Canyon Heights Academy implements the Integral Formation® method of education developed by the Legion of Christ. Active in twenty countries on five continents, they serve the Church by preparing and motivating lay Catholics to take an active part in the Church’s mission: to love Christ and to live their Catholic faith to the fullest.
Background
The Legion of Christ was founded in 1941, and was granted Vatican approval in 1948 by Pope Pius XII. In 1965, Pope Paul VI awarded the congregation the “Decree of Praise," which gave the Legion full Church recognition due to its accomplishments, above all in education. Such work in education began eleven years earlier with the establishment of the Cumbres Institute in Mexico City, the congregation’s first school. This would be first of many schools and universities founded by the Legion around the world, in countries such as Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Spain, the United States, Italy, Ireland, Mexico, Switzerland and Venezuela. The Legion currently educates over 115,000 students in 162 schools, 15 universities and 30 formation centers worldwide.
The spirituality of the Legionaries of Christ should be familiar to Catholics, as it is in line with the teachings of the Catholic Church. The name “Legionaries of Christ” sums up a Christ-centered spirituality in which Jesus Christ is the center, standard, and example of a Legionary’s religious, priestly and apostolic life. Love for the Church brings Legionaries to support and follow the Pope in a spirit of ardent, personal love. They study and spread the Pope’s teachings, and promote his charism of primacy and magisterium (teaching authority). In a spirit of faith, they honor all bishops in communion with the Pope as successors of the Apostles and witnesses of the Catholic faith. Legionaries seek to cooperate with bishops in the realization of diocesan pastoral programs, especially education, the family, social services and the mass media. Preaching and extending Christ’s Kingdom constitute the ideal which inspires, motivates, directs and shapes the apostolic goals of the Legion. To make Jesus Christ reign in the hearts of people and of societies, to transform minds and souls according to the ideal of the new man in Christ, and to create the civilization of love and justice: This is the mission which gives meaning to the name “Legionaries of Christ.” The charity preached and commanded by Christ in the Gospel is the heart of the entire spirituality of the Legionaries. "Love Christ, Serve People, Build the Church," summarizes the mission of the Legion.