The Prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Sr. Simona Brambilla, has defended in Madrid a presence of secular institutes oriented toward transforming social and cultural structures “from within,” and has presented “integral ecology” as one of the criteria for discerning human development.
The religious sister spoke this Wednesday, August 19, at the Congress of the World Conference of Secular Institutes (CMIS), which brings together 240 members from 71 institutes in 42 countries in the Spanish capital.
In an extensive address entitled “Living Within”, Brambilla developed the mission of secular consecration from a central idea: remaining fully inserted in society in order to act on its values, structures, relationships, and cultural models from the Gospel.
Her intervention drew extensively on the magisterium of Francis and also on texts by Leo XIV, Benedict XVI, St. John Paul II, and St. Paul VI.
Transforming structures “from within”
Brambilla took as her starting point the Gospel image of the seed and the leaven to explain how secular institutes should carry out their mission.
Rather than a presence based on visibility or imposition, she defended a discreet action integrated into ordinary realities.
This conception implies, according to the Prefect, being present “within” the human heart, families, structures, different situations, and history itself. Drawing on Evangelii nuntiandi, she also recalled that the field of evangelization for the laity includes politics, social reality, the economy, culture, the sciences, the arts, and the media.
Brambilla insisted that this evangelization must reach the foundations of culture. To this end, she recovered St. Paul VI’s formulation on the need to evangelize “in a vital way, in depth, and to the roots,” reaching criteria of judgment, values, interests, lines of thought, and models of life.
The Prefect had already used a similar approach during her previous visit to Madrid, on the occasion of the CONFER General Assembly held last May.
On that occasion, she called for progress toward a “conversion of relationships and structures” within the synodal process. InfoVaticana then reported on the weight that institutional transformation and the continuity of synodality had in those days.
“Integral ecology” as a criterion for discernment
Another focus of the address was “integral ecology,” a concept developed by Francis in Laudato si’. Brambilla contrasted two models that, in her view, run through contemporary society: the technocratic paradigm and that of integral ecology.
From the first, she highlighted dynamics such as “possessing, grasping, dominating, manipulating, extracting, squeezing, exploiting, consuming, and discarding.” In contrast, she placed within integral ecology reciprocity, communion, care, sobriety, contemplation, gratitude, and service.
The Prefect linked these approaches to Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica humanitas, which uses the biblical images of Babel and Jerusalem to contrast a “culture of power,” characterized by polarization and violence, with the building of a “civilization of love.”
Brambilla thus presented integral ecology as a criterion for distinguishing “what humanizes or dehumanizes” and for discerning when integral human development exists.
In recent years, the concept has gained increasing presence in various Church structures and initiatives. In Spain, the Episcopal Conference has a Department of Integral Ecology and is working on a framework document on this pastoral area, while the Vatican maintains various projects explicitly inspired by Laudato si’.
Evangelizing culture from its internal dynamics
The address devoted considerable space to defining what it means to evangelize a culture. Brambilla maintained that it is not enough to act on its external manifestations; it is necessary to reach the structures and dynamics that determine the way a society understands man, his relationships, and his own destiny.
To this end, she argued that the evangelizer should approach the world of the other “with humility, gratitude, wonder, and a desire to learn” and seek to understand cultural roots through “listening, respect, empathy,” and spiritual discernment.
This insertion into reality has been presented as a specific characteristic of secular consecration. Brambilla recalled words of Benedict XVI from 2007, when he stated that the discernment proper to these institutes must take place “not from outside reality, but from within, through full involvement.”
Pizzaballa and the Christian presence in the Holy Land
Brambilla also devoted part of her speech to the Holy Land, drawing on a letter from the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, published last April.
From it, she raised the question of how Christians should remain within situations of conflict without being absorbed by the logic of confrontation. The religious sister extended this issue beyond wars, applying it also to social, community, and interpersonal tensions.
In the specific case of the Holy Land, she took up the idea that Christians do not constitute an external group simply called to mediate between Israelis and Palestinians, but are part of the societies in which they live.
Their mission would be to act within them as “salt, light, and leaven,” bearing witness to forgiveness, coexistence, and reconciliation.
“Attentive to the world, with the heart immersed in God”
The Prefect completed her reflection by recovering an expression used by Francis in 2017 to describe the vocation of secular institutes: being “attentive to the world, with the heart immersed in God.”
Brambilla turned to the biblical figures of Simeon and Anna to present secular consecrated persons as “receptive antennas” capable of discerning the action of the Spirit in everyday reality.
The religious sister concluded by summarizing her proposal in the expression “living within”: within the relationship with God, one’s own interiority, and the world, in order to recognize the dynamics that run through society and discern them in the light of the Gospel.
The CMIS meeting, being held for the first time in Spain, will continue until August 22. After the Congress, the leaders of the 71 represented institutes will hold the General Assembly on August 21 and 22, at which the new presidency and executive committee of the organization will be elected.