Legionaries of Christ

Members of the Legion take vows of humility, poverty, chastity, and obedience.

Love for Christ is, for Legionaries, a personal experience. Through the Gospel, the cross, and the Eucharist, Legionaries come to know Christ intimately, and love him in a passionate way by embracing him as their model of holiness.[15] Their spirituality is Christ-centered with a particular emphasis on the Sacred Heart in their vocation as religious and priests.[16]

Love for Mary flows from imitating Christ; the Blessed Virgin is loved as both Mother of the Church and of the individual Legionary's vocation. Legionaries consecrate their spiritual and apostolic lives to her care, and seek to take on her virtues of faith, hope, charity, obedience to God, humility, and cooperation with Christ's plan of redemption and justice.[15]

Love for Souls is expressed in an ardent desire to spread Christ's kingdom in this world. Legionaries try to use every moment of their time to help the greatest number of souls know and love Christ. For a legionary, time is a gift given by God which he wants to maximize to spread the Gospel and help bring the love of God to many souls.[15]

Outside the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome, Italy where Legionaries study Philosophy and Theology.

The students at Sacred Heart Apostolic School in Rolling Prairie, Indiana praying the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday, 2009

The Legion's Center for Higher Studies in Rome, Italy.

The Legion presents itself as dedicated to advancing the Church's mission in the world, and to this end claims to submit candidates to a rigorous formation of four dimensions: human, spiritual, intellectual and apostolic. Critics accused the Legion of producing priests and religious who all spoke and behaved in the same way. The Legion's defenders argued that, just as members of a family receive similar upbringing, so the members of the Legion were formed in like ways, but still respected the freedom of the individual. The new constitutions approved by Pope Francis present a more balanced approach to the formation of members.[17]

As is the practice in many religious congregations of the Roman Catholic Church, Legionaries may visit their family according to their superiors' discretion and the norms of the Congregation, the average being for about 4–7 days a year not counting special occasions. Regular contact with their families is encouraged with respect to written, verbal, and video communication.

The front of a Legionary School in Valencia, Spain.

Logo of the Universidad Anáhuac México Norte.

The apostolate of the Legionaries has many aspects, but focuses on the following:[18]

• Education and teaching at all levels.
• Pastoral attention to youth and families.
• Catechesis and preaching of retreats and spiritual exercises.
• Evangelization and mission work (especially in the Mexican State of Quintana Roo in the Yucatán Peninsula).
• Attention to the underprivileged, especially those groups that undergo the greatest spiritual, moral or material privation.
• Works of Christian charity and mercy.
• Supporting bishops in the formation of diocesan seminarians and in the ongoing formation of their priests.
• Spiritual attention to Regnum Christi members and accompanying them in their formation.

In the US, the congregation runs four schools. In 2012, all three of its high schools (Everest Collegiate High School, The Highlands School and Pinecrest Academy) were named in the list of top 50 Catholic High Schools developed by the Cardinal Newman Society, a Catholic group dedicated to promoting the teaching of Pope John Paul II in his 1990 Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae.[19]

In Mexico, the Legionaries administer the Anahuac University Network. Legionaries operate centers of education (minor seminaries, seminaries, schools and/or universities) in Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Korea, Ireland, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, the United States, and Canada.

In 2006, the Legion launched a test phase of Mission Network in the United States. Catholic Mission Network, Inc., is the umbrella organization which oversees and approves Legionary-endorsed apostolates that are not stand-alone like a school or retreat center. Its purpose is to provide both structure and supervision of the apostolates, and an overview as to what the Legion/Regnum Christi does as a whole, with brand-name-type recognition.[20]

The youth wing of Regnum Christi, offering spirituality for youth 11 to 16, is called ECYD. The commitments in ECYD vary over time, adapting to the ages of the members.[21] Many ECYD members are involved in clubs run or overseen by Legionaries or consecrated members of Regnum Christi.

