The Legionaries of Christ Congregation published its sixth annual report on November 5, titled “Truth, Justice and Healing,” covering the period from January 1 to December 31, 2025, and accounting for the care of abuse victims, canonical procedures, reparation, and safe environments. The document is signed by the general director, Fr. Carlos Gutiérrez, and Catalina Gallego Barbier, international director of Safe Environments, and closes the 2020-2026 governance period. According to the congregation itself, it is being released later than in previous years due to preparations for the General Chapter.
Five new complaints and six canonical processes opened
The report indicates that five complaints were received in 2025. At the end of the year, there were six canonical procedures underway: five new ones were initiated and four of the five that had remained open since the previous report were concluded. In all active cases, precautionary measures were imposed, without prejudice to the presumption of innocence of the accused.
Since the first report, covering the period 1941-2019, the congregation has addressed complaints involving 25 priests not counted at that time. Of these, in nine cases abuse could not be substantiated, two were expelled from the congregation and the clerical state, seven are in process, and two await the conclusion of the civil process, as the canonical one has already ended. Three others were not prosecuted by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, one due to the death of the accused and two because they had left the congregation and the clerical state, and in two more the accused remains unidentified due to lack of information.
62 victims assisted and 64 reparation agreements
Since 2022, the independent channel Eshmá has assisted 62 victims, of whom 31 are receiving active care at the close of the report. Economic reparation is in effect in five territories; in 2025, two new agreements were signed, bringing the total to 64 since 2022.
Regarding safe environments, last year Western and Central Europe, Italy, and the Rome Delegation were accredited. Brazil began its first accreditation, while Colombia-Venezuela and Chile-Argentina started the reaccreditation process. The report also declares the study commission on authority and obedience, established in 2023, concluded; it produced the document Authority and Obedience in the Legion of Christ: A Path of Evangelical Renewal as a contribution to the General Chapter.
A request for forgiveness and a document to be updated
The 2026 General Chapter communiqué asked forgiveness for the errors committed in the care of victims, for not always having provided it promptly and sensitively, and for not always having harmonized transparency with the presumption of innocence. The Chapter also entrusted the new general director with promulgating an updated version of Protect and Heal, in force since 2020, adapted to the new Book VI of the Code of Canon Law and without the need to convene another Chapter.
“The commitments made in 2020 have become part of the identity and mission of the Congregation,” the report states. Gutiérrez writes that “truth, justice, and healing are not for us a task that closes,” and Gallego Barbier acknowledges that “no action can erase the harm caused.” The congregation sets itself eight lines of work: listening, reparation, justice, transparency, prevention, efficiency, collaboration, and the evangelical exercise of authority and obedience.
The full report, statistics, and a timeline since 2006 are available on the Legionaries of Christ website. The congregation still lives under the shadow of its founder, Marcial Maciel, whose case was referenced in its reaction to the HBO Max docuseries last August.