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Get to know Regnum Christi

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Questions range from the identity and spirituality of Regnum Christi, to how each vocation lives their call to Regnum Christi, what it means to be contemplative and evangelizing, how the Regnum Christi Federation is structured, and how people live Regnum Christi in localities across the North American Territory.

 

Each answer is based on the Statutes of the Regnum Christi Federation, the Rule of Life for lay members of Regnum Christi, and the constitutions of the Legionaries of Christ, the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi, and the Lay Consecrated Men of Regnum Christi, along with other documents.  There is a “go deeper” feature for each question with links to supporting documents, spiritual resources, videos, and more.

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Get to Know Regnum Christi

Regnum Christi is a spiritual family and an apostolic body made up of four different vocations that all share the same Christ-centered, contemplative and evangelizing charism. Regnum Christi members seek to grow in a personal relationship with Christ through prayer, live holiness in their vocation and state of life, build a vibrant community of apostles, and evangelize with Christian boldness.

 

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Regnum Christi (Latin for “Kingdom of Christ”) is a Federation within the Catholic Church. The Regnum Christi Federation is a spiritual family and an apostolic body made up of four different vocations: the religious congregation of the Legionaries of Christ, the Society of Apostolic Life of the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi, the Society of Apostolic Life of the Lay Consecrated Men of Regnum Christi, and the lay members of Regnum Christi who associate to the Federation as individuals. 

 

Every international Catholic organization that is formally approved by the Holy See takes on a specific form or structure that under the jurisdiction of a Vatican dicastery. On May 31st, 2019 — after years of discernment during which they were advised and guided by representatives appointed by the Holy Father — the Legionaries of Christ, the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi, the Lay Consecrated Men of Regnum Christi, and the lay members of Regnum Christi received approval for their request to take on the form of a federation. This structure allows the Legionaries of Christ, the Consecrated Men, and the Consecrated Women to have proper autonomy and authority over their own individual vocations and institutions, while providing a shared governance of the common charism and identity of the Regnum Christi spiritual family, and the vocation of the lay members who associate to Regnum Christi. 

 

Becoming a federation provided a canonical structure for a spiritual reality: the shared identity, spirituality, communion, and mission of its members who live four distinct and autonomous vocations.  The Regnum Christi Federation provides unity among the federated institutions and the associated lay members. It seeks to be a vehicle of vocational growth and development for each of them, and for all of them.  

 

By building and protecting this unity, the Regnum Christi Federation also supports the common mission ignited by the shared charism, and helps its members to flourish in their work of evangelization. The Federation directs and supports the lay members of Regnum Christi and the apostolic works and programs that belong to it, and it also promotes collaboration among all of the evangelizing work done by the members of the different Regnum Christi vocations.  

 

The Regnum Christi Federation is made up of over 25,000 members throughout 38 countries world-wide. 

 

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As of December 31st, 2020, there were 3,525 members of Regnum Christi in the North American Territory, and 1,660 members of ECYD, the Regnum Christi charism lived by adolescents. Worldwide, there are 24,908 members of Regnum Christi and 10,468 members of ECYD.

 

North American Territory

Lay members

3300

Consecrated Women

80

Lay Consecrated Men

3

Legionaries of Christ

142

Total Members

3525

Worldwide 

Lay members

22909

Consecrated Women

511

Lay Consecrated Men

56

Legionaries of Christ

1432

Total Members

24908

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Above all else, members of the Regnum Christi Federation “seek to give glory to God and make the Kingdom of Christ present in the hearts of all people and in society, by our sanctification in the state and condition of life to which God has called us, and by personal and communal apostolic action.” (SRCF 7)

 

As Cardinal João Braz de Aviz wrote in the decree establishing the Federation, the Regnum Christi Federation has the purpose of  “safeguarding, deepening, and promoting the common charism; encouraging collaboration in the apostolate; and benefiting from a common canonical structure that expresses the unity and fraternal communion of the components of the spiritual family.” Number 4 of the Statutes sets out this purpose more concretely as follows:

 

The Federation has the following specific purposes: 

 

  1. to provide a canonical structure that expresses the charismatic unity of all the components, and respects the individual identity of each one; 
  2. to safeguard, deepen and promote the common charismatic patrimony; 
  3. to stimulate the development of the common mission, at the service of the Church and society; 
  4. to promote collaboration in the apostolic activity of the federated institutions; 
  5. to direct the apostolic activity proper to the Federation; 
  6. to promote communion and preserve unity among the federated institutions and the associated faithful of the Federation; 
  7. to regulate and direct the participation of the associated faithful and ensure their formation; 
  8. to promote the vocation development and growth of all the federated institutions and of the associated faithful; 
  9. to help the federated institutions in a subsidiary manner, and to foster solidarity between localities, sections and works, according to circumstances and needs. (SRCF 4)

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The spirituality of Regnum Christi is the central part of the charism that is shared by all four vocations of the Regnum Christi Federation. It is Christ-centered and expressed by a lived, personal relationship with God that is both contemplative and evangelizing. Numbers 12-14 and 20 of the Statutes of Regnum Christi Federation articulate the spirituality as: 

 

Our spirituality is centered above all on Jesus Christ and born from experiencing his love. We seek to respond to our Friend and Lord with a personal, real, passionate and faithful love. Through the action of the Holy Spirit, we are sons and daughters in the Son who becomes the center, standard and model of our life. We learn to encounter him in the Gospel, the Eucharist, the cross and our neighbor.

