ReGAIN, Religious Groups Awareness International Network
Monitoring harmful groups in mainstream Churches and Religious Groups
A small qualitative study would seem to indicate that the effect of contact with Legion of Christ and Regnum Christ had a negative effect on their cradle/original l, pre-contact faith
A presentation at International Cultic Studies Association conference in Enfield, CT, Usa may have been the straw the broke the camel´s back. Because before and after this event the Legion of Christ Catholic Religious Congregation may have had other reasons to sue me, to suppress me, to silence me and to threaten this stubborn little Irishman.
I believe the article identified below could have incited Father Maciel´s ire and consequently that of his accomplices. One of whom would have been the U.S. Legion of Christ´s Fr. Peter Hopkins, LC. Who signed the lawsuit against me. He has never apologized for putting me through six months of mental anguish. Irish unconditional Fr. Owen Kearns LC, my compatriot, did, sometime later, send a pathetic apology on a piece of plain paper without any Legion letterhead – so as not to imply any official Legion wrongdoing.
The lawsuit was filed by a very powerful and expensive law firm in Atlanta, GA, aided by a local law firm registered in Alexandria, VA.
The suit was covered by in the Washington Post of that time:
September 5, 2007
By Daniela Deane
Former priest John Paul Lennon says the Legion of Christ is a dangerous and ultra-secretive cult that still idolizes its founder even though the spiritual leader was sanctioned by the Vatican after years of sexual abuse allegations.
The Legion accuses the Alexandria man of distributing stolen property and “malicious disinformation” about a fast-growing Roman Catholic Church order with tens of thousands of followers worldwide.
The argument is unfolding in Alexandria Circuit Court in a lawsuit the Legion filed last month that seeks to block Lennon, a Legion member for 23 years, from disseminating on a Web site letters and documents it says are the order’s private property and intended only for internal use.
Some internal documents chronicle the conservative group’s strict rules of conduct, including directives on how a legionary, as the order’s members are known, must butter his bread, part his hair or sit in a chair. The documents also include the group’s “private vows,” which say that members must never criticize the order and must report anyone who does.
Under a recent court order, Lennon must turn over any Legion property by Sept. 14, including documents, computer disks and CDs.
Besides Lennon, the Legion is suing Regain Inc., the corporation that owns http://www.regainnetwork.org, a Web site critical of the Legion. Lennon is its president. Other former Legion members and relatives and friends of former Legion members are involved in the corporation and the Web site, Lennon said.
Lennon, 63, a child and family therapist in Arlington, recently found a lawyer to represent him in the suit, which he said came out of the blue. He said the deep-pocketed order, which he left more than 20 years ago because he had grown disillusioned, is trying to silence former members and teach him a lesson.
“They’re also trying to scare anybody else who would dare to share these documents with the public,” he said. “It’s the Alexandria witch hunt instead of the Salem witch hunt. It’s like a 21st-century Inquisition.”
Jim Fair, a Chicago-based spokesman for the order, couldn’t disagree more.
“Regain has some materials that belong to the Legion and that they are using,” he said. “They were not granted use of them, and we’d like them to stop doing that.” Attorneys for the order declined to comment.
In the lawsuit, the Legion is also asking for the identities of individuals writing on the Regain site and on a Web discussion board, http://www.exlegionaries.com, that was once affiliated with it. Regain severed ties with the discussion board this year after pressure from the Legion, Lennon said.
Many of the documents at issue are private letters written by the group’s founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado. Some of the letters have been posted on the site and the discussion board.
Last year, Pope Benedict XVI took disciplinary action against Maciel after a long, on-again, off-again investigation into allegations of sexual abuse. Maciel is no longer supposed to celebrate Mass in public, give lectures or make other public presentations.
Maciel, 87, is the founder and patriarch of the Legion of Christ, a worldwide order of more than 750 priests and 2,500 seminarians, and of Regnum Christi, an affiliated movement of lay people that claims 70,000 members around the world. The U.S. headquarters for the order is in Connecticut.
Both groups are built around the aging priest’s “charism,” a church term for exceptional gifts and mission. Maciel, who was close to Pope John Paul II and is venerated by many Catholics, stepped down as head of the Legion after last year’s papal sanction. He then left Rome and moved to his hometown of Cotija, Mexico.
Complaints of sexual abuse against Maciel came to light in the 1990s, when nine former members of the Legion, including several priests, alleged that Maciel had molested them when they were young seminarians, from the 1940s into the 1960s.
