Father Jesús Villagrasa, L.C., who participated in the 2026 General Chapter, reflects on the profound relationship between authority, obedience and fraternal life within the Church and consecrated life, proposing a model based entirely on the figure of Jesus Christ.

We share the full article, published by the Mexican Communications Office. The original article is available here.

Looking at our recent history as a congregation is to contemplate a path of grace and renewal that always involves a continuous conversion to the Gospel. Those of us who have embraced this vocation know well that the 2026 General Chapter was a moment of particular grace, as Pope Leo XIV told us.

“A privileged moment of communal discernment and listening to the Holy Spirit, who continues to guide its history and sustain the mission entrusted to its congregation, in fidelity to the charism received as a gift from God for the Church.”

Already in the 2014 General Chapter, we saw that one of the issues requiring review and change was the exercise of authority: In recent years, we have been deepening a more comprehensive understanding of compliance with norms in order to move toward a horizon that places greater trust in the discernment and personal responsibility of each brother.

On this path of review and renewal, rediscovering the true evangelical meaning of authority and obedience is not only a legal necessity, but a spiritual urgency. Christ himself presents himself to us as the absolute model where both realities cease to be opposites and merge into a single mystery of love and surrender to the Father’s will. In light of the recent chapter document and the ongoing reflection on our identity, I want to focus on what I consider the two pillars that uphold this evangelical ideal: the moral authority of the superior and the holiness of life of the religious.

I’m leaving out some very important points from the statement, but I’m encouraged to develop this focus further by the letter from the Director General, signed on the Solemnity of the Ascension:

“The Chapter has sought to delve deeper into the theme of authority and obedience as a decisive dimension of our evangelical life. Authority, lived in the manner of Christ, is only understood as spiritual and fraternal service. It demands closeness, listening, discernment, and decisions made with charity and truth. Obedience, lived evangelically, cannot be reduced to passivity either, because its source is the generous offering of oneself. It is a form of inner freedom since it helps us to listen to God, to allow ourselves to be guided by the Spirit, and to walk in communion. When authority and obedience are lived in this way, unity is strengthened, trust grows, and the mission becomes more fruitful. I encourage you to read and pray with the Chapter Statement and to bring it into fraternal dialogue and community planning as a community, translating it into concrete decisions.”

May this prayerful reading fill in the many rich points of the statement that I cannot even begin to outline.

The moral authority of the superior: beyond the position or function

Governing in a religious community is a pastoral service necessary for the health of any community. However, experience shows us that the exercise of authority risks becoming sterile if it is reduced to mere administrative management or a purely functional role. The authority a superior receives has its legal roots in the Church, but its true pastoral fruitfulness and its capacity to be received with peace depend directly on his moral authority, that is, on his holiness of life.

The authority of Jesus Christ as head coincides with his service, his gift, his total, humble, and loving dedication to the Church. We are a clerical religious congregation and, in addition to observing a religious vow, we are configured to Christ, head and shepherd. The priest’s “power” is “spiritual” and “sacred,” a participation in the authority with which Jesus Christ guides the Church. The authority of Jesus Christ as head coincides

“With his service, with his gift, with his total, humble and loving dedication to the Church. And this in perfect obedience to the Father: he is the only and true suffering servant of the Lord, priest and victim at the same time. This concrete type of authority, that is, service to the Church, must animate and vivify the spiritual existence of every priest, precisely as a requirement of his configuration to Jesus Christ, head and servant of the Church” (John Paul II, Pastores dabo vobis 21).

Such an authority is unique in the world, for the ordained minister

“Govern with the heart of the humble servant and the loving shepherd who guides his flock seeking the glory of God and the salvation of souls” (John Paul II, Pastores gregis 43).

