This is an IHeart podcast.

I was at work when I heard the news.

It was January 2008.

I had a missed call from an old friend from Renewen Christi. She was out of the Legion by then and we hadn't spoken in a while. When I called her back, she told me Masiel had

died the day before. They were organizing a big event. She even warned me to be prepared

because rumors were he was getting canonized. At least that was what people inside the Legion were

thinking. Masiel died in Jacksonville, Florida. He was 87 years old. The report said it was from

natural causes. A quiet death in bed, colleagues by his side, maybe his daughter,

Normita, just 21, holding his hand. I couldn't stop thinking about it.

This was a man accused of abusing children for more than half a century,

boys who had trusted him, even his own children.

And after all of it, he left this world without a trial, without even facing the people

he had destroyed. He died with many still calling him a saint, a congregation of thousands

mourning him. But for some of us, that day didn't bring closure. It just ripped the wounds open all over again.

And for Maciel's oldest son, Raul Gonzalez, it was the day the silence finally broke.

I was arriving to my house and my brother Omar was walking.

He was going out.

He said, hey, Raoul, stop.

And I said, what?

Something happened.

I said, what?

What happened?

...