Composed of 4 chapters of approximately 45 minutes each, the docuseries brings emotional interviews with three elderly citizens who endured sexual abuse as children under Maciel and were the first to denounce him. While these interviews do not go deep into the horrendous acts, they remain chilling and highlight the courage of these men in their twilight years; speaking out about such trauma is triggering, as victims must relive it, and few men disclose their experiences due to shame and prejudice. These are the standout voices of the docuseries, showing that healing and processing aren’t the same and that trauma lingers.

The documentary highlights the abuses Maciel endured as a child, his erratic path as a seminarian, and his societal ascent through powerful circles of cardinals, politicians, businessmen, and wealthy widows. The series also exposes his quadruple life: founder of a religious order, family man in Mexico and Spain, and sexual tourist in Thailand who abused underage boys. He is believed to have abused at least 60 young boys, including two sons from a marriage and some members of his order, and some of them became abusers, resulting in the normalisation of a network of predators and victims.

The sexual predator Maciel had six children, had sex with four women, and maintained two marriages and families: one in Mexico, the other in Spain. In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI, via the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, banished Maciel to “a reserved life of penitence and prayer, relinquishing any form of public ministry.” Maciel never faced a canonical trial, spending his remaining days in Jackson, Florida, USA, and refusing to confess his crimes, even on his deathbed.

A cult spreading its poison inside the Catholic Church

The Legion of Christ operated with a cult-like mentality, forbidding criticism or dissent of superiors in the hierarchy, thus silencing opposition to Maciel; brainwashing and gaslighting prevented reports of abuse; underlings laboured for little or no pay to promote the order and Maciel himself; and buildings featured prominent portraits of Maciel in many points in the buildings and houses, echoing cult dynamics.
In the horror movie ‘The First Omen’, a cult inside the Catholic church is seen, but what happens there is fictional, while Maciel behaved like an actual cult leader and not a priest. Although “cult” have become a slippery term as we’ve seen the rise of documentaries and fictional portrayals about them in media, to better understand the situation of Maciel and his followers I will quote a 2025 UOL (Brazil) interview that screenwriter and author Guinevere Turner gave to me about the similarities between cults independent of period or region: “It is about coercive control, and ultimately about making people give up their lives to work for someone for free and find their self-worth in their approval.”

Most of the time, the main victims of cults tend to be women and children. The boys endured the abuse and other maladies, but as if not enough, Maciel created the Regnum Christi movement with the excuse of bringing more women to the structures of Catholicism, but was, in fact, exploiting their work. The documentary has an interview focused on this chapter of his infamous life.

A Guinevere Turner quote from our 2024 Big Picture Film Club interview clarifies the link between cults and their practices: “The similarities across countries and decades of cults are kind of shocking sometimes. It is all just patriarchy on steroids, and in the rare case when there is a woman in charge, it is still power dynamics on steroids in which women and children usually suffer.”

Turner, once a child member of the Lyman Family commune, shares her harrowing yet endearing story in the memoir When the World Didn’t End (2023). Her account helps us understand how groups outside mainstream society behave.

‘Marcial Maciel: El Lobo de Dios’ is based on investigative journalism and in-depth interviews. By avoiding sensationalism and gratuitous attacks often present in other media portrayals of Catholicism and its followers, the series offers a more balanced perspective. HBO’s docuseries contributes to the conversation on sexual abuse, childhood trauma, religion, cults, and investigative journalism by showing that thorough investigation still matters and deserves resources to uncover dark stories and expose perpetrators.

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