The day commenced with the celebration of the Eucharist honouring, our martyrs from Arras, Bl. Mary Magdalene Fontaine and companions. It was presided by Fr. Jesús María González Antón, CM, Visitor of the Province of Saint Vincent de Paul, Spain.
A review of yesterday’s activities was shown in a video presentation with interviews from some confreres reflecting on the reality of inculturation in our community.
An impassioned talk was given by Fr. Aarón Gutiérrez, CM, a member of the General Council regarding the topic “Our Congregation is missionary by nature.” He identified three elements, namely, our spiritual experience, our lifestyle and our ministries. For our spiritual experience he quoted Vincent who saw the relationship between mission and holiness in these terms: “The evangelization of the poor depends on an adequate response to the call of holiness. To disregard or ignore the call to holiness inevitably alters the motivations for missionary outreach.” He warned us of activism and functionalism in our missionary action that could disrupt our response to the call of holiness. He advocated a simple lifestyle identifying ourselves with the poor and shunning worldliness so as to have complete freedom to fulfil our mission. He encouraged evaluating our ministries in light of the radical demands of the New Evangelization.
A very informative talk was delivered by another member of the General Council, Fr. Mathew Kallammakal, CM. tracing the history and development of our International Missions which began in 1992. The comprehensive presentation of the origin, nature, objectives, ministries, policies and statistics of our international mission was intended to encourage the members of the assembly to send confreres to help in this ministry.
After the presentations of the two members of the General Council, the assembly broke into language groups to reflect upon and share their insights with regard to the questions that were posed. The questions were in such a way that all the topics could be addressed by the groups.
In the afternoon’s session another animated presentation was given by our representative to the United Nations, Fr. Guillermo Campuzano, CM. His presentation addressed some of the burning issues confronting humanity at the present time. He expounded on the topic: The Charism: Our Common Narrative/Story – Political Advocacy on behalf of the Poor and our Planet. Through his presentation we came to realize that the United Nations is an arena that could assist us in our global advocacy in behalf of the poor.
He challenged the assembly with these words: “The ministry of animating the Congregation and the provinces also demands prophetic imagination that expands our presence and our action in the world … thus we can move forward in communion with every person and/or movement that acts in favor of the defense of life and the common good”.
At the end of his presentation he invited each one to dialogue with someone else in the assembly hall … after which there was an open forum. Towards the end of the session the sharing became more personal on the part of the speaker when he was asked about the effect of his work at the UN with regard to his growth in his vocation.
Later in the afternoon Fr. Jorge Rodríguez, CM gave a presentation on manner in which communication in the Congregation, through the use of the social media networks and technology, has enhanced and facilitated the life and ministry of the congregation. Indeed, this presentation became a timely invitation to all to keep abreast of the latest development in information technology so as to be relevant in our response to the mission especially in our work of evangelization. Toward the end of the presentation, there was a short video about Pope Francis’ advice regarding our Vocation Ministry to the young. That was followed by a video of the activities of the Communication Office of the Congregation of the Mission.
Fr. Raymundo Regua, CM
Chronist, Province of Philippines
Wednesday, June 26