The National Catholic Reporter newspaper, citing Vatican sources, reported last year that the number of accusers who had come forward was “more than 20, but less than 100.” Lennon said the number of victims is much greater than 100.
Lennon said turning over any documents he has would not stop them from being circulated. He denies that any were obtained illegally.
“They have lots and lots of money,” Lennon said of the Legion. “I don’t have any. The idea is to drag this on in such a way that it will bleed us to death.” Lennon is soliciting donations for his legal defense on the site.
Jason Berry, who co-wrote a 2004 book and produced a forthcoming documentary film about the Maciel case, both titled “Vows of Silence,” called the group’s founder “arguably the greatest fundraiser in the history of the modern church.” He’s also “one of the worst pedophiles in the history of the church,” Berry said.
On the two Web sites, former members of the order discuss the sexual abuse allegations that drove Maciel out of Rome. But Lennon said most members of the order would not even be aware of the allegations.
“They can only watch certain television programs, they don’t have radios and they can’t use the phone without permission from their superiors,” he said. He added that phone calls are monitored.
“The Legion of Christ is trying to shut down Regain, which is a clearinghouse for information on what the Legion is really about,” Berry said. “It shows the group’s extraordinary hubris in thinking they can crush an opponent by trampling on the First Amendment.”
Staff writer Alan Cooperman contributed to this report.>
Aspects of Concern regarding the Legion of Christ was originally presented at the American Family Foundation (AFF) Conference, Enfield, CT, October 18, 2003. Because of I.C.S.A. copyright and Legion of Christ mug order as part of the civil case settlement the content of the article cannot be reproduced here.
A link to I.C.S.A´s archives for the full text is hereby provided:
Let it be noted that Father Owen Kearns LC, accompanied by a lawyer said to represent the interests of the Legion of Christ, approached then executive director of I.C.S.A., Michael Langone, PhD, and attempted to persuade him not to allow Juan Jose Vaca and Lennon from presenting their papers at the I.C.S.A. conference. Dr. Langone listened patiently to their reasons. They also invited Dr. Langone to visit the nearby Legion of Christ seminary so he could see for himself there was nothing cultic about the order. Dr. Langone, accompanied by Catholic cult expert Father James LeBarr, visited the Legion facility and observed the building, the atmosphere and the seminarians. Despite these efforts Dr. Langone decided to allow us to speak. He later published some reflections on the Legion of Christ:
Reflections on the Legion of Christ: 2003-2006
Michael D. Langone, Ph.D.
Dr. Langone would revisit the issue of the Legion of Christ and its questionable practices in another article:
ICSA Today, Vol. 3, No. 3, 2012, 2-5
“By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them”: How Good and Bad Works Can Deceive—the Case of the Legion of Christ, Michael Langone
https://www.icsahome.com/elibrary/topics/articles/legionlangone
The Aspects of the Concern in the Legion of Christ article, suppressed by the Legion lawsuit among other draconian measures, survived the purge because it was published by the International Cultic Studies Association, a prestigious professional organization in the cultic studies field. As the author had presented it at one of the association’s annual conferences, the article gained prestige and a life of its own in the I.C.S.A. archives:
The “controversial document” can be found on the International Cultic Studies website:
https://articles1.icsahome.com/articles/aspects-of-concern-legion-lennon-en5-2
Today Lennon comments regarding his original article: Although the Legion of Christ constitutions may have been altered by early twenty-first century Vatican interventions, one can hold that they are essentially the same as the originals quoted in Aspects of Concern…. Note that Father Maciel and his accomplices frequently “played loosely with the truth” and could supply Vatican authorities with an appropriate version of the constitutions and rules. Besides, many of the issues raised in the article do not pertain directly to the official constitutions of the organization which has since morphed into Regnum Christi Federation or been absorbed into this broader organizational framework to distance itself from the amoral founder. Aspects of concern focus on the multiple other private or personal rules and regulations -unknown or unmonitored by Vatican authorities- that members must follow, which are beyond the scope of the constitutions, vows and official rules. Perhaps because Lennon´s article dared to reveal these “hidden rules” that bind and control members in overt and subtle ways, Legion leadership felt it necessary to take such drastic action as to sue a former member in Alexandria City, Virginia`s Civil Court whereby he and his organization would be considered guilty until proven innocent.
