The Vatican, which has just finished a nine-month inquiry into the Legion of Christ, said it would launch "a journey of profound restructuring" for the disgraced group.

Pope Benedict XVI will appoint a special envoy to overhaul the 69-year-old order within weeks.

"The Legionaries thank the Holy Father and embrace his provisions with faith and obedience," the group said on its website after the Vatican announced the move.

The Roman Catholic Church and Pope Benedict XVI, in particular, are currently under increasing pressure to tighten up internal discipline, after a series of previously covered-up sex abuse cases have come to light across Europe.

Founding father

The order's founder, Marcial Maciel, is alleged to have sexually abused numerous underage seminarians. He also conceived three children with two women, the order recently said in an official apology.

He died in 2008, still a priest, despite being told to retire to a life of "prayer and penitence" by the pope in 2006. Eight priests had accused Maciel of molesting them as children years before this, but the order denied these claims.

At the time, he was one of the most prominent persons to be disciplined for sexual misconduct in the Church's history.

Without addressing accusations that the church hierarchy was aware of and covered up Maciel's misconduct, the Vatican condemned the Legion founder's "very serious and objectively immoral actions confirmed by incontestable testimonies" in its statement on Saturday.

The Legion of Christ has about 850 priests and 2,500 seminarians in 21 countries around the world. It also runs a Catholic university in Rome.

msh/Reuters/AFP

Editor: Toma Tasovac