A word from the Superior General

Modern means of communication must favour a real deep encounter amongst each other and exchanges within the community, and outside. Their use ‘must facilitate a better knowledge of the complexity of the world, allow the opportunity to challenge and question and know how to put these means at the service of evangelisation’. Their restrained and prudent use (bearing in mind our commitment to poverty) should be accompanied by enlightened and communal discernment. (Rule of Life 107)

We live in a world characterised by the use of technological media in all human environments. Often we cannot avoid making use of them in our life and for the mission. In other cases we notice that the religious take very personal decisions to obtain the latest mobile phone or the latest tablet. The computer is an instrument of work, often demanded by university lecturers or teachers of secondary schools. Is this argument sufficient to justify that each studying religious has a personal computer or would it be enough if we had some computers in the community which could be used by all? Do we have to have the same criteria in all facts? To accept one of these instruments as a present does not create some divisions within the community? What can we do when in the community the religious eat with their mobile in their hands sending and receiving messages and answering calls? There are situations more dangerous: some religious due to an inadequate use of the technological media end up with addictions which deprive them of enough freedom to lead a minimal balanced life. The situations are very complex.

The use of the technological media can end up with dangerous situations...

The Chinese Liu Xiaobo, peace Nobel prize winner in 2010, says that the Internet is a gift of God. The Pope Francisco makes an optimistic reflexion on the use of technological media at the service of the meeting culture in the message for the XLVIII World Day of social communications 2014, as he already had written in EG. 87: Today, when the networks and means of human communication have made unprecedented advances, we sense the challenge of finding and sharing a “mystique” of living together, of mingling and encounter, of embracing and supporting one another, of stepping into this flood tide which, while chaotic, can become a genuine experience of fraternity, a caravan of solidarity, a sacred pilgrimage. Greater possibilities for communication thus turn into greater possibilities for encounter and solidarity for everyone. If we were able to take this route, it would be so good, so soothing, so liberating and hope-filled! To go out of ourselves and to join others is healthy for us. To be self-enclosed is to taste the bitter poison of immanence, and humanity will be worse for every selfish choice we make.

To forbid to the religious the use of the technological media does not seem the best way to educate young people and to treat adults. As in many other aspects of life, in the use of the technological media the situations are ambiguous and need reflection and community discernment considering that the very important values of the consecrated life are compromised: poverty, seriousness in work, chastity, fraternity, and responsibility of the execution of the mission. It has to be considered “as far as they help me or hinder me” (Cf. The Principle and Foundation by Sant Ignatius). As other scopes of the consecrated life the use of the media needs a careful attention in the initial as well as permanent formation: this aspect of life needs to be treated rigorously from a personal point of view, as praying, fraternity, chastity, use of material goods….The formator, the superior and the spiritual director have to verify the authenticity of what the religious says. Confront him with situations that contradict his option for the consecrated life and encourage him to change in order to avoid an hypocritical and worldly conduct which denies what he claims to be.

It does not help this accompaniment in the initial formation, if the religious with perpetual vows live this dimension with autonomy, without reference to the community, to spiritual direction and to obedience. The faithfulness to the vocation of the consecrated person is compromised and therefore the significant testimony. It does not help, as in other aspects of life, to endure the demands during the period of formation, knowing that when definitively accepted in the Congregation, one can do what he wants.

The community has to be the environment of reflection, revision, discernment, decision and fraternal correction of the use of social media. Within the community a wise discernment has to be made in order to see if the use of these technological media facilitate or hinder fraternity, bring us closer or apart and therefore isolate us more and more. In the community it has to be decided if a religious has to change his mobile or computer for the demands of the mission and if it can be done within the economical conditions of the community and if there are other priorities. In the community there must be a fraternal revision and correction on how the use of the technological media affects the values of the consecrated life: silence, praying, communication within the community, chastity, time used to listen to the brother, for the mission and for the services.

Gaspar Fernández Pérez, scj
Superior General

We still keep a vivid memory of that gesture that just over ten years ago enthralled millions of internet users. According to the experts, Pope John Paul II by simply switching on the “enter” key to send the Apostolic Exhortation “Ecclesia in Oceania” only through the web, in November 2001, launched the evangelization of “the sixth continent”.