THE SERVICE OF AUTHORITY AND OBEDIENCE

Faciem tuam, Domine, requiram

Instruction

INTRODUCTION

“Let your face shine upon us and we shall be saved”
(Ps 79:4)

Consecrated Life as a witness of the search for God

1. “Faciem tuam, Domine, requiram”: your face, O Lord, I seek (Ps 27:8). A pilgrim seeking the meaning of life, enwrapped in the great mystery that surrounds him, the human person, even if unconsciously, does, in fact, seek the face of the Lord. “Your ways, O Lord, make known to me, teach me your paths” (Ps 25:4): no one can ever take away from the heart of the human person the search for him of whom the Bible says “He is all” (Sir 43:27) and for the ways of reaching him.

Consecrated life, called to make the characteristic traits of the virginal, poor and obedient Jesus visible,¹ flourishes in the ambience of this search for the face of the Lord and the ways that lead to him (cf. Jn 14:4-6). A search that leads to the experience of peace — “in his will is our peace” ² — and which underlies each day's struggle, because God is God, and His ways and thoughts are not always our ways and thoughts (cf. Is 55:8). The consecrated person, therefore, gives witness to the task, at once joyful and laborious, of the diligent search for the divine will, and for this chooses to use every means available that helps one to know it and sustain it while bringing it to fulfilment.

Here, too, the religious community, a communion of consecrated persons who profess to seek together and carry out God's will: a community of sisters or brothers with a variety of roles but with the same goal and the same passion, finds its meaning. For this reason, while all in the community are called to seek what is pleasing to the Lord and to obey Him, some are called, usually temporarily, to exercise the particular task of being the sign of unity and the guide in the common search both personal and communitarian of carrying out the will of God. This is the service of authority.

A path of liberation

2. The culture of Western Society, strongly centred on the subject, has contributed to the spread of the value of respect for the dignity of the human person, positively fostering the person's free development and autonomy.

Such recognition constitutes one of the most significant traits of modernity and is a providential given which requires new ways of conceiving authority and relating to it. One must also keep in mind that when freedom tends to become arbitrariness and the autonomy of the person, independence from the Creator and from relationships with others, then one finds oneself before forms of idolatry that do not increase freedom but rather enslave.

In such cases, believers in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the God of Jesus Christ, must embark upon a path of personal liberation from every idolatrous cult. It is a path which can find its motivation in the Exodus experience: a path of liberation which leads from the acceptance of the common scattered way of thinking to the freedom of adhering to the Lord and from the monotony of one way of looking at things to itineraries that bring one to communion with the living and true God.

The Exodus journey is guided by the cloud, both bright and obscure, of the Spirit of God, and, even if, at times, it seems to lose itself down paths which do not make sense, its destiny is the beatifying intimacy of the heart of God: “I bore you up on eagle wings and brought you here to myself” (Ex 19:4). A group of slaves is freed to become a holy people who know the joy of free service to God. The Exodus events are a paradigm which accompanies the entire biblical reality and is seen as a prophetic anticipation of the same earthly life of Jesus, who, in turn frees from slavery through obedience to the providential will of the Father.

Addressees, intent and limitations of the document

3. The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life during its last Plenary Session, which took place 28-30 September 2005, turned its attention to the theme of the exercise of authority and obedience in consecrated life. It was recognized that this theme calls for careful reflection, first of all because of the changes that have taken place in the internal lives of Institutes and communities in recent years, and also in light of what more recent Magisterial documents on the renewal of consecrated life have proposed.

The present Instruction, the fruit of what emerged in the above cited Plenary Session and in the reflection of this Dicastery that followed, is addressed to members of institutes of consecrated life who live a community life, that is to all men and women who belong to religious institutes, to which societies of apostolic life are very similar. However, other consecrated persons, in relation to their type of life, can also cull useful information from it. This document hopes to offer help and encouragement to all those, called to witness to the primacy of God through free obedience to his will, to live their yes to the Lord in joy.

In confronting the theme of this Instruction, it is well recognized that its implications are many and that there exists in the vast world of consecrated life today not only a great variety of charismatic projects and of missionary commitments, but also a certain diversity of models of governance and practices of obedience, differences often influenced by the various cultural contexts.³ Moreover, one must keep in mind the differences that characterize also under the psychological profile, communities of men and women. In addition one must consider the new problems which the numerous forms of missionary collaboration, particularly those with the laity, pose to the exercise of authority. Also the different weights, attributed to local and central authorities in various religious institutes, determine ways of practicing authority and obedience that are not uniform. Finally one must not forget that consecrated life commonly sees, in the “synodal” figure of the general chapter (or of analogous gatherings), the supreme authority of the institute,⁴ to which all the members, beginning with the superiors, must make reference.

To all this one must add the realization that in recent years the way of listening to and living authority and obedience has changed both in the Church and in society. This is due to, among other things: the coming to awareness of the value of the individual person, with his or her vocation, and intellectual, affective and spiritual gifts, with his or her freedom and rational abilities; the centrality of the spirituality of communion,⁵ with the valuing of the instruments that help one to live it; a different and less individualistic way of understanding mission, in the sharing of all members of the People of God, with the resulting forms of concrete collaboration.

Nevertheless, considering some elements of the present cultural influence one must recall that the desire for self realization can at times enter into conflict with community projects; the search for personal well-being, be it spiritual or material, can render total dedication to the service of the common mission difficult; visions of the charism and of apostolic service which are too subjective can weaken fraternal sharing and collaboration.

Also not to be excluded is the recognition that in some settings the opposite problems are prevalent, determined by an unbalanced vision on the side of collectivity and of excessive uniformity, with the risk of stifling the growth and responsibility of the individuals. The balance between the individual and community is not an easy one and thus neither is that between authority and obedience.

This Instruction does not intend to treat all the problems raised by the various elements and sensibilities just cited. These remain, so to say, at the base of the reflections and those directions which are proposed. The principle intent of this Instruction is that of reaffirming that obedience and authority, even though practiced in many ways, always have a relation to the Lord Jesus, the obedient Servant. Moreover, it proposes to help authority in its triple service: to the individual persons called to live their own consecration (first part); to construct fraternal communities (second part); to participate in the common mission (third part).

The considerations and directives which follow are proposed in continuity with those of the documents which have accompanied the path of consecrated life in these past not easy years, especially Potissimum institutioni of 1990,⁶ Fraternal Life in Community of 1994,⁷ the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita consecrata of 1996 ⁸ and the 2002 Instruction, Starting Afresh from Christ: A Renewed Commitment to Consecrated Life in the Third Millennium.⁹

FIRST PART

CONSECRATION AND SEARCH
FOR THE WILL OF GOD

“Because freed we can serve him in justice and holiness”
(cf. Lk 1:74-75)

Whom are we seeking?

4. The Lord asks the first disciples, who, perhaps, still uncertain and doubtful begin to follow a new Rabbi: “What are you looking for?” (Jn 1:38). We can read into this question other radical questions: What does your heart seek? What concerns you? Are you looking for yourself or are you looking for the Lord your God? Are you pursuing your own desires or the desire of the One who made your heart and wants to bring it to fullness, as he knows and understands it? Are you running after only passing things or are you seeking the One who does not pass away? “In this world of dissimilarity, with what do we need to be concerned, Lord God? From the rising of the sun to its setting I see men overwhelmed by the turmoil of this world: some look for riches, others, privilege, others yet again the satisfactions of popularity,” observed St. Bernard.¹⁰

“Your face, O Lord, I seek” (Ps 27:8) is the response of the person who has understood the uniqueness and the infinite greatness of the mystery of God and the sovereignty of his holy will but is also the response, even if it is only implicit and confused, of every human creature in search of truth and happiness. Quaerere Deum has always been the quest of every being thirsting for the Absolute and the Eternal. Many today tend to consider any kind of dependence humiliating, but the status of creature in itself implies being dependent on an Other and, therefore, as a being in relation, dependent on others.

The believer seeks the living and true God, the Beginning and the End of all things, the God not made in his or her image and likeness but the God who made us in his image and likeness, the God who makes known his will, who indicated the ways to reach him: “You will show me the path of life, fullness of joys in your presence, delights at your right hand forever” (Ps 16:11).

To seek the will of God means to seek a friendly and benevolent will, which desires our fulfilment, that desires, above all, a free response in love to its love, in order to make of us instruments of divine love. It is along this via amoris that the flower of listening and obedience blooms.

Obedience as listening

5. “Listen, child” (Pr 1:8). First of all, obedience is an attitude of a son or daughter. It is that particular kind of listening that only a son or daughter can do in listening to his or her parent, because it is enlightened by the certainty that the parent has only good things to say and give to him or her. This is a listening, full of the trust, that makes a son or daughter accept the parent's will, sure that it will be for his or her own good.

This is most completely true in regard to God. In fact, we reach our fullness only to the extent that we place ourselves within the plan with which He has conceived us with a Father's love. Therefore, obedience is the only way human persons, intelligent and free beings, can have the disposition to fulfil themselves. As a matter of fact, when a human person says “no” to God, that person compromises the divine plan, diminishing him or herself and condemning him or herself to failure.

