Fr. Eduardo Robles-Gil, general director of Regnum Christi and of the Legionaries of Christ, announced a jubilee year in thanksgiving for the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Legion and Regnum Christi in a letter sent today to the members of Regnum Christi. Father Robles-Gil invites the members of Regnum Christi to live this year as “a time to rejoice, to give thanks, to ask forgiveness and to receive forgiveness.”
All the members of Regnum Christi – lay members, Legionaries of Christ, consecrated women, lay consecrated men, diocesan priests – are being invited to celebrate this anniversary with “a sober and humble joy.” Citing Revelation 2:7, Father Robles-Gil calls this year “an especially privileged moment to listen to what the Spirit is saying to the Church and, within her, to us.”
Father Robles-Gil proposes this jubilee year as a special opportunity for “purification of the memory, by which each person in particular, as well as the institution as a whole, has to recognize, as did the people of Israel, that ‘we have sinned’ (see 1 Kgs 8:26)” because “where sin abounded grace overflowed all the more (see Rom 5:20).”
Father Robles-Gil hopes that the spirit of joy and reconciliation proper to a jubilee year will color the prayer, communion and service that make up the ordinary lives of Regnum Christi members: “[…]foster the encounter with Christ and the joy of living the Gospel together and of being sent out to establish the Kingdom of Christ.”
Father Robles Gil invites local and national directors of Regnum Christi to consider the best way to celebrate this jubilee in each country and city. He recommends that such initiatives be geared towards “go[ing] deeper into the charism of the Legion and Regnum Christi and its contribution to the various areas of Christian living”, to creating “moment[s] of fraternity and of a renewed commitment that Jesus Christ reign in the hearts of people and in society”, and of contacting and reconciling with former members of Regnum Christi.
As a concluding reflection to the letter, Father Robles-Gil states: “Regnum Christi, a living body within the Church, thanks the Lord for these first 75 years of life. It wants to commit itself with passion and humility in each of its members to the task of evangelization, and to live the future following in the footsteps of Christ, who being rich made himself poor to enrich us with his poverty.”
As of July 1st 2014 there were 21,500 adult members, and 10,000 members of Conquest and Challenge boys and girls clubs in 30 countries.
On September 2014 there were 67,000 students in Regnum Christi schools; 19,000 students in Mano Amiga (Helping Hand) Schools for children in impoverished areas; 34,000 students pursuing undergraduate or graduate degrees in Regnum Christi and Legion of Christ universities worldwide.
