“Suffer the little children to come unto me”

…oh too amusing.  The Church in its wisdom has gently reproved Maciel, now 86, the Mexican founder of Legions of Christ and Regnum Christi. 

 Beloved as he was by JPII.  Protected as he was by Ratzy.

 

 And the meek shall inherit the earth. But only when the blasphemers are done with it…

 My cynical guess, they sent a child to announce it to Maciel.  To soften the blow.  I note he is not laicised, he may still consecrate the host and say Mass.  Tho he is "restricted".

 National Catholic weighs in. 

 Within the Vatican, the Maciel case has long been seen as particularly sensitive, in part because it could tarnish the reputation of the late John Paul II, who warmly praised and repeatedly honored Maciel.

The case could also call into question the action of Benedict XVI, who as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith stopped the case against Maciel in 1999. However, he reactivated the case in 2004 and ultimately approved the disciplining of Maciel.

A senior Vatican official told NCR that the decisive break came only in late 2004, when a number of additional accusers came forward.

 Prior to that, he said, both John Paul and then-Cardinal Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI, were operating on the assumption that the charges were not justified.

Maciel becomes perhaps the highest-profile priest in the Catholic church to be disciplined for allegations of sexual abuse.

He has a distinguished Catholic lineage. Two of Maciel's great-uncles were Mexican bishops during the anti-clerical persecutions of the early 20th century. One, Bishop Rafael Guízar Valencia of Veracruz, was beatified by John Paul II in 1995, and a decree recognizing a miracle that clears his path to sainthood was signed by Benedict XVI April 28. Maciel's uncle, Jesús Degollado Guízar, was the last commander-in-chief of the Cristeros army that took up arms in defense of the church.

                      

Try not to gag too hard.  It is so standard.

…and the  Washington Post

 "The real question the Vatican now faces is what do you do about the Legion, an organization that is founded on a lie, a myth about the founder," said Jason Berry, co-author of a 2004 book and forthcoming documentary film, both titled "Vows of Silence," about the Maciel case.

The Legion and its supporters have long maintained that Maciel is an innocent victim of a conspiracy by people opposed to his doctrinal conservatism.

In 2002, the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, editor of the Catholic journal "First Things," wrote that "after a scrupulous examination of the claims and counter-claims, I have arrived at a moral certainty that the charges are false and malicious."

The complaints of sexual abuse came to light in the 1990s, when nine former members of the Legion, including several priests, charged that Maciel had molested them from the 1940s into the 1960s.

 …and the NYT.

Juan Vaca, a former priest in the Legionaries who said Father Maciel abused him over 10 years starting in 1950 when he was 12, said he felt Father Maciel should be removed from the priesthood entirely — something the Vatican decision did not do.

"It's not enough," Mr. Vaca, an adjunct professor of psychology and sociology at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., said in an interview on Thursday as reports of the decision began leaking out. "Because this man has done a lot of damage to a lot of people — to children and supporters and even the hierarchy of the church."

The decision was first made public on Thursday on the Web site of National Catholic Reporter.

The Vatican document did not specify exactly what duties Father Maciel would be barred from, but the National Catholic Reporter quoted anonymous Vatican officials as saying he could not celebrate mass publicly or give speeches or interviews.

Since its founding in 1941, the Legionaries have tracked an impressive arc of growth and influence with Father Maciel as its charismatic helmsman: It now has 650 priests worldwide, 2,500 seminarians in 20 countries and 50,000 members in its lay affiliate, Regnum Christi. The order runs a dozen universities, and recently opened its first degree-granting college in the United States, the University of Sacramento.