Life of the Congregation (2) Formation Team

Along with the Superior General, Fathers Laurent Bacho, Jacky Moura, Gustave Agín, Gianluca Limonta, Chan John Kunu, Fernando Stervin Selvadass, Sylvain Dansou. Once we have each exposed the situation where we are missioned, we then examined the different points on the agenda.

First of all the situation as from today (16 January 2014):
121 young in initial formation.

13 deacons; 6 seminarians in Final Vows; 27 temporary professed; 7 novices; 32 postulants; 36 aspirants.

Note that the “Blessed Marie” Region assembles nearly 2/3 of the young in initial formation in the Congregation.

Vocational Awakening in Europe
In Italy Father Simon continues to accompany groups of young Betharramites and groups in contact with the Daughters of the Cross. WYD were an important moment which we must not neglect. In France a few religious are involved in the pastoral of Vocations in Pibrac for example with the “Samuel” group. We hope that the presence of young religious from India, Thailand, and Ivory Coast will rouse an interest in what we are suggesting to the young people.

The Novitiate
Today the only novitiate is in the Michael Garicoits Region. The three second year novices are on stage at Bethlehem, Dabakala and Niem respectively. Two novices began their novitiate on 20 December at Betharram; visas for Israel are refused to people from certain countries from Africa, eg Ivory Coast. In the Etchecopar Region the novitiate will begin this month with an Argentinian and a Paraguyan.

The “St Michel Garicoïts” Region
Remember that for the Central African Republic initial formation takes place in Ivory Coast. St Michael House is ear marked for aspirants. Three of them are in the Junior Seminary in Bouar. The newly ordained priest, Father Marius, has been sent from Ivory Coast to accompany these young religious.

The “Blessed Mariam” Region:
At Mangalore the constructions of the new scholasticate is progressing well.

The “Auguste Etchecopar “Region
The young religious are heavily engaged in the region with the pastoral of Vocations and with the 2 new mission sites in Brazil and Uruguay: choices made for the jubilee marking the 150th anniversary of our Founder.

Some Reflexions
Father Gaspar told us about the meeting of Major Religious Superiors with the Pope in November. The Pope addressed the question of formation pointing out that this was an artisan craft and not a police one. It’s all about shaping the heart rather than be contented with behaviour which is “all right”. Such formation is very much in line with what St Michael Garicoits tells us about the “secret spring” and about the link between the interior and exterior. Without this formation of the heart we are shaping little monsters to be looking after the people of God. The thought makes my flesh creep” said the Pope. “We should not be forming administrators and managers but men who are fathers, brothers and companions en route.”

We in Betharram are challenged by the “Ignatian magis”. We cannot be contented with the “spiritual worldliness”, longing for pleasures but we are to take on board all the realities of life, including humiliations for us who want to be like Christ “humble and obedient”.

There was another preoccupation which we as formators shared concerning openness and trust in our meetings with the young. We sometimes regret the lack of openness as if solidarity in a formation house demanded silence on the mistakes, leading to complicity and superficiality. There is still a long way to go in training people in freedom; the right intention is necessary in formation. Otherwise it’s a risky business once initial formation is completed. It is possible to offer for final profession a candidate who is not well known in depth. Personalisation of the period is a necessity; prolonging the time and having a multiplicity of experiments are not enough on their own; all depends on how serious the accompaniment is.

The means of communication
We are all in the presence of a phenomenon which is taking over. To ban is no solution for it only results in a game of hide-and-seek, or else an obligation accepted during initial formation to be used later on without discernment. Like everything else the means of communication are ambiguous and need dialogue during the period of accompaniment. Care should be taken that they don’t interfere with study today or with the mission afterwards. Their use must not endanger fraternity in community; the danger is that we can be mentally elsewhere at the expense of brotherly relations in community. Another issue is the financial aspect considering that publicity often urges you to buy unnecessarily a state of the art device. It is important to promote interior life and sobriety and allow each one to be responsible for himself and have order in his life.

We also discussed the risk of haste when sometimes the superiors don’t seem to pay attention to the advice of formators asking for more time to check out certain points.

We also discussed the mobile interpretation given to the year “disconnected from all academic activities” in preparation for final vows. Besides, the fact of doing the international session every two years causes difficulties in the course of certain young religious. We think that situations are to be studied at regional level and submitted to the Superior General. Personal projects are to be considered here too. We repeated what we said last year that the session is important but “not a determining factor for final profession.” It’s true that it is a change in the brief history of the 12 years of the international sessions.

In certain cases a longer stay around Betharram for younger religious could be considered with the agreement of superiors.

International Session
(Wednesday 23 April – Sunday 1 June).It is intended for 10 religious: 3 Brazilians, 2 Paraguayans, 3 Indians and 2 Ivoirians.

We agreed that for the first few days the young religious must construct a project, pointing to the most important points to be respected. An awareness that the time for interiority is to be implemented by each one; sharing such a time with the brothers would help them to have a deeper understanding. We hope to get better participation because the majority of them are over 30 years of age. The “Narratio Fidei”, already introduced in 2012 will be extended. We shall pay particular attention to the first 7 topics of the Rule of Life. We are thinking of asking the resource persons not to forget the experiences of each one who would be better challenged that if it was a university lecture.

At the end of our meeting we agreed that great progress has been made for formation during the past 10 years, except on one point; generally speaking overworked formators have noticed that their many responsibilities have not been reduced. We understand the difficulties in our Congregation where vitality is on the wane in several places. This must not prevent us from being watchful that the burden of formation must not become a heavy load too early in life.