Pope Leo XIV held an audience with participants of the General Chapter of the Legionaries of Christ Feb. 19 and spoke in his address to them on the purpose of authority in religious life and rightly ordered religious governance.
He said the last phase of the Legionaries’ General Chapter “is a time of grace” for the religious institution, as it offers a unique opportunity for discernment and attentiveness “to the Holy Spirit, which continues to guide your history and to support the mission entrusted to your congregation, in fidelity to the charism received as a gift from God to the Church as a whole.”
According to the Legionaries’ website, the General Chapter, which began Jan. 20, is a global governing assembly of delegates who “will prayerfully discern the path forward for our identity and mission over the next six years,” including establishing future pastoral priorities and electing a new General Government.
Pope Leo told those gathered that this time “is also an opportunity for you to recognize yourselves as heirs to a charism which, through different paths and historical expressions — sometimes painful and not without crises — gave rise to the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ, united by the same spiritual roots and a common apostolic passion. This shared memory does not look only to the past, but also urges us to constant renewal in the present, faithful to the Gospel.”
According to a Feb. 10, 2025, CatholicVote report, the Legionaries issued a report in 2019 saying they “deplore and condemn the abuses committed in our history” and asking forgiveness of the victims. The Legionaries are one of the four vocations that belong to the apostolate Regnum Christi Foundation, which was founded by the disgraced late Father Marcial Maciel. Fr. Maciel was condemned by the Vatican “for having sexually abused boys in his seminaries and fathering children,” Catholic News Service reported in 2025.
“We ask forgiveness of the victims, their families, the Church and society for the grave harm that members of our Congregation have caused,” a commission for the Legionaries said in the 2019 report. “We acknowledge with honesty and shame the reality of the crimes of sexual abuse of minors in the Legion’s history, sincerely desiring a continued personal and institutional conversion.”
Pope Leo reflected on the Legionaries’ charism in the Feb. 19 address, stating that “the diversity of forms, styles and accents in living out the charism received does not weaken unity, but enriches it,” such that plurality should be welcomed and discerned, not feared.
“Just as in a family every member has his or her own identity and mission, so too among you the plurality of gifts manifests the fruitfulness of the Spirit and strengthens the common mission,” Pope Leo said. “As has been recalled, charism is a gift of the Holy Spirit; it is He who distributes his gifts (cf. 1 Cor 12:11), and he does so for the renewal and edification of the Church.”
He emphasized that “charisms should be received with gratitude and consolation” and reminded those present “that you are not masters of charisms, but their custodians and servants.”
“You are called to give your lives so that this gift may continue to be fruitful in the Church and in the world,” he said. “Therefore, this Chapter invites you to continue to ask yourselves how to live today, with creative fidelity, the charismatic intuition that gave rise to your religious family.”
The Pope also reflected on the proper view of authority in religious life — one that is not controlling but in support of those entrusted under it.
He said the General Chapter offers the opportunity to consider what progress has been made and to discern with the Holy Spirit “the path to be traveled.”
“For this reason, you have considered the exercise of governance and authority in the institute as one of the central themes. Authority, in religious life, is not understood as domination, but as spiritual and fraternal service to those who share the same vocation,” he said. “Its exercise must be manifested in the ‘art of accompaniment’ which teaches us to remove our sandals before the sacred ground of the other.”
This accompaniment needs to be offered at a “steady and reassuring” pace, he continued, “reflecting our closeness and our compassionate gaze which also heals, liberates and encourages growth in the Christian life’.”
He emphasized that authority should never violate people’s dignity or freedom.
“Authority in religious life likewise serves to animate community life, focusing it on Christ and guiding it towards the fullness of life in Him, avoiding any form of control that does not respect the dignity and freedom of people,” he said.
Pope Leo also reminded them that a responsibility of religious governance is encouraging faithfulness to the religious community’s charism, and that the governance should not focus on itself but be “characterized by mutual listening, co-responsibility, transparency, fraternal closeness and community discernment.”
The Legionaries' mission consists of being a witness of listening among the diverse members of their religious community and of communal pursuit of God’s will, Pope Leo said. He later noted that the General Chapter is by nature “a synodal exercise” requiring sharing experiences and attentiveness in forming plans for the Legionaries’ future.
He entrusted the congregation to the protection of Our Lady of Guadalupe and gave them an Apostolic Blessing, after concluding: “Dear brothers, I urge you to continue to live with an attitude of prayer, humility and inner freedom. Do not pursue particular or regional interests, nor seek mere organizational solutions, but above all the will of God for your religious family and for the mission that the Church has entrusted to you.
“May this Chapter open you to a time of hope. The Lord continues to call and send, to heal and purify; therefore, your task is to discern how to respond faithfully to the present that God places in your hands.”