-Fr. Marcial Maciel Pedophile, Psychopath and Legion of Christ Founder: From R.J. Neuhaus to Benedict XVI
-A Naïve and Sentimental Dubliner in the Legion of Christ: Surviving and Thriving after knowing Pedophile Psychopath Founder Fr. Marcial Maciel
-Catholic Orders and Movements accused of being Cult-like: Intra-Ecclesial Sects? (Harmful Groups)
-Perdí mi Fe Católica a causa del Regnum Christi: ¿Dejarla o recuperarla?
-Cantos de Jacob: un Cura Lucha con Dios
Having lived safe and secluded in the Legion of Christ for 23 years, when I abruptly left, I felt totally lost and devastated. I also feared I had made a passionate/reckless decision. Neil Diamond’s “Love on the Rocks” became my theme song.
This paper was originally presented at ICSA’s 2023 Annual International Conference in Louisville, KY, and then published in ICSA Today, Volume 15, No. 1, 2024.
Each member or former member of a cultic group has their own particular and unique story and their own particular and unique process of recovery. But there may be some common features. I hope my story will help you with yours.
When I pronounced religious vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience at age 18 in the Legion of Christ, I had no idea of the coercive nature of that Catholic religious order. I lived in its straightjacket for 23 years, which included priestly ordination at age 26, and 13 years of ministry on an emotional and spiritual rollercoaster. I ejected impulsively at age 41, “shipwrecked in the spirit,” my life in a shambles.
I emerged from a deep dark abyss, moving gradually into a world of light and life, fed by the kindness of friends and strangers, and a dogged survival instinct. An interview with Michael Langone, PhD, ICSA’s executive director at the time, helped me become more clearly aware of the stages of my recovery. I would like to share those stages and elements of recovery with others so that they may find hope and perhaps some pointers towards healing and happiness. These include finding a safe place, a support group, understanding the cult or high-control group and the exit process, discovering one’s true self, forging a new career or life path forward, and creating a joyful life.
Having lived safe and secluded in the Legion of Christ for 23 years, when I abruptly left, I felt totally lost and devastated. I also feared I had made a passionate/reckless decision. Neil Diamond’s “Love on the Rocks” became my theme song.
Although I had bound myself (or let myself be bound) with vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, attachment and fealty to my religious order, and a vow of celibacy and commitment to the Catholic priestly ministry, all was not well in Camelot. I was not the total tabula rasa (i.e. blank slate) that many high-control groups prefer their recruits to be. Legion of Christ’s motto might be “the younger the better.” I was 17, not one of the 11-year-olds the order continues to recruit/capture. Even so, I was a naïve and sentimental, idealistic Dubliner.
The Trojan horse in my religious fortress was the fact that I had never totally belonged. This would have demanded from me a total surrender (entrega total in Spanish) to the Legion of Christ, its numerous rules, and its operating system. Some kind of lingering doubt had prevented me from totally believing and totally surrendering. From the onset, controlling “formators” (selected members who train novices and seminarians) had tried to obliterate doubt. “To doubt is to be unfaithful.” But doubt had lingered, maybe unconsciously or subconsciously, in the form of some tenuous capacity for critical thinking about the group, despite all of the aforementioned commitments. This may have laid some foundation for the precipitous break.
My sinful doubts were my seeds of salvation. Plus, the harrowing nature of my leaving had one great advantage: I made a total break from the group and would never look back nostalgically or go back. I rejected and disowned my Legion spouse and promised myself never to make the same mistake again. After all, I was now 41 and did not have many more lives/mistakes left.
How about flipping the script from seeing my doubts as sinful, and instead give myself some credit?
Another saving grace was that during my theological studies in Rome, one of my superiors had given me special permission to read books in English so as not to lose my command of the language and also to review books suitable for consumption by the shielded “community.” I had been speaking Spanish almost exclusively from the time I entered at age 17. This gave me some contact with an outside world beyond rules and control. I must confess I indulged in several Graham Greene novels which gave me insight into human nature and its weaknesses.
When I was 33, my superior general, Fr. Marcial Maciel, chose me to start a religious education center in Mexico City. Faithful to my vow of Holy Obedience, I followed through. The mission afforded a sliver of freedom outside the house compound. I had to read and study, which implied permission to drive (by myself!) to the Catholic bookstore and buy the books I needed. Bless you, Father Basilio Nuñez! Spontaneously I chose books I liked, books that would answer my own needs. It also opened a window into Catholic and Christian spirituality and theology beyond the dry biscuits I was fed at home for the previous 15 years.