Obedience to God is the path of growth and, therefore, of freedom for the person because this obedience allows for the acceptance of a plan or a will different from one's own that not only does not deaden or lessen human dignity but is its basis. At the same time, freedom is also in itself a path of obedience, because it is in obeying the plan of the Father, in a childlike way, that the believer fulfils his or her freedom. It is clear that such obedience requires that persons recognize themselves as sons and daughters and enjoy being such, because only a son or a daughter can freely place him or herself in the hands of his or her Father, exactly like the Son, Jesus, who abandoned himself to the Father. Even if in his passion he gave himself up to Judas, to the high priests, to his torturers, to the hostile crowd, and to his crucifiers, he did so only because he was absolutely certain that everything found its meaning in complete fidelity to the plan of salvation willed by the Father, to whom, as St. Bernard reminds us, “it is not the death which was pleasing, but the will of the One who died of his own accord”.¹¹

“Hear, O Israel !” (Dt 6:4)

6. For the Lord God, Israel is a child. Israel is the people whom he has chosen, begotten, brought up, held by the hand, raised to his cheek and taught to walk (cf. Hos 11:1-4), to whom — as the highest expression of affection — he constantly addressed his Word, even if this people did not always listen to it or considered it a weight, as a “law”. The entire Old Testament is an invitation to listen, and listening is a way of coming to the New Covenant when the Lord says: “I will place my laws in their minds and I will write them on their hearts; I will be their God and they shall be my people” (Heb 8:10; cf. Jer 31:33).

As a free and liberating response of the New Israel to the proposal of a new covenant, obedience flows from listening. Obedience is part of the New Covenant, which has obedience for its distinctive characteristic. From this it follows that obedience can be completely understood only within the logic of love, intimacy with God and the definitive belonging to the One who finally sets all free.

Obedience to the Word of God

7. The first act of obedience on the part of the creature is that of coming into existence in conformity with the divine fiat that calls one into being. Such obedience reaches its full expression in a creature free to recognize and accept him or herself as a gift of the Creator, to say “yes” to coming into being from God. This constitutes the first real act of freedom which is also the first and fundamental act of authentic obedience.

Thus, the real obedience of the believing person is adhering to the Word with which God reveals and communicates himself, and through which he renews his covenant of love every day. From that Word flowed life which continues to be transmitted every day. Therefore, every morning the believing person seeks a living and faithful contact with the Word which is proclaimed that day, meditating on it and holding it in his or her heart as a treasure, making of it the root of every action and the primary criterion of each choice, allowing him or herself to be edified by that Word. And at the end of the day placing him or herself before the Word, praising God as Simeon did for having seen the fulfilment of the eternal Word within the small events of the day (cf. Lk 2:27-32), and confiding to the strength of the Word whatever has remained unaccomplished. The Word, in fact, does not work only by day, but continuously, as the Lord teaches in the parable of the seed (cf. Mk 4:26-27).

The loving encounter with the Word shows one how to discover the way to life and the way through which God wishes to free his children, nourishes one's spiritual instincts for the things which are pleasing to God, conveys the sense and the taste for his will, gives peace and joy for staying faithful, making one sensitive and ready for all the expressions of obedience: to the Gospel (Rm 10:16; 2 Th 1:8), to the faith (Rm 1:5; 16:26; Acts 6:7), and to the truth (Gal 5:7; 1 Pt 1:22).

However, one must not forget that the authentic experience of God always remains an experience of otherness. “However great the similarity that may be established between Creator and creature, the dissimilarity between them is always greater”.¹² The mystics and all those who have tasted intimacy with God, remind us that the contact with the sovereign Mystery is always contact with the Other, with a will which is at times dramatically dissimilar from our own. To obey God means in fact to enter into an order of values which is “other”, taking on a new and different sense of reality, experiencing an unthought-of freedom to reach the threshold of the mystery: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts” (Is 55:8-9).

This entering into the world of God can arouse fear. Such an experience based on the example of the Saints can show that what is impossible for man is made possible by God. Additionally, it becomes authentic obedience to the mystery of God who is, at the same time, “interior intimo meo”¹³ and radically other.

In the following of Jesus, the obedient Son of the Father

8. On this journey we are not alone: we are guided by the example of Christ, the Beloved on whom the Father's favour rests (Mt 3:17; 17:5), but also he who has freed us thanks to his obedience. It is he who inspires our obedience in order that the divine plan of salvation be completed through us.

In him everything is a listening to and acceptance of the Father (cf. Jn 8:28-29); all of his earthly life is an expression and continuation of what the Word does from eternity: letting himself be loved by the Father, accepting his love in an unconditional way, to the point of deciding to do nothing by himself (cf. Jn 8:28) but to do always what is pleasing to the Father. The will of the Father is the food which sustains Jesus in his work (cf. Jn 4:34) and which merits for Him and for us the superabundance of the resurrection, the luminous joy of entering into the very heart of God, into the blessed company of his children (cf. Jn 1:12). It is by this obedience of Jesus that “all shall become just” (Rm 5:19).

He also lived obedience when it presented a difficult chalice to drink (cf. Mt 26:39, 42; Lk 22:42), and he made himself “obedient to the point of death, and death on a cross” (Phil 2:8). This is the dramatic aspect of the obedience of the Son wrapped in a mystery which we can never totally penetrate, but which for us is very relevant, because it uncovers for us even more the filial nature of Christian obedience: only the child who senses himself loved by the Father and loves him with his whole self, can arrive at this type of radical obedience.

The Christian, like Christ, is defined as an obedient being. The unquestionable primacy of love in Christian life cannot make us forget that such love has acquired a face and a name in Christ Jesus and has become Obedience. Therefore, obedience is not humiliation but the truth on which the fullness of human persons is built and realized. Hence, the believer so ardently desires to fulfil the will of the Father as to make of it his or her supreme aspiration. Like Jesus, he or she wants to live by this will. In imitation of Christ and learning from Him, with a gesture of supreme freedom and of unconditional trust, the consecrated person has placed his or her will in the hands of the Father to make a perfect and pleasing sacrifice to him (cf. Rm 12:1).

However, even before being the model for all obedience, Christ is the One to whom every true obedience is directed. In fact, it is the putting of his words into practice that renders one a disciple (cf. Mt 7:24) and it is the observance of his commandments which concretizes love for Him and draws the love of the Father (cf. Jn 14:21). He is at the centre of the religious community as the One who serves (cf. Lk 22:27) but also as the One to whom one professes one's own faith (“You have faith in God; have faith also in me” [Jn 14:1]) and to whom one gives his or her own obedience, because only in this does one carry out a sure and persevering following. “In fact, it is the Risen Lord himself, newly present among the brothers and sisters gathered in his name who points out the path to take”.¹⁴

Obedient to God through human mediation

9. God manifests his will through the interior motion of the Spirit, who “guides to all truth” (Jn 16:13), through multiple external mediations. In effect, the history of salvation is a story of mediation, which makes the mystery of grace which God completes in the intimacy of the heart visible in some way. Even in Jesus' life, it is possible to recognize not a few human means through which He became aware of, interpreted, and accepted the will of the Father, as the raison d'être and as the constant food for his life and his mission.

Mediations that exteriorly communicate the will of God must be recognized in the events of life and in the specific requirements of a particular vocation, but they are expressed as well in the laws that give order to the life of groups of people and in the dispositions of those who are called to lead such groupings. In the ecclesial context, laws and dispositions, legitimately given, provide an insight into the will of God, becoming the concrete and ordered realization of the demands of the Gospel from which they are formulated and perceived.

Consecrated persons moreover are called to the following of the obedient Christ within an “evangelical project” or a charismatic one, inspired by the Spirit and authenticated by the Church. Approving a charismatic program that is a religious institute, the Church guarantees that the inspiration that animates it and the norms that regulate it can provide a path for seeking God and holiness. Therefore, the Rule and the other indications concerning the way of life also become means of mediating the will of the Lord: human mediation but still authoritative, imperfect but at the same time binding, the starting point from which each day begins, and also for moving forward in a generous and creative impulse towards that sanctity which God “wills” for every consecrated person. In this journey persons in authority are invested with the pastoral task of leading and deciding.

It is evident that all this will be experienced coherently and fruitfully only if the desire to know and do the will of God, the awareness of one's own fragility and the acceptance of the validity of the specific mediations remain alive, even when the reasons presented are not fully grasped.

The spiritual intuitions of the founders and foundresses, especially of those who have significantly marked the path of religious life throughout the centuries, have always given great importance to obedience. Already at the beginning of his Rule, St. Benedict addresses the monk: “To thee, therefore, my speech is now directed, who, giving up thine own will, takest up the strong and most excellent arms of obedience, to do battle for Christ the Lord, the true King”.¹⁵

It must also be remembered that the authority-obedience relationship is situated in the larger context of the mystery of the Church and constitutes a particular actualization of its function as mediator. In this regard the Code of Canon Law recommends that “superiors are to exercise their power, received from God through the ministry of the Church, in a spirit of service”.¹⁶

Learning obedience in the day-to-day

10. Therefore, for the consecrated person it might also come to having “to learn obedience” through suffering or from some very specific and difficult situations: when, for example, one is asked to leave certain personal projects or ideas, to give up the pretext of managing one's life and mission by oneself; or all the times in which what is asked (or who asks it) does not seem to be very humanly convincing. Those who find themselves in such situations now should not forget that mediation by its nature is limited and inferior to that to which it refers, even more so if it deals with human mediation in relation to the divine will; but one should remember that every time one finds oneself faced with a command given legitimately that the Lord requests obedience to the person in authority who, at that moment, represents him¹⁷ and that Christ also “learned obedience from what he suffered” (Heb 5:8).

