Nearly 20 years ago, Tony Frese was introduced to Regnum Christi through his work with Life Teen Ministry, where he served for 10 years, and attended his first silent retreat in 2002, led by Fr. John Hopkins, LC. Three years later, in 2005, he became a member of Regnum Christi, and has served in a variety of leadership roles, including Team Leader, Section Assistant, and Section Director, ever since. And now Tony is one of the elected lay delegates for the upcoming Regnum Christi General Convention to be held in Rome at the end of April this year.
A graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Aerospace Engineering, Tony began his career as an aerospace engineer supporting NASA on the Space Shuttle Program in Houston, where he worked for two years. Today he is the Vice President of Business Development at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, selling large military transport aircraft, where he has worked for the past 38 years.
Tony is currently on his second term as the Atlanta Regnum Christi Men’s Section Director. In this leadership role, which he has held for over six years, he is supported by a team of 15 men that lead the Atlanta section, made up of over 200 men across 25 teams.
“I really love being Section Director, as it is so fulfilling to help the section grow and thrive,” says Tony. “And being around so many Catholic men strong in their faith is so energizing and motivating!”
The preparation for the General Convention has been carried out in three phases that shift the emphasis from the local to the territorial and, finally, to the general level, culminating in the General Convention in April. As one of the lay delegates, Tony is eager to be able participate in the upcoming events with fellow Regnum Christi members, who come from a diverse array of locations and experiences, but bring with them a shared faith and charism. “As with past RC conventions I have attended, I am really looking forward to working shoulder to shoulder with so many amazing people, and to do that in Rome is beyond words! With so many people from around the world focused on Regnum Christi, I know that the Holy Spirit will move and provide tremendous graces and gifts that will only make RC better and a more powerful movement for God’s glory!”
Tony and his wife of 15 years, Skotti, live on Lake Lanier in Dawsonville, Georgia, and for Tony, who is an avid boater and fisherman, this has been a lifelong dream come true. Besides fishing and boating, Tony enjoys golf, collecting wine, volunteering his time to the Church, and hosting dinner parties for his large Italian family and their many friends who live nearby in the Atlanta area (Skotti is a gourmet cook, and Tony is an avid wine-collector, so they make a great pair!). Tony and Skotti have two adult children, Mary-Carter (MC) and Jim, who are both newly minted lawyers working in Washington, DC, and Atlanta, respectively. With MC engaged to be married in May, Tony and Skotti are looking forward to even larger gatherings with family and friends in the future!
The members of Regnum Christi, represented at the General Convention by elected delegates including Legionaries of Christ, Consecrated Women of Regnum Christ, and lay Regnum Christi members, are impelled by the personal experience of Christ’s love, feel the inner urgency to make his Kingdom present, give witness to what they have lived and experienced, and thus seek to respond to the needs of the world and of the Church.
The Regnum Christi General Convention, as an event of the Spirit, involves three actions: illumination, discernment and action. As an event of the Spirit, synodal, Eucharistic, and prayerful, the convention should illuminate Christian apostolic life, as well as conclude with concrete decisions on the life and mission of Regnum Christi.; it is about letting the Spirit blow on our embers and fan the fire of love, light and joy of the Gospel in us.
The General Convention is a strong moment in the life of the Kingdom – a Eucharistic, communitarian event, of union of each and everyone in the Body of Christ. It is about praying together, united in one faith and one mission, and receiving a Word from God about the needs of the Church and the world, with the intention of doing the will of the Father at this moment in history and from the Regnum Christi charism. The General Convention, whose theme is Discerning & Living the Mission Together, will begin on April 29, 2024, and is expected to last six days. To find out more, visit rcgeneralconvention.org.
