WHAT IS
REGNUM CHRISTI?
A spiritual family with four vocations and one mission: to make Christ’s kingdom present in today’s world.
Regnum Christi is a spiritual family and an apostolic body in the Catholic Church, with the mission of making the Kingdom of Christ present today, in our hearts, in the hearts of all people, and in the world around us.
Regnum Christi is made up of the Legionaries of Christ, the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi, the Lay Consecrated Men of Regnum Christi, and lay members from all walks of life.
We come from many different countries and cultures; we are of many different ages and have many different backgrounds, but we are united by the experience of knowing Christ and his love for us.
We are a community of apostles, living our lives in collaboration with Christ so that others can meet him and personally experience his invincible, transforming love.
We live our Christian faith actively, following the 5 Elements of Life in Regnum Christi.
We live all of this in the midst of today’s real world, with all of its problems and uncertainties… but with the experience of God’s love, his forgiveness, and the knowledge that nothing we can do will ever separate us from him.
Our motto is “Christ our King, Thy Kingdom Come!” ( SRCF 13 )
It expresses the ardent desire to make the Kingdom present — to make Christ himself, who is the Kingdom incarnate, present in our world today — and to live like the first Christian communities.
Regnum Christi Hong Kong (RCHK) - Small yet Prolific
In Hong Kong, Regnum Christi sowed its first seeds in 2011, with the beginning of visits from legionary priests, the first of our Holy Triduum retreat (now a highlight of our calendar), and the incorporation of our first members.
Today, as a member of the RC Federation of 18,308 members globally, we are a thriving spiritual family - our team life supports us to lift each other in faith and help each other grow as Christians. We accompany each other in friendship and are nourished by a regular program of spiritual direction and formation from our spiritual directors. As members of RC, rootedness in the charism allows us to live fully in connection with God, with ourselves and with our world, active and contemplative.
Our program of activities is curated for our community - whether seasoned Catholics, or those who are just embarking on connecting or reconnecting with their faith:
The 5 Elements of Life in Regnum Christi
Spiritual Life
The core of a Regnum Christi member’s life is to know Christ’s love, love him deeply in return, and share that love with others. All members share a common mission and spirituality, which each one lives according to their identity and specific vocation. On the path of spiritual growth, we have a spiritual director who accompanies us individually in following Christ, as recommended by the Church. Once a year we do a Spiritual Exercises Retreat of several days, and we renew our 'yes' to Christ in Regnum Christi.
Formation
Integral formation is formation in the spiritual, human, intellectual, and apostolic areas of our lives. It allows us to form a strong and rich Catholic worldview, develop our capacity to go deeper in our relationship with Christ and “always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope” (1 Peter 3:15)
Apostolic Life
The mission of a Regnum Christi member covers all aspects of life. It begins with the foundation of building their own relationship with God, living their God-given vocation and state in life as their personal path to holiness, and then impacting the world around them through a life lived in union with God that reaches out to others in evangelization, service, and apostolate.
Accompaniment
Regnum Christi sees personal accompaniment as essential in following Christ. We seek to accompany each other as Christ accompanied people in the Gospel, person-to-person, discerning and following the path of holiness together. Personal accompaniment can be natural and spontaneous, as in friendships, or more formal and intentional, as in Spiritual Direction.
RC Team or Community
Modeled on the first Christian communities, Regnum Christi members gather as communities of apostles to pray, to evangelize, and to support and encourage each other in the living of their Christian vocation. Team life provides a nucleus of spiritual friendship, a community that is there to share the gifts and challenges of daily life with each other, and a group of like-minded apostles who work together to bring the light of the Gospel to those around them.
Our Mission
As part of the Regnum Christi movement, our small, growing spiritual family in Hong Kong strives to realise the motto “Thy Kingdom Come” - to make the Kingdom of Christ present in today's world so that all people have the chance to encounter Christ and experience his love.
With this as our mission, Regnum Christi members are called to live out the Regnum Christi Charism as apostles and transform the world through their witness and apostolic action. This includes transforming daily realities with the light of the Gospel, especially in their family, professional, and social lives.
