The 2026 General Chapter of the Legionaries of Christ Closes After Six Weeks of Discernment on Key Themes
The 2026 General Chapter of the Legionaries of Christ closed on Friday, February 27, concluding more than a month of prayer, discernment, and deliberation among sixty Chapter Fathers from around the world. As they prepared to leave Rome, the Chapter wrote letters to the members of each of the different vocations in Regnum Christi—the lay members, Consecrated Women, Lay Consecrated Men, and their fellow Legionaries. The Fathers thanked them for their prayerful support, and for the encouraging witness of who they are and how each one lives their God-given call to the shared charism and mission in their own state of life.
In their letter to lay members of Regnum Christi, the Chapter Fathers expressed their gratitude for “the many gestures of closeness that you have offered us during these days of our General Chapter and for your prayers for us.” The letter went on to share that the Fathers were edified in their own vocation as priests by the witness of lay members of Regnum Christi living out their call.
“Your enthusiastic love, your apostolic zeal, and your perseverance motivate us deeply. There is something in the witness of those who choose to follow Christ in the midst of the ordinary demands of life— with your family responsibilities, your professional commitments, your own limitations— that challenges us and invites us to a more convinced self-giving.
Seeing how ardently you seek that Christ reign in your soul and the souls of those around you, we feel called to respond more generously to the grace of our own vocation. You have been a gift from God for this Chapter. The Lord has made you a sign of grace for us, perhaps without your knowing. His light has come down to us, for “no one lights a lamp to put it under a bushel” (Matthew 5:15).
One of the expected products of the General Chapter is a final communiqué to be published in the coming weeks. This communiqué will share the Chapter’s reflections and discernment on the thematic areas explored over the past six weeks. These areas include: the life of poverty; fraternal life and community; the Gospel living of authority and obedience; Christ-centeredness in the life of a Legionary; the Legionary identity and how it is lived; initial formation; the Legion’s role and identity within Regnum Christi; the mission and ‘Caritas Christi Urget Nos’ (2 Cor 5:14); a renewed vision of vocations; reflections on reconciliation, healing, and forgiveness; and the role of the document from the 2020 General Chapter, ‘Protect & Heal.’
For Fr. Shawn Aaron, LC, North American territorial director, the Chapter was invaluable. He appreciated the opportunity it provided to discuss how the Congregation is called to extend the Kingdom of Christ and serve the Church as part of Regnum Christi, as a spiritual family and an apostolic body. The upcoming communiqué will elaborate on this theme.
During the Chapter, the Congregation’s new General Director and Council were elected. Fr. Carlos Gutiérrez, LC, from Hermosillo, Mexico, became the fifth general director. He is joined by the new general council, which includes three priests from the North American Territory: Fr. Michael Brisson, Fr. David Daly, and Fr. Robert Presutti. The council’s other members are Mexicans Fr. Hernán Jiménez (vicar general) and Fr. Adolfo Güémez Suárez, and Fr. Miguel Cavallé Puig from Spain.
A pivotal moment and highlight of the Chapter was the audience Pope Leo XIV granted to the Chapter Fathers. During this meeting, the Holy Father described the General Chapter as “an opportunity for you to recognize yourselves as heirs to a charism which, through different paths and historical expressions — sometimes painful and not without crises — gave rise to the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ, united by the same spiritual roots and a common apostolic passion. This shared memory does not look only to the past, but also urges us to constant renewal in the present, faithful to the Gospel.”
The Holy Father urged the Chapter Fathers to be ‘custodians and servants’ of the charism entrusted to them. He encouraged them to live the exercise of authority “not understood as domination, but as spiritual and fraternal service to those who share the same vocation” through the “‘art of accompaniment’ which teaches us to remove our sandals before the sacred ground of the other.” He also encouraged the Legionaries to “be adept at communion, creat[ing] spaces where the Gospel is translated into tangible fraternity.”
In coming weeks the Chapter Fathers who have returned home to the North American Territory look forward to the publication of their communiqué and to going deeper into the reflections of the Chapter in concrete ways with the Legionaries across the territory.
Related:
Fr. Carlos Gutiérrez, LC, is elected as new General Director
Fr. John Bartunek was ordained in 2003. He has taught moral theology at various ecclesiastical institutions at the graduate and undergraduate levels, and has authored many books, including the Gospel companion, The Better Part, and Inside the Passion, the only authorized behind-the-scenes look at the film, for which he provided on-set spiritual support. His online retreat guides are available in multiple formats at RCSpirituality.org. Fr. John currently resides in Atlanta, where he is serving as territorial vicar for the Legionaries of Christ.