Those books were an initial window broadening the narrow view of the Legion cage. Later on, I would find classic cult recovery titles by Steven Hassan, Janja Lalich, and Michael Langone—in addition to ICSA literature, and testimonies and memoirs by reputable authors—as being especially useful.
In many oppressive groups, you are made to believe that anger is bad. In some Christian groups that belief is strongly taught and imposed. The same, unofficial commandment may be at work in some Eastern religious groups: “Thou shalt not be angry!” I was led to believe that. But anger saved me.
If I had not grown progressively angry with my guru, Fr. Marcial Maciel, I might still be a member of the Legion of Christ. After blowing my top with him I felt guilty for a long time. Gradually, I came to understand that had I not pulled that trigger I would still be in there, depressed, angry, resentful, and in danger of falling into further mental illness and real aberrations.
I needed to forgive myself and learn the true nature of anger: a (healthy) physiological and psychological reaction to hurt, suffering, and mistreatment. In my case it was the emotional explosive that blew my superego away and opened the path to freedom.
After leaving, try not to make any hasty or radical decisions. Scrambling after a total shipwreck, you may be scared witless. Get on solid ground.
Sadly, I have witnessed departing priests from the Legion of Christ, as well as the religious and lay members of the umbrella Regnum Christi Movement, make what I consider rash decisions shortly after exiting. As they leave they are still under the influence of superiors and spiritual directors who want to control the members’ exiting and early decisions. “Get married and raise a good Catholic family,” they have often been told. This advice saves the group from further bother from these former members but often leads to rash decisions and more premature commitments.
I suggest a transition period, biding time, and withholding further commitments.
Fear, or survival instinct, helped me. I was afraid of having made a rash decision about leaving and perhaps I was also afraid of facing the big bad world outside my 23-year-long cocoon. I was alone and had nothing. Flailing around and needing to find a lifeline, I reached out desperately for something or someone who would understand and help.
A serendipitous shot in the dark found a confrere a few thousand miles away (the distance between Cancun and Washington, DC). He offered a less scary option: I could leave the order but continue practicing my priesthood. This enabled me to buy time and made my leaving less impulsive and drastic, creating a transition period marked by the kindness of acquaintances, friends, and others.
Luck or Providence would have it that in Washington, DC I would hook up with my informal exit facilitator and three other priests who left around the same time. We Irish-born former Legion of Christ members formed a band of four musketeers. As Michael Langone so insightfully pointed out to me in our ICSA video interview, I was able to begin my healing process with their understanding, comradery, friendship, and support.
One of them, Fr. Peter Cronin, R.I.P., began explaining the cultic nature of the Legion of Christ and what had happened to us. Although I was still constrained as a priest, the atmosphere I lived in during my four Washington, DC years was in stark contrast to my previous restrictive lifestyle, where my thoughts and feelings had been controlled, my every action monitored and judged.
A heavy burden had been lifted off my shoulders, and I began to have options. Though not very together mentally and emotionally, I somehow made the prudent decision to study counseling. Engaging with a good match individual therapist helped me become aware both of my options and the responsibility that came with them.
Still very depressed and confused, I stumbled around my priestly duties. Serendipity/providence would have it that in my forays I bumped into a Catholic worker who was younger and much more balanced and mature. She gently remarked that my transition from the Legion of Christ must be stressful. (Understatement of the year!). Might some individual therapy help? She gave me two referrals: an active Marist Brother and a former Jesuit priest.
was beginning to hang out his shingle and was charging a reduced fee. Or was the fee especially for dazed Catholic priests in the midst of a mid-life crisis? Peter was renting out space at St. Joseph’s on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. He sat there quiet and relaxed, smoking his pipe while I poured out my guts. His summary at the end of the long session was stunningly simple and accurate: “Well, Paul, sounds like you’ve been bouncing off the walls of the Legion of Christ for the past 23 years.” Later on, I was overwhelmed by his low-key, “Paul, what would you like to do with the rest of your life?”
Life is about decisions. I had never made any clear one in my life.
While this was a hard truth to face, I want to return to the piece about giving ourselves credit for our survival and recovery. My good intuition, which had helped me choose helpful books while still in the Legion, had enabled me to find the right fit therapist.
