MEXICO CITY ? A man claiming to be the son of the deceased founder of an influential Roman Catholic order admitted Friday in Mexico that he had sought $ 26 million to keep quiet about his father's incest.

Raul Gonzalez Lara, the alleged son of Marcial Maciel, the founder of the conservative Legionnaires of Christ, said he asked the group for the money to remain silent about sexual abuse allegations against his father.

He said he asked for $10 million to keep quiet about abuse against his brother, and another 10 million to keep quiet about nine years of sexual abuse against himself, in an interview on MVS radio.

The remaining $6 million corresponded to an inheritance, which Marciel had promised in a bid to "buy our silence," Gonzalez Lara said.

The administrator of the Legionnaires of Christ confirmed the existence of an inheritance, without giving a figure.

Raul and Omar Gonzalez Lara claimed to be the biological and adoptive sons of Marciel respectively.

This week, they described for the first time the alleged abuse they suffered from Maciel when they were less than 10 years old.

They sought a public apology from the Vatican, which had led a probe into multiple allegations of sexual abuse on seminarians by Maciel before his death, at age 87, in 2008.

Gonzalez's mother, Blanca Lara Gutierrez, also earlier told MVS that Maciel had led a double life for almost 20 years.

The Legionnaires on Thursday asked to be pardoned by those "affected" by the accusations of abuses carried out by their founder.

Founded in 1941, the Legionnaires became one of the most influential orders in the Roman Catholic Church and is believed to have some 70,000 members in 22 countries.