Legionaries reject congresswoman's charges that they covered up abuse

Mexico City, Mexico, Jun 2, 2010 / 16:07 pm

The Legion of Christ in Mexico rejected a lawsuit brought before the country’s attorney general by a local congresswoman charging that the Archbishop of Mexico City and other noted officials were responsible for covering up the sexual abuse committed by Legion founder Fr. Marcial Maciel.

Congresswoman Leticia Quesada Contreras claimed that Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City and various members of the Legion of Christ, including its superior general, Father Alvaro Corcuera, were complicit in a cover up regarding the sex abuse crimes of the Legionary founder.

The Archdiocese of Mexico City told CNA that Congresswoman Quesada likely lacks the necessary information to understand that Cardinal Rivera has no civil or canonical responsibility in the case of Legion’s founder and that an effort would be made to make that information available to her.

Releasing its own statement responding to the claims, the Legion asserted that “the congregation has always been open to collaborating with all civil and ecclesial authorities, and at the same time we deplore the commission of any illegal act.”

The group said it rejected charges of any criminal wrongdoing and stressed that it was irresponsible to make the contents of the lawsuit public without it being reviewed first by officials. The group then claimed that the sole motivation behind the lawsuit is to defame the good names of many who have chosen what they called a vocation of service to others in sincerity and honesty.

Adding that although the Legion “has confronted with humility and openness the facts we have learned about the life of our founder, Father Marcial Maciel Degollado,” the statement underscored that in justice, “we cannot tolerate gratuitous lawsuits whose purpose is to create an atmosphere of media lynching devoid of any legal basis.”

The Legion recently announced that its members will be praying a Novena of Atonement to the Sacred Heart on June 2 - 11 in reparation for the "infidelities of priests and consecrated souls, and to ask for the grace to move toward the future with hope and a renewed commitment of joyful and holy self-giving to Christ, the Church, and souls."

The order's statement also urged all Legion and Regnum Christi members to offer "First Friday Mass, Eucharistic adoration, and personal sacrifices in a spirit of atonement and penance," for a full year beginning on June 11.