The former director of the Legionaries of Christ, Álvaro Corcuera Martínez del Río, who was the successor of founder Marcial Maciel Degollado as head of the congregation, died on Monday at 1:35 pm in Mexico City, due to complications by a cancerous tumor in the brain.

Corcuera, who requested a leave to the post on October 11, 2012, died while being taken care in Mexico City.

The Legion informed of his death and announced that he will be laid to rest in the French Graveyard of Saint Joaquim, in Mexico City, after a privately held funeral. Corcuera was notified of the brain tumor on 2013.

The current head of the Legionaries, Eduardo Robles-Gil, wrote a letter to the members of the congregation, inviting them all to “offer services and prayers to commit his soul to God and thank the Lord for the life of this father, brother and friend, who was our general director during the hardest years of our history”.

Álvaro Corcuera Martínez del Río was born in Mexico City on June 22, 1967, and in 1975 he was consecrated as layman in the Regnum Christi. Four years later he entered the Legion and was ordained as priest in 1985.