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VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Rev. Alvaro Corcuera, who led the Legion of Christ religious order through the turmoil surrounding revelations that its founder was a pedophile and fraud, has died. He was 56.
The Legion said Corcuera, who stepped down as superior in 2012 because of a brain tumor, died Monday in Mexico City.
Corcuera took over as superior in 2005, a year after the Vatican opened a secret sex abuse investigation into the Legion's founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel. Even though the Vatican found Maciel guilty in 2006 and Legion officials opened their own internal investigation, Corcuera and the rest of the Legion leadership continued to publicly defend him as a saint until admitting to his double life in 2009.
Corcuera then led the Legion through three years of Vatican receivership.
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