Editing Legio Maria (section)

===Demographics===
In 1963 a movement of dissatisfied Catholics in south [[Nyanza Province]] left the [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Kisii|Diocese of Kisii]] and formed the Legio Maria Church, or Legion of Mary Church, under the leadership of the Lodvikus Simeo Melkio Ondetto and an old mystic woman named Mama Maria. This mystic woman is the one Legio Maria adherents relate with the Fátima Secrets.<ref name=Legiopedia>{{cite web|url=http://legiopedia.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150123015815/http://legiopedia.com/|date=22 January 2015|archive-date=23 January 2015|title=The 50 Norms of Legio Maria: How Should Legio Maria Faithful Live Their Lives?}}</ref> She is believed to have called a number of Catholics to the new movement by visionary appearances, telling them to look forward to her son who had come to Africa. Her spiritual son, Simeo Ondetto, was then a catechist in Roman Catholic Church. Ondetto was [[excommunicated]] by the Catholic Church in the 1960s. By 1980 the church numbered 248,000 adherents.<ref name=Schism>Barrett, David and John Padwick (1989), ''Rise Up and Walk!: Conciliarism and the African Indigenous Churches, 1815–1987'', [[Nairobi]]: [[Oxford University Press]]</ref>{{rp|66, 199}} Government estimates at the time of the split from the Catholic Church stated that there were nearly 90,000 followers of Legio Maria. By 1968, it had become a member of the [[East African United Churches]].{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

The Legio Maria Church was not the only church schism among the Luo people in the early years of Kenyan independence. Catholic missionaries had been working among the Luo for 61 years before the 1963 split.<ref name=Schism/>{{rp|135}} By 1966 there were 31 "distinct Luo separatist churches registered with the [[Government of Kenya|Kenyan Government]]."<ref name=Schism/> B{{rp|14}} Across Kenya, "by 1966 there were 160 distinct bodies with a total of 600,000 adherents, most of whom were formerly members of the Protestant or Catholic Churches," with the Legion of Mary Church being the largest of the schisms from the Catholic Church.<ref name=Schism/>{{rp|30}} {{As of|2004}}, estimates of the number of Legio Maria adherents were roughly just over three million.<ref>Rambaya, Samwel, "Legio Pope Blasts Leaders", ''The Standard (Kenya)'', Monday, 25 October 2004.</ref> In this regard, the Legio Maria Church is one of the most resilient and successful of the African-initiated churches.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

While the Legio Maria Church began exclusively as a movement among the Luo people, it is now found all over Kenya and even has significant numbers of communities among the [[Turkana people|Turkana]], [[Kalenjin people|Kalenjin]], [[Kamba people|Kamba]] and [[Luhya people]]s of [[Kenya]] and in [[Tanzania]], [[Uganda]], [[Rwanda]], [[Burundi]], [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|DRC]], and [[Ethiopia]]. In 1979, the word "mission" was added to the church's official name, becoming the "Legio Maria of African Church Mission."<ref name=Dreaming>Schwartz, Nancy (2005), "Dreaming in Color: Anti-essentialism in Legio Maria Dream Narratives", ''Journal of Religion in Africa'' 35, no. 2</ref>{{rp|159}}