Our Spiritual Directors
Fr. Marco Cho, LC
Father Marco Cho LC currently serves as local spiritual director of Regnum Christi Hong Kong.
Father Marco was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1969. He received the call to the priesthood during his university studies in the U.S. and entered the novitiate in Cheshire, Connecticut in 1992. He was ordained a Legionary priest in 2003. His life as a shepherd has taken him to Brazil, his native Korea and then Italy, where he has served as Regnum Christi local director and parish priest, until he arrived in Hong Kong in 2022.
Aside from being responsible for the ongoing formation of Regnum Christi members and friends. Father Marco regularly gives public talks and workshops on wide ranging areas in the modern context, such as prayer life in the intersection of spirituality and psychology and other topics of deepening the Christian faith, etc.
Fr. Joseph Tham, LC
Fr. Joseph Tham, LC is spiritual director of Regnum Christi Hong Kong, where he has sown the seeds of the local Regnum Christi community for more than a decade. Father Joseph was born in Hong Kong and moved to Canada at the age of 15. At university, he obtained degrees in Mathematics and Medicine and practiced as a family physician in Canada. However, his calling was to be a Catholic priest. While at the seminary, he obtained degrees in Philosophy, Theology and Bioethics. He was ordained as a priest with the Legionaries of Christ in 2004. He is the former Dean of the School of Bioethics at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University in Rome, Italy.
Today, he focuses on teaching, research and writing on Bioethics and he is also an author and editor of numerous academic articles and books. Yet father Tham has always been an artist at heart. In recent years his early love for Chinese art has been rekindled and has seen the birth and growth of Triune Harmony, an evangelization mission to bring people to God through the beauty of Chinese art. His interest and talent encompasses Chinese watercolour brush painting, calligraphy and seal making, and he has held exhibitions and workshops in many Asian countries.
Our Milestone
2011 - 2012
First Steps
Regnum Christi (RC) took its first steps in Hong Kong in 2011, when Legionary priest Fr. Joseph Tham, LC, from the community in Rome visited and started communicating with two Hong Kong families for vocations. Small group retreats were held and two Hong Kong teenagers joined the summer program of the Apostolic School in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada.
2013 - 2015
Periodic Formation and Ministry
Fr. Joseph Tham made periodic trips back and took the opportunity to offer spiritual and pastoral formation to parishioners. He started the first Holy Triduum retreat in 2013 and lead small group pilgrimages to France, Portugal, Spain and the Holy Land. In 2015, the pilgrimage "Footsteps of St. Paul's in Turkey and Greece" became one of the largest group and laid ground for the future growth of Regnum Christi in Hong Kong.
2016 - 2018
First fruits and Legionary visits
In February of 2016, the first group of Regnum Christi Hong Kong (RCHK) members were incorporated in Mexico City, during their visit to different communities of RC Mexico. For the following three years, Legionary visits continued, especially those from the Rome community. They attended to the needs of the local English-speaking community through hosting talks, spiritual directions, retreats and pilgrimages.
A second group of RCHK member was incorporated during RCHK's pilgrimage to Italy in September, 2016.
Some RCHK members also started the Pilgrim Queen of the Family Rosary apostolate in Hong Kong since 2018 helping families to draw closer to Jesus through Mary as they pray the Rosary together.
2019 - 2021
More fruits and official registration under the HK Diocese
A third group of Regnum Christi Hong Kong members were incorporated on January 23, 2019. Legionaries continued to visit from Rome, assisting in the formation and continuity of the Regnum Christi lay members present in Hong Kong. In exchange, RCHK members and friends also visited the Regnum Christi communities of Palermo and Catania, Sicily and The Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum University, Rome in September of 2019. Regnum Christi Hong Kong was officially registered under the Hong Kong Catholic Diocese by November, 2019.
During the Covid-19 Pandemic (early 2020 - 2021), formation activities and spiritual direction were continued virtually as it was not possible for legionaries to visit Hong Kong.
2022 - Present
First Local residing Spiritual Director
Regnum Christi was officially approved by the Hong Kong diocese to have its first local director residing in Hong Kong since early January 2022.