Fr. Marcial Maciel

Marcial Maciel was born in Cotija, Michoacán on March 10, 1920, into a devout Catholic family during a time in which the Mexican government was fiercely anticlerical. He became a priest after a troubled youth.[22] Maciel was expelled from two seminaries for reasons that have never been explained. He became a priest only when one of his uncles ordained him after private studies.[23] The Legion began in Mexico where its largest base remains. Houses of formation were established in Spain and Italy within its first decade. In the 1960s, chapters of the organization were founded in Ireland and then in the United States. In the 1970s and 80s the congregation expanded throughout Latin America. In the 90s it expanded to France and Central Europe.[24]

After years of denial by the Congregation and the Regnum Christi movement and dismissal of accusations made by many former members, an investigation prompted by the Vatican concluded that allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Fr. Maciel were true. The superiors of the congregation did not officially inform the rest of the congregation until a year after his death, during which time, they continued to permit an internal culture of revering him as a saint. When the information was leaked to the press, the Legion was pressured into making a statement on the matter.

Long after the death of Maciel in 2008, the Legionaries of Christ eventually acknowledged their founder's "reprehensible and objectively immoral behavior" as head of the order.[25] As a result of the scandal, Pope Benedict XVI also removed the vows of charity and humility, which required members to maintain secrecy, impermeability, and refrain from criticism of superiors.[6] Despite these actions, Pope Benedict XVI never defrocked Maciel.[9]

After the scandals of Maciel came to light, some priests and seminarians left the congregation. Several schools and centers of formation closed.

In November 2019, the organization admitted that Father Fernando Martínez Suarez had abused eight minors between 1990 and 1993.[26] A month later, they admitted that members of the organization had sexually abused 175 children between 1941 and 2019. 60 of those were abused by its founder, some of whom were his own children from several relations. Six of the priests have died, eight have left the priesthood, one left the Congregation, and 18 continue in their posts.[27]

On December 21, 2019, the Legion of Christ acknowledged the abuse and also singled out former Secretariat of State Angelo Sodano for leading efforts to cover up the reports of abuse.[28][29][30]

Some critics have described the Legion as a cult.[31]

The Legion underwent a visitation by the Vatican and a process of renewal through a series of discussions revolving around the charism of the movement, the relationship of the congregation to the lay movement, and the place of both within the Church. The entire congregation revised the Constitutional document under the direction of a central committee and presented a final version to the new Pope Francis. Under the guidance of Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, the congregation announced the order's Extraordinary General Chapter in Rome in January 2014, for a "total restructuring". Apologies to the victims were issued and a compensation commission established.[32] In 2019, new statutes were adopted introducing collegial leadership and more transparent community life to prevent possible abuses in the future.[33]

• Regnum Christi
• ECYD
• Regnum Christi Consecrated Women
• Regnum Christi Consecrated Men
• Controversies surrounding the Legion of Christ

• Berry, Jason and Renner, Gerald. 2004. Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II. Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-4441-9
• Conde, Angeles and David Murray: The Legion of Christ: A History Circle Press, 2004. ISBN 0-9743661-2-9
• Maciel, Marcial. Christ Is My Life (Sophia Institute Press: 2003) ISBN 1-928832-97-0
• Maciel, Marcial. Integral Formation of Catholic Priests (Alba House, 1992) ISBN 0-8189-0629-4

• Erffa, Zita: "The Best Thing You Can Do with Your Life", Documentary, 93 min, Germany/ Mexiko 2018, Director: Zita Erffa, DOP: Bruno Santamaría, Production: Petruvski Films in Coproduction with Ojo de Vaca und HFF München, supported by the CCC Mexiko. Premiere: Berlinale 2018. In Mexican cinemas from: 9.th of November 2019: Cineteca Nacional. Information on IMDb. Stream film in Vimeo.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Legion of Christ.

• Legion of Christ
• Regnum Christi
• Mission Network (Programs sponsored by the Legion of Christ)
• Papal Delegate
• Jason Berry "How Father Maciel Built His Empire" National Catholic Reporter Apr 12, 2010