Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Group exodus in Regnum Christi a portent of change outcomes?

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Malen Oriol, the leader of about 600 “consecrated women” in Regnum Christi, the lay movement associated with the Legion of Christ, has announced her resignation.
"Consecrated women" lead lives of celibacy and service to the Church and the Legion’s efforts.
Oriol revealed that many of the “consecrated women” of Regnum Christi are approaching their local bishops, looking for ways to live out their vocation apart from the troubled religious order.
I am not surprised by Malen's decision - she has the precedent of her two brothers who already left the LC. 
Her resignation letter is written with a lot of class, dignity and no overt sign of bitterness. Reading between the lines, I detect more "evidence" of internal lack of confidence in the organization's willingness - or ability - to change. 
It would seem that the serious critics of some major Legionary superiors and the Vatican's delegate, Cardinal De Paolis, with regard to  the change process (or the lack thereof) may be more informed than I had hoped. 
Maybe this exodus (first reports suggest 30 women have left "en masse"; others suggest the final number will reach 200) is a portent of how the organizations will "change" - they will effectively cease to exist and perhaps "re-emerge" in a new "foundation." Or, just as likely, hundreds of well-intentioned priests, seminarians of the Legion, and consecrated persons in the lay movement will find themselves (eventually) extremely disappointed in the Church's inept reaction to the dilemma caused by the late founder of the Legionaries, a Congregation that not so long ago seemed to be a shining star in the Church's firmament.  This, if it comes about, will be no small test of the Faith in the institutional Church  for the formerly loyal members of the Legion and Regnum Christi.

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