Through him I would learn about eschewing guilt/blame and taking responsibility for my actions. That was a major discovery and conquest.
A few years later I needed to work with another therapist to make the big decision to leave the active priesthood. It was a tall order, to face the prospect of abandoning my priestly vocation and returning to the lay state. It meant becoming a regular person without bed and board, and no special clerical privileges or perks.
Again, I must give myself credit for having laid some groundwork for the big leaving. While in the active priesthood I had befriended a Portuguese couple. They nurtured me with delicious meals and healthy affection. When I decided to leave the active priestly ministry, it was time to step out into the big, bad world. My Portuguese friend, Esmeralda, helped me find a place to stay. Kind souls donated dishes and cutlery. Just one problem: How to pay the rent?
It was the year 1989. Armed with my MA in counseling from the Catholic University of America, I set about the job search as a single male at 45, new to the US, with no tangible job experience. How to translate my interpersonal skills and my command of the Spanish language into something viable? I took what I could: a 16-hour-a-week gig teaching English as a Second Language to mostly Hispanic students at Fairfax County Adult Education paying $11.00 an hour. Thank you, Adult Education Coordinator, Nancy Scesney. That brought in around $700 a month. The rent was $500. Welcome to the real world, Paul! Things couldn’t get worse. And they did get better…
I began to enjoy the ESL classes and my re-encounter with Hispanic warmth. I had enough social skills to make friends with other community workers at Bailey’s Crossroads, Falls Church, Virginia. They alerted me to a better-paying job. I summoned the courage to apply for a position with a non-profit, Northern Virginia Family Services. The position required an MA in counseling, and my Spanish language skills were a plus. Thank you, Ann Wood, for hiring me and being a wonderful supervisor! My job title, Community Development Specialist, involved providing support to Hispanic and Vietnamese families living in the Culmore low-income housing neighborhood. Basically, a combination of social work and counseling, it provided me more fulfilling, lucrative, and self-enhancing employment. I spent many hours advocating for tenants in danger of being evicted, as well as students threatened with expulsion from the local elementary school. Now, for the first time, I had a salary and health insurance.
The isolated atmosphere of my years in the Legion of Christ far away from the US, and the sheltered nature of my Catholic priestly life in the Washington, DC area, had left several holes in my life skills and inculturation. I was yet to know about resources for those of us coming out of isolation into the world, such as Livia Bardin’s Starting Out in Mainstream America 5. My ignorance of American diversity and mores contributed to a faux pas and the loss of a step up in my Fairfax County position. A lack of professional tact shot me in the foot, and I had to start all over again to scale the professional counseling ladder. I learned from my mistake and waited, finally landing my best job: Child and Family Therapist with Human Services of Arlington County, Virginia. Thank you, Diana Manganelli, for believing in this still inexperienced, single, 50-year-old Spanish-speaking foreign Caucasian! And more than transformed me over those years.
I had been very clear with myself on my road to recovery that I would not make any further hasty decisions, meaning not committing to a serious relationship or entering marriage soon after leaving the priesthood. I was actually angry at the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi and their so-called spiritual directors telling exiting celibate members to get married and raise a family. I wanted to learn to be independent. I spent many lonely hours being single, which meant eating out and going to the movies alone. Slowly, I began to socialize with new groups of friends. I was still attached to Mexico and became close friends with three Mexican couples; around 1990, I began joining them for meals and family celebrations. I also had a small group of English-speaking friends: my Portuguese couple, an American single woman, and a Swiss-born atheist biologist and his English-born wife. I dated quite a bit without getting overly involved.
Among my priorities was getting back my family. For 23 years I had been separated from my four sisters, their spouses, and their children. Newfound freedom and income enabled me to visit them in Ireland and renew our relationships. I remember one very intense encounter where we ironed out our misunderstandings, and I was able to apologize to them for my isolation and silence. I made a point of visiting family in Ireland every 2 or 3 years and have been able to normalize our relationships and build strong bonds with some nieces and nephews, a source of great satisfaction and joy.
International Cultic Studies Association has helped put my former group Legion of Christ/Regnum Christi, whose nomenclature had morphed into the Regnum Christi Federation, on the world radar of harmful groups. Our first breakthrough, a presentation at an international conference, came through a victim of the founder Father Marcial Maciel’s sexual abuse. Other former members gradually made their way into the field through presentations and studies. My participation in the group’s activities, collegial collaboration, networking, and friendships over the past 30 years has been very healing and fulfilling.
