On November 26, Fr Marcial Maciel, founder and general director of the Legionaries of Christ and the Regnum Christi Movement celebrated the 60th anniversary of his priestly ordination.

On the eve of his anniversary and as part of the celebration, 59 deacons of the Legionaries of Christ, were ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Franc Rodé, CM, who is Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and as such superior for all religious in the Catholic Church.

The 59 new priests will join Fr Maciel in his endeavors to serve the Church and her pastors, to promote the spreading of the Gospel message and to build a society of Christian justice and love. The ceremony took place in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, in Rome.

In his homily Archbishop Rodé said: Today we want to unite ourselves to Fr Marcial Maciel as he celebrates 60 years of priesthood. As he approached the moment of his ordination on November 26, 1944, he tried to unite his spirit evermore to Christs, for he knew that the priesthood implies ones full identification with Christ, walking with him and climbing Calvary with him. Thank you, Fr Maciel for your 60 years of priestly fidelity. Thank you for these young men who today set out to follow your footsteps in following of Christ the Priest.

60 years of priesthood

On November 26th, Fr Marcial Maciel was the main concelebrant at a Mass in the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls in Rome to thank our Lord for his 60 years of priesthood, together with Legionary priests and many priest-friends of the Legion present in Rome for the occasion. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Secretary of State for His Holiness, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, Archbishop of Mexico City, 8 other cardinals and 25 bishops were also present at this joyous celebration, as were Legionary seminarians, members of Regnum Christi, relatives of the newly ordained and many faithful from the city of Rome.

Sixty years ago on that day, Bishop Francisco Gonzalez Arias of Cuernavaca, Mexico, ordained Fr Marcial in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. The Legion of Christ at that time was just over three years old and consisted of a handful of minor seminarians. Today they have spread to 18 countries where more than 600 priests carry out their ministry.

As Fr Anthony Bannon, LC, the Legions territorial director for North America, remarked in his homily at the concelebration, these 60 years of Fr Marcials priesthood have been full of blessings but also much suffering, in his constant striving to serve the Church and her pastors.

The Holy Father sent his greeting and blessing by means of a letter delivered and read aloud at the end of the ceremony by Bishop Leonardo Sandri, Substitute of the Secretary of State of His Holiness. The Holy Father has wished to unite himself spiritually to the joy and thanksgiving raised to God on this anniversary. The Holy Father called to mind that these 60 years of Fr Maciels priestly life have been characterized by significant spiritual and missionary fruitfulness with a variety of works and apostolic activities. His Holiness ends his letter entrusting Fr Marcial to the protection of Mary, Mother of priests, and imparting his apostolic blessing.

The Legion of Christ and the Regnum Christi Movement

On May 23, 1970, Pope Paul VI entrusted the Legion of Christ with the prelature of Cancún-Chetumal, and the spiritual attention of 84,000 persons, most of them native Maya. The population has grown rapidly to the present 1.1 million in the 52,000 square kilometers of the prelature.45 priests work there and have built 343 churches and chapels, and dozens of schools and medical dispensaries.

Youth and Families for the Third Millennium support their pastors in the task of the new evangelization through rural and urban door-to-door missions. Every year more than 50,000 missionaries dedicate at least one week to bringing the gospel to others, encouraging people to come back to the sacraments and partake in the liturgical celebrations in their local parishes.

The School of the Faith supports the work of the pastors by seeking to promote the new evangelization through the preparation and formation of permanent, full-time evangelizers and parish catechists. Since its foundation in 1975, the School of the Faith has formed 40,000 catechists and today directs the work of close to 1000 full-time evangelizers, mostly in remote places, offering invaluable support to their bishops and priests.

The Legions and Regnum Christis social work benefits close to 100,000 children and teens, as well as their families. In Mexico and El Salvador they built 4 CIDECO complexes (CIDECO is the Spanish acronym for Integrated Center for Community Development) with a total of 863 homes for those left homeless after hurricanes and earthquakes. They have also set up micro-credit systems that today support 285,000 individuals, and initiated community development programs and family centers throughout America and Europe.

In the field of education they direct 22 universities and 154 schools, not counting the broad network of Helping Hand schools that cater to the more needy levels of society.

Other initiatives contribute to this effort, such as ANSPAC (Spanish acronym: National Association for Self-Improvement) which seeks to raise the cultural and economic level of the most impoverished. It gives practical classes for personal and cultural improvement, especially to mothers of families, and its near-3000 centers provide help for 80,000 families in Latin America.

Other initiatives seek to foster Christian charity and generosity among the general populace, with programs such as Plan Compartamos (Lets Share), which distributes monthly baskets of basic goods to the least fortunate each month, and Un kilo de ayuda (Kilo of Help), which organizes food contributions from individuals in stores and supermarkets and now regularly reaches 75,300 persons.

The Legion of Christ has also launched several initiatives in the field of medical attention, with telemedic service deserving special mention. This service has dozens of mobile clinics equipped with satellite antennas, allowing the technicians to travel to remote areas and send their tests and consult with teams of specialists via satellite.

At the conclusion of the Ordination and Eucharistic Celebration on the 25th, Archbishop Franc Rodé announced to those present that his Holiness, Pope John Paul II had given his definitive approval to the Statutes of the Regnum Christi Movement of Apostolate. Archbishop Rodé read the text of the decree, which states that the aim of Regnum Christi is to establish the Kingdom of Christ among men through the sanctification of its members in the state and condition of life to which God has called them, and through personal and organized apostolic action at the service of the Church and her pastors []. Its specific charism is one and the same as the Legion of Christs, and consists in knowing, living and preaching the commandment of love which Christ the Redeemer came to bring us through his Incarnation. Thus the identity and charism of the Regnum Christi Movement has been confirmed by the Vicar of Christ.

Use the following links to view photographs.

Ordination Mass:
http://www.legionariesofchrist.org/fotogaleria/fotogaleria.phtml?id=620

60th Anniversary Mass of Fr Marcial Maciel:
http://www.legionariesofchrist.org/fotogaleria/fotogaleria.phtml?id=623