Draft Regulations of the Associated Faithful in the Regnum Christi Federation
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1 Thy Kingdom Come! DG-RC 0354-2018 Anexo 1 Clas. III.5.29 DRAFT REGULATIONS OF THE ASSOCIATED FAITHFUL IN THE REGNUM CHRISTI FEDERATION For the use of the delegates of the General Chapter and General Assemblies of November. 2 Contents Presentation First Part. The Lay Members of Regnum Christi Chapter 1. Identity and life of the Lay Members of Regnum Christi Article 1. Spiritual life Article 2. Formation Article 3. The apostolate Article 4. Personal accompaniment Article 5. Team life Chapter 2. Incorporation and departure of lay members of Regnum Christi Chapter 3. Particular modes of self-giving for lay members of Regnum Christi Article 1. The promise of self-giving Article 2. Coworkers Chapter 4. Structures and functions at the service of the life of Lay Members of Regnum Christi Article 1. Elections and participation in the general and territorial conventions Article 2. Election and collaboration of the laypeople with the General and Territorial Presidency Chapter 5. Participation of lay members of Regnum Christi in the governing bodies of the Federation Second Part. Diocesan priests and seminarians of Regnum Christi For the use of the delegates of the General Chapter and General Assemblies of November. 3 Presentation The Regulations of the Associated Faithful in the Regnum Christi Federation is a secondary code foreseen by the Draft Statutes of the Regnum Christi Federation (n.2), which establishes that these Regulations must be approved by the General Convention of the Federation. It contains the applicative norms of what the Statutes prescribe in general terms regarding the associated faithful and, above all, the norms that define the way in which they live the charism of Regnum Christi1. This version of the Regulations has been prepared considering the contributions received from the lay delegates of the General Assembly in April 2018, the Pontifical Assistant’s corrections and the organizational model proposed in the Draft Statutes of the Regnum Christi Federation in its third version (Draft 3.0). The following changes have been made to the previous text: - Some wording and conceptual changes to adapt the Regulations to the Draft 3.0 and to the recommendations of the Pontifical Assistant. - A new formulation of the promise of availability, now called the promise of self-giving, at the request of some of the lay delegates in the April session. - Instead of referring to the territorial director and their committee, the General and Territorial Presidency is now used. - Participation of the laypeople in the direction of the Federation consists in assisting, by consultative vote, in the General and Territorial Convention and in the and General and Territorial Presidencies and Plenary Councils. The Presentation of the Draft 3.0 explains the reasons that support this way of structuring the laypeople’s participation in the Federation. When referring to Regnum Christi and to the members, the Regulations follow the same terminology as the Draft 3.0, as explained in its presentation and glossary. The only difference with respect to Draft 3.0 is that the “associated faithful” are also called “Lay Members of Regnum Christi”. The first term is used when in the technical-canonical context of the Federation, and the second term is used when the context is spiritual-charismatic. These adjustments have been included in the Regulations by a commission composed of Francisco Gámez, Fr. Sylvester Heereman, Javier Bendek and Br. Seth Sabata, and have been approved by the three general moderators. It is good to bear in mind numbers 16, 18 and 19 of the Message of the 2018 Extraordinary General Assembly to Regnum Christi members at the end of the first session (DG-RC 0152- 2018) on the history of the preparation of the Regulations (no.16) and its revision (nos. 18 and 19) by the lay members in the April General Assembly: 16. Francisco Gámez, a lay member of the Regnum Christi General Committee, presented in a plenary session the revision of the draft of the Regulations of Regnum Christi as the second to last step in a process begun in June 2013. At that time the pontifical delegate, Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, urged the laity to initiate a discernment on their own identity as members of Regnum Christi. In September 2014, the study circles and team meetings began to focus on studying various documents and discerning about their own vocation. There were 10,882 lay members who registered to vote for delegates who would continue the reflection in Territorial Conventions. In those conventions, members of the three consecrated branches accompanied the lay people. From the Territorial Conventions, 64 delegates were elected to the 2016 International Convention. The International Convention approved a text that was included in 1 In these Regulations, “Lay Member of Regnum Christi” refers to what the Statutes of the Regnum Christi Federation calls “laypeople associated to the Regnum Christi Federation”. For the use of the delegates of the General Chapter and General Assemblies of November. 