Contrary to previous reports, leaders from the Regnum Christi
Movement stressed that the visitation to be conducted by Church
officials will focus on the 900 or so consecrated members and not on the
group’s 70,000 lay people.
Although Regnum Christi leaders in the U.S. emphasized that
consecrated members will be the primary focus of the visitation, a
spokesman in Rome clarified to CNA that lay people will not be excluded
from the visitation and are free to contact Church officials during the
process.
Last month, Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, Pontifical Delegate to the
Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ, announced the names of the
four counselors who will assist him in reorganizing the beleaguered
religious order.
He also announced that the apostolic visitor to Regnum
Christi, the lay movement associated with the Legion, will be Archbishop
Ricardo Blazquez of Valladolid, Spain.
The main task of the counselors will be to help Archbishop De Paolis revise the constitutions of the Legion.
Contrary to recent news accounts, Regnum Christi leaders said that
the visitation of the group will not encompass all of the laity
involved, but consecrated members only.
“We continue to read media reports of a pending visitation to the
Regnum Christi Movement,” read an Oct. 25 statement. “Our understanding
is that the announced visitation is to the consecrated members of the
Movement.”
“In other words, the visitation will focus on the 900 or so
consecrated members, not the 70,000 members of the laity,” the leaders
added.
“Archbishop Blázquez, who will conduct the visitation of the
consecrated, has not announced the details of his visitation plan, but
the direction is clearly described in last week’s letter from Archbishop
Velasio De Paolis to Legionaries and consecrated Regnum Christi
members.”
In his letter, Archbishop De Poalis wrote that the “visitation will
be carried out under the responsibility of the papal delegate and in
coordination with the responsibility he exercises over the entire Legion
of Christ and the Regnum Christi Movement.”
“The Regnum Christi Movement is a treasure that is indivisibly
connected to the Legion, which should feel responsible for it and
continue offering it its help,” the archbishop noted.
“Nevertheless,
this relationship must also be the object of serene reflection and it is
part of the path of renewal regarding the Legion itself and its
constitutions, also in relation to the members of Regnum Christi.”
Clarifying aspects of the visitation in an e-mail to CNA, Fr. Andreas
Schöggl – spokesperson for the Legionaries of Christ in Rome – said
that “the visitator will actually visit the centers of the consecrated
members,” since “a visit to each family involved with Regnum Christi
would just not be feasible.”
However, he added, “this does not exclude” non consecrated lay
people, who “can also contact the visitor on their own initiative.”
“Archbishop Blázquez and Archbishop De Paolis are working out the
concrete details according to the instructions given by the Holy See and
then they will inform us and those to be visited,” he said.
SIC: CNA/INT'L