 

Bearing witness to, proclaiming, and expanding the Kingdom of Christ constitutes the ideal that inspires and directs us. Our motto — “Christ our King, thy Kingdom come!” — expresses this longing. Therefore: 

 

  1. we seek to clothe ourselves with Christ in our hearts and in our works, so he reigns in our lives through a progressive configuration with him; 

  2. we let ourselves be permeated by Christ’s love for humanity, striving to have him reign in the hearts of all people and society. 

By revealing the love that burns in his Heart, Christ invites us to love him and all he loves: the Father who sent him to redeem us; the Blessed Virgin Mary, his Mother and ours; the Church — his Mystical Body — and the Pope; all people, his brothers and sisters, for whom he gave his life; and the spiritual family of Regnum Christi as a way to make his Kingdom present in our hearts and in society. 

 

We are contemplative and evangelizing: 

 

  1. Contemplative, because we discover Christ’s presence and love in our own hearts, in our neighbor and in the world. We seek to be men and women of interior life, lovers of prayer, and we recognize the primacy of God’s action in our growth in holiness and in the apostolate; 

  2. Evangelizing, because, driven by the desire of Christ to enkindle the fire of the Father’s love in all hearts, we live as missionary disciples who seek to proclaim the Kingdom and bring the light of the Gospel to everyone.

Go Deeper: 

Living communion is fundamental to our identity as Regnum Christi. God revealed himself to us as a communion of persons. In the Church, communion isn’t an abstract idea, it’s the concrete, mutual self-giving and sharing of a spirituality in a way that can’t contain itself – it becomes creative and fruitful, overflows in mission, and through this mission, reaches even more people with the love of Christ, inviting them in to the shared joy of knowing him. 

 

The first Christian communities were a model of what Christ-centered communion is — people of different vocations, priests, consecrated and lay, who lived a deep and shared spirituality and mutual support that could not be contained to remain just among themselves. It flowed out in mission, evangelizing the corners of the world.

 

Regnum Christi embraces a wide range of ages and cultures, as well as four distinct vocations; the religious life of the Legionaries of Christ, the lay consecrated life of the Consecrated Men and Consecrated Women, and the secular lay vocation of the lay members.  Each one of them shares the same charism, the charism of Regnum Christi, but each has a distinct and definite vocation, a call to fully live the life and mission God has given them.  

As members of a spiritual family and an apostolic body called together by Jesus Christ, we are recipients of a gift we share. We discover this gift present within each one of us, and we also discover it present in the other people who are called to live it together with us. 

 

Communion means acknowledging and respecting the unique autonomy of each different vocation, but also living as a spiritual family that creates common ground for mutual self-giving, supporting each other spiritually, sharing the joy of living the Regnum Christi charism, and working together to extend the Kingdom of Christ.  This autonomy, interdependence, and mutual support creates a culture that allows each member and each vocation to flourish in their uniqueness. 

 

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Living communion is  a way of living characterized by “listening and valuing dialogue as a path desired by God for the mission of the Church and our mission, in accord with the relational nature of the person, as well as mature fraternal relationships that recognize the presence of God in the other, make others’ joys and sufferings our own, appreciate others’ personal gifts, and carry one another’s burdens with love (see Colossians 3:13) while rejecting rivalry, mistrust and envy.” (SRCF  29)

 

In Regnum Christi each unique vocation brings a different gift to the spiritual family, and to the mission, and the whole is more than the sum of the parts. Statute number 5 explains that:

 

“The Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi contribute, from their feminine identity, the gift of their lay consecration in a total and exclusive self-giving to the love of Christ.” 

 

“The Lay Consecrated Men of Regnum Christi contribute the gift of their lay secular consecration by the prophetic witness of being in the world without being of the world; by the evangelization of temporal realities; by availability, charity, professional abilities and joy in the service of Regnum Christi, the Church and all people.”

 

“The Legionaries of Christ, by their religious consecration, contribute the testimony of their self-giving to Jesus Christ and their complete availability for the fulfillment of the common mission. By their condition as priests, they make present Christ the Priest and the Good Shepherd through preaching, administering the sacraments and spiritual guidance.”