For a superior to truly be a reflection of the Good Shepherd, his leadership must be built upon certain key evangelical attitudes:

• Witness before administrator: Moral authority stems from the witness of a holy life and charity lived firsthand. If a superior does not consistently live what he teaches, he ends up conveying a contradictory message that undermines the trust of his brothers.
• Accompanying with a compassionate gaze: He is called to master the “art of accompaniment”, taking off his shoes before the sacred ground of the other, listening with hospitality and going out to meet the troubled soul.
• Promoting subsidiarity without diluting responsibility: Good governance does not concentrate everything in itself; it knows how to delegate, trusts in the abilities of others, and actively engages in dialogue with them. But, at the same time, it is not afraid to make clear and timely decisions when the common good or the mission demands it.
• Avoiding the deviations of power: The lack of authentic spirituality can cause the superior to fall into rigid authoritarianism, subjective personalism or paternalism that hinders the maturity of the religious person; or, into a negligent passivity that avoids conflicts for convenience.

When the superior governs with a servant’s heart, the religious do not see him as a bureaucratic boss, but as a human and close channel —with his logical limitations— of the Father’s own will.

The holiness of the religious person: an active, free and mature obedience

On the other hand, the obedience of the religious cannot be understood as a passive or blind submission that nullifies the personality. Like Christ’s in Gethsemane, our obedience is a supreme act of filial freedom. It is an offering of one’s own will that does not impoverish the person, but rather enriches him and brings him to his fullest maturity.

The holiness of the religious person is largely determined by how they embody this vow in their daily community life:

• Active and sincere search for God: The holy religious does not carry out orders mechanically without thinking; he is a constant seeker of what God wants, making use of personal discernment that springs from a rightly formed conscience, free from disordered attachments. It is no coincidence that the Vatican document most cited in the chapter statement on our topic is “The Service of Authority and Obedience” of May 11, 2008, which, in its first paragraph, wisely places the topic in its proper context: “While in the community everyone is called to seek what pleases God and to obey Him, some in particular are called to exercise, generally temporarily, the specific office of being a sign of unity and a guide in the collective search for, and personal and communal fulfillment of, God’s will. This is the service of authority.”
• Shared responsibility and dialogue: Holiness impels us to participate positively in community life, contributing our natural gifts and those of grace to build up the Church. This includes the right, and sometimes the duty, to express our opinions and concerns with humility and respect in the face of difficult commands.
• Overcoming individualism: Living the vow holyly protects us from the “pseudo-freedom” of those who only obey when the guidelines coincide with their personal tastes, or from systematic criticism that destroys the bridges of fraternal trust.

When the moral authority of the superior and the religious’s pursuit of holiness converge, the Legionary community is transformed into a true family of seekers of God and His will. Community discernment ceases to be a mere democratic consultation or a search for human consensus, becoming instead a privileged space where all, united in one spirit, strive to listen to the Holy Spirit.

In the end, both the one who leads and the one who obeys share in the same offering of love from Jesus Christ. May this time of renewal find us with our sandals removed before the sacred ground of our brother and superior, our hearts open, and with the firm desire that our communities be a living and transparent reflection of the charity of the Good Shepherd.

About Father Jesús Villagrasa, L.C.

Father Jesús Villagrasa, L.C., was born in 1963 in Zaragoza, Spain. He entered the Novitiate of the Legion of Christ in Salamanca on September 15, 1981 and made his perpetual profession on October 8, 1989. He was ordained a priest on November 25, 1994. He has a doctorate in philosophy, a bachelor’s degree in theology and a bachelor’s degree in Bioethics. Since 1999 he has been an ordinary professor of metaphysics at the philosophy faculty of the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical Athenaeum. He has been director of the Quality Office and the Evaluation Center of the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum (2009-2013). On January 31, 2011, Card. Velasio De Paolis appointed him general councilor, a position in which he was confirmed by the General Chapter of 2014.

He has been in charge of monitoring the Regnum Christi network of schools and universities and served as rector of the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum from 2013 to 2019.

On February 7, he was re-elected by the 2020 General Chapter as general councilor of the Legionaries of Christ.

He is currently the rector of Anáhuac University in Mexico.

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