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Regnum Christi Hong Kong: a Small Team with Great Dedication

August 1, 2023 / Asia, International News, Legionaries of Christ, News, Regnum Christi, Regnum Christi News

Hong Kong is a unique mission territory for Regnum Christi. With a population of nearly 7.5 million people, the majority of Hong Kong inhabitants adhere to Chinese folk religions, like Confucianism and Taoism, or follow no religion at all. Only 10% of the population identify as Christians, and about half of those are Catholics. Despite its complicated ecclesial situation, Hong Kong presents itself as a bridge to China, whose influence, as one of the strongest global economies, on the future of the world and of the Church cannot be denied.

One of the priests assigned to this mission field is Fr. Joseph Tham, LC, who was born and raised in Hong Kong until the age of 15, when his family moved to Canada. After pursuing a science degree in mathematics, Fr. Joseph went on to graduate from medical school and became a general practitioner. After a visit to the Legionary seminary in Cheshire, Connecticut, in 1994, he decided to end his practice and become a Legionary priest, and was ordained in 2004. His background in medicine led him to the study of bioethics at Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University in Rome, and since 2010, he has been a visiting professor of bioethics at Holy Spirit Seminary College of Theology and Philosophy in Hong Kong. Despite the cultural and religious contrasts that often present challenges in his ministry in Hong Kong, Fr. Joseph sees hope and promise. “There is a warm welcome here for our spirituality and the apostolic methodology of Regnum Christi,” says Fr. Joseph. “Providence acts in an unexpected way, opening new possibilities at this moment in our history.” Along with his work at retreats, conferences, and pilgrimages, Fr. Joseph has combined his expertise in bioethics with his love for both art and his faith in a book titled Art for God, a collection of his ink paintings, calligraphy, and seals that explore the connection between heaven and humanity. He has recently presented his pieces in art exhibitions in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur, and has another exhibition coming up in Macau in September.

Regnum Christi has had a presence in Hong Kong since November of 2008, when the Legionary priests began visiting Hong Kong and mainland China. Throughout the years, they have given spiritual retreats on scripture and the sacraments, and have offered academic conferences on topics like bioethics and ethics within the field of business. In 2013, Fr. Joseph was joined by fellow Legionary priests, Fr. Gonzalo Miranda, Fr. Alex Yeung, and Fr. Michael Baggot, as well as consecrated member of Regnum Christ, Alberto Garcia, in an interreligious dialogue workshop organized by the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Right at Hong Kong Baptist University. Legionary priests have also served as chaplains on pilgrimages from Hong Kong to the Holy Land, Poland, Spain, Italy, and Greece, and have accompanied young people to World Youth Days.

The Legionary priests also work closely with the corporate world in Hong Kong. As of July 1997, Hong Kong is a special administrative region in southern China and has its own governing and economic system. Today, Hong Kong is one of Asia’s top economic and banking centers, and is ranked fourth among the world’s leading financial centers. Because of Hong Kong’s significant influence on the economy and international trade, there is a great need and desire for priestly accompaniment of entrepreneurs and professionals who seek theological, apostolic, and spiritual direction.

Recently, Regnum Christi Hong Kong hosted a Sacred Triduum Retreat in Hong Kong from Holy Thursday to Holy Saturday (April 6 – 8). The theme was “Centering My Life on the Paschal Mystery of Christ” and was led by Fr. Marco and Fr. Rafael Ducci, LC, who made his first visit to Hong Kong from Rome. Fr. Joseph, who initiated these annual triduum retreats twelve years ago, joined the retreat on Saturday.

Joan Foo Mahoney, an author and publisher living in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur, attended the retreat with her husband, Terry, and writes about it her experience in her newsletter Smitten by Faith:

“At the retreat, Fr. Marco taught us to look at our Christian faith as an organic whole, and not segment various aspects of our faith in accordance with the liturgical calendar of the Church. Instead, independent of the calendar, we should bring the Paschal mystery – the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ – right smack into the center of our lives. This will enable us to live our everyday lives in the Christian way, sharing the good news with others.”

And in April of this year, Regnum Christi members and friends followed in the footsteps of the Korean martyrs in a pilgrimage to Seoul and surrounding areas in South Korea. They also had a workshop in Macau where RC members meditated on and deepened their rootedness in the Regnum Christi charism, and participated in a lively exchange surrounding some of the issues to be addressed in the upcoming general convention to be held in Rome of next year.

Fr. Marco Cho, LC, has been serving in Hong Kong for just a little over a year and a half, taking up full-time residence there in January of 2022. He now serves as spiritual director for the new Regnum Christi team in Hong Kong, and is responsible for the formation of RC members, friends, and other English-speaking Catholics in Hong Kong.

