Above (left to right): Mons. Ricardo Blazquez, Mons. Giuseppe Versaldi and Mons. Ricardo Ezzati. Below (left to right): Mons. Charles Chaput and Mons. Ricardo Watty.

Rome, Italy. March 15, 2010. A little over a year ago, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Secretary of State for Pope Benedict XVI, announced in a letter to the general director of the Legionaries of Christ that the Holy Father had decided to carry out an apostolic visitation to gain firsthand knowledge of the congregation’s life and work.

The five visitors who began their work on July 15 were Archbishop Charles Joseph Chaput (of Denver); Bishop Ricardo Watty Urquidi (of Tepic, Mexico); Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati (of Concepción, Chile); Bishop Guiseppe Versaldi (of Alessandria, Italy); and Bishop Ricardo Blázquez Pérez (of Bilbao, Spain), who this past Saturday was named Archbishop of Valladolid, Spain.

Throughout the past eight months, the bishops visited the 120+ Legionary communities throughout the world. During their interviews, the priests and religious had the chance to speak individually with the bishops to answer their questions and freely express their observations and suggestions about community life and the work they carry out in the apostolates that the congregation directs and guides.

After this first phase of the apostolic visitation, the bishops must finalize their written reports and send them to the Holy See, where they will be studied and evaluated. Since the visitators’ work was extensive, and since the five individual reports were written in different languages, this new phase of the apostolic visitation may possibly take several months. It may also require some final exchanges between the Holy See and the visitators before Pope Benedict XVI gives the instructions that he considers suitable and necessary.

In an interview with the Notimex agency this past March 4, the Holy See’s spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi explained: “It is one thing for the visitators’ work to finish, and it is another thing to publish the results. It requires time. It will need to be determined whether the information is sufficient, or if it is necessary to request a supplement to the investigation. I would not expect a short time frame for the definitive decision.”

We ask all of our readers and friends to continue accompanying the visitators, the Holy See authorities, and all the Legionaries of Christ with your prayers.