In this regard, it is fitting to recall the words of Paul VI: “You must feel something of the force with which Christ was drawn to His Cross — that baptism He had still to receive, by which that fire would be lighted which sets you too ablaze — (cf. Lk 12:49-50) something of that ‘foolishness' which St. Paul wishes we all had, because it alone makes us wise (cf. 1 Cor 3:18-19). Let the Cross be for you, as it was for Christ, proof of the greatest love. Is there not a mysterious relationship between renunciation and joy, between sacrifice and magnanimity, between discipline and spiritual freedom?” ¹⁸

It is precisely in these cases of suffering that the consecrated person learns to obey the Lord (cf. Ps 119:7), to listen to him and to remain devoted only to him, waiting patiently and full of hope for his revealing Word (cf. Ps 118:81), in complete and generous openness to accomplishing his will and not one's own (cf. Lk 22:42).

In the light and strength of the Spirit

11. One remains devoted to the Lord when sensing in some way his presence in human intermediaries, such as in the Rule, the superiors, the community,¹⁹ the signs of the times, the expectations of others and, above all, the poor; when one has the courage to cast the nets on the “strength of his word” (cf. Lk 5:5) and not only from solely human motivations; when one chooses to obey not only God but also others, but in every case, for God and not for others. In his Constitutions, St. Ignatius writes: “Genuine obedience considers not the person to whom it is offered but Him for whose sake it is offered: and if it is exercised for the sake of our Creator and Lord alone, then it is the very Lord of everyone who is obeyed”.²⁰

If in difficult moments those who are called to obey request insistently the Father for the Spirit (cf. Lk 11:13), he will give them the Spirit and the Spirit will give light and the strength to be obedient and will help them to know the truth — and it is the truth makes one free (cf. Jn 8:32).

Jesus himself, in his humanity, was led by the action of the Holy Spirit: conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the work of the Holy Spirit, at the beginning of his mission, in his baptism he receives the Spirit which descends upon him and guides him; risen he pours forth the Spirit on his disciples that they might enter into the same mission, announcing the salvation and pardon which he merited. The Spirit who anointed Jesus is the same Spirit who can make our freedom similar to that of Christ, perfectly conformed to the will of God.²¹

Therefore, it is indispensable that all open themselves to the Spirit, beginning with superiors, who properly receive authority from the Spirit,²² and “docile to the will of God”,²³ under his guidance must exercise it.

Authority at the service of obedience to the Will of God

12. In consecrated life everyone must sincerely seek the will of the Father, because otherwise the reason itself for this choice of life would disappear; but it is equally important to carry out such a search together with the brothers or the sisters because it is properly that which unites them, “making them a family united to Christ”.

Persons in authority are at the service of this search to ensure that it occurs in sincerity and truth. In the homily at the beginning of his Petrine ministry, Benedict XVI affirmed significantly: “My real program of governance is not to do my own will, not to pursue my own ideas, but to listen, together with the whole Church, to the word and the will of the Lord, to be guided by Him, so that He himself will lead the Church at this hour of our history”.²⁴ On the other hand, it is necessary to recognize that the task of being a guide for others is not easy, especially when the sense of personal autonomy is excessive or conflictive and competitive in its relations with others. Therefore, it is necessary on everyone's part to sharpen his or her ability to see the encounters of this task in faith, in order that he or she might be inspired to have the attitude of Jesus the Servant who washes the feet of his apostles so that they might have a part in his life and in his love (cf. Jn 13:1-17).

This calls for a great consistency on the part of those who guide institutes, provinces (or other sections of the institute) and communities. Persons called to exercise authority must know that they will be able to do so only if they first undertake the pilgrimage that leads to seeking the will of God with intensity and righteousness. The advice that St. Ignatius of Antioch gave to one of his fellow bishops is valuable for them: “Nothing is done without your agreement, but you do not do anything without God's agreement”.²⁵ Persons in authority must act in such a way that the brothers or the sisters can perceive that when they give a command, they are doing so only to obey God.

Reverence for the will of God keeps those in authority in a state of humble seeking, so that their acting conforms as much as possible to that holy will. St. Augustine reminds us that the one who obeys always fulfils the will of God, not because the command of the authority necessarily conforms to the divine will, but because it is the will of God that is obeyed by the one who is in charge.²⁶ But those in authority, on their part, must search assiduously with the help of prayer, reflection, and the advice of others for what God really wills. Otherwise, instead of representing God, superiors risk putting themselves carelessly in God's place.

With the intention of doing God's will, authority and obedience are not therefore two distinct realities or things absolutely opposed but rather two dimensions of the same evangelical reality, of the same Christian mystery, two complementary ways of participating in the same oblation of Christ. Authority and obedience are personified in Jesus: for this reason they must be understood in direct relation to him and in a real configuration to him. Consecrated life intends simply to live His Authority and His Obedience.

Some priorities in the service of authority

13. a) In consecrated life authority is first of all a spiritual authority.²⁷ Persons in authority recognize that they are called to serve an ideal that is much greater than themselves, an ideal which can be approached only in an atmosphere of prayer and humble seeking, which allows them to grasp the action of the same Spirit in the heart of every brother or sister. Persons in authority are “spiritual” when they place themselves at the service of what the Spirit wants to realize through the gifts which he distributes to every member of the community, in the charismatic project of the institute.

To be in the position of promoting the spiritual life, persons in authority will have to cultivate first in themselves an openness to listening to others and to the signs of the times through a daily familiarity in prayer with the Word of God, with the Rule and the other norms of the life. “The service of authority demands a persevering presence, able to enliven and take initiative, to recall the raison d'être of consecrated life, to help the persons entrusted to you to correspond with ever-renewed fidelity to the call of the Spirit”.²⁸

b) Persons in authority are called to guarantee to the community the time for and the quality of prayer, looking after the community's daily faithfulness to prayer, in the awareness that the community approaches God with small but constant steps, everyday and by everyone's effort, and that consecrated persons can be useful to one another to the extent that they are united to God. Furthermore, persons in authority are called to take care that, beginning with themselves, daily contact with the Word does not disappear, since “it has the power to edify” (Acts 20:32) individual persons and the community and to indicate ways for the mission. Mindful of the command of the Lord, “Do this in memory of me” (Lk 22:19), persons in authority will assure that the holy mystery of the Body and of the Blood of Christ is celebrated and venerated as “the source and summit”²⁹ of communion with God and among the brothers and sisters. Celebrating and adoring the gift of the Eucharist in faithful obedience to the Lord, the community draws from it the inspiration and strength for its total dedication to God, in order to be a sign of his gratuitous love for humanity and an efficacious pointing toward future goods.³⁰

c) Persons in authority are called to promote the dignity of the person, paying attention to each member of the community and to his or her growth, giving to each one the appropriate appreciation and positive consideration, nurturing sincere affection towards all and keeping reserved all that is said in confidence.

It is appropriate to recall that before invoking obedience (necessary) one needs to practice charity (indispensable). It is also good to make an appropriate use of the word communion, which cannot and must not be understood as a kind of delegation of authority to the community (with the implicit invitation to each to “do what he or she wants”), but neither as a more or less veiled imposition of one's own point of view (each one “does what I want”).

d) Persons in authority are called to inspire courage and hope in the midst of difficulties. As Paul and Barnabas encouraged their disciples, teaching that “we must undergo many trials if we are to enter into the reign of God” (Acts 14:22), persons in authority must help in accepting the difficulties of the present moment, remembering that they are part of the sufferings which are often strewn along the road that leads to the Reign of God.

Faced with some difficult situations in consecrated life, for example, where its presence seems to be weakening and even disappearing, the one who leads the community will recall the perennial values of this kind of life, because today, as yesterday, and as always, nothing is more important, beautiful and true than spending one's own life in the service of the Lord and for the littlest of his children.

