Dear Confreres,
At the end of the Consulta, which took place at Fatima from October 20 to November 8 (2014), we want to send you a summary of the work done and a cordial salutation.
First of all, thank you for remembering us in your prayers: It tells us of your interest in the work we did, and is a sure sign of that family spirit that shows that our Institute is alive and makes us all brothers. The message that we wish to send you is one of trust and confidence, a sign of hope that leads us to live fully the tract of history that the future wants us to march on.
It’s not easy to clearly see the unfolding of a project that God has in mind for us but has not yet plainly shown to us. Together we tried to understand it in the luminous horizon of our missionary vocation ad gentes: “We are for the conversion of the infidels” (G. Allamano, 1919; cf. Our Constitutions, No. 4). We are indeed convinced that the mission is the work of God. But, today more than ever, it requires our cooperation by giving our whole life to it, so that God’s Kingdom may spread through all the lands. Many times did we sing and interiorize the words of the Prophet Jeremiah (see Jer 1,20): “How can I run away from you? How not to speak when your voice burns in my chest? I must go, I have to fight. Woe is me if I don’t do it!”
We think that evangelization today must be done in the context of the various cultures. Besides, it only works within the framework of two fundamental and necessary attitudes: acculturation and dialogue. We clearly saw that our Institute needs a missionary project that is carried out in a spirit of continentality and expresses itself in the concrete missionary organization of each and every continent where we work.
However, continentality must relate to the global spirit that must guide us; it must help us establish our mission in a particular context; it gives it unity of intents and an ‘esprit de corps’. Continentality makes grow among us a “common feeling” towards the mission in a given territory — always, naturally, in communion with the local Church.
The concrete organization of the continents must bring us to give it a juridical format, so that our missionary work may become more efficacious and efficient. We did not come up with a precise and detailed project. Instead, we made suggestions in order that the project be taken into consideration by all our missionaries. This way, it will gradually mature so as to be accepted by all. We think that this project answers the true present questions of our Institute and of our missionaries; it addresses their demands and their worries; it directs itself to the fundamental problems concerning the present context of the formation and of the economy; it will be capable to simplify the actual centralized and heavy system; it will control the excessive personal mobility that thwarts the continuity of the work of evangelization. Since it is based on simple and flexible structures, it could become an instrument that favors the qualification of the life of the missionaries and of the mission itself.
With the help of an expert, we have examined the statistics concerning the composition of our Institute as far as the age of our members and the area they came from: this we did in relation to the present but also tried to project the same results into our future. It came out clear that in a non-distant future the Institute will be made up strongly of African members. The Spirit, that scrutinizes even God’s own secrets, rewards the missionary work of many of our missionaries who gave their life for the evangelization of Africa, and now It opens up new and unknown horizons that are full of hope for our Institute.
After a talk with Matisse on the theory of the colors, Pablo Picasso completely changed his mode of painting because he understood that a little tube of yellow used in the wrong way could only produce a formless stain, but when used the right way it can show the sun.
The heart of this project is indeed the renewal of the missionary. We all know that a reformation makes sense if it helps us become better missionaries, content and happy to evangelize those who do not yet know Christ, wearing a smile and witnessing, by our own holiness, to the Word that we announce. Many times we have said that ‘revitalizing’ the Institute means to gain back the fidelity to our charism, the qualification of the mission ad gentes and the improvement of each and every missionary, which is a true gift from God to the expansion of his Kingdom. It also means to make blossom what has become arid, to introduce a new spirit in bones that have sometimes become dry, and to fill with new spiritual energy those who have been traumatized or suffer from deep wounds.
In short, to accept with confidence the new, in the spirit of Pope Francis Evangelii Gaudium which we have meditated every day, there is need for a profound conversion that will make us missionaries in the head, in the mouth, and in the heart. We must not fear, nor let fear grip us, the fear that always springs up when difficulties come up. “If God is with us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8,31).
Dear confreres, we finish with something that summarizes our experience during this Consulta. When St. John XXXIII became pope, Fr. Ricardo Lombardi took a moment to tell him what he had to do to reform the Church. Pope John listened very attentively and then said: “But, Father, I am not here to govern the Church. I’m here to see what the Holy Spirit does in the Church”. That’s how it was with us. We did not get together in a Consulta to reform, but to suggest, to show a road of which we got a glimpse, a road founded on dialogue and advancing gradually, so as to push the Institute towards an authentic renewal. It’s up to you to appreciate it, to perfect it, to accept it generously.
Our Lady Consolata and Blessed Joseph Allamano will certainly bless us, they will walk with us side by side, they will confirm us in the ways the Spirit seems to have shown us.
As we leave Fatima after this beautiful experience of brotherhood, we greet all with affection, in a special way the Consolata Missionary Sisters, the Consolata Lay Missionaries and all those who live under this name; we wish you all good for the mission of which we are “simple servants”. We thank the Lord with the words of a Portuguese Fado: “Fatima has more enchantment when we say goodbye!”
Signed by
The members of the Consulta