Catholic World News

Attorneys distance themselves from recent claims against Legion of Christ founder

March 09, 2010

Attorneys representing an alleged former lover of Father Marcial Maciel and her children have severed ties with the family because their recent public accusations differed "in some substantial points" from what the attorneys had previously been told. Blanca Estela Lara Gutierrez claimed last week that the founder of the Legionaries of Christ fathered two children with her, and her sons claimed that Father Maciel sexually abused them.

In January, the woman’s eldest son asked for $26 million from the Legionaries of Christ in return for silence, according to a press release issued by the religious order.

After being directed by the Vatican in 2006 to withdraw from public life and spend his final years in “penitence and prayer,” Father Maciel died in 2008 at the age of 87.

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