The Regnum Christi community in Hong Kong is relatively new, and small – most of the members, of which there are about a dozen from Hong Kong and Macau, associated with Regnum Christi in January 2020, in a Mass presided by Fr. Joseph, Fr. Marco, and Fr. Thomas Montanaro. And the small size of the RC family in Hong Kong certainly presents its challenges. Fr. Marco hopes to eventually have a larger Legionary community and increased Regnum Christi infrastructure, in the form of a meeting space or center, as the movement grows in Hong Kong. In fact, the RC team recently held their first family “Come and See” day, where interested friends were invited to experience and learn more about Regnum Christi, and as a fruit of that event, many people are going through discernment through a team-led process and personal accompaniment.

In his work with this small but committed RC team in Hong Kong, Fr. Marco has found authentic human connection and genuine friendship. “I love working with these proactive people, who are willing to collaborate in the work of building the Kingdom, and who have grown to love our charism,” shares Fr. Marco. “Their commitment to the movement and the way they give their time and energy is remarkable, considering the heavy demands a big city like Hong Kong places on their time and resources. They have a great thirst for formation and a real dedication to living our charism in this secular metropolis.”

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Helping Regnum Christi Get Down to Business

April 15, 2019 / APP News Feed

In all labor there is profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.– Proverbs 14:23

An old newspaper editor once claimed that a charitable organization should call itself a not-for-profit, the point being that it doesn’t exist to make a profit. He said the term “non-profit” could apply to both charities and businesses. After all, there are businesses that despite their best-laid plans, turn out to be non-profits.

In the editor’s somewhat cantankerous insistence on precise language, there was a lesson for charities: just like a business, if you want to succeed you have to have more at least as much money coming in or going out.

There is a good deal of talk these days about the importance of charitable organizations operating on business principles. That means paying attention to the budgets, effectively managing people, and understanding terms like ROI.

According to a recent article in Inc.,the successful nonprofits of the future must operate like innovative business. And the magazine recommends five steps in the process:

Think like a business. How would you function if all your funding sources suddenly disappeared?
Redefine “customer.” In addition to those you serve, consider who could become a paying
Package up offerings. Think creatively about what you “sell,” whether a product, service, event, or experience.
Don’t go it alone. Innovation is about partnerships.
Create a sustainable business model. Measure your organization like a business.

Forbes has a nonprofit council for senior executives of nonprofits (membership by invitation only). The council has offered 12 ways for a nonprofit to operate more like a for-profit:

Raise Funds And Save Money
Speak The Same Language
Focus On ROI
Build Models Of Earned Income
Run Your NonprofitLike A Startup
Generate Revenue Through Corporations
Don’t Ignore Expenses
Match Costs And Benefits
Make The Mission Itself Profitable
Make Investments In Member Needs
Use Data To Make Decisions
Be An Ecosystem Warrior

In typically direct fashion, Fast Company offers a three-point plan for improving the performance of a nonprofit:

Impact through purpose
Impact through talent
Impact through innovation

Yes, there are many wonderful recommendations and lots of talk about applying business principles to nonprofits. But at Regnum Christ, two men are doing more than talking. They have made it part of their mission to coach localities and apostolates on how to be more effective, be better stewards of the resources they use – and thereby better fulfill the Regnum Christi mission to bring more souls to Christ.

Jeff Garrett of Omaha, is a cradle Catholic and member of Regnum Christi since 1999. He has been involved in adult education and formation, pastoral counsel, communion to the homebound, a member of the Archbishop’s Campaign for Development, and an ambassador for Cloisters on the Platte. In other words, this is an involved Catholic man. And you may have met him on the Regnum Christi website; he is the force behind Th e Regular Catholic Guy Show.

Jeff also is married; wife Donna is on the Regnum Christi Territorial Council. They have four grown children.

He also has been in the corporate world for more than 30 years, leading large and small sales teams, working in start-ups and in large corporations. These day, he does executive coaching helping men in the areas of work/life balance, leadership, CliftonStrengths, business vision, business planning and life planning.

“There are lots of different challenges in localities that I have seen in RC or experienced in the business world,” Jeff said. “The job of Section Director and Locality Director can be overwhelming and requires a lot of different skills. I was inspired to offer my experience to other localities – in addition to be involved locally

“One of the key things we do in RC is to help form leaders,” Jeff explained. “I feel this apostolate assists in helping the locality leadership develop and learn.”

So…if you a leader in a locality and would like a bit of business counseling, Jeff is your man. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that he is one of your men. That’s because he has a partner in this apostolate, Atlanta’s Tom Clements.

Tom Clements was raised Catholica and has been involved with nonprofits for more than 20 years. He worked fulltime for Regnum Christi for three years, then spent nine years on the Movement’s Financial Advisory Council. These days, Tom offers his wisdom as a consultant to various apostolates and localities that are looking to improve their business acumen.

Among the apostolates that have benefitted from Tom’s coaching are Catholic Worldview Fellowship and Our Lady of Bethesda Retreat Center.

