Pope Benedict has approved disciplinary action against the founder of an influential Catholic religious order who has been accused of sexual abuse.
Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, who founded the Legion of Christ order in Mexico in 1941, has been told to observe a "reserved life of prayer and penitence" and to avoid saying mass in public. The Vatican issued a statement on Friday announcing its decisions and noting that they had been approved by the pope. It did not go into details about the accusations levelled at the priest.
The move, coming at the end of a long investigation, was seen by Vatican-watchers as showing that top officials believed at least some of the allegations were true. Father Maciel is thought to be the highest-ranking Catholic official to be disciplined for sexual abuse.
The issue is sensitive not only because of the high standing of the Legionaries of Christ in the Catholic Church. It is also well-known that Father Maciel, now 86, was frequently praised and supported by Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II.
The affair could be devastating for Father Maciel's conservative order, which has some 650 priests and 2,500 seminarians worldwide. The lay branch of the order, Regnum Christi, reportedly has 50,000 members. The Legionaries of Christ also run a pontifical university in Rome.
The Mexican priest has been accused of sexually abusing seminarians and young priests in the 1940s and 1950s. The accusations first became public in the late 1990s when the Vatican began an investigation.
Father Maciel has denied all the allegations against him. The investigation by the Vatican's doctrinal body, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was suspended in 1999 but then started again in 2004. In 2005 Father Maciel stepped down as head of the Legionaries of Christ because of his age and poor health. It is unclear how many people are alleged to have been the victims of the Mexican priest, who is now aged 86. Initially, nine accusers came forward, but there are said to have been others since then.
The Vatican statement said its action regarding the priest should be seen "independently" of the order he founded. The statement expressed "gratitude" to the Legionaries of Christ for its work and described it as a "worthy" organisation. The order operates in some 20 countries, including Spain and the United States, and has enjoyed rapid growth in Latin America.
The Legionaries of Christ said in a statement on Friday that the order accepted the instructions from the Vatican in a spirit of "obedience and faith". It recalled that Father Maciel had always declared his innocence and chosen not to defend himself.
