In 1965, the Legionaries of Christ founded their first house in the United States: a novitiate in Woodmont, Connecticut, close to the city of New Haven.
The novitiate in Cheshire, Connecticut.
In 1971, the little novitiate was moved to Orange,
Connecticut. In those first years, a few Legionary priests—mainly Mexicans
and Irishmen—began forming the first Americans who embraced the missionary
charism of the Legion of Christ.
Soon the
Legionaries began establishing centers of apostolate in and around the
main cities: in 1973, near New York City and Washington
DC; in 1974, in the archdiocese of Detroit; and in
1984, Los Angeles. The work of the Legionaries of Christ
now reached from coast to coast.
As it
happens with every religious congregation in the foundation stage, the
first years were focused mainly on searching for vocations and
on forming the new Legionaries. God blessed these efforts, and
in 1982 the Legion opened the Immaculate Conception Apostolic School,
a minor seminary with 12 teenagers who wanted to discern
their priestly vocation. Currently, the school in Center Harbor, New
Hampshire has space for more than 120 students.
Also in 1982, the novitiate had to be moved from
the small house in Orange to the campus of a
former minor seminary in Cheshire, Connecticut. When the Legionaries acquired
this property in Cheshire, they thought they had “all the
seminary space that they would need for the next 50
years.”
But as their numbers continued to rise, they
had to expand it by adding on a new building
in 1992 and then by acquiring two new properties in
New York to be used in part as formation centers:
Our Lady of Mount Kisco in 1994 and Our Lady
of Thornwood in 1996.
As the Legionaries’ presence grew
in the country, the quantity of their apostolates also grew.
In 1986, they founded their first school in Dallas, Texas,
the Highlands School. In 1993 the first family center was
founded in the suburbs of Washington, Our Lady of Bethesda.
The formation center for consecrated women was founded in Rhode
Island at the beginning of the 1990s. The Legionary priests,
working with the lay people, launched the first national apostolates
of Regnum Christi: Familia in 1993 and Youth
for the Third Millennium (now called Mission Youth) in
1995.
Many other apostolates have sprung up since
then, including 12 Legionary schools and dozens of NCE-affiliated
schools, the Challenge and ConQuest clubs and camps
all over the country for girls and boys, Compass
to strengthen college students in their faith and missionary outreach,
Pure Fashion to teach modesty and values through fashion
shows, SportsLeader to foster values in sports teams, Christian Life for small group faith formation and bible studies,
and Pilgrim Queen of the Family to foster Marian
devotion in families.
There are
retreat centers and family centers in dozens of major cities,
vocational discernment courses, programs for adult faith formation, and a
new university in Sacramento, California. The number of missions in
the States and abroad has also increased, with Holy Week
missions now reaching 11 major North American cities and medical
missions gathering hundreds of doctors and nurses for trips to
Central America each year.
There have also been
big strides forward in the area of mass media: a
national newspaper, the National Catholic Register, Faith &
Family magazine, the Hombre Nuevo radio program, the e-Priest electronic newsletter for diocesan priests, frequent appearances of Fr Thomas
Williams and Fr John Morris, LC as commentators and bloggers
on national news stations, and the creation of a whole
array of web sites such as www.catholic.net providing spiritual and
apostolic formation for tens of thousands of subscribers and visitors.
The growth of Legionary houses of formation has
continued with the foundation of two new minor seminaries: one
in Colfax, California and another in Rolling Prairie, Indiana. There
are currently hundreds of young men in various stages of
formation and preparation for the priesthood, from the minor seminarians
in the apostolic schools to the priests and brothers pursuing
advanced degrees in Thornwood.
The growth that has happened
in the past few decades has been exponential, nothing short
of miraculous. From a small handful of Legionaries and Regnum
Christi members in 1971, the Movement has expanded to over
10,000 members served by over 100 Legionary priests. The number
of people who benefit from its apostolic outreach numbers in
the hundreds of thousands, with even greater growth anticipated on
the horizon.
The Legion of Christ in the
United States can be contacted at: Legionaries of Christ 475
Oak Ave Cheshire, CT 06410 U.S.A.