Leaders of the community are like the Good Shepherd who gives his life for the sheep, because even in the critical moment they do not retreat, but are present, participating in the concerns and the difficulties of the people confided to their care, involving themselves personally; and like the Good Samaritan they will be ready to care for any possible wounds. Furthermore, leaders humbly recognizes their own limits and need for help from others, knowing how to turn their own failures and defeats into rich learning experiences.

e) Persons in authority are called to keep the charism of their own religious family alive. The exercise of authority also includes putting oneself at the service of the proper charism of the institute to which one belongs, keeping it carefully and making it real in the local community and in the province or the entire institute, according to the plans and orientations offered, in particular by General Chapters (or analogous meetings).³¹ What is required of persons in authority is an adequate knowledge of the charism of the institute, making it part of themselves, in order then better to see it in relation to community life and in relation to its place in ecclesial and social contexts.

f) Persons in authority are called to keep alive the “sentire cum Ecclesia”. Persons in authority have the task of helping to keep alive the sense of faith and of ecclesial communion, in the midst of a people that recognizes and praises the wonders of God, witnessing to the joy of belonging to him in the great family of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. The task of following the Lord cannot be taken by solitary navigators but is accomplished in the bark of Peter, which survives the storms; and consecrated persons contribute a hardworking and joyful fidelity to good navigation.³² Persons in authority should therefore remember that “Our obedience is a believing with the Church, a thinking and speaking with the Church, serving through her. What Jesus predicted to Peter also always applies: ‘You will be taken where you do not want to go'. This letting oneself be guided where one does not want to be led is an essential element of our serving and precisely that which makes us free”.³³

Sentire cum Ecclesia that shines in founders and foundresses implies an authentic spirituality of communion, that is “an effective and affective relationship with the Bishops, primarily with the Pope, the centre of unity of the Church”.³⁴ To him every consecrated person owes full and confident obedience also in virtue of the vow itself.³⁵ Moreover, ecclesial communion demands a faithful adhesion to the Magisterium of the Pope and Bishops as a concrete witness to love for the Church and passion for her unity.³⁶

g) Persons in authority are called to accompany the journey of ongoing formation. A task always to be considered most important today on the part of persons in authority is that of accompanying the persons for whom they are called to care throughout their lives. This they do not only by offering help in resolving possible problems or in managing possible crises but also in paying attention to the normal growth of each one in every phase and season of life, in order to guarantee that “youthfulness of spirit which lasts through time”³⁷ and that makes the consecrated person ever more conformed to the “sentiments which were in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:5).

Therefore, it will be the responsibility of persons in authority to keep a high level of openness to being formed as well as the ability to learn from life. In particular, this is important to do regarding the freedom of letting oneself be formed by others and for each one to feel a responsibility for the growth of others. Both will be fostered by making use of means of growth in community passed on by tradition and that are today especially recommended by those who have solid experience in the field of spiritual formation: sharing of the Word, personal and community plans, communitarian discernment, review of one's life and fraternal correction.³⁸

The service of authority in the light of ecclesial norms

14. In the preceding paragraphs the service of authority in consecrated life was described in reference to the search for the will of the Father and some of its priorities were pointed out.

In order that these priorities not be understood as purely facultative, it seems appropriate to consider the particular characteristics of the exercise of authority according to the Code of Canon Law.³⁹ In it the evangelical traits of the power exercised by religious superiors on various levels are translated into norms.

a) The obedience of the superior. Moving from the characteristic nature of munus of ecclesial authority, the Code reminds the religious superior that he or she is first of all called to be the first one to be obedient. In the strength of the assumed office, he or she owes obedience to the law of God, from whom his or her authority comes and to whom he or she must render an account in conscience, to the law of the Church, to the Roman Pontiff, and to the proper law of the institute.

b) The spirit of service. After having reaffirmed the charismatic origin and the ecclesial mediation of religious authority, it is reaffirmed that, as all authority in the Church, so too the authority of the religious superior must be characterized by the spirit of service, in imitation of Christ who “came not to be served but to serve” (Mk 10:45).

In particular, some aspects of such a spirit of service are pointed out, whose faithful observance will assure that superiors, in fulfilling their service, will be recognized as “docile to the will of God”.⁴⁰

Therefore, every superior is called to bring to life again, brother to brother or sister to sister, that love with which God loves his children, avoiding, on the one hand, any attitude of domination and, on the other, any form of paternalism or maternalism.

All of this is made possible by confidence in the responsibility of the brothers or the sisters “promoting the voluntary obedience of their subjects with reverence for the human person”,⁴¹ and through dialogue keeping in mind that bonding must come about “in a spirit of faith and love in the following of the obedient Christ”⁴² and not for other motivations.

c) Pastoral care. The Code points out, as the primary goal of the exercise of religious power, that of building “a community of brothers or sisters in Christ in which God is sought after and loved before all else”.⁴³ Therefore, in the religious community authority is essentially pastoral by its nature in that it is entirely in function of the building of fraternal life in community, according to the very ecclesial identity of consecrated life.⁴⁴

The principle means that the superior should use to attain such a primary end can only be based on faith: they are, in particular, listening to the Word of God and the celebration of the Liturgy.

Finally, some areas of particular care on the part of superiors as regards the brothers or sisters are singled out: “they are to meet the personal needs of the members appropriately, solicitously to care for and visit the sick, to correct the restless, to console the faint of heart, and to be patient toward all”.⁴⁵

In mission with the freedom of the children of God

15. Today, it is not rare that the mission is addressed to people concerned with their own autonomy, jealous of their freedom, fearful of losing their independence.

With their very existence, consecrated persons present the possibility of a different way for the fulfilment of their own life, a way where God is the goal, his Word the light, and his will the guide, where consecrated persons move along peacefully in the certainty of being sustained by the hands of a Father who welcomes and provides, where they are accompanied by brothers and sisters, moved by the same Spirit, who wants to and knows how to satisfy the desires and longings sown by the Father in the heart of each one.

This is the primary mission of the consecrated person: he or she must witness to the freedom of the children of God, a freedom modelled on that of Christ who was free to serve God and the brothers and sisters; and moreover to affirm with his or her very own being that that God who formed the human creature from clay (cf. Gen 2:7, 22) and knitted that creature in his or her mother's womb (cf. Ps 139:13), can form his or her life, modelling it on that of Christ, the new and perfectly free man.

SECOND PART

AUTHORITY AND OBEDIENCE
IN COMMUNITY LIFE

“One among you is your teacher and you are all brothers”
(Mt 23:8)

The New Commandment

16. To all those who seek God, in addition to the commandment, “You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole soul and with your whole mind”, there is given the second commandment “similar to the first”: “you shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Mt 22:37-39). Thus, the Lord Jesus adds, “Love one another as I have loved you”, because from the quality of your love “they will know that you are my disciples” (Jn 13:34-35). The building of fraternal community constitutes one of the fundamental tasks of consecrated life, to which the members of the community are called to dedicate themselves, moved by that same love that the Lord has poured out into their hearts. In fact, fraternal life in community is a constitutive element of religious life, an eloquent sign of the humanizing effects of the presence of the Reign of God.

If it is true that there is no meaningful community without fraternal love, it is likewise true that a correct view of obedience and authority can offer a valid help for living the commandment of love in daily life, especially when it is a question of facing problems regarding the relationship between the individual and the community.

Persons in authority at the service of the community, the community at the service of the Reign of God

17. “All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Rm 8:14): we are, therefore, brothers and sisters since God is the Father who guides the community of brothers and sisters with his Spirit, configuring them to his Son.

The function of authority enters into this plan. Superiors, in union with the persons entrusted to them, are called to build a fraternal community in Christ in which God is sought and loved above things, in order to fulfil God's redemptive plan.⁴⁶ Therefore, persons in authority are at the service of the community as was the Lord Jesus who washed the feet of his disciples, in order that the community in its turn be at the service of the Reign of God (cf. Jn 13:1-17). Exercising authority in the midst of one's brothers or sisters means serving them, following the example of him who “gave his life in ransom for the many” (Mk 10:45), in order that they might give their lives.

Only if superiors themselves live in obedience to Christ and sincerely observe the Rule can the members of the community understand that their obedience to the superior is not only not contrary to the freedom of the children of God but causes it to mature in conformity with Christ, obedient to the Father.⁴⁷

Docile to the Spirit who leads to unity

18. One and the same call from God has gathered the members of a community or of an institute together (cf. Col 3:15); one and the same desire of seeking God continues to guide them. “Life in community is thus the particular sign, before the Church and society, of the bond which comes from the same call and the common desire — notwithstanding differences of race and origin, language and culture — to be obedient to that call. Contrary to the spirit of discord and division, authority and obedience shine like a sign of that unique Fatherhood which comes from God, of the brotherhood born of the Spirit, of the interior freedom of those who put their trust in God, despite the human limitations of those who represent him”.⁴⁸

The Spirit opens each one to the Reign of God, while maintaining his or her different gifts and roles (cf. 1 Cor 12:11). Obedience to the action of the Spirit unifies the community in its witness to his presence, makes the steps of all joyful (cf. Ps 37:23), and becomes the basis of community life in which all obey, each with various tasks. The search for the will of God and the willingness to carry it out is the spiritual cement that saves the group from the fragmentation that can arise from the great variety of persons in all their diversity when they are lacking a unifying principle.

For a spirituality of communion and a communitarian holiness

19. In these last few years, a renewed concept of anthropology has made the importance of the relational dimension of the human person much more evident. Such a conception finds ample confirmation in the image of the human person that emerges from the Scriptures and, undoubtedly, has also influenced the way of conceiving relations within the religious community, making it more attentive to the value of openness to someone other than oneself, to the fruitfulness of the relation with the diversity and enrichment that come to each one from it.

