Conquest Clubs ? The Truth Behind Another Legion Front
CONCERNED MOM wrote:
Q// I am just coming into the Catholic Church. In fact, I am in RCIA now. My neighbor told me about Conquest and I have my son in it. My Priest has told me to take him out, that Regnum Christi, which runs that club, is cult-like. Our leader has talked to me for several hours at a time and is so interested in our participation. There are even highly respected professionals from Regnum Christi involved in leadership. They have so much care and concern for us. I am a single mother in between jobs and it’s weird to get this much attention when you don’t have $$ to contribute.
So these guys have seemed like saints to me.
Our Bishop has not sanctioned the group. I do not know why. But they would like to take us out of town to see masses performed by Legionnaire Priests. I thought all Catholic masses are the same. Apparently there is something special about these. They tell me there is a reverence I will never forget or experience otherwise. Thank you!
A/ C-M
By asking you are demonstrating that you are not naive. As an old
;; Catholic with a degree in Theology, I am led to believe that the same Jesus is substantially present after the Consecration, no matter who celebrates. There is only one Catholic Priesthood.
I see this Mass out of town piece as an RC recruitment ploy…Evidently you must have some leadership qualities that the LC/RC is after…
I am forwarding this to other women who have been had.
Regain board
C-M wrote:
Q
Thank you for your response and help. I have been going just thinking it was a wonderful club for my son, until I got this response from my Priest who told me to get him out if it was connected with RC. It was surprising to me. So, I started looking up what I could find on Legionnaires and the RC on the Internet. I found you’re Website and remembered my Priest telling me this group was cult-like but he didn’t give many details or say a whole lot about it. That’s why I decided to search further. Now I am very concerned. I’m still in the surprised stage.
I have only been taking my son to the Conquest Club since summer and it was only this past week that my Priest told me this. So most of what I’m learning is what I’m getting off the Internet. It is really a jolt.
I thought this club was the answer to a prayer. Everyone is very kind and friendly and accepting of my ADHD son. I saw this as fruit. I have not had a negative experience yet and wonder why my Priest is saying this. I was totally naive about this until he said that and I started looking on the Internet for more information. I did mention the child abuse stuff and the President of the club went into detail about how the stuff was never proven and the Pope dismissed it. They say that the negative stuff I see on the Internet is proof that they are doing something great because it shows that the Devil is against them. No good thing comes to pass without a lot of opposition.
Is RC the same all over? Or are there local groups that could not be as cult-like? I hope that some of the other women will e-mail me whom you forwarded my e-mail too. I’m still trying to figure out what I’m going to do. It is still a bit of a shock to me.
Thank you so much for your communication.
Blessings and Peace
A/ Dear C-M, Concerned Mother
Keep searching. It is a subtle thing. We are not talking the Moonies or the Jehovah’s .but some of the methodology is similar. very smart, somewhat deceitful recruiting.’love-bombing’.All of us who have left have experienced feeling special AT THE BEGINNING.it wears off.everyone and everything is a means to an end…
The child abuse stuff may stop them in their tracks.
Ask also about pressure tactics
and informed consent
.
Besides, ‘why the hurry?’ .God is not going to die anytime soon.
Have a good chat with your priest.
Q/C-M wrote:
Thank you very much. The other thing I keep hearing is that all new movements and orders face persecution and this is what happened to this movement and its leader.
A/ Dear C-M, Concerned Mother
,
That is another ‘catch phrase’; step back and you will see there is false reasoning;
FAULTY AND MISLEADING THINKING.
Ask anyone who knows LOGIC. The LC/RC jump from a generalization to a particular conclusion. Their argument can be corrected as follows;
‘All new movements and orders face persecution’
Answer:
MAYBE,
BUT NOT ALL NEW MOVEMENTS AND ORDERS ARE GOOD AND
HEALTHY.
SO, HOW DOES THAT PROVE THAT THE LEGION/REGNUM, because its NEW, IS GOOD AND HEALTHY?
That is why they would be afraid of arguing with a priest or a person with philosophical training;
‘Ordinary people’ -including Catholics – can be seduced by the catch-phrases, the appearances of holiness, and the ‘quick solutions to very complex problems’. They are glib.
Q/C-M wrote:
Thanks again. I see your point. I was told that our Bishop doesn’t approve of the RC in our diocese because his specialty is the formation of priests and he does not believe this should happen until college age. Legionary Priests can start as young as 12 and there is at least one school in the US where children this age can go. I can apply the example you just gave me to their reasoning for sending young boys into training to become Priests.
However, as unhealthy as this practice seems to me, I’m just in RCIA and still learning, it’s been going on in the church for years and also is accepted by the Pope.
What I am wondering after my discussion last night with the doctor they said wanted to speak with me is this. Is this Boys Club about formation and Christian Fellowship? I have only looked at it as a comparable replacement for the Monday night boys group I always had my son in at another church. This doctor last night tells me he would be very happy if any of his boys showed a desire in the priesthood and would send them to the school that does this if they did. Is there another purpose, and that being to draw young boys into the Priesthood? I guess they like to get them before they become too influenced by the world.
I don’t see how a 12 year old or even any adolescent could adequately discern this calling. But I think these parents see it as sacrificing their sons for the Church. It’s not just about being a boys club is it? I think I’m catching on.
A/ Dear C-M, Concerned Mother
,
You are catching on. These clubs, from the LC/RC point of view, are (and ARE called from the inside by the members); ‘OPEN MEANS OF RECRUITMENT’. It’s just that they are camouflaged to look like other ‘harmless’ groups. These are a MEANS TO AN END.
This is what Regain calls ‘deceit’, ‘deceitful methods and strategies’.