4 the second part of the Draft General Statutes and reviewed in the Territorial Assemblies in the fall of 2017. 18. In their voting, the laity expressed a broad consensus in support of the draft of the Regulations that had already been worked on and revised in previous meetings, suggesting only slight modifications. They renewed their commitment to the formation of their own lay members and expressed their interest in developing some form of online collaboration that will make it possible to keep in touch in order to continue developing their own identity and vocation. Finally, they held a final vote on the draft of the Regulations as a whole, in which it was unanimously approved. This was done looking forward to its final ratification, which will take place in a vote of the Assembly as a whole during the second session at the end of 2018. 19. The lay delegates see the draft Regulations as the first fruit of a prolonged process that involved many people, and as another step that provides a common, broad, and flexible framework. They hope the members will familiarize themselves with them and adopt them as their own. Above all, though, they hope they will provide a chance to renew apostolic drive and the sense of what it means to belong to Regnum Christi. Some technical aspects of the draft Regulations will still have to be adjusted once the exact configuration of the various bodies of the Federation has been defined. At the end of the day, all of this work must contribute to the mission of the lay people which is to make the Kingdom of God present in the hearts of people to transform society. These draft Regulations of the Associated Faithful in the Regnum Christi Federation are presented to the delegates to the Extraordinary General Assembly in November so that they can be revised and receive final ratification by all the delegates of the General Assembly. To achieve these goals, and in view of the long drafting process of this document and the short time available at the General Assembly in the November session, all delegates are asked to prepare written proposals for any change they see necessary in these Regulations. These proposals must be in the form of alternative texts to the numbers presented here, and should be sent to the secretariat of the Joint General Assembly ([email protected]) before November 12, 2018. In the General Assembly only the written proposals received by the secretariat will be reviewed and voted on. In voting on the Regulations, lay members and branch members with deliberative vote will participate together as established by Draft 3.0 no. 55 §3 and no. 39§2 of these Regulations. For the use of the delegates of the General Chapter and General Assemblies of November. 5 Draft of the General Regulations Draft Regulations of the Associated Faithful of Regnum Christi (April 2018) in the Regnum Christi Federation First Part. Regnum Christi Laypeople First Part. The Lay Members of Regnum Christi Chapter 1. Identity and life of Regnum Christi Chapter 1. Identity and life of the Lay laypeople Members of Regnum Christi Identity of the Regnum Christi Laypeople Identity of the Lay Member of Regnum Christi 1§1. The Regnum Christi laypeople are 1§1. The Lay Members of Regnum Catholics who personally embrace a divine Christi are Catholics who personally embrace a vocation to live their baptismal commitments in divine vocation to live their baptismal the midst of temporal realities according to the commitments in the midst of temporal realities charism, but without assuming the evangelical according to the charism, but without assuming counsels by a sacred bond. the evangelical counsels by a sacred bond. Their fundamental characteristics are described in the Statutes of the Regnum Christi Federation, numbers 6-28. §2. The Regnum Christi laypeople are §2. These faithful are incorporated into Regnum individually associated with the Federation, Christi by individual association to the according to these Regulations. Federation, and admitted by the competent authority of the same, according to the norms of the Statutes of the Federation and these Regulations. §3. They bring to Regnum Christi their §3. They bring to the Federation, and to all of secular nature and their apostolic action, by Regnum Christi, their secular nature and their which they extend Christ’s presence in the apostolic action, by which they extend Christ’s world and transform human realities, especially presence in the world and transform human in their family, professional, and social life, in realities, especially in their family, professional, accordance with the Gospel. and social life, in accordance with the Gospel. Elements proper to the way of life for Regnum Elements proper to the way of life of Lay Christi Laypeople Members of Regnum Christi 2.