Members of the Legionaries of Christ will begin their extraordinary
general chapter on January 8 to elect new leaders and approve a new
constitution, the key step in an effort to renew the order after
revelations about the misconduct of their founder.
Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, appointed by retired pope Benedict XVI in
2010 to govern the order, announced the date of the opening of general
chapter in a letter to the 953 priests and the hundreds seminarians of
the Legion of Christ on October 4.
The chapter, he wrote, “comes at the end of a long journey of
spiritual renewal and will have as its principal purpose the conclusion
of revising the constitutions”, which set out the nature and purpose of a
religious order, the way new members are brought in and formed, and
govern all aspects of the members’ life together.
The chapter should conclude by the end of February, the cardinal
wrote, but it will be up to the chapter delegates to establish a firm
timetable. The constitutions adopted by the delegates – expected to be
about 60 priests – must be approved by Pope Francis before they take
effect.
Benedict XVI had ordered the reform and reorganisation of the
Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi, its lay branch, after
revelations that their founder, the late Fr Marcial Maciel Degollado,
had fathered children and sexually abused seminarians.
In a separate letter to the consecrated members of the related Regnum
Christi movement, it was announced that the general assembly for the
consecrated men would be held on November 25 to December 1 and for the
consecrated women on December 2-15.
Fr Benjamin Clariond, spokesman for the order, said that as of
December 31, the consecrated men of Regnum Christi numbered 85 and there
were 655 consecrated women.
A meeting of the priests, consecrated members and the thousands of
lay people who belong to Regnum Christi will be held sometime after the
Legionaries’ general assembly to finalise a document explaining how all
the branches of the movement work together, Fr Clariond said.