Such a relational anthropology has also exercised an influence, at least indirectly as we have already recalled, on the spirituality of communion, and has contributed to the renewal of the concept of mission understood as a shared commitment with all members of the people of God, in a spirit of collaboration and co-responsibility. The spirituality of communion presents itself as the spiritual climate of the Church at the beginning of the Third Millennium and, therefore, as an active and exemplary task of religious life at all levels. It is the main pathway for the future of a believing life and of Christian witness. It finds its uncompromising reference in the Eucharistic mystery always seen as more central, precisely because “the Eucharist is thus constitutive of the Church's being and activity” and “it is found at the root of the Church as a mystery of communion”.⁴⁹

Holiness and mission pass through the community because the risen Lord makes himself present in it and through it,⁵⁰ making it holy and sanctifying the relationships. Has not Jesus promised to be present where two or three are gathered in his name (cf. Mt 18:20)? Thus, brothers and sisters become sacraments of Jesus and of the encounter with God, a concrete possibility of being able to live the commandment

of mutual love. In this way the path of holiness becomes a way that all members of the community follow together; not just a path for an individual but ever more a community experience: in the reciprocal welcoming; in the sharing of gifts, above all the gift of love, of pardon, and of fraternal correction; in the common search for the will of the Lord rich in grace and mercy; in the willingness of each one to bear one another's burdens.

In today's cultural atmosphere, community holiness is a convincing witness, perhaps even more than that of the individual: this shows the perennial value of unity, a gift left by the Lord Jesus. This becomes particularly evident in international and intercultural communities that demand high levels of welcoming and dialogue.

The role of persons in authority for the growth of the community

20. The growth of the community is the fruit of an “ordered” charity, which respects its points of reference. Consequently, “it is also necessary that the proper law of each institute be as precise as possible in determining the respective competence of the community, the various councils, departmental coordinators and the superior. A lack of clarity in this area is a source of confusion and conflict. ‘Community projects,' which can help increase participation in community life and in its mission in various contexts, should also take care to define clearly the role and competence of authority, in line with the constitutions”.⁵¹

Within this picture persons in authority promote the growth of fraternal life through the service of listening and dialogue, the creation of a favourable atmosphere for sharing and co-responsibility, the participation of everyone in the concerns of each one, service balanced between the individual and the community, discernment and the promotion of fraternal obedience.

a) The service of listening

The exercise of authority implies that persons in authority should gladly listen to those who have been entrusted to them.⁵² St. Benedict insists: “The abbot calls the whole community together”; “all of us have been called to give advice...because often it is to the youngest that the Lord reveals the best solution”.⁵³

Listening is one of the principal ministries of superiors for which they must always be available, above all for those who feel isolated and in need of attention. In fact, listening means accepting the other unconditionally, giving him or her space in one's own heart. For this listening conveys affection and understanding, declares that the other is appreciated, and that his or her presence and opinion are taken into consideration.

Whoever presides must remember that the one who does not listen to his brother or sister does not know how to listen to God either, that an attentive listening allows one to better coordinate the energy and gifts that the Spirit gives to the community and also, when making decisions, to keep in mind the limits and the difficulties of some members. Time spent in listening is never time wasted, and listening can often prevent crises and difficult times both on the individual and community levels.

b) Creation of an atmosphere favourable to dialogue, sharing and co-responsibility

Persons in authority will have to be concerned with creating an environment of trust, promoting the recognition of the abilities and the sensitivities of individuals. Moreover, with words and deeds they will nourish the conviction that the community requires participation and therefore information.

In addition to listening, persons in authority will value sincere and free dialogue — sharing feelings, perspectives and plans: in this atmosphere each one will be able to have his or her true identity recognized and to improve his or her own relational abilities. Persons in authority will not be afraid to recognize and accept those problems that can easily arise from searching, deciding, working and together undertaking the best ways of realizing a fruitful collaboration. On the contrary, they will look for the causes of any possible uneasiness and misunderstandings, knowing how to propose solutions, shared as much as possible. Moreover, they will commit themselves to finding ways of overcoming any form of childishness, and discourage whatever attempts are made to avoid responsibility or to evade major commitments, to close oneself in one's own world and in one's own interests or to work in an isolated manner.

c) Soliciting the contribution of all for the concerns of all

Whoever is in charge has the responsibility for the final decision,⁵⁴ but must arrive at it not by him or herself but rather by valuing the greatest possible free contribution of all the brothers or sisters. The community is what its members make it. Therefore, stimulating and motivating a contribution from every person so that each one feels the duty to contribute his or her own charity, competence and creativity will be fundamental. In fact, all the human resources are strengthened and brought together in the community project, motivating and respecting them.

It is not enough to place material goods in common, but still more significant is the communion of goods and personal abilities of endowments and talents, of intuitions and inspirations, and still more fundamental, and to be promoted, is the sharing of spiritual goods, of listening to the Word of God, of faith: “the more we share those things which are central and vital, the more the fraternal bond grows in strength”.⁵⁵

Probably not all will be immediately disposed to this type of sharing. When faced with possible resistance, far from giving up the project those in authority should seek to balance wisely the urgency for a dynamic and enterprising communion with the art of being patient, not expecting to see immediately the fruits of their own efforts. They must also recognize that God is the one and only Lord who can touch and change persons' hearts.

d) At the service of the individual and of the community

In entrusting various responsibilities to members of the community, persons in authority must take into account the personality of each brother or sister and each one's difficulties and predispositions, in order to give to each a way to express his or her own gifts, respecting the freedom of all. Simultaneously they must necessarily consider the good of the community and the service to the work eventually entrusted to them.

Such organizing to realize goals is not always easy to put into practice. It is then that the balance of persons in authority, which manifests itself in the ability to take the positive aspects of each one and to make the best use of the strengths available, becomes indispensable. This must be done with that righteousness of intention that makes authority interiorly free, not too concerned with pleasing and humouring, but clear in indicating the true meaning of the mission for the consecrated person that cannot be reduced to a simple valuing of the abilities of each one.

However, it will likewise be indispensable that consecrated persons accept, in the spirit of faith and from the hands of the Father, the responsibility entrusted to them even when it does not agree with their desires and expectations or with their way of understanding the will of God. For each person, still being able to express the specific difficulties by candidly pointing them out as a contribution to the truth, obeying in such cases means relying on the final decision of the person in authority, with the conviction that such obedience is a precious contribution — even if involving suffering — for the building of the Reign of God.

e) Community discernment

“In community life which is inspired by the Holy Spirit, each individual engages in a fruitful dialogue with others in order to discover the Father's will. At the same time, community members together recognize in the one who presides an expression of the fatherhood of God and the exercise of authority received from God, at the service of discernment and communion”.⁵⁶

Sometimes, when the proper law provides for it or when the importance of the decision to be taken demands it, the search for an adequate response is entrusted to community discernment, in which it is a matter of listening to what the Spirit is saying to the community (cf. Rev 2:7).

Even if true and appropriate discernment is reserved to the most important decisions, the spirit of discernment ought to characterize every decision-making process that involves the community. A time of individual prayer and reflection together with a series of important attitudes for choosing together what is right and pleasing to God, should never be missing prior to every decision. Here are some of these attitudes:

– determination to seek nothing other than the divine will, letting oneself be inspired by God's way of acting as seen in the Sacred Scriptures and in the history of the charism of the institute, and with the awareness that evangelical logic is often “upside-down” in relation to human logic that looks for success, efficiency and recognition;

– openness to recognize in each brother or sister the ability to discover the truth, even if partial, and consequently to welcome his or her opinions as mediation for discovering together the will of God — an openness to the point of knowing how to recognize the ideas of others as better than one's own;

– attention to the signs of the times, to the expectations of the people, to the needs of the poor, to the pressing needs of evangelization, to the priorities of the Universal Church and of particular churches and to the indications of Chapters and of major superiors;

– freedom from prejudices, from excessive attachment to one's own ideas, from perceptual frameworks which are rigid or distorted and from strong positions which frustrate the diversity of opinions;

– courage to ground firmly one's own ideas while also opening oneself to new perspectives and to changing one's own point of view;

– firm proposal to maintain unity in any case, whatever the final decision might be.

Community discernment is not a substitute for the nature and function of persons in authority, from whom the final decision is expected. Nevertheless, persons in authority cannot ignore that the community is the best place in which to recognize and accept the will of God. In any case, discernment is one of the peak moments in a consecrated community where the centrality of God, that ultimate end of everyone's search, as well as the responsibility and the contribution of each one in the journey of all towards the Truth, stand out with particular clarity.

f) Discernment, authority and obedience

Persons in authority will be patient in the delicate process of discernment, which they will seek to guarantee in its phases and support in its most critical steps, and to be firm in requesting the implementation of whatever is decided. They will be attentive not to abdicate their own proper responsibility, even for love of living in peace or for fear of hurting someone's feelings. They will feel the responsibility of not avoiding situations in which it is necessary to make clear and, at times, unpleasant decisions.⁵⁷ True love for the community is really what makes persons in authority able to reconcile firmness and patience, listening to each one, and the courage to make decisions, overcoming the temptation to be deaf and mute.

