For several days there have been dark suggestions that something was up, and now American Papist confirms it:

The Ex LC Blog is claiming that Marcial Maciel is being renounced as the spiritual founder of the Legionaries of Christ, at least in some chapters, due to recent details that have emerged as the result of an internal investigation by the Legionaries:

Today, Fr. Scott Reilly, LC, Territorial Director in Atlanta, Georgia, announced to all those who work in the Territorial Direction of the Legion of Christ, that Marcial Maciel had a mistress, fathered at least one child, and lived a double life. For this reason, the Legion is renouncing him as their spiritual founder.

[The blog] Life after LC provides a more comprehensive picture:

Rumblings began last week about how the Legionaries were gathered in bits and bobs to inform them that the founder was indeed guilty of “certain accusations.” The rank and file were told in various places — some on retreat, others in special meetings. There are some consistent details about the Official Explanation that are trickling in:

1) Maciel fathered a child who is now in her early 20’s;
2) Maciel offered some money illicitly to his own family;
3) The current head, Alvaro Corcuera, entertaining his own suspicions, demanded that the case be reopened several years ago;
4) The health of the Legion depends on denouncing him as founder and moving on.

I have heard more details in addition, but in this situation, I tend to think we’ve already learned enough to make an evaluation. Anything further is simply prurient interest.

Suffice it to say that Pope Benedict’s disciplinary actions against Maciel and interventions in Legionary practice were fully justified, and that the Legionaries of Christ have some hard decisions to make with regards to how they respond to this crisis concerning the founder. The eyes of the world are on them, and the prayers of the universal Church are with them. It is somewhat encouraging to see that the current head of the LC’s personally saw to it that a thorough investigation took place. Now let’s hope they follow through on their discoveries.

You can read more at AmP, or visit the blogs Life After LC or Ex LC Blog.

Patrick Madrid shares his thoughts on this still-folding story, too.

And the always-reliable Amy Welborn has a good post up on all this, as well.

UPDATE: The New York Times has now caught up with this and posted a story on the controversy. And Fr. James Martin at America has this compelling insight:

The bigger surprise, if the reports are correct about the “renouncement” is this: For a religious order to “renounce” its founder is nearly unprecedented. Yet even a downplaying of the founder could be a serious blow to the order.

The “charism,” or guiding spirit, of an order comes from its founder. His (or her) writings, letters and spiritual practices are carefully studied and emulated by members of the order; such study makes up a large part of the members’ early training. Jesuits pore over the writings of St. Ignatius of Loyola; Franciscans of St. Francis of Assisi; Dominicans of St. Dominic. The founder or foundress is considered as the spiritual father or mother of the order. (Jesuits, for example, are often called “Sons of Ignatius.”) Statues, portraits and holy cards of the founder abound in the communities and works of the order. The influence of the founder or foundress on the life of the religious order he or she founded cannot be overstated. This is one reason why canonization of the founder is so important to religious orders; it is an implicit approval of the order itself: the two are inextricably linked.

A few founders have run into difficulties after their orders were set up (St. Francis of Assisi was nearly kicked out of his own order by Franciscans who found his poverty too extreme), but in those rare cases, the order always welcomes back the founder as an essential–the essential–part of the history and spirituality of the order. As one example, note the photo above, from CNS, is captioned, “Legionaries of Christ take part in a Jan. 31 [2008] memorial service in honor of their founder, Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, at the Irish Institute in San Pedro Garza, a suburb of Monterrey, Mexico.” The Legionaries generally refer to Father Maciel as “Nuestro Padre.”

It would be as if the Dominicans said, “We’re through with St. Dominic.”