Church (ecclesiology): December 2010 Archives

Legion of Christ orders changes

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Legion of Christ logo.JPG
The Legion of Christ in recent days has been making some changes to its way of proceeding. The other day, for example, the pontifical delegate Cardinal Velasio de Paolis, CS, named the committee that will examine and re-write the congregation's constitutions (Fathers Gianfranco Ghirlanda, SJ, Agostino Montan, CSI, and 4 LC priests --Roberto Aspe Hinojosa, Anthony Bannon, José García Sentandreu and Gabriel Sotres).

On December 6 but made public on the 11th, a decree was sent to the order's superiors regarding the following:

  • a new way of referring to Father Marcial Maciae: either as "the founder of the Legion of Christ & Regnum Christi" or just "Father Maciel";
  • photos of Father Maciel in public places are to be removed but given personal freedom, individuals are free to keep his image privately;
  • no dates concerning Father Maciel will be celebrated; the date of his death with be a day of prayer;
  • Father Maciel's writings and talks will not be for sale in any of the congregation's houses or works but a preacher may use Maciel's works appropriately;
  • the place of internment of Father Maciel will be treated as a place of burial, nothing else;
  • retreat centers in Cotija will be places of prayer, reparation  and expiation of sin.
The Associated Press is running this story today, which does add more to the news release of the congregation but it does show the news is getting around.

As always, we beg the Holy Spirit to guide the seminarians in the discernment to follow the Lord in the vocation given.

Pope Benedict visits a parish in his diocese a few times a year as any good bishop would do. Yesterday, Gaudete Sunday, he visited the parish community of Saint Maximilian Kolbe. Here are few paragraphs of the Pope's homily.

Benedict XVI, St Maximilian Kolbe Church Dec 12 2010.jpg

Together with all of you I admire this new church and the parish buildings and with my presence I desire to encourage you to realize in an ever better way the Church of living stones that you yourselves are. I know the many and significant efforts at evangelization that you are engaged in. I exhort all of the faithful to make your own contribution to the building up of the community, in particular in the field of catechesis, the liturgy and charity -- pillars of the Christian life -- in communion with the whole Diocese of Rome. No community can live as a cell that is isolated from the diocesan context; it must rather be a living expression of the beauty of the Church that, under the bishop's leadership -- and in the parish, under the pastor's leadership -- walks in communion toward the Kingdom of Heaven.

4 El Salvador martyrs.jpgI was quite young when the 4 women were killed in El Salvador in 1980. They were killed months after the Servant of God Archbishop Oscar Romero was killed. Missionaries brutally killed for their faith Christ and service to the poor are part of the landscape of the proclamation of the Gospel. Since my high school days, I have kept these women in prayer, especially since Jean Donovan had a Connecticut connection. They were:

Sister Maura Clarke, MM
Sister Ita Ford, MM
Sister Dorothy Kazal, OSU
Miss Jean Donovan.

The Maryknoll Fathers & Brothers' remembrance
The Maryknoll Sisters' remembrance
The Vatican Radio story is here.

About the author

Paul A. Zalonski is from New Haven, CT. He is a member of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, a Catholic ecclesial movement and an Oblate of Saint Benedict. Contact Paul at paulzalonski[at]yahoo.com.

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This page is a archive of entries in the Church (ecclesiology) category from December 2010.

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