Mexican Catholic order Legion of Christ apologises to victims, Pope Francis must finally root out child abuse

Mexican Catholic order Legion of Christ apologises to victims 
6 February 2014

Pope John Paul II (right) gives his blessing to Father Maciel (left) in 2004, two years before the Mexican priest was ordered to retire

The Legion of Christ Catholic order has for the first time apologised to the victims of sexual abuse carried out by its founder, Father Marcial Maciel.

In a statement, the order condemned the "reprehensible and objectively immoral behaviour" of the Mexico-born priest.

Father Maciel led the order from its foundation in 1941 until 2006, when Pope Benedict ordered him to retire.

He abused seminarians as young as 12, and died in 2008 aged 87 without ever being convicted of his crimes.

A Vatican investigation also found out that he had fathered several children by at least two women, and used drugs.

"We want to express our deep sorrow for the abuse of minor seminarians, the immoral acts with men and women who were adults, the arbitrary use of his authority and of material goods," said the Legion of Christ in a statement....

Father Maciel was disciplined by the Vatican in 2006. Pope Benedict ordered him to stop exercising his ministry in public and to retire to a life of prayer and penitence.

Father Maciel, who was close to the late Pope John Paul II, always denied all the allegations....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-26076214


Pope Francis must finally root out child abuse
By Mary Dispenza  Thu February 6, 2014

Editor's note: Mary Dispenza, a former nun, was a plaintiff in a successful class action suit against the Los Angeles Archdiocese over child molestation claims. She is the area representative for SNAP, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, in Bellevue, Washington. She is also the author of "Split: A Child, a Priest and the Catholic Church."

(CNN) -- Finally. Finally. Finally, a strong important voice in the world, the United Nations, speaks out on behalf of the rights of children and condemns the Vatican and the bishops for crimes of violence, rape and sexual abuse against children by transferring pedophile priests from parish to parish, withholding documents for prosecution and perpetuating an institutional culture of secrecy and shame....

As a survivor of rape and violence at the hands of a priest when I was a young girl, I understand that secrecy....

It has taken me more than half a lifetime to piece myself back together. I was 52 years old and still captivated by the Catholic Church when I let the buried "secret" memories emerge. His name was Father Rucker -- George Neville Rucker. I must have trusted him when he asked me to crawl up on his lap as he sat watching a movie in an auditorium so long ago. He raped me while my mother was in the lunchroom nearby....

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles released 12,000 pages of files on scores of priests accused of sexually abusing children in 2013. I found out that the pastor of our parish back in 1947 suspected Father Rucker of "touching" little girls. It was the bishop who would not listen and passed Father Rucker on and on until 2002, when he was defrocked. He had become a real liability to Cardinal Roger Mahony, head of the archdiocese.

About 33 women accused him of abusing them when they were young. That's five decades of abuse.

In 2002, he was charged with 29 counts of molesting girls. He was taken off a cruise ship on its way to Russia to face the charges; authorities thought he was trying to flee. But his case was dismissed in 2003 after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the charges were too old....
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/06/opinion/dispenza-priest-abuse/