 

Lay members “contribute their secular nature and their apostolic action. The laypeople extend Christ’s presence in the midst of the world and seek to transform temporal realities with the message of the Gospel, especially family life, professional life and life in society.”

 

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The statutes of the Federation explain the mission of Regnum Christi as seeking to “make present the mystery of Christ who goes out to people, reveals the love of his heart to them, gathers them together and forms them as apostles and Christian leaders, sends them out and accompanies them as they collaborate in the evangelization of people and of society.” ( SFRC 8) 

 

The personal experience of Christ’s love produces an interior urging in our hearts that impels us to passionate self-giving in order to make his Kingdom present: “caritas Christi urget nos” (2 Corinthians 5:14). (SRCF 10)

 

This mission is lived out in multiple concrete ways, from the lived vocation of each member according to their state in life, to personal and institutional events, programs, and works of apostolate that seek to evangelize with the charism of Regnum Christi.  

 

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Regnum Christi was canonically recognized as a Federation in 2019, fruit of a journey of renewal and ecclesial maturity. 

 

Regnum Christi was born as an ecclesial movement of apostolate that seeks to make present the Kingdom of Christ through the sanctification of its members and through a personal and communal apostolic action so that Jesus Christ may reign in the hearts of all people and of society. The Legionaries of Christ were established in 1941 in Mexico. The first lay members of Regnum Christi joined in 1968 in Spain. The next year, the first Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi made their consecrations. The first Lay Consecrated Men of Regnum Christi made their consecrations in 1972.

 

From 2013 to 2018, a process of discernment and study was carried out by the lay members of Regnum Christi, as well as the members of the consecrated vocations, closely accompanied by a pontifical assistant, Father Gianfranco Ghirlanda, SJ. 

 

They sought to find a canonical structure that expressed the spiritual unity and the apostolic collaboration of all, promoted the identity and legitimate autonomy of each consecrated reality, and allowed the lay faithful of Regnum Christi to belong in a canonically recognized way. To achieve these goals the Religious Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ, the Society of Apostolic Life of the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi, and the Society of Apostolic Life of the Lay Consecrated Men of Regnum Christi joined together to form the Regnum Christi Federation with which lay faithful who share the same spirit and mission can associate individually. 

 

“Regnum Christi thanks God and the Church for this step forward that allows it to better express the communion and co-responsibility of all and impels them forward in the mission of making the Kingdom of Christ present in the world.” (Preamble to the Statutes of the Regnum Christi Federation)

 

Go Deeper:

 

The Statutes of the Regnum Christi Federation were developed over a period of four years by a process that included a global consultation of members involving all four vocations of Regnum Christi, accompanied by a representative of the Holy See, Fr. Giancarlo Ghirlanda, SJ.  The nature, composition, purposes, and activity of the Federation are governed by the Statutes of the Regnum Christi Federation which were approved on May 31st, 2019. 

 

The Regulations of the Regnum Christi Federation, the Rule of Life of the Lay Faithful Associated to the Regnum Christi Federation, and other official secondary documents of the Federation contain norms and governing regulations that are complementary to the Statutes. In particular, they define the territorial and local organization of the Federation and their respective applications.  

 

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The mission of Regnum Christi is lived out through apostolic evangelization in many ways, according to the needs of different cultures and the Church around the world.  

 

From the Statutes of the Regnum Christi Federation:

 

Seeking to respond effectively to the principal needs of evangelization in our own sphere of life and without excluding any type of apostolic activity, we undertake initiatives and establish apostolic works directed especially at proclaiming the faith and spreading Catholic doctrine; at the Christian formation and education of children, adolescents and young adults; at the promotion of marriage and the family; at vocation ministry; at the evangelization of the professions, of culture and of the media; and at the promotion of social justice and the practice of the works of mercy. (SRCF 11)

 

When choosing apostolic initiatives, the Federation as a whole, the members of the federated institutions, and the associated faithful seek to promote and undertake those that convey Christ’s message with the greatest possible scope and depth. Apostolic activity must be attentive to the needs of the Church and the world and with sincere respect for local cultures, seeking to adapt their apostolic activity to the circumstances of time and place, in each case opting for the most suitable methods and forms for evangelization. Apostolic activity, which includes apostolic works, programs and events, can be carried out on the institutional level or on the personal level, individually or as a group. 

(see SRCF 37-38, 40.1)

 

Go Deeper: 

 

In every way that Regnum Christi members evangelize, the charism gives our work a certain style with distinct characteristics. Regnum Christi refers to our style of evangelization as our “apostolic methodology,” and it is explained in the principles of apostolic action found in numbers 33- 39 of the Statutes. These principles are integrated into the way Regnum Christi evangelizes in formal works of apostolate, programs, and group or personal initiatives of evangelization. 