MEANS OF GRADUALLY DRAWING BOYS TO THE LC SEMINARY;
THEY DO HAVE ONE, TWO OR THREE OF THESE JUNIOR SEMINARIES IN NORTH AMERICA, MASQUERADING AS RESIDENTIAL HIGH SCHOOLS. compared to other religious orders who may have similar schools, the LC/RC recruitment strategies are high powered and deceitful, often separating children from their parents too early and too strictly.
‘Spiritual Direction” is often used to split the youth from parental influence and oversight, and seduce them into pre-mature commitment against the parents’ wishes, under the pretence of this being The Will of God
.
WHY JUNIOR SEMINARIES?
Junior seminaries were barely mentioned by the Church’s latest Ecumenical Council, Vatican II, 1962-65. They are mentioned in passing in number 3 of the official document on priestly formation. Even so, the Legion is not in compliance with this paragraph as it separates the children too much from their parents and relatives, and from the outside world.
Junior Seminaries arose after the Council of Trent in the 16th century, and were used more extensively in ‘Latin’ and 3rd world countries, for several reasons:
- To prevent the boys from engaging in sex too early, and shepherd them towards celibacy. Remember that in some supposedly Catholic countries, fathers initiate(d) their sons into adolescence by bringing them to brothels! (One would hope that this is not the custom presently among American Catholic families). However, this extreme protectionism may still have some weight among Catholic families with a ‘siege mentality’ who are scared out of their mind by the world, the flesh, and the devil. Especially by the flesh!
The problem here was that boys at these seminaries often never really made a free and informed choice for celibacy because they were too secluded and had no contact with their peers and with females.
- Public education was sadly lacking and so the seminary gave them a better grounding. (This is no longer the case in most countries.)
- They started learning Latin (remember everything was done in Latin, even university lectures) and Greek, the official Church languages, from early on. Language learning continues to be one of the reasons for a traditional seminary.
Your pocket Church historian
Q/C-M wrote:
Dear Regain;
Thank you so very very much!! I think I am seeing the light. I finally know what is going on and why my Priest and Bishop have problems with it and why what LC/RC folks say what they say. I get it!! I really get it!! I really do want to thank you for the time you have spent writing to me on this. I see the truth now. I was so confused when I started writing. Everything looked and seemed so wonderful and then my Priest said to get my son out and then I was confused and trying to piece puzzle pieces together. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I cannot thank you enough ;
A/ Dear C-M, Concerned Mother
,
Today you made my day! That is one of the goals of Regain; to warn and educate Catholics about the dangers of these ‘sect-like organizations’ inside the Catholic Church. I am sorry to say that other converts have fallen prey to deceit, learning the truth later to their chagrin. We are about to implement a new section on our webpage Q and A, and our conversation seems to confirm the need to set up a place where others can access the ‘wisdom’ of Regain
members; to INITIATE other Catholics into the ‘Mysteries’ of the Legion of Christ.
Would you allow us to use some of our correspondence -carefully editing out any identifying information- as a way of enlightening others? Our recent conference in Atlanta has been a great eye-opener to us, as we experienced the confusion and anxiety of catholic parents vis-? -vis the Legion/Regnum and realized we must try to give a specifically Christian and Catholic answer to the cry for help.
Yours in Christ,
– – – – – –
Q/C-M wrote:
Dear Regain;
I am quite certain that you made my day too!! I think that what you want to do with the Q and A section is a wonderful idea. I am only glad that I had a priest who set up my red flags and that you were there to help me figure out what was going on.
My Priest knew they weren’t answering his questions. In fact, they returned his e-mail with a question as to what did he mean by these questions. Then they told me that my priest was being deceptive because they knew he knew the answers to what he was asking. I was the person in the middle.
I don’t know about other locations but here in the XY area, on the surface, this looks like a wonderful club. I know now from using your Website that I was even lied to. The club President told me that RC started this club as their main goal and to help these boys go out and change the world. And, I was also told that RC does not always decide to become affiliated with Conquest. I learned from your Website how Legionaries, RC, Conquest, schools, universities, other Websites all are linked together. RC here did not present it that way. It was like they chose to affiliate with Conquest and start this club.
I am just truly grateful to you for helping me finally see and understand. I think that they should be up front that these clubs are formed with the intention of recruiting for vocations. If I had not been so curious about my priest not approving of the group and wondering why, I never would have found Regain or e-mailed people who really knew. When would I have found out? When my son decided at age 12 that he wanted to become a Priest and they tell me to send him off to a school where he decides his future before he is even old enough to make that decision? The way I see it now, it wouldn’t likely be a true calling from God on his life at this point, it would be the heavy influencing of Conquest leaders.
You really did make my day. And I’m certain that your time and answers have spared our family much future pain. I do hope others will be led to you for help as well.
This is beside the point now, but I am left wondering about the child abuse allegations and the self-flagellation stories. All of which are adamantly denied by RC. It was even compared to the persecution that St. Francis faced when he started the Franciscan order.
May the Lord bestow blessings, love, and peace in your life.
– – – – – –
A/ Dear C-M, Concerned Mother
,
Unfortunately, lying is very common; I mean, bare-faced lying.
And the piece about St. Francis is another common ploy, but rather preposterous; there could not be two people more different than Marcial Maciel and Francis of Assisi; Francis left luxury and fame to embrace poverty and anonymity; Marcial left a simple life in Cotija, a one horse town in provincial Mexico, to embrace luxury and glory.As for the Legionaries and the Franciscans, we are talking for now about several centuries of self-less service to the Church and the faithful, and the proven holiness of hundreds of members of St. Francis’ Third Order, religious and lay. Besides, there is that famous Franciscan humility!
Regain