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You are here:Home / Family News / NEF 2014 / Family News - 2014 February 14th / Life of the Congregation (2) Council of the Congregation
Feb 14, 2014

Life of the Congregation (2) Council of the Congregation

Three Betharramite “continents” heartfully welcomed by Pope Francis on January 21st 2014

The meeting of the Council of Congregation which took place in Rome from 19 – 25 January 2014 with the Regional Vicars was a good experience of fraternity, communion and participation.

 

We began by looking at the conclusions of the last General Chapter of 2011 in Bethlehem. We were happy to note that the regionalisation was on course, that the Regional Superiors and their Vicars were doing everything to find the right means of implementing the service of authority, consequently the celebration of the Jubilee for the 150 anniversary of the death of St Michael Garicoits has given a new surge to certain Vicariates and has been an opportunity to make the Congregation better known.
The Regional Councils are now reflecting on their type of collegial work; some Vicariates have difficulty in sticking to their role of reflexion and discernment, their mission being to provide the suggestions to help in the decisions to be taken by the Regional Council. A lot of resistance in accepting propositions for on-going formation. Vocational pastoral is very active in certain realities; in others there is almost nothing happening which worries us.
If, on the one hand we have not yet succeeded in getting to know the financial state of all the realities of the Congregation, on the other hand we have been able to rejoice at two acts of fraternity: firstly, the setting up of a Formation Fund in which everyone collaborates; and secondly an act of solidarity in the construction of a hostel in the Ivory Coast Vicariate. Six Vicariates, the General Council and the Congregation for Evangelisation are taking the realisation of the project in charge. If only two Vicariates had been involved on the project it would have been too heavy a financial burden for them.
To pursue the application of the orientations of the General Chapter during the next three years, we want to help our brothers with the following propositions:
- Sustain the pastoral conversion demanded by Pope Francis so as to launch a missionary surge in our communities. This pastoral conversion means that we must leave our comfort zone where elements of worldliness subsist and pass on to a missionary dynamic full of the evangelical virtues of humility, joy, cordial friendliness, pity and communion. We must have one ear open for the people (EG 154 and 155) and the other open for the Gospel, as Pope Francis says. This is something which requires a regular practice of discernment, an essential part of our life style (Rule of Life 19). The only thing which doesn’t change is the person of Jesus Christ, the Gospel. Everything else, ministries, good works, property, ways of life, can continue as they have always done or else be changed in the light of the Gospel.
What is important is to make decisions and have projects which are an expression of our conversion: our identity and our membership, our fidelity to the Gospel in line with our charism and the coherence of our lives so that our lives have meaning. Decisions and projects which will rid us of our self seeking attitudes and will make us more aware of the needs of others and keep alive in us that missionary availability.
Without wanting to attach too great an importance to the written word, we must esteem the new edition of our Rule of Life, in our personal and community prayer, in community reflexions both at Vicariate and Regional levels, in discernment as we have already mentioned so that it will become a reference for revision and our life style. The Rule of Life states very clearly our charism: spirituality and mission. We cannot simply use it to resolve debates at Canon Law level.
One of our most important duties in the service of authority is the accompaniment of the religious, communities, spirituality as expressed in the Rule of Life, how to fulfil our mission and our internationality so that there is life in abundance.
As superiors and vicars in the service of our brothers, we must continue insisting on the value of the community as requested by the last General Chapter. We feel that there is still a lot to be done on this question. A lot of our brothers don’t attach the same importance to fraternal life in community as they would to a pastoral commitment. Since evangelical fraternity is an essential part of our Life style it would be good to have a reflexion on the reasons for this situation.
We know that a community is a very fragile institution just like a family. For this reason we are called to accompany the communities so that they remain faithful to their community and apostolic projects.
We must also accompany the communities so that they are always “houses of communion” and places of discernment so that the mission may be renewed and not the private affair of a religious.
We want to accompany the communities so that they remain always open to welcome the laity, to share our charism and collaborate with them for the mission. Furthermore so that they welcome young people researching their vocation in life, communities with the courage to propose our charism by their example and words. Just like religion, a congregation doesn’t increase and multiply by means of preaching but rather “by attraction”. This demands of religious and communities that they live in a constant state of on-going formation so as not to distance themselves from their vocation.
This is only possible on condition that all of us, religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we are docile to the action of the Holy Spirit, Master of the Interior life, who is accustomed to instilling into our hearts the law of love and obedience as was the experience of our Father Saint Michael Garicoits (DS 45-46).

Gaspar Fernández Pérez, scj

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