Latin American Bishops (CELAM) (1992), the Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Consecrated Life and Its Role in the Church and in the World (1994), the Synod of Bishops’ Special Assembly for America (1997) and (since 1994) as a permanent consultant to the Congregation for the Clergy. The golden anniversary of his priestly ordination was celebrated on 26 November 1994, with 57 Legionary priests ordained the day prior. Maciel served as Chancellor of the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, which is based in Rome.

Maciel collaborated extensively with Pope John Paul II, in person and through his subordinates in the Legion of Christ. The pope admired Maciel for strictly adhering to the magisterium and the vocations to the Legion of Christ. Maciel received many donations from Mexico’s richest families,^[16] much of which Maciel and the Legion passed on to the Vatican over many years.

When Pope Pius XII‘s archives were opened to the public in 2024, documents were found showing Maciel was protected by Giuseppe Pizzardo, the then No. 2 of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, from a judgement proposed by Giovanni Battista Scapinelli [de; it; no]. A 1956 draft of the memo describes a measure originally requiring Maciel to cease any contact with his students and attend treatment for his morphine addiction, or be suspended a divinis. By October 2, 1956, the measure was edited to remove the prohibition against contact with seminarians, and later documents say further action against Maciel was superseded by “recommendations and interventions by high-ranking personalities”.^{[17   et}

Etc.