His 2004 book Vows of Silence deals with the sexual abuse of Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legion of Christ, and the cover-up of that abuse.
While he was Vicar General Garza lead efforts to investigate charges of breaking his vow of celibacy brought against Legionaries founder Marcial Maciel.
He was a member of the Interdicasterial Commission for a Just Distribution of Clergy (1991), the IV General Conference of Latin American Bishops (CELAM) (1992), the Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Consecrated Life and Its Role in the Church and in the World (1994), the Synod of Bishops' Special Assembly for America (1997) and (since 1994) a permanent consultant to the Congregation for the Clergy.
Jason Berry writes that Sodano, as John Paul II's secretary of state, "pressured Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict, in two notorious cases," the Hans Hermann Groër case and the Marcial Maciel case, to stop investigations into abuse.