Vatican City - The No. 2 official in the Legionaries of Christ has broken his silence on the eve of a Vatican meeting to discuss the fate of the order following revelations that its late founder led a double life.
The Rev. Luis Garza Medina says he only realized the accusations against Rev. Marciel Maciel were true in 2006, when the Vatican ordered the founder to spend the rest of his life in penance and prayer.
It wasn't until March that the Legionaries explicitly acknowledged that Maciel had sexually abused seminarians, fathered a daughter and that two men claimed to be his sons as well.
Garza Medina spoke to Rome daily La Repubblica a day before five Vatican experts were to discuss their investigation of the order with the Vatican secretary of state.