“Under the locality model we implemented a few years ago, we handed many assets and responsibility over to the localities,” Tom recalled. “But we didn’t have the resources to train people locally and realized we had a huge need for strategic and management consulting with apostolate sand locality leaders. That’s what I’m available to do.”

Tom, who admits he can be a bit of a contrarian, said the success of Regnum Christi in North America lies squarely with the willingness and ability of lay people to assume the leadership of localities and apostolates. That means lay people filling the management roles and minimizing the amount of time priests and consecrated women have to spend in jobs that take them away from their roles as spiritual advisers and evangelizers.

“As lay members of Regnum Christi, we have to relieve our religious and consecrated members of worrying about the business of running operations,” Tom said. “We have to keep in mind that the highest and best use of a priest’s time is providing spiritual direction, preaching retreats, and offering the sacraments. It isn’t going over balance sheets and other business work that a competent lay person can so.”

Tom spoke here from personal experience; he treasures his Legionary spiritual director.

Tom also suggested that apostolate and localities be prudent about putting new assets on the books, noting that Regnum Christi has experience the discomfort of high debt and worked hard to achieve a solid financial structure.

“We’ve made incredible progress over the past few years,” Tom said. “I believe with the strong efforts of lay, consecrated, and religious taking their proper roles as a team, the future is really bright.”

And if you want to get a feel for what Tom the consultant might tell you, check out what Tom the author said in his book: HOW TO RUN A NONPROFIT, The Go-to Guide for all Nonprofit Managers.

Tom and Jeff both believe they – and others like them – can help Regnum Christi achieve what business guru Peter Drucker said of a nonprofit three decades ago: “It’s product is a changed human being.”

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Disciples by RC: New Apostolate Involving Young Professionals

July 18, 2018 / APP News Feed

The young men’s section of Regnum Christi in Guatemala has created a new apostolate for young Regnum Christi professionals called: Discípulos by RC (Disciples by RC).

“This apostolate broke all my schemes. Who would have imagined that when entering this bar environment, it would be the same Brother, a Legionary of Christ, [who gave the talk] who would prepare and serve me my drink,” explained a surprised participant of Discípulos.

Discípulos is an apostolate that seeks to gather about 30 young adults who have either finished college or twenty-four years of age, in an informal “after office” environment. After a 10-minute exhibition on a controversial, philosophical, or faith issue, a group discussion opens up.

The apostolate seeks not only a Catholic formation, but also breaking down the paradigms or lack of confidence between different vocations.

“I think nobody can see a priest having a beer or a drink in the midst of 30 young people, without being surprised,” commented another of the participants.

Discípulos takes place on the third Tuesday of each month at the Regnum Christi headquarters in Guatemala City. The organizers, members of the young men’s section, set up a social area in the building with a bar, cocktail tables, glassware and furniture with the logo.

“This gives the feeling of a bar to a young professional; somewhere that after a long day of work, to get together with a group of people at their same stage of life. But here he or she finds others who seek to live in their faith in a different way.” Explained Luis Pedro Fernández Smith, director of the apostolate.

Each month they change the cocktail or drink, food, discussion theme and speaker, so that the experience for the participants is new every time they attend.

The event begins with 45 minutes of socializing, so that professionals can break the ice, eat and drink. Afterwards, the speaker gives a 10-minute presentation, giving the opportunity for discussion after. Finally, they move back to the bar, where they continue the discussion in an informal environment.

Discípulos is lived by the branches together: Laity, Legionaries, Consecrated Women and Lay Consecrated Men. Each one of the vocations participates, exposes and discusses the different topics in the light of their experience and training.

Discípulos began with the aim of making the section grow with young professionals who feel that their Catholic formation is stagnating due to where they find themselves in life.

“We felt that in the section, there was a big gap between the meetings of youth and the men. We still do not have children, we are not at the peak of our professions, nor do we feel ready to go to a meeting with older men or women… but I am not in university or in high school anymore,” said one of the coordinators of the apostolate.

The young men and women’s sections have grown from this apostolate. Over the last five months of Discípulos 143 people have participated, and 70% of these were not part of Regnum Christi or a prayer group beforehand.

Topics covered so far have included: eroticism, sin, tolerance, religion vs relation and confession. Fr. Oscar Cabello, LC; Fr. Carlos María García, LC; Br. Jorge Mora, LC; and Pablo Beuchat, Lay Consecrated Man; have been the speakers thus far.

The apostolate is spawning a new branch called “Discípulos University Edition” to begin soon for university students who are not yet professionals but want to take part.

You can read the original in Spanish.

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young professionals

Regnum Christi Hong Kong: a Small Team with Great Dedication

Helping Regnum Christi Get Down to Business

And if you want to get a feel for what Tom the consultant might tell you, check out what Tom the author said in his book: HOW TO RUN A NONPROFIT, The Go-to Guide for all Nonprofit Managers.

Disciples by RC: New Apostolate Involving Young Professionals

Alex Kucera

Atlanta