The Maciel Iceberg – the queries that arise
The recent release (August 2025) of the HBO mini-series Marcial Maciel, el lobo de Dios, (Marcial Maciel the wolf of God) has reopened for many of us old wounds and prompted new questions with the benefit of perspective.
Most of the world, the religious world at least, knows of the story of Marcial Maciel the disgraced founder of the Legion of Christ, or think they do. The world has been shocked by his now proven pederasty and his double and treble lives.
But like any good iceberg the vast majority has been hardly revealed nor indeed examined.
1. What became of the dozens of complaints and reports sent to the Catholic Church authorities starting in 1942 until his death in 2008?
2. How did he take in all the Popes? Or did he? Were they all complicit in the walls of silence to a greater or lesser degree? Pope John Paul’s (2) wilful ignorance seems the most damning, but Ratzinger comes out very compromised the more one researches. Ratzinger criticized/disciplined numerous eminent theologians including Hans Kung, Leonardo Boff, Charles Curran, Anthony de Mello but there is no record of him criticizing or disciplining a single sexual deviant cleric including Maciel, whom he ‘invited’ to live a life of penance. Why so?
3. What role do Mexican civil authorities have in hiding him, also the politicians, the press, the monied class, the titans of industry?
4. How many people’s lives and reputations were destroyed by the Legion and its supporters when they spoke the truth? Have they been ever compensated? (hint, the answer is no).
5. Has anyone tried to trace the billions and billions of dollars the Legion amassed or for what it was used? Forensically? Or where it is now?
6. How many donors gave money in good faith? Has anyone been repaid?
7. How many clerics and others did Maciel/the Legion try to bribe? Are there any civil cases pending?
8. Does the conduct of Maciel, the Legion and the Church diminish faith in all three?
9. What of the people around Maciel?
10. How many were abused? How many became abusers? Many are dead, but should we open the old annals?
11. How many lies did Maciel and the Legion tell in raising monies. Where has it all gone? Are there many civil complaints?
12. Has the Legion illegally avoided taxes, in how many countries? Any penalties?
13. Why has the Church not made a more serious effort to make the Legion less like a sect? The fourth vow, not to criticize superiors, was a clear and blatant effort by Maciel to contain information especially about him. Now removed. But does the Order continue to monitor members mail, written and online, their access to the internet. Does the oppression of cult still apply?
14. Is the damage that Maciel and accomplices did to members mental and spiritual lives far in excess of the numbers abused sexually? Is it possible that there are tens of thousands of people who have suffered mentally and spiritually at the hands of Maciel and his accomplices. Have those in the Legion ignorant of his crimes nevertheless damaged thousands of lives inadvertently?
15. What is the raison d’être of the Legion? After approx thirty years an objective materialised. The stated aim, to create Regnum Christi, a group of lay people who would live the Gospel, but Regnum Christi in turns opens another Pandora's box.
16. Why does the Legion seem to live by the motto, the end justifies the means? What crimes have been committed on this fictitious basis?
17. Was the Church investigation in 2010 a useless cover up? Why were those who facilitated Maciel and his drugs and women and tax evasion not named and shamed?
18. The Legion admits to c. 33 priests in the Order as sex criminals and a further c. 45 students who left. Can we take the Legion’s word? How many have been prosecuted by civil authorities?
19. Is there any attempt to classify how much money was taken under false pretences? Any names? Any consequences?
20. The Legion says that it knows of 60 minors abused by Maciel. Is there any independent effort to look for more? Many assume it was a multiple of this. Can we ever know?
21. Why is there no questioning of the roles of the Mexican hierarchy?
22. Why has no one yet got an explanation from the Vatican about its role in the cover ups of over fifty years?
23. Why do cases of Legionary priests abusing minors still surface on a regular basis, even after the death of Maciel?
24. Is there something flawed inherently about the Legion?
25. Would it be better for everybody If the Legion were wound up and made part of another order with a real vocation? Perhaps the Franciscans who tend to the poor?
26.How many members mental and physical health was destroyed directly by Maciel? Did any die because of him? Was he a psychopath?
27.What are ex-Legionaries to make of the years they gave to the Order? Was it a complete waste of time working for an organisation where the founder and some/much of the leadership was corrupt and complicit?
28. Does the case of Maciel, of his accomplices, the hierarchy, the curia, the Popes call into question the reliability of Church in truth telling generally?
29. Is the inevitable conclusion that the Church will never try to prosecute those within the Legion because it raises too many difficult questions?
End, for now.
