At the end of the general audience on Wednesday, May 11, 2022, Pope Francis addressed a greeting to the new priests of the Legionaries of Christ: “I warmly welcome the Italian-speaking pilgrims. I greet […] the new priests of the Legionaries of Christ with their families […]”.

The Holy Father, in his catechesis on the meaning and value of old age, presented the figure of Judith, a biblical heroine who, “as a young woman, earned the esteem of the community with her bravery. As an elderly woman, she earned it through the tenderness with which she enriched freedom and affection, a passionate elderly woman who fills the time God gives her with gifts”.

Towards the end of the general audience, the newly ordained priests of the Legionaries of Christ went to greet the Holy Father. It was a simple and family-like moment, in which the new priests expressed their fidelity and affection to Pope Francis, and asked for his prayer for the mission entrusted to them.

On May 7, a group of 28 Legionaries of Christ was ordained in St. Paul Outside the Walls Basilica, in a ceremony presided over by Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello. The new priests come from: Argentina, Germany, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, South Korea, Italy, France, the United States, and Mexico. You can see an article about the ordinations and a summary video at this link.

One of the characteristic notes of the spirit of the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ is love for the Pope. In their Constitutions, in number 14, it states:

Since the Church is the mystical Body of Christ and the presence of His Kingdom in the world, the Legion of Christ only has reason to exist within the Church, for the Church, and based on the supernatural and human mission of the Church. Therefore, the legionaries:

1st, love her passionately; feel solidarity with her pains and joys; dedicate themselves to her with a spirit of service and deeply live the awareness of their mission within her;

2nd, adhere with filial love to the Roman Pontiff, study and disseminate his teachings, put into practice not only his commandments but also his guidelines, promote his initiatives, and bravely defend the charisma of his primacy and Magisterium;

3rd, respect with a spirit of faith the bishops as successors of the Apostles, collaborate with them, and live in fraternal communion with the presbyterate.