In my 60s, and living in the Washington, DC area, just before traveling to Brussels for the ICSA annual conference, I began a relationship with a smart and pretty Guatemalan woman. We continued to get to know each other on my return, and soon we were a couple. She gave me a second family to care for and by which to be cared for. We were at the same life stage and soon would retire from our jobs and plan the next stage of our lives. This ultimately led us to settle in Guatemala, Central America. So now I am a happy Irish-Mexican-Guatemalan enjoying life, still fighting the good fight for truth and justice in my own limited way, open to new challenges and adventures.
[1] At this link, you can find the author’s video presentation from the ICSA 2023 Conference, entitled: “My Stages of Recovery from a Coercive Catholic Religious Order.” Go to: https://vimeo.com/827455498?share=copy
[2] This phrase, “a naïve and sentimental Dubliner,” was the main title of the author’s memoir, published on St. Patrick’s Day, 2020. It is available on Amazon. The full title is A Naive and Sentimental Dubliner in the Legion of Christ: Surviving and Thriving after Dealings with Pedophile, Psychopath, Legion of Christ Founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel. [3] This special bookstore was La Liberia Parroquial, Claveria, Mexico City. [4] This complete video is available online at ICSA’s member portal, at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yxj4C-dnjgQbRvpOFkjt-w8CoJI8a-Zk/view [5] Livia’s Barden resource, Starting Out in Mainstream America, can be accessed at https://sites.google.com/icsahome.com/starting-out
About the Author
Paul Lennon, STL, MA, LPC, Board member, Regain Network (Religious Groups Awareness International Network). Mr. Lennon was a Legion of Christ brother from 1961 to 1969 and an LC priest from 1969 to 1984. He served as a Diocesan priest from 1985 to 1989 and received an MA in Counseling from the Catholic University of America in 1989. For 20 years he worked as a Child and Family Therapist in Arlington, Virginia. In 2008 he published a memoir, Our Father who art in bed, A Naive and Sentimental Dubliner in the Legion of Christ which was the first version of what would become A Naive and Sentimental Dubliner in the Legion of Christ…
Marcial Maciel Degollado founded his own religious order and scaled the heights of ecclesial power. An Irish former priest who managed to ‘break out’ shares his story of the Mexican priest whose staggering litany of misdeeds is the focus of a new docuserie
Irish Independent, 27th September 2025
Marcial Maciel Degollado founded his own religious order and scaled the heights of ecclesial power. An Irish former priest who managed to ‘break out’ shares his story of the Mexican priest whose staggering litany of misdeeds is the focus of a new docuseries
Sarah Mac Donald
Fri 26 Sep 2025 at 22:30
He was once feted by the Vatican and had unparalleled access to Pope John Paul II who referred to him as “dear Fr Maciel”.
His supporters, including the Polish pontiff, considered him a living saint and adulated him. But the charismatic Mexican priest had a very dark side which included sexual abuse of as many as 60 junior seminarians aged between 11 and 16 – as well as the abuse of two of his own six children whom he fathered through affairs with four different women.
There was also his addiction to drugs and his financial corruption. This staggering litany was the focus of a new HBO Max docuseries Marcial Maciel: The Wolf of God. Using never-before-seen documents, exclusive testimonies and expert analysis, the four-part series tried to understand the dysfunctional thinking of Fr Marcial Maciel Degollado (1920–2008) the controversial founder of the Legionaries of Christ, one of the most influential religious orders in the Catholic church, which he founded in 1941.
The series looks at the mechanisms that allowed an obscure priest from rural Mexico, who was expelled from two seminaries, and was only ordained because his uncle, a bishop, allowed him to study privately for priesthood, was able to found his own order and scale the heights of ecclesial power.
His protectors, wittingly and unwittingly, enabled him to operate with impunity and lead a double life. Pope John Paul II was in thrall to the Legionaries’ zeal, staunch orthodoxy, traditional piety, rigid deference to authority and ability to raise massive amounts of money. One contributor to the series observes: “During the 20th century, Maciel was the greatest criminal of the Catholic church and equally its greatest fundraiser.” Another muses: “I have often wondered where sickness ends, and evil begins.”
