Francis Revolutionizes the Legion of Christ

By Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican Insider
December 9, 2013

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/the-vatican/detail/articolo/legionari-di-cristo-legionaries-of-christ-legionarios-de-cristo-30510/


Francis is revolutionizing the Legion of Christ. Vatican Insider has learnt that the Legion plans to announce the order’s complete restructuring at its Extraordinary General Chapter in Rome, in a month’s time. “All the work carried out so far is oriented towards making each group that is inspired by the spiritual kingship of Christ, autonomous,” members of the Curia have stated.

The Legion is to be split into three sections: laity, consecrated persons and priests. Each of the Legion’s three branches will have “full autonomy in the organisation and choice of its leaders and internal roles.” The common reference to Christ’s kingship will translate into various “forms of collaboration” between the three groups which will, nevertheless, be completely independent from each another.

On the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi on 4 October, Cardinal Velasio de Paolis, the Pontifical delegate to the Legion of Christ and the “Regnum Christi” movement, wrote a letter addressed to all members of the Legion, stating that the time had come to call an Extraordinary General Chapter. In the letter, the cardinal, who was nominated by Benedict XVI and kept on by Francis, mentions a letter Benedict XVI wrote in 2010. “Although Ratzinger did not give a specific time frame, it was predicted right from the start that the necessary spiritual renewal process and revision of the Constitutions of the Legion of Christ would not be complete in less than three years,” De Paolis informs.

Sometimes the great things in the Church are the fruit of great sinners. This is certainly the case with the Legion of Christ and the lay Regnum Christi movement which were founded by Marcial Maciel Degollado. In 2006 a Vatican inquiry found Degollado guilty of committing acts of sexual abuse against numerous young disciples. But this was not all. Following the priest’s death in 2008, another uncomfortable secret was unmasked: Degollado had had a love affair with a Mexican woman and fathered a child, who is now 20 and lives in Spain.

The General Chapter will begin on 8 January 2014 at the Legion’s general directorate in Rome and chaired by the papal delegate. The following will be attending the meeting by virtue of their office: the General Director, the members of the General Council, the Secretary General, the General Procurator, the General Administrator, the General Prefect of Studies, and Territorial Directors. All other delegates have been elected by peers from the Legion’s various territories. They make up just over two thirds of the order. “This chapter’s 'main tasks will be the election of a new government for the institute and the approval of the new constitutions,' Francis announced last June.



Although it is presumed that the General Chapter will be over by the end of February, the Chapter itself will decide on dates according to the progress made during the meetings. The Vatican is now aware of the effect Degollado’s immoral acts have had on the life of the congregation and the lay movement which he founded. “All sick branches need to be removed in order to save a plant of great value,” the Curia says.

The sickest parts of the plant were to be found in South American countries like Brazil and Chile; in Mexico, however, it is growing strong. In 2006 Benedict XVI decided to repeal the vote of charity Degollado had introduced, whereby Legionaries had to promise never to criticize their superiors. Malicious gossip was the most anti-Christian of acts Legionaries were told. When Ratzinger relieved them from this obligation further, a whole load of cockroaches came crawling out. The order’s internal clean-up operation is being carried out without any form of censorship or connivance; particularly in cases where priests’ reputations have been seriously tainted because of their involvement in acts of sexual abuse.