Legion of Christ - The Founder

The Founder

Marcial Maciel was born on March 10, 1920, into a devout Catholic family during a time in which the Mexican government was fiercely anticlerical.

On June 19, 1936, Maciel—a young seminarian at the time— apparently felt called to establish a new religious institute, and in 1941, with the support of the bishop of Cuernavaca, Bishop Francisco González Arias, he founded the Legion of Christ, which was originally known as the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart and Our Lady of Sorrows. The name was eventually changed because Maciel saw a likeness of his missionaries in the legions of Rome. Coupled to this was also the militancy of the Christian life found in St. Paul's letters. He claims he received his final inspiration concerning the name through Pope Pius XII when the Pope quoted the Song of Solomon when addressing a group of Legionaries: "Sicut acies castrorum ordinata" (Like an army in battle array). Maciel was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop González Arias in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City on November 26, 1944, after which he continued to build up the Legion and its lay counterpart, Regnum Christi.

Maciel was asked by Pope John Paul II to accompany him on his visits to Mexico in 1979, 1990, and 1993, and was appointed, also by Pope John Paul II, to the Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the formation of Candidates for the Priesthood in Actual Circumstances (1991). He was a member of the Interdicasterial Commission for a Just Distribution of Clergy (1991), the IV General Conference of Latin American Bishops (CELAM) (1992), the Synod of Bishops on Consecrated Life and Their Mission in the Church and the World (1993), the Synod of Bishops´ Special Assembly for America (1997) and, since 1994, a permanent consultant to the Congregation for the Clergy. The golden anniversary of his priestly ordination was celebrated on 26 November 1994, with 57 Legionary priests ordained on the anniversary's eve. Fr. Marcial Maciel also served as Chancellor of the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, which is based in Rome.

According to the Wall Street Journal, "The Legion of Christ...became a global phenomenon in Catholicism over the past few decades by joining a devotion to orthodoxy and secrecy with an equal fidelity to the Legion's charismatic founder, Father Marcial Maciel, who helped his community's cause by liberally dispensing funds to hierarchs in Rome. Other bishops complained of the Legion's cult-like aspects, but it was only in 2006, when the truth of Maciel's extensive record of sexual abuse and financial shenanigans was finally acknowledged, that the Vatican forced the elderly priest from ministry and launched an investigation."

In January 2005, Maciel, at age 84, was succeeded by Álvaro Corcuera, LC, as General Director of the Legion. MMaciel died in Jacksonville, Florida, on January 30, 2008, aged 87, and was buried in his hometown of Cotija de la Paz, Michoacán, Mexico.