Finally, it must be observed that a community cannot be in a state of continuous discernment. After the time of discernment there is the time for obedience, which is the implementation of the decision. Both are times in which it is necessary to live in the spirit of obedience.

g) Fraternal obedience

Towards the end of his Rule, St. Benedict affirms: “The brethren must render the service of obedience not only to the Abbot, but they must thus also obey one another, knowing that they shall go to God by this path of obedience”.⁵⁸ “That in honour they forerun one another (cf. Rom 12:10). Let them bear their infirmities, whether of body or mind, with the utmost patience; let them vie with one another in obedience. Let no one follow what he thinketh useful to himself, but rather to another”.⁵⁹ St. Basil asks himself: “In what way do we have to obey each other?” He responds: “As servants to their masters, as the Lord has ordered us: ‘Let him who would be great among you become the servant of all (cf. Mk 10:44)'; Then he adds these words which are still more impressive: ‘Like the Son of Man who came not to be served but to serve' (Mk 10:45); and as the Apostle says: ‘Through the love of the Spirit, be servants to each other' (Gal 5:13)”.⁶⁰

True fraternity is based on the recognition of the dignity of the brothers or sisters and becomes concrete in the attention given to others and to their needs, in the capacity to rejoice in their gifts and their fulfilment, in placing at their disposition the proper time to listen and to be enlightened; however, this demands being interiorly free.

Those persons are certainly not free who are convinced that their ideas and their solutions are always the best; who suppose they can decide by themselves without any mediation for knowing the divine will; who think of themselves as always right and do not have any doubts that it is the others who have to change; who think only of their own things and do not pay any attention to the needs of others; who think that to obey is something from another era, which cannot be propounded in a world which is more evolved.

Rather, free are those persons who live constantly attentive and reach out to take advice in every situation in life, and above all from every person who lives next to them, a mediation of the will of the Lord, however mysterious. “It was for liberty that Christ freed us” (Gal 5:1). He has freed us that we might be able to encounter God in the innumerable ways in daily life.

“The first among you must be your slave” (Mt 20:27)

21. Today, if assuming the responsibilities proper to authority can also seem a particularly heavy burden and demand the humility of being the servant of others, it is, however, always good to recall the severe words the Lord Jesus turns on those who are tempted to clothe their authority in worldly prestige: “Whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:27-28).

Those who seek in their own office a means of becoming greater or affirming themselves, having themselves be served or making others serve them, place themselves clearly outside the evangelical model of authority. St. Bernard's words to his disciple who became a successor of

St. Peter are worth some attention: “Consider if you have made progress on the way of virtue, of wisdom, of intelligence, of goodness. Are you more arrogant or more humble? More benevolent or more haughty? More indulgent or more intransigent? What has developed in you: the fear of God or a dangerous effrontery?” ⁶¹

Obedience even under the best conditions is not easy, but it is made easier when the consecrated person sees persons in authority place themselves at the humble and hardworking service of the community and of the mission: an authority that even with all its human limitations in its acting tries to present again the attitudes and sentiments of the Good Shepherd.

“I pray that she who will have the office of responsibility for her sisters,” St. Clare of Assisi affirmed in her last will and testament, “be committed to being in charge of the others through virtue and holy behaviour more than by virtue of her office, in order that the sisters, inspired by her example, obey her not so much because of her office, but for love”.⁶²

Community Life as mission

22. Led by persons in authority, consecrated persons are called to measure themselves against the new commandment, the commandment that renews all things: “Love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 15:12).

To love each other as the Lord has loved means to go beyond the personal merit of the brothers or sisters and to obey not one's own desires but God who speaks through the condition and needs of the brothers or sisters. It is necessary to recall that the time dedicated to improving the quality of community life is not time wasted because, as the late and fondly remembered Pope John Paul II repeatedly emphasized, “all the fruitfulness of religious life depends on the quality of community life”.⁶³

The tension of making real fraternal community is not only preparation for the mission but also an integral part of it, from the moment that “fraternal communion, as such, is already an apostolate”.⁶⁴ In the continuous search for the will of God, being in mission as communities that daily seek to build community means affirming that by following the Lord Jesus, it is possible to realize human life together in a new and humanizing way.

THIRD PART

IN MISSION

“As the Father has sent me, so I also send you”
(Jn 20:21)

In mission with all one's being, as Jesus the Lord

23. The Lord Jesus makes us understand with his own form of life that mission and obedience cannot be separated. In the Gospels Jesus is always presented as the One sent by the Father to do his will (cf. Jn 5:36-38; 6:38-40; 7:16-18); he always does what is pleasing to the Father. It is possible to say that the entire life of Jesus is the mission of the Father. He is the mission of the Father.

As the Word came in mission, enfleshing himself in a humanity that he took on completely, we collaborate in the mission of Christ in the same way and we permit him to bring it to its complete fulfilment. Above all we welcome him, making ourselves the place of his presence and, therefore, the continuation of his life in history, to afford others the possibility of meeting him.

Considering that Christ in his life and work was the perfect amen (cf. Rev 3:14) and the perfect yes (cf. 2 Cor 1:20) spoken to the Father, and that to say yes means simply to obey, it is impossible to think about the mission if not in relation to obedience. To live the mission always implies being sent, and that includes referring to the one who sends or to the content of the mission to be developed. It is for this reason that, without reference to obedience, the term mission becomes difficult to understand and is exposed to the risk of being reduced to something that refers only to those developing the mission. There is always the danger of reducing the mission to a profession to be done in view of one's own fulfilment, thereby being managed more or less by oneself.

In mission for service

24. In his Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius of Loyola writes that the Lord calls all and says: “Whoever will come with me must work with me, so that following me in effort and suffering, will follow me also into glory”.⁶⁵ The mission must be measured, today as in the past, with notable difficulties that can be confronted only with the strength that comes from the Lord, in the humble and strong awareness of being sent by him and, because of this, being able to count on his help.

Thanks to obedience we have the certitude of serving the Lord, of being “servants of the Lord” in our acting and suffering. Such certitude is the source of unconditional commitment, tenacious faithfulness, interior serenity, disinterested service and dedication of our best energies. “Those who obey have the guarantee of truly taking part in the mission, of following the Lord and not pursuing their own desires or wishes. In this way we can know that we are guided by the Spirit of the Lord, and sustained, even in the midst of great hardships, by his steadfast hand (cf. Acts 20:22-23)”.⁶⁶

One is in mission when, far from seeking one's own affirmation, one is, in the first place, led by the desire to accomplish the will of God, which is worthy of adoration. Such a desire is the very soul of adoration (“Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done”) and the strength of the apostle. The mission demands the commitment of all one's human abilities and talents that contribute to salvation when he or she is placed in the river of the will of God, which transports passing things into the ocean of the eternal reality where God, in unlimited happiness, will be all in all (cf. 1 Cor 15:28).

Authority and mission

25. All this implies that authority be recognized as an important task in carrying out the mission, faithful to the charism proper to each. This is not a simple task, nor one without difficulties and ambiguities. In the past, the risk could come from persons in authority being directed mainly towards managing the work, with the danger of not taking care of persons. Today, the risk can come rather from excessive fear of hurting others' feelings or from a fragmentation of competencies and responsibilities that weakens the unified movement towards the common objective and frustrates the role of authority.

However, persons in authority are not only responsible for the animation of the community but also for the coordinating of the various competencies in relation to the mission. Thus, they respect the roles and follow the internal norms of the Institute. Even if persons in authority cannot — and must not — do everything, they nevertheless have the ultimate responsibility for everything.⁶⁷

Many are the challenges that the present time places on persons in authority in the task of coordinating energies for the mission. Some important tasks are also listed here:

a) Persons in authority encourage the taking up of responsibilities and respect them when taken up

For some, responsibilities can provoke a sense of fear. Therefore, it is necessary that persons in authority convey to their collaborators Christian strength and the courage to face difficulties, overcoming fears and attitudes of giving up.

Their concern will be sharing not only information but also responsibilities, committing themselves to respecting each one in his or her own rightful autonomy. This involves, on the part of authority, a patient coordination and, on the part of the consecrated person, a sincere openness to working together.

Persons in authority need to “be present” when necessary, to foster in the members of the community the sense of interdependence, as far from childish dependence as from a self-sufficient independence. This interdependence is the fruit of that interior freedom that permits each one to work and collaborate, to substitute as well as to be substituted for, to take an active part and to make his or her own contribution, even from behind the scenes.

Whoever exercises the service of authority will have to be attentive not to give into the temptation of personal self-sufficiency, to believe that everything depends on him or her and that it would not be important and useful to foster community participation; it is better to take one step together than to take two or more alone.

b) Persons in authority invite us to confront diversity in a spirit of communion

The rapid cultural changes in progress do not only cause structural transformations that influence activities and the mission but also can give rise to tensions within the community, where diverse kinds of cultural or spiritual formation cause members to give different readings to the signs of the times and, therefore, to propose varied projects not always reconcilable. Such situations can be more frequent today than in the past because there is a growing number of communities that are made up of persons who come from different ethnic groups or cultures, thereby making generational differences more evident. Persons in authority are called to serve with a spirit of communion even these composite communities, helping them to offer, in a world noted for many divisions, the witness that it is possible to live together and to love one another even if different. It must then firmly maintain some theoretical-practical principles:

– to remember that in the spirit of the Gospel, a conflict of ideas never becomes a conflict of persons;

– to recall that a plurality of perspectives fosters a deepening of the question;

– to promote communication so that the free exchange of ideas makes the positions clear and causes the positive contribution of each one to emerge;

– to help free oneself from egocentrism and ethnocentrism, which tend to place the causes of trouble onto others, in order to reach a mutual understanding;

– to understand that the ideal is not that of having a community without conflicts but instead a community that is willing to confront its own tensions in order to resolve them positively, looking for solutions that ignore none of the values that must be taken into account.

c) Persons in authority maintain a balance between the various dimensions of consecrated life

These dimensions can come into tension among themselves. Persons in authority must assure that unity of life be preserved and that the greatest possible attention is paid to the balance between time dedicated to prayer and time dedicated to work, between individual and community, between commitments and rest, between attention to common life and attention to the world and the Church, between personal formation and community formation.⁶⁸

One of the most delicate balances is that between community and mission, between life ad intra and life ad extra.⁶⁹ Given that normally the urgency of the things that need to be done can lead not to caring about the things that regard the community and that ever more often today one is called to work as an individual, it is opportune that some inviolable rules that guarantee simultaneously both a spirit of brotherhood or sisterhood in the apostolic community and an apostolic sensitivity in community life be respected.

