Mexico, 1948: The first professed members of the Congregation, Alfredo Torres on the left, Rafael Cuena on the right. In the center, Father Luis Ferreira, rector of the Apostólica of Mexico City.
The government in the Legion
June 13, 1948
The first government
The first government of the Congregation was formed on June 13, 1948, as one of the effects of the canonical erection. This document defined the head of the religious as the Mexican priest Marcial Maciel, ordained in 1944, who was, in fact, appointed as the superior general. Father Maciel, who had previously been the “permanent director” of the “Apostólica Misional del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús” and a novice instructor since 1946, made his perpetual vows on that day in the hands of the Bishop of Cuernavaca, Mons. Alfonso Espino Silva, and later received the first official perpetual vows of some brothers. Due to his young age, both Father Maciel and the other religious, who were not yet priests, received a special dispensation of ten years to assume governmental positions, granted with the Nihil obstat.
This first government functioned normally after a brief hiatus between July and December of 1948, during which the Sacred Congregation of Religious had decreed the provisional annulment of the effects of the canonical erection.
1956 – 1958
Apostolic visits of the 1950s
Having received serious written accusations against Father Maciel, on September 20, 1956, the Congregation for Religious suspended him from his duties as superior general and established that these functions would be assumed by the vicar general, Father Luis Ferreira.
On October 13, 1956, Cardinal Valeri, prefect of that dicastery, entrusted Father Anastasio Ballestero, superior general of the Discalced Carmelites and future cardinal, with the task of conducting an Apostolic Visit to the young Institute. Father Ballestero carried out the visit and sent his report on February 11, 1957. A few months later, in July 1957, Cardinal Valeri appointed two new visitors: Monsignor Alfredo Bontempi for the house in Rome and Father Polidoro Van Vlieberghe, OFM, for the houses in Mexico and Spain.
Based on all the documents available to them, both in favor and against, the Congregation for Religious made a decision, which it communicated to Cardinal Valeri on October 13, 1958, and to the diocesan ordinary to whom the Legion of Christ was subject, that is, the vicar of Rome, Cardinal Micara. The message declared “the Apostolic Visit in progress closed” and affirmed that the mentioned dicastery of the Holy See “with the formula quae sanabilia et sanatione indigent benignamente de facto and ad cautelam heals the invalidations and irregularities discovered, certain or doubtful, both in the constitution and in the government of the institute.” Following this communication from the prefect of religious, Cardinal Micara confirmed Father Marcial Maciel in his position as superior general with a document dated February 6, 1959.
Mexico City, 1957: The apostolic visitor, Monsignor Polidoro Van Vlierberghe, OFM, alongside the vicar general, Father Luis Ferreira, LC, and the apostolics from the Vocational Center of “La Quinta Pacelli.”
1959 – 1992
The new government of 1959 and the elections of 1968, 1980, and 1992
With a second decree, dated the same day, Cardinal Micara appointed the new leadership, which remained in office until the first session of the Extraordinary General Chapter in 1968. On this occasion, for the first time, the chapter members elected the superior general, four general counselors, and other positions.
As stipulated in the Constitutions, the subsequent elections took place in 1980, although that year, the chapter introduced a change: the superior general would no longer be referred to by that title, but rather as the “director general.” In both 1968 and 1980, Father Marcial Maciel was elected to lead the Legionaries of Christ. His final election as the director general of the Legion of Christ took place during the Ordinary General Chapter in 1992, and he remained in this position until 2005.
2005 – 2017
The election of Father Álvaro Corcuera in 2005 and Father Eduardo Robles-Gil in 2014
In January 2005, the capitular fathers of the III Ordinary General Chapter elected Father Álvaro Corcuera as the new general director, who, starting in 2009, had to face the severe institutional crisis suffered by the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi. In 2011, the pontifical delegate, Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, expanded the number of members of the general council, appointing two new counselors.
On October 11, 2012, Father Álvaro announced that he had to resign from the powers of general director for health reasons, and Father Sylvester Heereman, the general vicar, assumed the functions of that position.
The Extraordinary General Chapter of 2014 elected Father Eduardo Robles-Gil as general director and also elected the other government positions, which were completed with two counselors directly appointed by the Holy See.
Vatican, October 23, 2010: Audience of Pope Benedict XVI with the general director of the Legion of Christ, Father Álvaro Corcuera, LC.
This section has been taken from the publication «Historia Institucional de la Congregación de los Legionarios de Cristo y del Movimiento Regnum Christi» (2015), prepared by the General Historical Archive of the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi and published on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Congregation.
Published originally in Spanish and Italian.
Texts: Salvatore Luciano Bonventre | Translations: Fr. Gonzalo Franco, LC | Selection of photographs: Salvatore Luciano Bonventre and Luigi Baldassarri | Coordination: Fr. Jaime Rodríguez, LC and Fr. Rodrigo Ramírez, LC