Closing Mater Ecclesiae College

Legionaries of Christ
October 9, 2014

http://www.legionariesofchrist.org/eng/articulos/articulo2.phtml?id=42517&se=242&ca=905&te=586

Territorial Director for the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi in North America, Nancy Nohrden, made an announcement today with what she described as a “heavy heart.” Mater Ecclesiae College (MEC), the formation center in Greenville, Rhode Island, will be closing at the end of this academic year.

“In a world where there truly is constant change, we sometimes must find new ways to carry out our mission,” she said in a letter sent today to the consecrated women in North America.

(Click here to read the letter.)

Citing fewer vocations and lower than expected enrollment at the college due to the “difficulties and institutional changes” during the last few years and the “reality of our current world,” Nancy said maintaining the college’s NEASC accreditation would be “unviable in the foreseeable future.”

She expressed her thanks to the many consecrated women who have served on the MEC team through the years, and emphasized that Regnum Christi will continue to form the young women in North America who are discerning a vocation to consecrated life in the Regnum Christi movement.

“In fact, we are making plans for a new class of candidates next year here in the territory, and will let you know the location of that program when we have the details worked out,” she said. “As for those consecrated women currently in the studies stage, their formation continues to be a priority. We want to assure you that each of them will have the opportunity to complete her studies and receive a degree.”

Nancy pointed out that continuing the formation process at a different venue outside MEC could “provide new opportunities to share this gift (of consecrated life) and to live out this mission.”

“It can also allow for a more prudent use of our donor’s contributions in the future,” she added.

“Over the last two decades, MEC has served Christ and the Church by forming hundreds of women who came to discern a call to consecrated life in Regnum Christi,” she said. “With your support over one hundred young women in recent years have received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Religious and Pastoral Studies from the College.”

She said that because of their formation at MEC, dozens of women have discerned a call to consecrated life in Regnum Christi. Graduates have gone onto to minister around the world, “working with youth and adults, serving in parishes, and providing spiritual accompaniment to people seeking the love of Christ.”

Nancy was not able to discuss whether the Greenville property would be retained or not by the consecrated women and the Regnum Christi movement. “We are looking at options, and we hope it will stay in the Regnum Christi family, but that is not yet determined.”