Paulus PP. VI

The founder first met Monsignor Giovanni Battista Montini when he worked as Substitute for the Vatican Secretary of State. Pius XII had recommended that he call upon Monsignor Montini to go over the Legion´s Constitutions with him.

Thanks to Monsignor Montini’s fatherly support, the Legion of Christ founded its first apostolate in 1954: the Cumbres Institute in Mexico City.

When Monsignor Montini became Pope Paul VI, he maintained his closeness to the Legion. It was during his pontificate that the Sacred Congregation for Religious granted the Legionaries of Christ the Decretum laudis (Decree of Praise) on February 6, 1965, a definitive canonical approval which recognized the Legion as a congregation of pontifical right.