On June 5, 1936, God inspired a 16-year-old Mexican seminarian to establish a new religious order. Although the young had neither money nor experience, he answered God's call, founding ( even before he was ordained ) the Legionaries of Christ, an order that has since spread to 20 countries and brought forth 500 priests and 2,500 seminarians.
A few years later he started Regnum Christi, a movement whose devoted members (most of whom are laymen) now number in the tens of thousands.
In all, these two dynamic Catholic apostolates have opened dozens of Catholic schools and colleges and established countless centers that promote Catholic family values, train catechists, and missionaries, and help the poor materially and spiritually.
Now 83 and a priest for more than half a century, Fr. Marcial Maciel reflects on his remarkable life and work in this comprehensive interview conducted over many days by veteran Catholic journalist Jesus Colina, founder of Zenit News Agency.
Here Fr. Maciel tells of his childhood in Mexico during the bloody anti-Catholic persecutions, his unexpected call to be a priest when he was fourteen, and the trials he endured while trying to establish the new religious order. He answers many penetrating questions about the Legonaries of Christ and Regnum Christi, organizations that he still directs personally.
With disarming sincerity and realism, Fr. Maciel frankly responds to criticims that have sometimes been leveled against him personally and against the spirituality and methods of the Legion. Finally, Fr. Maciel reflects his own experiences in the spiritual life and priesthood, and relates his present vision, full of hope, for the future of the world and the Church.