The HBO series highlights last year’s revelations from the newly opened archives of the papacy of Pope Pius XII (1939-1958) which showed that the Vatican knew of concerns over Maciel’s misdemeanours as early as the 1950s. It suspended him as superior of the Legionaries in 1956 and ordered him into a detox programme for morphine addiction. A memo from October that year from the Congregation for Religious said Maciel should be barred from having contact with young seminarians. However, the interregnum that followed the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958 enabled Maciel’s backers to bury the scandal.
Responding to Marcial Maciel: The Wolf of God, the Legionaries’ director in the US, Fr John Connor, said in a statement on September 16 that several Legionaries had told him “that watching the series was a cathartic experience” and that by listening to the victims’ testimonies they were able to “face the magnitude of the evil our founder had perpetrated”.
Those who tried for years to lift the lid on Maciel and the Legionaries, many of them former members, said in a statement on September 2, that they were not “scandalised by Maciel’s life of abuse and crime, which was certainly scandalous, but rather by the inaction of superiors and the grave lack of trust they fostered”.
They said that while the Legionaries of Christ have made some progress in recognising “the evil done by Maciel,” it had failed to acknowledge “the constant ambiguity with which they continued to praise his figure and harm those of us who asked that the whole truth be told and sought”. They expressed concern that the narrative had been promoted that the problem was Maciel and Maciel alone. There had been no attempt to acknowledge complicity or responsibility of other superiors within the organisation.
One of those who blew the whistle on Maciel and the Legionaries long before the then 86-year-old was ordered in 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI to live a life of prayer and penance and to avoid any public ministry was Irishman, (John) Paul Lennon. From the age of 17 until he was 41, he was a Legionary priest. He studied in Salamanca and Rome and served as a missionary in Mexico. But disagreements with Maciel over the mistreatment of members forced the Irishman to leave after 23 years.
He is now a retired psychologist living in Guatemala with his wife Aura. He has dedicated a substantial amount of time to detailing his experiences of Maciel and the Legionaries in a bid to protect others from what he went through. He published the book Our Father, Who Art in Bed: A Naïve and Sentimental Dubliner in the Legion of Christ and was involved with the website http://www.regainnetwork.org, operated by members, as well as concerned parents and friends of active members of the Legionaries and its lay affiliation, Regnum Christi.
Lennon was one of the first eight Irish-born members of the order. In 1961, following a vocations talk by a Legionary, the Dubliner signed up along with two others from his class at St Vincent’s Christian Brothers school in Glasnevin. This “first batch of Irish guys” was “very idealistic and very generous”. There was a lot of fervour in Ireland at the time to be a missionary. “The whole idea of Mexico for those of us who had barely set foot outside the country won us over.”
The young Irish teenagers were “‘love-bombed” into joining with the offer of a free holiday in Bundoran, Co Donegal, according to Lennon. For a teenager from Dublin’s Cabra West in the early 1960s, it was exciting. They got to meet the founder in Bundoran and travelled with Maciel, who was referred to as “Nuestro Padre – Our Father’”, on an Aer Lingus flight to Lourdes, from where they crossed over the border into Spain to begin their studies in Salamanca.
Lennon came to understand that “the legion was not really a missionary society. It was an organisation which was targeting society’s elite. We signed up to be missionary priests among the poor in Mexico and Latin America where there was a lack of priests. We gradually found out that the legion’s aim was to create or ‘form’ lay leaders among the rich and powerful to transform society from the top down.”
The Legionaries of Christ, in Lennon’s opinion, was and is “a dangerous and ultra-secretive cult that idolised its founder” and he highlights that cult experts such as Steven Hassan, Rick Alan Ross and Miguel Perlado, as well as the International Cultic Studies Association, which has published some of his presentations on the Legionaries, “consider the Legionaries of Christ/Regnum Christi Federation cult-like”.
One of the central planks of this accusation was a vow of silence members were required to take in addition to the usual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. It prohibited members from making criticisms of the order, or the founder, and required them to report any members who did.
In 2007, the Vatican ordered its removal. “The way Maciel crafted this secrecy was marvellously well done. Even when I started having disagreements with Maciel, I still hadn’t the slightest idea that he was up to any other sort of stuff,” – a reference to the founder’s abuse of seminarians, including Juan Vaca, who took part in Jason Berry’s groundbreaking documentary, Vows of Silence.
Lennon wonders how Maciel was able to project himself as a saint?
“He was very dictatorial,” he says. “There was a lot of control. When you study sects and cults, it is apparent that information control is a big thing.
