Father José Ignacio Martín, LC, inaugurates the new Mano Amiga school.

In the area of education, the Legion currently runs the Oakhill and Santa María de Betania schools. Oakill is located in the Pilar zone, and Santa María de Betania is in la Capital. The Legion also directs the Mano Amiga (Helping Hand) foundation, which started its first school for underprivileged children just outside Buenos Aires. Groups of Regnum Christi members, although still small, are increasingly committed to the apostolates.

The foundation in Argentina began when Cardinal Quarracino, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, informed the Legion that another congregation was leaving a parish and a school in the city. He invited the Legionaries to take over both of them.

Thanks to the cardinal’s support, the transfer was facilitated. On Sunday, December 18, Cardinal Quarracino himself presided over the Mass in which the Legion took possession of the parish of Santa María de Betania. In the homily, he welcomed the Legionaries, emphasizing the Legion’s dynamism and youth. He said that their arrival was “a real Christmas gift” for the city.

Over a decade has gone by since then, and Argentina’s rich land has made the seeds of that first foundation fruitful.

One of the apostolates founded in Buenos Aires is the School of the Faith, which forms catechists. Through Youth & Family Missions, an apostolate directed by Regnum Christi members, the lay people are more committed to evangelization, with youth and families going out on missions throughout the year. In addition to missions in nearby areas, there have been missions to the Guaraní zone, in Patagonia, and in remote areas of Salta. The congregation, aware that its apostolic mission is for the good of the Church, offers spiritual exercises to diocesan priests and to religious.

In 1997, the congregation founded an apostolic school in the city of Córdoba.

Through clubs for teenagers and youth, the congregation promotes values in the youth and helps them to face the challenges and decisions awaiting them in life. There are currently clubs in the cities of Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Paraná, and San Luis. These clubs are led by Regnum Christi members, and guided spiritually by the Legionaries of Christ.

In February of 2000, the Legion’s first bilingual Catholic school was founded in the heart of the capital city of Buenos Aires: the Oakhill School. Two years later, they built and opened an extension of the same school in a residential zone (Pilar) near the capital. The Mano Amiga school was opened at about the same time.

Mailing address:
Legionarios de Cristo
Parroquia Santa María de Betania
Francisco Acuña de Figueroa 849
Buenos Aires 1179
Argentina

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