Disgraced founder of Institute of Divine Word dies at 82
April 28, 2023
Father Carlos Miguel Buela, the Argentine priest who founded the Institute of the Incarnate Word, has died in Genoa, Italy, at the age of 82.
Members of the missionary institute, founded in 1984, take a fourth vow of Marian slavery according to the spirituality of St. Louis de Montfort.
In 2010, Father Buela resigned as head of the Institute at the request of the Vatican. In 2016, following a Vatican investigation, the Diocese of San Rafael (Argentina) announced that he had committed sexual misconduct with adult seminarians. The Vatican forbade him from having contact with members of the Institute, from appearing in public, and from making statements. In 2020, it emerged that former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick had given almost $1 million to the Institute.
The willingness of the Vatican, under the leadership of Pope Francis, to impose penalties in some form on Father Buela contrasts with the lack of similar penalties for Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, the Argentine prelate who was found guilty in civil court of sexually abusing two adult seminarians. Canonical proceedings involving Bishop Zanchetta, a close associate of Pope Francis before his election, were initiated in 2019.
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