Pope Benedict XVI has ordered an investigation into the activity of influential Catholic religious order the Legion of Christ after reports of sexual impropriety by its late founder.It was revealed in February that Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, who died last year at the age of 87, had fathered a daughter now in her 20s.
Father Maciel had previously been disciplined by the Vatican in 2006 for the sexual abuse of seminarians and young priests in the 1940s and 1950s.
In a letter published on the Legion's website, Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone told the movement that the pope had nominated a team of prelates who will make ''apostolic visitations'' to the Legion's institutions before submitting a report on their activity.
Bertone said the pope wanted to help the Legion deal with its current problems with ''truth and transparency'' but stressed that Benedict had renewed his ''solidarity and prayers'' for the movement and those associated with it.
Father Alvaro Corcuera, director general of the Legionaries, said he ''thanked the Holy Father from my heart'' for offering help ''to face our present vicissitudes related to the grave facts in our father founder's life''.
He added that the Legionaries were ''deeply saddened and sorry'' about Maciel's sexual impropriety and asked ''for forgiveness from God and from those who have been hurt through this''.
In 2006 Benedict approved disciplinary action against Father Maciel, who had been accused of sexual abuse, telling the Mexican priest to observe a ''reserved life of prayer and penitence'' and to avoid saying mass in public.
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.
The accusations first became public in the late 1990s.
Father Maciel, the highest-ranking Catholic official to be disciplined for sexual abuse, denied all the allegations against him.
At the time the Vatican said its action regarding the priest should be seen ''independently'' of the order he founded.
The Legion of Christ has a high standing in the Catholic Church and Father Maciel was frequently praised and supported by Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II.
Father Maciel founded the Legion of Christ in Mexico in 1941, and the order now operates in some 20 countries, including Spain and the United States, and has enjoyed rapid growth in Latin America.
It has has some 700 priests and 1,300 seminarians worldwide. The lay branch of the order, Regnum Christi, reportedly has 70,000 members.
The Legion of Christ also runs a pontifical university in Rome.
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(Source: ANSA)