LEGION OF CHRIST: POPE FRANCIS OFFERS TO FORGIVE PAEDOPHILE SCANDAL ORDER

Legion of Christ: Pope Francis offers to forgive paedophile scandal order

Pontiff says members must perform acts of penance to receive ‘plenary indulgence’ by next June over longstanding sexual abuse accusations

Pope Francis has offered 'plenary indulgence' to the Legion of Christ.

Alessandra Benedetti/Corbis

Agence France-Presse in Vatican City

Thursday 29 October 2015 23.56 EDT
Last modified on Thursday 29 October 2015 23.58 EDT

Pope Francis has granted a “plenary indulgence”, or religious pardon, to the ultra-conservative Legion of Christ movement, mired in a paedophile scandal, provided its members perform acts of penance, Vatican Radio has said.

The Legion of Christ has for years been beset by accusations of sexual abuse. The order’s founder, Mexican-born Marcial Maciel, stepped down in 2005 amid allegations of paedophilia and fathering several children. He died in 2008.
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In August the Chilean government decided to deport the Irish priest John O’Reilly, the local Legion head who was convicted of sexually abusing a young girl.

“After the huge scandal provoked by its hellish past” the Legion of Christ group “has begun a period of purification and renewal”, Vatican Radio said.

The “jubilee” indulgence is offered to all the group’s members for a period beginning next month, during the 75th anniversary year of the Legion’s founding and will conclude next June.

However the “indulgence” comes with conditions attached.

“The plenary indulgence will be granted if they dedicate a sufficient amount of time to the corporal or spiritual works of mercy,” Vatican radio said.

It will also be granted “if the members dedicate time to learning or teaching Christian doctrine, or if they participate in evangelisation missions”, it added.

The announcement comes as Pope Francis prepares for his first visit to Mexico, the bastion of the Legion of Christ.

Italian Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Vatican tribunal that deals with the forgiveness of sins, issued the decree following a request from the Legion of Christ’s new general director Eduardo Robles Gil.