Pope Benedict XVI receives Fr Alvaro Corcuera, LC, in private audience on June 16, 2006 (© L'Osservatore Romano).

Father Alvaro Corcuera Martinez del Rio was born on July 22, 1957, in Mexico City. His parents are Pablo L. Corcuera and Ana Francisca Martinez del Rio. He was baptized four days later at Christ the King and St. Monica Parish.

He studied at the Cumbres School (Instituto Cumbres) and was one of the founding students at the Legion’s Irish Institute (prep school) in Mexico City.

In 1969, Alvaro traveled to Ireland along with a few other companions to form the founding group of the Legion’s language academy, now called Dublin Oak. It was during his stay in Dublin that he had his first inklings of a priestly vocation.

In 1981, he would recall those days: "The testimony of the novices, together with the experience [...] of the priests gathered in that time [of the first extraordinary General Chapter of the Legion of Christ] made a decisive impact on me. Being able to serve those priests in their Masses [...] filled me with enthusiasm and made me see the possibility of having Jesus so close to me and of giving him to others throughout the world."

On June 27, 1971, Alvaro Corcuera joined the first group of ECYD (Education, Culture, and Youth Development).

He became a member of Regnum Christi on May 5, 1974. Among other activities that year, he participated in a course in Reajo del Roble, Madrid, Spain. It was here that he first thought of becoming a consecrated layman in Regnum Christi, a step he finally took on April 13, 1975.

Seven years later, reflecting on his consecration, he said, “Joining Regnum Christi made me see that self-giving to Christ, wherever it might be, was the best gift that I could desire. Consecrated life was an experience that I could never completely assimilate because of its depth and greatness. It is a great gift.”

In 1975, he began studying for a degree in education at Anahuac University (Universidad Anáhuac) in Mexico City, and graduated in 1979.

Alvaro and several other consecrated members of Regnum Christi volunteered

	Father Alvaro Corcuera, LC, greets Pope John Paul II along with Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

as aides for Pope John Paul II’s first visit to Mexico in January 1979. There he clearly perceived his calling to the priesthood, and in September of that same year, he joined the Legion of Christ as a novice. When asked about his motivation to make the decision, he replied, “I discovered the main reason in the tabernacle, where you hear Christ’s call, ´Come, follow me. Leave everything and surrender yourself completely.´”

He earned his bachelor´s degree in philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University and his degree in theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (the Angelicum), both in Rome.

He was ordained a deacon in Rome, on June 29, 1985, by Archbishop Santos Abril y Castelló, then apostolic nuncio to Bolivia. On Christmas Eve that same year, he was ordained a priest in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Rome by Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo, then prefect of the Vatican department that is now called the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Father Alvaro earned a licentiate degree in philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University. He served as rector of the Center for Higher Studies in Rome from 1987 until his election as general director of the Legion and Regnum Christi.

He was the founding rector of the Regina Apostolorum University in Rome, from its establishment in September 1993 until the end of the 1999-2000 school year. During that period he served as secretary of the Committee of Rectors of the Pontifical Universities of Rome. On December 7, 1999, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Anahuac University (Universidad Anáhuac) in Mexico City.

On April

	On December 24, 1985, Father Alvaro Corcuera, LC, is ordained a priest by Cardinal Eduardo Martínez Somalo.

20, 2001, the Holy See appointed him a consultor to the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops. And on January 2005 he was elected general director of the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ and the Regnum Christi Movement by the third ordinary general chapter of the congregation.