“It is incredible how this man seemed to do all this stuff naturally because he had never studied anything. Some people believe he didn’t even finish his studies for the priesthood. He was so good at conning everybody, he even conned his uncle into ordaining him. At the time of his ordination at 24 years, he had already started the legion.
“There was this deviousness in Maciel – that is why so many people were surprised by the double life. All the cunning and the deceit and lack of consideration for other people’s problems or feelings ties in with what they term an anti-social personality disorder.”
Lennon today believes Maciel was “a malignant narcissist” as explained by psychologist Daniel Shaw. “Maybe his superego was the holy founder, while his ego, which he never came to terms with or lay subconscious, was his libido.
“I believe John Paul II was quite gullible in some respects and was not a good judge of character. Maciel thoroughly deceived him. People are easily duped by appearances, but if you lived with him and saw him up close, you were likely to discover some of his failings.”
Despite its hugely chequered history, the Legionaries remain one of the most successful orders in getting vocations. Why should that be?
In 2024, (according to their own statistics, edited Lennon on October 4, 2025) there were 1,309 Legionaries of Christ in 23 countries around the world, including here in Ireland. Of these, three were bishops, 1,033 priests, 226 were men in formation and 47 were novices. Once again, appearances seem to matter. “All the priests are nicely dressed, relatively handsome and smiling and the congregation is fully approved by the Catholic church,” Lennon observes.
Lennon says that the Vatican’s Dicastery for Consecrated Life, which oversees religious orders and lay groups, recently suppressed a Peruvian group called Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV) and are looking into others where abuses may have taken place.
He believes the Legionaries of Christ should have been disbanded rather than reformed and regrets that Pope Francis was “ambiguous” towards the Legionaries, “supposedly keeping a close eye on them and then elevating Fernando Vérgez Alzaga”, a member of the Legionaries, to the cardinalate in 2022.
A fact not well known about the highest-ranking Irishman in the Vatican, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who was camerlengo in April in the wake of the death of Pope Francis, is that he was a member of the legion. Lennon in fact joined the Legionaries with Kevin Farrell’s older brother Brian Farrell, who is now a bishop. They were ordained together in Rome on November 26, 1969.
Bishop Farrell has continued to be a member of the Legionaries and up until last year he was secretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity. “Brian is a nice quiet fellow and opted to work in the Vatican where he has a lot of independence from the legion,” Lennon explains.
His younger brother, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, left the legion in 1984, the same year as Lennon. “Like many former members, he grew up and out of the legion. He probably got tired of Maciel’s dictatorial governance,” Lennon says. He joined the diocesan clergy in the US and had a stellar ecclesiastical career.
By contrast, it took Lennon many years to get his life on track. “After ‘breaking out’ of the legion in 1984, I was a total wreck,” he says.
Attempts were made to discredit the Irishman’s allegations by the legion who sought to sue him. But these days, “the legion no longer come after me”, they are too busy putting out the fires lit by investigative reports like The Wolf of God.
“Nos Parece Falso Presentar a la Legión de Cristo como un Grupo Sano”
COMUNICADO DE SACERDOTES EXLEGIONARIOS A PROPÓSITO DE LA DOCUSERIE “MARCIAL MACIEL, EL LOBO DE DIOS”
“Este comunicado no pretende hablar en nombre de todos los que salieron, pero creemos que da voz al pensamiento de gran parte de ellos. En nuestro caso personal somos sacerdotes realizados en nuestro ministerio de servicio a la Iglesia y damos gracias a Dios por las experiencias positivas vividas, a pesar de este escándalo y de otras negativas.”
ReGAIN observa como gran número de personas, católicas, cristianas y pensantes se percataron de la serie HBO-MAX, Marcial Maciel, el Lobo de Dios y del impacto que tuvo en los medios, de las reacciones de exlegionarios y exRegnum Christi, de muchos periodistas y locutores de televisión, y de la manera como el liderazgo de la Legión ha querido manejar la situación: hacia dentro cerrando filas, hacia fuera emitiendo documentos de prensa.
A ReGAIN nos parece interesante escuchar a un grupo de sacerdotes ex Legionarios que han ido abandonando la congregación durante las últimas décadas: explican sus preocupaciones, lo que han hecho desde la revelación de los desvíos del Fundador y del Cuadro de Mando; se presentan, aducen datos y opiones interesantes para nuestra consideración.
