Over at the Life as a Coworker blog, Molly Hodgdon expresses excitement about her new detail as a Regnum Christi coworker. As the young lady expresses in her blog entry today (and I’ve kept a screen-capture for future reference):
I am assigned to Regnum Christi girls (the older teens) I will even be going to help out with the RC teams at a couple of colleges (including Steubenville) [emphasis mine] so that may be a bit intimidating at first to work with girls that are older than me! But it will also be fun to do some traveling this year :)
I have no doubt that Miss Hodgdon is a nice young lady who is eager to serve the Church through her talents. But correct me if I’m wrong, wasn’t the Legion banned from Franciscan University Steubenville? (Click here).
Pete – the Legion, and even RC, may have been banned from any movement activity on campus but if there are RC teams meeting in the area (off campus, perhaps) then of course the coworkers would get access to them. That’s how RC works once it’s kicked off the Catholic Church’s property.
Also, the coworkers are like the consecrated in that they can enter where the Legion technically cannot. This is NP’s brilliant strategy of allowing formation and “spiritual guidance” to continue even within “persecuted” areas where the priests can’t get in, etc.
For those interested in just what this program is – “NP” based it on the Mormon missionary program. At least that’s what I was told. However, unlike the young Mormon elders we see at our door these young men and women assist with the local RC youth clubs – Challenge and ConQuest – and particularly with assisting the consecrated in forming the youth leaders of these.
Also a tidbit – notwithstanding Miss Hodgdon’s upbeat approach and obvious enthusiasm, based on my personal experience I am of the opinion, at least in the girls’ case, that many of these young women are ill-prepared for a year away from home in this environment. They have been associated with repeated auto damage, damage to the dwelling in which they live, off the charts cell phone charges and other large expenses. It is not unusual that they suddenly need to leave in the middle of the year due to “health issues”, “being needed at home”, and other stated reasons. In one particular case I know of, the entire coworker team imploded and had to leave the area causing more expense and cleanup from the grownups, as well as huge emotional turmoil for those young women. Perhaps they are simply too sheltered prior to this big step and can’t handle it, or perhaps they are left to make “big person” decisions without proper oversight, or perhaps they were never held accountable for their actions in the past (because they were working for the Church so always got a pass on those little details like another fender bender) – I simply don’t know the reason. But in any case I strongly question the preparation and formation of these young women and would not put my daughter, or son for that matter, in this program. I’ve witnessed too many bad outcomes.
I graduated from Steubenville in the late 90’s. The RC people (coworkers or consecrated? I don’t know) were known for being pushy and trying to hold secret meetings. Not long after I left, they were kicked off campus.