A word from the Superior General

In order to live out our vocation and our Betharramite mission with enthusiasm, it is good – as St Michael Garicoits said – to have the experience of an encounter with the person of the Word Incarnate, “Jesus, emptied yet obedient” who gives a new direction to our life (Deus Caritas Est 1). The Rule of Life, since 1969, have expressed this well in reference to the Gospel - to reproduce, to manifest and to continue the generous impulse of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Word Incarnate. Never before had the charism of St Michael been so clearly expressed. Father Etchecopar, who had kept the “Ecce Venio” so well in the rules approved by the Holy See, would have been happy about it. After his death, the motto disappeared from the 1901 rules.

St Michael Garicoits didn’t content himself with making an apostolic life association out of the Sacred Heart Society; he wanted an institute of consecrated life, with community life, vows, nothing to hang onto in the way of owning goods, the election of a Superior General chosen by the priests/brothers. However, today, there are also priests and brothers living an individualistic lifestyle: low-key community, unreturned accounts, goods received after taking their vows handed down to nephews. But there are also communities which schedule, realise and develop the community project and the brothers who make an effort to share what makes up their lives, faith and belongings. And that helps them to commit with enthusiasm and joy to their mission. There are some vicariates that ensure continuous personal development, such as for priests/ brothers who resist taking time out to face up to internal renewal.

Living the present with the enthusiasm inspired by the Here I am: Fr. Yesudas scj and Fr. Sa-at scj

What must characterise us is the spirit of obedience … if that is missing, the reason for us being here is also missing. (RoL 60.) I have met this obedience each time I have had to ask some young priests/brothers for their availability for the Vietnam foundation or to put together some international communities that the General Chapter had wished for. In some vicariates, the lack of obedience is an obstacle to keeping the commitment to local churches. To refuse a change of community, to try rather to go into a community of personal interest, to refuse to go into some communities because there are brothers one does not get on well with, are all attitudes which destroy the life of a vicariate or a region.

The history of our congregation shows how the Holy Spirit has kept alive the missionary dynamic which continues to take us further. We will establish in the next few days our presence in Vietnam. It’s all about the grace which allows the charism of St Michael to continue to live and be present in the world.

Today we have difficulty maintaining our great educative works, historical in Betharram. In Argentina and Paraguay, they continue having a social and missionary function. Thanks to the work of these last 40 years, accomplished together with lay people, we have been able to initiate the charism and mission of Betharram; we have been able to entrust responsibilities to lay people that up until then had been reserved for Priests/Brothers.

In other vicariates, the witness of Priests and Brothers has given rise to an awakening of a desire amongst lay people to share the spirituality of the clergy, drinking from the same source of charismatic experience as St Michael. It is an aid for living out the Gospel with faith in daily life.

Since the Council, the mission is being directed more towards parishes. Many good things are happening in our parishes; although that poses lots of questions today about our standard pastoral care. In some vicariates, the Bishops have taken parishes from us; in others, we have abandoned them because we are not able to keep them up. In this way, certain vicariates have acquired a more missionary style, by leaving the parishes.

On the other hand, the clergy are more sensitive to missions amongst the poor. In Thailand and in Central Africa, our mission is developing towards being exclusively for the poor. You can say this about the Hojai community in the North East of India as well as about the welcome of children in Argentina or the educational farm in Tchanfeto in the Ivory Coast. The same goes for the PAPETRA project with the drug-dependant in Paraguay, the family house at Monteporzio, the St Michael Centre in Bouar, the dispensary in Niem in Central Africa, the commitment of some clergy such as hospital chaplains in Italy, allowing a missionary presence amongst the sick which is new for the congregation.

In 2012, the range of services in the mission was opened, thereby showing that the creativity of charity is boundless; it is able to find countless new ways of bringing the newness of the Gospel to every culture and every corner of society. (Pope Francis, letter to the consecrated 1,2.)

Today we confront the challenge of a more international life: respecting differences in age, education, culture etc. We are called to build unity from the experience of faith, vocation and mission. This unity allows us to cultivate our identity and our sense of belonging, as it enriches the charism in its embodiment in different cultures.

The international communities are not a new thing. They already exist in mission countries: Thailand, the Holy Land, Ivory Coast, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil. The mobility of the priests and brothers is growing; other communities are now in existence: those of Olton, Great Barr, Droitwich, Mendelu, Pau-Betharram, Pibrac, Nazareth, Bouar, Montevideo-Tacuarembo. To form them isn’t an easy task unless they are built up on the basis of a new direction: that which gave us the experience of meeting with “Jesus, emptied yet obedient”.

These last few years, the Lord has blessed us with the perpetual profession of several brothers who were ordained afterwards, especially in India, Thailand, Ivory Coast, Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. Nevertheless, there are concerns: certain people leaving the congregation, not long after their perpetual vows; in the vicariates of Europe, there are no young people in formation.

We have paid great attention to the initial formation as per the Rules of Life and the renewed Formation Guide. In 2007, there was a Formators’ Meeting at Adiapodoume; every two years the Betharram session takes place for clergy close to making perpetual vows, each region has its own formation project; there is formation for the Formators, one single noviciate community per region, and a single scholastic centre for the Etchecopar region. In order to go to the essential values, there is an insistence on human maturity, the experience of faith, personal accompaniment, Ignatian exercises, the Gospel Fraternity and mission. In order to strengthen what is there and to review what is not working, all the Formators are meeting in January 2016 in Rome.

Gaspar Fernández Pérez, scj
Superior General