It will be important that persons in authority be the guarantors of these rules and remind each and everyone that a member of the community who is in mission or is performing some apostolic service, even if working alone, always acts in the name of the institute or of the community and thus works thanks to the community. Often, if some are able to accomplish that particular activity it is because others of the community have given of their time for them, advised them or conveyed a certain spirit. Furthermore, the one who remains in the community substitutes in certain tasks in the house for the persons committed outside the community or prays for them or supports them with his or her own fidelity.

And now it is right not only that apostles be deeply grateful but also that they remain closely united to their own community in all that they do. The apostle must not act like the owner of the community but should try at any cost to have the community move along together, waiting, if necessary, for the one who goes more slowly, valuing the contribution of each one, sharing as much as possible the joys and efforts, insights and uncertainties, so that all feel as theirs the apostolate of each one of the others, without envy or jealousy. Apostles may be certain that no matter how much of themselves they give to the community, it will never equal what they have already received and will continue to receive from it.

d) Persons in authority have a merciful heart

St. Francis of Assisi, in a moving letter to a minister/superior, gave the following instructions about the possible personal weaknesses of his brothers: “And in this I want to know, if you love the Lord and myself, His servant and yours, if you have done this, namely, that there be no friar in the world, who has sinned, as much as one could sin, that, after he has seen your eyes, never leaves without your mercy, if he seeks mercy. And if he would not seek mercy, you are to ask him if he wants mercy. And if afterwards he would have sinned a thousand times before your eyes, love him more than me for this, so that you draw him to the Lord; and you are to always pity such ones”.⁷⁰

Persons in authority are called to develop a pedagogy of forgiveness and mercy, that is, to be instruments of the love of God that welcomes, corrects and always gives another chance to the brother or sister who makes a mistake and falls into sin. Above all they will need to remember that without hope of forgiveness a person finds it hard to get back on the path and tends inevitably to add wrong to wrong and failings to failings. The perspective of mercy, instead, affirms that God is able to draw out, even from sinful situations, a way that leads towards the good.⁷¹ May persons in authority spare no efforts so that the whole community may learn this merciful style.

e) Persons in authority have a sense of justice

If the invitation of St. Francis of Assisi to forgive the brother who sins can be considered a precious general rule, it must be recognized that there can be behaviours in the members of some communities of consecrated persons that seriously harm their neighbour and that imply a responsibility vis-à-vis people outside the community and also within the institutions themselves to which they belong. If it is necessary to have understanding for the wrongdoing of the individual, it is also necessary to have a rigorous sense of responsibility and charity towards those who are eventually damaged by the incorrect behaviour of some consecrated person.

May he or she who errs know that he or she must answer personally for the consequences of his or her acts. Understanding for the confrere cannot exclude justice, especially in the face of vulnerable persons and victims of abuse. To accept and recognize the real evil and to assume the responsibility for it and its consequences are already steps on the path that leads to mercy: as for Israel who distanced itself from the Lord, the acceptance of the consequences of evil, that is, the experience of the Exile, is the first step in once again taking up the path of conversion and of rediscovering more deeply that real relationship with him.

f) Persons in authority promote collaboration with the laity

The growing collaboration with the laity in the works and activities conducted by consecrated persons raises new questions that require new responses both on the part of the community and on the part of authority. “The participation of the laity often brings unexpected and rich insights into certain aspects of the charism,” given that the laity are invited to offer “religious families the invaluable contribution of their ‘being in the world' and their specific service”.⁷²

It was fittingly recalled that in order to reach the objective of mutual collaboration between religious and laity, “it is necessary to have: religious communities with a clear charismatic identity, assimilated and lived, capable of transmitting it to others and disposed to share it; religious communities with an intense spirituality and missionary enthusiasm for communicating the same spirit and the same evangelizing thrust; religious communities who know how to animate and encourage lay people to share the charism of their institute, according to their secular character and according to their different style of life, inviting them to discover new ways of making the same charism and mission operative. In this way, a religious community becomes a centre radiating outwardly, a spiritual force, a centre of animation, of fraternity creating fraternity, and of communion and ecclesial collaboration, where the different contributions of each help build up the Body of Christ, which is the Church”.⁷³

Furthermore, it is necessary that there be a well-defined description of the competencies and responsibilities of the laity as much as of the religious, as well as of the intermediate entities (administrative councils and the like). In all this, the one in charge of the community of consecrated persons has an irreplaceable role.

Difficult obedience

26. In the concrete development of the mission, some instances of obedience can be particularly difficult because points of view or means of apostolic or diaconal action can be perceived and thought of in different ways. In the face of certain difficult situations of obedience, to all appearances absolutely “absurd,” there can arise the temptation towards distrust and even abandonment. Is it worth continuing? Could I not realize my ideas better in another context? Why get worn out in pointless conflicts?

St. Benedict already confronted the question of an obedience “very burdensome or positively impossible to perform”; and St. Francis of Assisi considered the case in which “the subject sees things which are better and more useful for his soul than those which the prelate [superior] orders him to do”. The Father of monasticism replies, asking for a free, open, humble and trusting dialogue between the monk and the abbot, though in the end, if requested, the monk “obeys for the love of God and confiding in his help”.⁷⁴ The Saint of Assisi invites the person to implement a “loving obedience,” in which the friar voluntarily sacrifices his views and carries out the command requested, because in this way he “pleases God and neighbour”,⁷⁵ and sees a “perfect obedience, there, where even not being able to obey because he is being commanded “something against his soul”, the religious does not break unity with the superior and community, and is also ready to bear persecution because of it. “In fact,” observes St. Francis, “whoever chooses to suffer persecution rather than wish to be separated from his brothers truly remains in perfect obedience because he lays down his life for his brothers”.⁷⁶ This reminds us that love and communion represent supreme values to which even the exercise of authority and obedience are subordinated.

It must be recognized that it is understandable, on the one hand, to have a certain attachment to personal ideas and convictions, fruit of reflection or of experience and matured over time, and it is also a good thing to seek to defend them and to carry them forward, always in the perspective of the Reign of God, in a straightforward and constructive dialogue. On the other hand, it is not to be forgotten that the model is always Jesus of Nazareth, who even during his Passion asked God that his will, as Father, be done, nor did he pull back from death on the cross (cf. Heb 5:7).

When requested to give up their own ideas or projects, consecrated persons might experience loss and a sense of rejection of authority or to feel within themselves the “loud cries and tears” (Heb 5:7) and pleading that the bitter chalice might pass. But that is also the time to entrust oneself to the Father in order that his will might be done, and thus to be able to participate actively, with all one's being, in the mission of Christ “for the life of the world” (Jn 6:51).

It is in saying these difficult “yeses” that one can understand in depth the sense of obedience as a supreme act of freedom, expressed in total and confident abandoning of oneself to Christ, the Son freely obedient to the Father, and one can understand the sense of mission as an obedient offering of oneself that brings the blessing of the Most High: “I will bless you with every blessing...(and) all the nations of the earth shall gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice” (Gen 22:17, 18). In that blessing obedient consecrated persons know that they will again find all that they left with the sacrifice of their being detached; within that blessing is also hidden the full realization of their own humanity (cf. Jn 12:25).

Obedience and objections of conscience

27. Here one could ask: Can there be situations in which a person's conscience would not seem to permit following the directives given by persons in authority? Can it happen, in short, that the consecrated person must state in relation to the norms or to their superiors: “It is necessary to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29)? This is the case of the so-called objection in conscience of which Paul VI spoke,⁷⁷ and that should be considered in its authentic meaning.

If it is true that conscience is the place where the voice of the Lord resounds, the voice that indicates to us how to behave, it is also true that it is necessary to learn to listen to this voice very attentively in order to know how to recognize it and distinguish it from other voices. In fact, it is necessary not to confuse this voice with those which emerge from a subjectivism that ignores or disregards the sources and criteria that cannot be given up and are mandatory in the formation of judgments of conscience: “It is the ‘heart' converted to the Lord and to the love of what is good which is really the source of true judgments of conscience”,⁷⁸ and “freedom of conscience is never freedom ‘from' the truth but always and only freedom ‘in' the truth”.⁷⁹

The consecrated person will then have to reflect long before concluding that it is not the obedience received but what is sensed within him or herself that represents the will of God. He or she will also have to remember to keep the law of mediation in force in all cases, guarding him or herself from making serious decisions without any examination and verification. It certainly remains indisputable that what counts is to arrive at knowing and fulfilling the will of God, but it ought to be likewise indisputable that the consecrated person is committed by vow to accept this holy will through determined mediations. To say that what counts is the will of God, not the means, and to reject them or to accept them only on the basis of what is pleasing, can take away the meaning of the person's vow, and empty his or her own life of one of its essential characteristics.

