Dear Linda:

I replaced the quoted text with the URL to the original article. It is best to provide the URL to the article than to try to quote an entire article in the Q&A Forums. This is especially necessary if the article cannot fit into one post.

I have read the article and I summarize the article and the author as:

1) committing the tactic of setting up straw men to justify her view.

2) An utter and profound ignorance about the nature of consecrated life and what the Church says about consecrated life to the point that the author, I would suggest, is committing the grave sin of rash judgment.

3) makes allegations without a single shred of evidence.

You'll have to forgive me, but I just do not have the time to fully rebut such ignorance and bigotry on a line by line basis. That would take hours and end up being a small book the errors and ignorance are so many.

In a short summary, she takes perfectly sound and appropriate elements of the Regnum Christi charism and then twists it to her personal and rather ignorant bias, and then creates a straw man (an allegation) to tear down and expects us to think this is an intelligent critique of Regnum Christi.

For example in her very first straw man from the list that she called "Trapped by Closed Arguments":

The author states (with the straw man in bold):

Joining the movement ? incorporation ? commits all members to daily, weekly, and monthly obligations such as prayers, meetings, and retreats. Each is an established devotion with many Catholics anyway so the transition to life in Regnum Christi is not difficult, although the degree of activity accelerates pretty quickly. With the incorporation, she is assured that, by her very presence, she is fulfilling God?s for herself and that the closer she integrates her life with the methodology of the Movement, the more closely she will be clinging to His will. That is the first catch, which confuses the members; it is a cyclical yet unspoken argument: ?You are here, so God must want you here. Live this life well and you will assure your salvation.?

This one example shows the profundity of the author's ignorance of how charisms work in an organization.

The author asserts as a supposed negative, "...that the closer she integrates her life with the methodology of the Movement, the more closely she will be clinging to His will."

Well, as my kids would say, "Dah!" That is what ALL charisms do in any religious order, community, or religious organization. That is what they are designed to do. That is why there are organizations in the Church -- to help people to most closely cling to the will of God. That is accomplished through the myriad and many charisms found in the Church. As a person follows the charism of whatever religious order or community they belong to they should find themselves growing in perfection, clinging to the will of God, and thereby giving greater assurance of their salvation. I say again, "Dah!"

The author's straw man statement (in bold) is a statement of utter ignorance and obvious bigotry -- this person has obviously already decided that Regnum Christi is the son of Satan and thus looks at anything Regnum Christi does through the colored glasses of prejudice.

Much of what this author has to say is characterization, that is, character assassination based upon the author's personal preferences, personal understandings, lack of knowledge, and personal prejudices, and not on facts or proper analysis of facts. 

I think this person ought to get an education about the nature of organizations in the Church and the purpose and nature of their charisms. I wonder if this person has ever read Apostolic Exhortation from Pope John Paul II, Vita Consecrata?

I wonder if this author would have had the same opinion of Secular Institutes? Secular Institutes are canonical now (since the 1940's), but it took 300 years for them to gain that status.

Then, oh man, what this author says about the consecrated life, wow. I am reminded of a advertise for the movie A Fish Called Wanda where someone says, "Don't call me stupid." The woman responds with something like, "Don't call you stupid? That would be an insult to stupid people!"

This author not only has it TOTALLY wrong, but so wrong that I would have to defer to that scene in the movie mentioned above.

An example: the author states that "living this union with Christ without canonical recognition is much like living in a common-law marriage without the protection of the state." This is nonsense. The status of consecrated life is NOT dependent upon canonical status according to the Congregation on Consecrated Life. Canonical Status is NOT what establishes consecration. While it is true that those recognized have certain canonical protections, those not recognized have some protections too, and can have almost identical protections as recognized consecrated persons.

Rather than refute line by line, perhaps it would be best to describe what the Church says about consecrated life.

Since this is a rather lengthy thing to do I will refer you to the Disclaimer for the Order I belong to -- the Order of the Legion of St. Michael -- which does not have formal recognition, yet Vatican recognized Canon Lawyers from the St. Joseph Foundation have affirmed that we are within canon law in what we are doing:

"The enterprise understaken by Brother John Paul Ignatius and his collaborators (in the Order of the Legion of St. Michael) falls within the exercise of those rights and obligations (of the Christian faithful outlined in canons 208-223). While such groups enjoy a lawful autonomy this must be carried out within the parameters of canon 223." 

The Disclaimer's first page is a basic statement, the second page gives details and many quotes. Be sure to read the footnotes that list Canon Law and such. Click Here

Also, I think we need to read the rebuttal that Regnum Christi offers concerning all these allegations. That can be read at Legionaryfacts.org

I also recommend viewing the CatholicFounders.org site. It gives a historical perspective on how most founders and new communities are attacked, slandered, vilified, and accused. This is not just a new phenomena. It happens to almost every founder of a new community -- even Mother Teresa suffered from accusation and attack for what she did in founding a new order.

The article we have been discussing comes from the hate-mongering site Regain Network. Nothing from there should be trusted.

The Regain Network will be put on our new website, Anatomy of Hate. This site, under construction, will explore the nature of hate, the dynamics of hate, the causes of hate, and the consequences and ramifications of hate. It will also list the hate websites that we find on the Internet, whether they be non-Catholic sites who bash the Catholic Church, or so-called "Catholic" sites committing hate on other Catholics (or non-Catholics).

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary