Pope Leo XIV urges the Legionaries of Christ to embrace service-oriented authority, humility, and renewal rooted in their founding charism.
Newsroom (19/02/2026 Gaudium Press )Meeting in Vatican City on Thursday with participants in the General Chapter of the Legionaries of Christ, Pope Leo XIV urged the congregation’s leaders to view their authority as a ministry of service rather than a means of control. His address touched on humility, renewal, and the vital role of spiritual discernment within religious life.
General Chapters, the Pope noted, offer religious orders a crucial moment to listen to the Holy Spirit and engage in communal discernment, helping guide their communities into the future. For the Legionaries — a congregation founded in Mexico in 1941 — this, he said, is an opportunity to rediscover their identity while learning from the pain and crises of their past.
“The Legionaries have received a charism within the Church,” Pope Leo said, acknowledging the congregation’s turbulent history marked by scandals that deeply affected its members and mission. Yet he emphasized that their foundational gift — their charism — remains a “valuable contribution” to both the Church and the wider Regnum Christi movement, the lay association linked to their spirituality.
Describing a charism as “a gift of the Holy Spirit,” Pope Leo reminded the congregation that such gifts demand stewardship rather than possession. “You are not owners of the charism, but its custodians and servants,” he said, urging the Legionaries to embody their spiritual calling in both personal and communal life, allowing the charism to “continue to be fruitful in the Church and in the world.”
The Pope made a pointed appeal for leadership rooted in dialogue and empathy. “Authority, in religious life, is not understood as domination, but as spiritual and fraternal service to those who share the same vocation,” he said. Leadership, he added, must reflect “the art of accompaniment,” one that fosters co-responsibility, transparency, and mutual respect.
Pope Leo called on the Legionaries to adopt governance that promotes “mutual listening, co-responsibility, transparency, fraternal closeness, and communal discernment.” True unity, he explained, is not uniformity or suppression of difference but the harmonious integration of diverse voices within the same mission.
“This process requires humility to listen, interior freedom to speak sincerely, and openness to accept shared discernment,” he continued. “It is a demand inherent in every vocation lived in community.”
Concluding his message, Pope Leo exhorted the Legionaries to lead with interior freedom, avoiding narrow or regional interests, and guiding their members with trust and simplicity. “May this Chapter open you to a time of hope,” he said. “The Lord continues to call and send; to heal and to purify. Your task is to discern how to respond with fidelity to the present that God places in your hands.”
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican News
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