The director asked the consecrated women to “contrast what we experienced [in the past] with the present and become aware of the steps of renewal and maturation in our style of consecrated life and [our] exercise of authority and obedience up to now, with the grace of God.”
Nohrden clarified that “asking for forgiveness is not to discredit the steps of purification and growth made in recent years, nor the beauty of a life consecrated to God and to the service of our fellow Christians.”
The superior considered that the experiences of history, which in some cases have been marked by “pain and mistrust,” can help “on the path of personal and institutional renewal and learning.”
On the other hand, she recognized “with pain” that several aspects of the internal culture were “a reflection of the double life that the founder led” and created a system “with criteria and praxis of life contrary to the Gospel or outside of ecclesial provisions.”
This, Nohrden admitted, harmed and wounded consecrated women and members of student centers.
However, she expressed gratitude for the path they have “traveled in recent years, of growing freedom and personal responsibility in living” their vocation.
“We still have to move forward in this renewal and continuous conversion to the criteria of the Gospel,” she assured, encouraging the women to take up that commitment together, “from the perspective of the kingdom to which Christ invites us.”
Finally, in her letter to the consecrated women in Regnum Christi, the director asked them to pray for “light and strength” in accompanying their fellow Christians “with deep respect, patience, and charity.”
The lawsuit
As explained by the Legionaries of Christ, “in November 2019, this same complaint was presented to the Congregation — today the Dicastery — for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Holy See (CDF), which referred to several Legionary priests of Christ.”
The congregation, they said, had commissioned a preliminary investigation, which lasted nine months, and in May 2021 determined that “it didn’t entail sufficient elements to give credibility to the complaint.”
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The Foundation for Trust, which is representing the plaintiff, stated that the complaint filed in 2019 paved the way “for two preliminary investigation processes.”
One of them was conducted by consecrated women from the Regnum Christi movement itself and another by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome.
The foundation reported that the first of the investigations had determined “that the events reported were credible and that there were also indications of the participation of Legionary priests.”
Furthermore, the foundation said at that time that “the director general of Regnum Christi contacted our client to ask forgiveness, recognizing the credibility of the complaint and offering her various reparation measures.”
In a statement dated June 26, Regnum Christi said that when analyzing the investigation of the external canonist who was in charge of it “it was considered that there could be plausibility” in some aspects.
However, it was determined that “it was necessary to check several aspects” because the conditions established had not allowed going into sufficient depth.