 

The principles of apostolic action are: development of Christian leadership, working person-to-person, accompaniment, formation of formators, working for the greatest possible scope and depth of impact, adaptation to times and places, organization and effectiveness. 

 

Go Deeper: 

 

The apostolic methodology of Regnum Christi, also known as our principles of apostolic action, refers to the way we carry out our evangelizing mission in any apostolic work we undertake as individuals, groups, or institutions. It’s the character with which we live out our mission.

 

From the Statutes of the Regnum Christi Federation:

 

The personal experience of Christ’s love produces an interior urging in our hearts that impels us to passionate self-giving in order to make his Kingdom present: “caritas Christi urget nos” (2 Corinthians 5:14). This passion moves us to take on a way of living that is characterized by: 

 

  1. accepting that following Christ includes spiritual combat, the struggle marked by perseverance and trust in the Lord in the face of the reality of evil and sin in one’s own life and in society, moved by the power of love to the extreme; 
  2. undertaking with a magnanimous, enthusiastic, and creative heart the actions that make the Kingdom present in greater depth and extent; 
  3. going out to address the most pressing needs of the world and the Church; 
  4. facing challenges with courage and boldness in our personal lives and in the apostolate; 
  5. making the most of the opportunities that arise in life to proclaim the love of Christ with Christian audacity; 
  6. fulfilling the responsibilities we assumed and striving to give the best of ourselves both in our formation and in our work. (SRCF 10)

Go Deeper: 

 

When the different vocations of Regnum Christi decided they wanted to be united together in one canonical body, they needed to create a set of statutes that would articulate, govern, and preserve the aspects of their charism, organization and identity that they share in common.

 

The Statutes of the Regnum Christi Federation preserve, foster, and govern the shared common charismatic identity and mission of all members of Regnum Christi, as well as the particular identity of the lay members.  They do not govern the way the members of the consecrated vocations live their vows or elements of their identity that are unique to their individual institutions.

 

The Legionaries of Christ, the Consecrated Women, and the Lay Consecrated Men each have their own constitutions which govern their own individual identities and vocations.

 

From the Statutes of the Regnum Christi Federation:

 

We recognize it as God’s plan that the Legionaries of Christ, the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi, the Lay Consecrated Men of Regnum Christi and the associated faithful live in a profound communion and that we are to be witnesses to the love of Jesus Christ by the unity and charity among us. These institutions, their members, and the associated faithful share a common spirituality and mission, which each lives according to their individual identity and vocation, as expressed in their proper law. This spiritual foundation must inspire and guide the governing bodies of the Federation at its various levels and in the different circumstances of time and place. (SRCF 6)

 

What is established regarding authority in the Federation applies to its governing bodies, works and activities, in full respect of the autonomy of the federated institutions and the relevant proper law of each of them. (SRCF 55)

 

Go Deeper: 

 

In the Catholic Church, the term “movement” refers to a juridical form which can be adopted by an organization that is predominantly made up of laity and falls under the Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life. They do not contain religious congregations or societies of apostolic life. During the work on the renewal of Regnum Christi, it became clear that a different structure was necessary in order to be able to have a canonical structure that maintained the unity of all four vocations as a spiritual family.

 

After looking at all options available and discerning together, the religious congregation of the Legionaries of Christ, the Society of Apostolic Life of the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi, and the Society of Apostolic Life of the Lay Consecrated Men of Regnum Christi joined together to form the Regnum Christi Federation with which lay faithful who share the same spirit and mission can associate individually. Federations are governed by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, which also governs the individual institutions of the Legionaries of Christ, the Consecrated Women, and the Lay Consecrated Men.

 

Go Deeper: 

 

ECYD Is Regnum Christi’s youth organization in which adolescents live the same Regnum Christi charism adapted to their age.  ECYD is important because of the eternal value of helping young people encounter Christ as their best friend, share this with other friends, and realize that they too have a part in Christ’s mission of extending his Kingdom.  

 

The name “ECYD” is an acronym that represents “encounters, convictions, your decisions”, and is used as such globally, independent of a country’s language. The name denotes the dynamic of ECYD’s life: through different experiences of encounter, adolescents acquire firm life convictions and learn to make free and responsible decisions according to Gospel criteria.  The ECYD mission is to collaborate with Christ so that he might reign in the hearts of adolescents and in the world.   Every ECYD member lives the 5 essential elements of ECYD life: prayer and the sacraments, formation, team life, accompaniment, and apostolate.

 

From the Statutes of the Regnum Christi Federation:

 

§1. The Federation, in its work for the evangelization and formation of adolescents, directs an organization called ECYD (Encounters, Convictions, Your Decisions), in which adolescents live the charism in a way suited to their age. 

 

§2. ECYD is governed by its own statutes. 

 

§3. Taking into account the importance of ECYD, the federated institutions and associated faithful should promote its growth in numbers and strength. 

(SRCF 47)

 

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