Signs of vitality

With a passion for Christ and a passion for humanity, we find our selves at the heart of the Church. We are grateful because 40 years ago, Lumen Gentium recognized religious life as part of the holiness of the Church. A sign of life is the spirituality of communion that we want to live at all levels of our ecclesial life. This is expressed concretely in apostolic projects that are collaborative between religious, clergy and laity. There is interest in deepening our relationship with the local church. The consecrated life gives catholicity to the local church and enlarges the vision toward the universal Church and its mission, especially to those places that have the most need. In that way, we help to open the horizons of the Church to the culture and the ecumenical world.

Another sign of vitality is the flowering of the order of Virgins, hermits, new forms of consecrated life and lay movements in the Church. We are beginning to see signs of greater access to theological education and formation for women and consequently they have the potential for greater participation in the life of the institutional Church.

Blocks

In living out of the passion for Christ and the passion for humanity we encounter significant obstacles that we must remove: the mutual mistrust in some circumstances frequently caused by a lack of knowledge. In “Mutuae Relationes” they are building channels but does the common water of the gospel flow through them? The creativity of love purifies the tension between religious of exempt congregations, in cases where exemption is sometimes interpreted as autonomy, and the insertion in the local church; and the tension between the charism of the congregation and the diocesan pastoral plan, especially in the case of congregations of men who are ordained priests. We want to avoid the danger of looking at religious as pure functionaries and religious referring to the institutional church only when they need something.

Dialogue is possible to the measure that the language we use is very precise: we, at times, use terms i.e. “communion”or “collaboration” to convey the same concept but they have different contents for each party.

We are convinced that the passion for Christ brings us to a passion for humanity. We want to live this passion in a church that is in communion, missionary, prophetic, because to the degree that we are one, the world will believe who sent us. In this way we will be witnesses. This is only possible if we are open to personal and communal conversion, conversion that consecrated life has lived historically with open fidelity to God, to the Church and to humanity and to their charism.

Actions

All of this suggests certain actions for the future:

· 25 years ago Mutuae Relationes was published. We now need to continue, or create structures for dialogue at all levels of the Church i.e. mixed commission at the national level, at the diocesan level and continental level. These structures for dialogue should facilitate the dynamism of communion: information, presence, participation and co-responsibility.

· To make a greater effort to harmonize congregational plans and diocesan pastoral plans, generating concrete actions of communion.

· It is important to commit ourselves to formation (lay, priests, religious); doing this together we know each other, come to love each other and journey together into the future.

· We are asked, as consecrated life, to be experts in communion, signs of communion for the Church and society. This presupposes a very strong call to foster a strong community life in our congregations.

· Lastly, we propose that our sisters and brothers around the world could benefit from the results of this Congress and continue and enlarge this reflection through the organization of representative Congresses or Encuentros at the national level.



	GROUP 15 23 Participants: 14 nationalities, 23 congregations THE ECCLESIAL DIMENSIONS OF CONSECRATED LIFE Signs of vitality With a passion for Christ and a passion for humanity, we find our selves at the heart of the Church. We are grateful because 40 years ago, Lumen Gentium recognized religious life as part of the holiness of the Church. A sign of life is the spirituality of communion that we want to live at all levels of our ecclesial life. This is expressed concretely in apostolic projects that are collaborative between religious, clergy and laity. There is interest in deepening our relationship with the local church. The consecrated life gives catholicity to the local church and enlarges the vision toward the universal Church and its mission, especially to those places that have the most need. In that way, we help to open the horizons of the Church to the culture and the ecumenical world. Another sign of vitality is the flowering of the order of Virgins, hermits, new forms of consecrated life and lay movements in the Church. We are beginning to see signs of greater access to theological education and formation for women and consequently they have the potential for greater participation in the life of the institutional Church. Blocks In living out of the passion for Christ and the passion for humanity we encounter significant obstacles that we must remove: the mutual mistrust in some circumstances frequently caused by a lack of knowledge. In “Mutuae Relationes” they are building channels but does the common water of the gospel flow through them? The creativity of love purifies the tension between religious of exempt congregations, in cases where exemption is sometimes interpreted as autonomy, and the insertion in the local church; and the tension between the charism of the congregation and the diocesan pastoral plan, especially in the case of congregations of men who are ordained priests. We want to avoid the danger of looking at religious as pure functionaries and religious referring to the institutional church only when they need something. Dialogue is possible to the measure that the language we use is very precise: we, at times, use terms i.e. “communion”or “collaboration” to convey the same concept but they have different contents for each party. We are convinced that the passion for Christ brings us to a passion for humanity. We want to live this passion in a church that is in communion, missionary, prophetic, because to the degree that we are one, the world will believe who sent us. In this way we will be witnesses. This is only possible if we are open to personal and communal conversion, conversion that consecrated life has lived historically with open fidelity to God, to the Church and to humanity and to their charism. Actions All of this suggests certain actions for the future: · 25 years ago Mutuae Relationes was published. We now need to continue, or create structures for dialogue at all levels of the Church i.e. mixed commission at the national level, at the diocesan level and continental level. These structures for dialogue should facilitate the dynamism of communion: information, presence, participation and co-responsibility. · To make a greater effort to harmonize congregational plans and diocesan pastoral plans, generating concrete actions of communion. · It is important to commit ourselves to formation (lay, priests, religious); doing this together we know each other, come to love each other and journey together into the future. · We are asked, as consecrated life, to be experts in communion, signs of communion for the Church and society. This presupposes a very strong call to foster a strong community life in our congregations. · Lastly, we propose that our sisters and brothers around the world could benefit from the results of this Congress and continue and enlarge this reflection through the organization of representative Congresses or Encuentros at the national level.