Fr. Carlos Gutiérrez, LC, recently elected General Director of the Legionaries of Christ, is also a graduate of Divine Mercy University’s Masters in Psychology program. In this interview for the Called to Flourish Podcast, Fr. Charles Sikorsky, LC, president of Divine Mercy University, talks to him about how his education and formation have given him insights necessary for his ministry as a priest in the different roles he has held over the years, and now as General Director.
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It was while working with adolescents in ECYD and accompanying young people in spiritual direction in Monterrey that Fr. Carlos recognized a desire to accompany people more deeply and pursued a master’s degree in psychology from Divine Mercy University.
“When I started working in the apostolate and giving spiritual direction to young people, I discovered that there were many things from psychology that I wanted to learn in order to help me accompany the young people I was working with. I really like the spiritual direction program Divine Mercy offers, I find it very useful for priests, because it’s a very good complement to the formation we receive in the seminary.”
Fr. Carlos emphasized that the formation he received shapes how he forms others. One insight in particular stands out to him: the power of helping people flourish by discovering and developing the gifts God has placed in them.
“I really try to make people flourish, to find the best sides of themselves,” Fr. Gutiérrez said. “The talents and gifts they have received from God, they can make them flourish and put them to work for the mission and for fulfilling their vocation.”
It is accompaniment ordered not merely to correction of vices or faults, but to the positive things God is doing and to the mission, helping each person become the apostle Christ is calling them to be.
When asked what the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi offer the Church today, he returned to the heart of the charism: the lived, personal experience of Christ at the center.
“The Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi share this experience of God, of Jesus Christ as a person that each one has encountered in their work, in their lives, in their prayers — a personal God who is really in contact with me, who is really my friend, right next to me, who enjoys life with me, who suffers with me. That experience of Christ is what we are called to share with the world.”
Find out more about the Masters in Psychology and other programs that DMU offers at www.divinemercy.edu.
