Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI has ordered an internal investigation a religious order in the wake of revelations that the conservative religious group's late founder had fathered a child.

The decision was announced Tuesday by the Legionnaires of Christ order on it website. It posted a letter written by Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone to the head of the order Father Alvaro Corcuera

The pope had ordered the "apostolic visitation" because he wanted to help the Legionnaires of Christ deal with its present problems with "truth and transparency," Bertone's letter said.

In February, Legionaries of Christ officials in Rome disclosed that Father Marcial Maciel had fathered a child with a mistress. News reports also indicated the order was looking into accusations of financial irregularities by Maciel.

In 2006, following allegations that he had sexually abused young seminarians, the Vatican ordered Maciel to renounce public ministry as a priest and spend the rest of his life in prayer and penitence.

Mexican-born Maciel died in 2008 at the age of 87.

He had long been dogged by allegations of sexual misconduct.

But the Legionnaires were admired by the late and staunchly anti- Communist Pope John Paul II, who viewed the conservative order as a bulwark against the spread of liberation theology and other leftist ideas in the Catholic Church.