On November 5th, the new websites of the General Directorate of the Legion of Christ www.legionariosdecristo-dg.org and the General Governing Committee of Regnum Christi www.regnumchristi-cd.org were launched online. We present below an interview with Father Jaime Rodríguez, L.C., Secretary General, about these two new sites.

Father Jaime, what is the goal when creating the websites for the General Directorate and the General Governing Committee?

A recommendation from the Chapter to the Legionaries was “to recover trust, a task for everyone” (CCG 2014, 196-197). Superiors were asked to “concern themselves with communicating to the members of their community what affects the life of the Congregation or the community”; they were encouraged to ensure that “as much as possible, news about the Legion reaches through their superiors.” Speaking more specifically about institutional communication, the Chapter entrusted the new government with “creating updated and accessible sources of institutional information” (CCG 2014, 214). The new websites of the Legion’s General Government and Regnum Christi embody these recommendations and aim to fulfill this task.

The new constitutional text, approved by the Holy See, does not detail the functions of the collaborators of the general director nor include detailed governance and administrative processes, as these are not typical of such a document. Regnum Christi, for its part, is currently governed according to the “Provisional Framework for Collaboration in the Mission of Regnum Christi” and according to various existing documents and instructions, mostly under review and updating.

Therefore, it has become necessary to define and explain to all members the nature, functions, and internal organization of each area, department, and commission of the Legion’s general government and of Regnum Christi, as well as to describe important aspects of praxis, norms, and procedures. We believe that communicating how we are organized and having an institutional tool to inform will greatly facilitate the flow of appropriate information.

We tasked the communication office with creating this tool, and after several months of work, we are pleased to introduce these two sites to serve the entire Movement and the Legion. We seek to communicate in order to serve better.

What content can be found on the new sites?

The site primarily contains a static section explaining the nature and mission of the various areas, departments, and commissions of the governance of the General Directorate and the General Governing Committee. The names of the members collaborating in each are listed, and there is an option to contact them.

In the section about the general director, you will find his biography, his letters, some homilies, and chronicles of his activities.

Each area, department, or commission can upload its own documents and news about events, such as meetings of territorial secretaries, plenaries of the Ratio Institutionis commission, etc.

The site also includes the Press Office area, serving media interested in news about the Legion and the Movement. This press zone also consolidates updated statistics, a photo bank for publications, and press notes and statements issued by the Office of Communication.

So, will all the information be public?

The site will feature institutional documents such as the Constitutions or the General Chapter Communications in various formats, both for printing and electronic devices (PDF, Kindle, and AppleBook). The most relevant letters and other documents are available directly from the homepage.

There is also a members-only area. Registration is simple and provides access with a password. All documents and circulars from the general director are available there, including those that might not be of interest to the general public.

Thus, the site becomes a kind of institutional electronic archive for the use of members of the Congregation and the Movement. Anyone who needs to consult the Regulations of Administration, the Archives Regulations, or who missed downloading the semiannual newsletter in time, does not need to request it from Rome, because they know they will find the latest version of each document there.

Who participated in the development of the sites?

Over the past months, the team from the Rome Office of Communication has been working on this project. Father Benjamín Clariond, L.C., has led the project with the help of Víctor Cavazos (Webmaster) and Juan Carlos Arceo (Content Manager). Father Brian Coe, L.C., also contributed significantly to the development of these sites. Both sites benefit from a web design that adapts to all platforms and operating systems of the various devices used to browse the Internet.

The sites of the General Directorate and the General Governing Committee are intended to be static in some parts and dynamic in others. We know there are improvements to be made, but it will be through daily use and user feedback that we can enhance this service. It is still a beginning and will require some time and effort to improve them.