The 41st General Assembly of the Congregation of the Mission will take place in Paris from June 28th until July 16th, 2010. On Thursday, June 18th, the Commission met with the Council, led by the Superior General, for an update regarding the progress of the preparations.
Extended Text: The focal point around which the General Assembly of 2010 will revolve is suggested by the title itself: Creative Fidelity to the Mission. In keeping with the wish of the Superior General, it will be an occasion for dialogue and for sharing of experiences, more than the creation of a document. In addition, the Assembly needs to take up the tasks of the study of the postulata which will be proposed and of the revision of the Statutes which the previous Assembly mandated to the upcoming one.
The Preparatory Commission for the General Assembly (CPAG) met during these days in Rome at the General Curia to prepare the necessary material for the running of the Assembly. The Commission is composed of six confreres coming from five continents: Pat Griffin (USA), Fernando Macías (South America), Zeracristos Yosief (Africa), Elie Delpace and Giuseppe Turati (Europe), and Bienvenido Disu (Asia-Pacific), who is absent from the current gathering due to a difficulty with his passport. The Commission is working on the new Directory and on the Work Calendar which will be proposed for approval at the beginning of the upcoming Assembly.
Among the new elements in the Directory are proposals for a new procedure for electing the Superior General and for the introduction of a new figure, that of the Synthesizer. The Synthesizer will have the responsibility of listening to the interventions in the hall for the purpose of discerning the heart of the discussions, taking note of the most significant elements.
The 50 provinces of the Congregation of the Mission, spread across five continents, are already at work responding to the questions sent by the CPAG during their last meeting, and they will have to send their results before the end of October. All these results will be analyzed by the CPAG and gathered into the Documentum Laboris which will be drawn up in the next meeting (December 2009) and distributed to every member of the Assembly some months prior to its opening.
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