Before briefly presenting the agenda for the Assembly, the Rector Major of the Salesians, said that in Europe, in spite of the glimmers of hope for a solution to the economic crisis, there was a tendency to marginalise the immigrants leading to their social exclusion. The Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East had also highlighted “the role played by Christianity on this suffering area of the world “ and the “need to collaborate with Islam in building peace and the development of democracy.” On this account the USG President said the human race needed to be “caught up and enlightened by Solemnity of Jesus Christ King of the Universe.”
The theme of the Assembly was then presented and commented on in the light of the words of the Gospel : “Then Jesus said to them: Do not be afraid, go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee and they will see me there’” (Mt 28,10). Recalling that the fall in the number of vocations to the religious life was an issue mainly in the western world, he expressed his own deep conviction: “I am convinced that consecrated life understood and lived as the radical following and the faith imitation of Jesus, will never cease to exist.” “Consecrated life, is like a forest which represents a reserve and a support for the spiritual and social ecology of the whole of Society and of the Church.”
There is a very close link between the Church and Consecrated Life, even though in the course of history, in some geographical, political and social contexts, the first has sometimes given in to the temptation to ignore the second. “It should not be forgotten that the founding charisms almost always come to birth in times of crisis, as a gift of the Spirit for the renewal of the Church”; “a more calm and profound reading of the data and of the current situation tells us that religious indeed were the first to understand the phenomenon of globalisation and its consequences, to denounce its inhuman face and therefore to take the side of those excluded.” On this account, in Europe it is not a “question of the survival of consecrated life and of the various Institutes but of prophecy.
Fr Mario Aldegani then presented the salient points emerging from the previous Assembly of USG in May.
Afterwards, Archbishop Ricardo Blázquez Pérez of Valladolid, spoke on the subject. “The future of religious life: signs of hope”. Starting from his knowledge of consecrated life acquired through his pastoral ministry, Archbishop Blázquez Pérez said that the heart of religious life is the discovery of the centrality of God In the different charisms, the love of God is the foundation of any kind of apostolic and social work from which arises the ability to respond to the fall in vocations. Among the signs of hope he then mentioned the widespread presence of the Congregations among the people, the great signs of witness to the faith and the close collaboration of the religious orders with the local Churches.
Published 24/11/2010
