Page 169 - 聖母軍團員手冊（英文版，2014年5月-2022年1月更新版）

Legion HANDBOOK D10944_1 26/02/2014 15:53 Page 164

164 GOVERNMENT OF THE LEGION CHAPTER 28
will be considerable. This fact may possibly involve
disadvantages from the aspects of accommodation and of
administrative perfection, but the Legion believes that these
will be amply compensated for in other respects. The Legion
looks to its Curiae to supply another function than that of
administrative machinery. Each Curia is the heart and brain
of the group of praesidia which are attached to it. Being the
centre of unity, it follows that the more numerous the bonds
(that is, the representatives) which link it to the individual
praesidia, the stronger will be that unity, the more certain will
the praesidia be to reproduce the spirit and methods of the
Legion. It will be at the Curia meetings alone that the things
which relate to the essence of the Legion can be adequately
discussed and learned. Thence they will be transmitted to the
praesidia, and there diffused amongst the members.
11. The Curia shall cause each praesidium to be visited
period ic ally, if possible twice a year, with a view to encourag -
ing it and seeing that all things are being carried out as they
should be. It is important that this duty be not fulfilled in a
carping or fault-finding fashion which would end by causing
the advent of visitors to be dreaded and their recommenda -
tions to be resented, but in a spirit of affection and humility
which will presume that there is as much to be learned from
as taught to, the praesidium visited.
At least a full week’s notice of such intended visitation
should be given to a praesidium.
Occasionally one hears of this visitation being resented on
the score that it amounts to “outside interference.” Such an
attitude is not respectful to the Legion, of which those
praesidia are but parts and of which they should be loyal parts:
shall the hand say to the head “I need not your help” ?
Furthermore, it is unthankful, for do not those units owe their
very existence to that “outside inter ference.” It is inconsistent,
for how willingly they accept from their central authority
things which they are pleased to regard as benefits. It is
foolish, too, for thereby they set themselves against universal
experience. It is the lesson of all organised life (whether
religious, civil, or military) that an ungrudging,
comprehensive, and practical recognition of the “central
principle” is essential to the preservation of spirit and