Consequently, “apart from an order manifestly contrary to the laws of God or the constitutions of the institute, or one involving a serious and certain evil — in which case there is no obligation to obey — the superior's decisions concern a field in which the calculation of the greater good can vary according to the point of view. To conclude from the fact that a directive seems objectively less good that it is unlawful and contrary to conscience would mean an unrealistic disregard of the obscurity and ambivalence of many human realities. Besides, refusal to obey involves an often serious loss for the common good. A religious should not easily conclude that there is a contradiction between the judgment of his conscience and that of his superior. This exceptional situation will sometimes involve true interior suffering, after the pattern of Christ himself ‘who learned obedience through suffering' (Heb 5:8)”.⁸⁰

Difficult kinds of authority

28. But persons in authority can also become discouraged and disillusioned. In the face of the resistance of some members of the community and of certain questions that seem irresoluble, he or she can be tempted to cave in and to consider every effort for improving the situation useless. What we see here then is the danger of becoming managers of the routine, resigned to mediocrity, restrained from intervening, no longer having the courage to point out the purposes of authentic consecrated life and running the risk of losing the love of one's first fervour and the desire to witness to it.

When the exercise of authority weighs heavily and is difficult, it is good to recall that the Lord Jesus considers such a task an act of love towards him: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” (Jn 21:16). And listening again to the words of Paul becomes beneficial: “Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer, contribute to the needs of the saints” (Rm 12:12-13).

The silent interior struggle that accompanies fidelity to one's own task, marked at times by solitude or misunderstanding of those to whom one gives oneself, becomes the way of personal sanctification and a means of salvation because of what he or she suffers.

Obedient until the end

29. If the life of the believer is entirely a search for God, every day of life becomes a continual learning of how to listen to his voice in order to do his will. It is a question certainly of a demanding school, almost a struggle between that I who tends to be in control of oneself and one's history and that God who is “the Lord” of every history, a school wherein one learns to entrust oneself so much to God and to his Fatherhood, as also to trust in men and women — his sons and daughters and our brothers and sisters. In this way the certitude grows that the Father never abandons anyone, not even when it is necessary to entrust the care for one's own life into the hands of the brothers or sisters and to recognize in them the sign of his presence and the mediators of his will.

With an act of obedience, even if unaware of it, we came to life, accepting that good Will that has preferred our existing to non-existence. We will conclude our journey with another act of obedience that hopefully would be as much as possible conscious and free but above all an expression of abandonment to the good Father who will call us definitively to himself, into his reign of infinite light, where our seeking will have found its conclusion and our eyes will see him in a Sunday without end. Then we will be fully obedient and fulfilled, because we will be saying “yes” forever to that Love that has made us happy with him and in him.

Prayer for persons in authority

30. “O Good Shepherd, Jesus, good, gentle, tender Shepherd, behold a shepherd, poor and pitiful, a shepherd of Your sheep indeed, but weak and clumsy and of little use, who cries out to You.

“Teach me, Your servant, therefore, Lord, teach me, I pray You, by Your Holy Spirit, how to devote myself to them and how to spend myself on their behalf. Give me, by Your unutterable grace, the power to bear with their shortcomings patiently, to share their griefs in loving sympathy, and discretely to help them according to their needs. Taught by Your Spirit, may I learn to comfort the sorrowful, to strengthen the weak, to be weak with those who are weak, to be indignant with those who suffer scandal, to become all things to all in order to save all. Place true, just and pleasing words in my mouth, so that they all may be built up in faith and hope and love, in chastity and lowliness, in patience and obedience, in spiritual fervour and submissiveness of mind.

“I commit them into Your holy hands and loving providence. May no one snatch them from Your hand, nor from the hands of Your servant's, unto whom You have committed them. May they always persevere with gladness in their holy purpose, unto the attainment of everlasting life with You, our most sweet Lord, their Helper, who live and reign to ages of ages. Amen”.⁸¹

Prayer to Mary

31. “O sweet and holy Virgin Mary, with Your believing and perplexed obedience, at the announcement of the angel You gave us Christ. At Cana with Your attentive Heart You showed us how to act responsibly. You did not wait passively for the action of Your Son but You anticipated it, making Him aware of the need and with discreet authority taking the initiative to send the servants to Him.

“At the foot of the cross, obedience made You the Mother of the Church and of believers while in the Upper Room every disciple recognized in You the gentle authority of love and service.

“Help us to understand that every true authority in the Church and in consecrated life has its foundation in being docile to the will of God and help each one of us become in fact, authority for others with our own life lived in obedience to God.

“O merciful and compassionate Mother, ‘You who did the will of the Father, ever ready in obedience',⁸² make our lives attentive to the Word, faithful in the following of Jesus, the Lord and Servant, in the light and with the strength of the Holy Spirit, joyful in fraternal communion, generous in mission, prompt in our service to the poor, looking forward to the day in which obedience in faith will flow into the feast of Love without end”.

On 5 May 2008, the Holy Father approved this present Instruction of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and ordered its publication.

From the Vatican, 11 May 2008, the Solemnity of Pentecost.

Franc Card. Rodé, C.M.
Prefect

+ Gianfranco A. Gardin, OFM Conv.
Secretary

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

1. Consecrated Life as a witness of the search for God
2. A path of liberation
3. Addressees, intent and limitations of the document

FIRST PART
Consecration and search for the will of God

4. Whom are we seeking?
5. Obedience as listening
6. “Hear, O Israel !” (Dt 6:4)
7. Obedience to the Word of God
8. In the following of Jesus, the obedient Son of the Father
9. Obedient to God through human mediation
10. Learning obedience in the day-to-day
11. In the light and in strength of the Spirit
12. Authority at the service of obedience to the Will of God
13. Some priorities in the service of authority

a) In consecrated life authority is first of all a spiritual authority
b) Persons in authority are called to guarantee to the community the time for and the quality of prayer
c) Persons in authority are called to promote the dignity of the person
d) Persons in authority are called to inspire courage and hope in the midst of difficulties
e) Persons in authority are called to keep the charism of their own religious family alive
f) Persons in authority are called to keep alive the “sentire cum ecclesia”
g) Persons in authority are called to accompany the journey of ongoing formation

14. The service of authority in the light of ecclesial norms
15. In mission with the freedom of the children of God

SECOND PART
Authority and obedience in community life

16. The New Commandment
17. Persons in authority at the service of the community, the community at the service of the Reign of God
18. Docile to the Spirit who leads to unity
19. For a spirituality of communion and a communitarian holiness
20. The role of persons in authority for the growth of the community

a) The service of listening
b) Creation of an atmosphere favorable to dialogue, sharing and co-responsibility
c) Soliciting the contribution of all for the concerns of all
d) At the service of the individual and of the community
e) Community discernment
f) Discernment, authority and obedience
g) Fraternal obedience

21. “The first among you must be your slave” (Mt 20:27)
22. Community Life as mission

THIRD PART
In mission

23. In mission with all one's being, as Jesus the Lord
24. In mission for service
25. Authority and mission

a) Persons in authority encourage the taking up of responsibilities and respect them when taken up
b) Persons in authority invite us to confront diversity in a spirit of communion
c) Persons in authority maintain a balance between the various dimensions of consecrated life
d) Persons in authority have a merciful heart
e) Persons in authority have a sense of justice
f) Persons in authority promote collaboration with the laity

26. Difficult obedience
27. Obedience and objections of conscience
28. Difficult kinds of authority
29. Obedient until the end
30. Prayer for persons in authority
31. Prayer to Mary

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1 Cf. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita consecrata (25 March 1996), 1.

2 Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, Paradise, III, 85.

3 Cf. Vita consecrata, 42: Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life Instruction Fraternal Life in Community (2 February 1994), 5; Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes, Instruction Essential Elements in the Church's Teaching on Religious Life as Applied to Institutes Dedicated to Works of the Apostolate (31 May 1983), 41.

4 Cf. Code of Canon Law, can. 631, § 1; Vita consecrata, 42.

5 Cf John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Novo millennio ineunte (6 January 2001), 43-45; Vita consecrata, 46, 50.

6 Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Instruction Potissimum institutioni (2 February 1990), in particular nn. 15, 24-25, 30-32.

7 In particular nn. 47-52.

8 In particular nn. 42-43, 91-92.

9 Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Instruction Starting Afresh from Christ: A Renewed Commitment to Consecrated Life in the Third Millennium (19 May 2002), in particular nn. 7 and 14.

10 St. Bernard, De diversis, 42, 3: PL 183, 662B.

11 St. Bernard, De errore Abelardi, 8, 21: PL 182, 1070A.

12 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Spe salvi (30 November 2007), 43; cf. Fourth Ecumenical Lateran Council, in DS 806.

13 ”More intimate than I am to myself”: St. Augustine, Confessions, III, 6, 11.

14 Benedict XVI, Letter to the Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life on the occasion of the Plenary Assembly, 27 September 2005, in L'Osservatore Romano, English Edition, 12 October 2005.

15 St. Benedict, Rule, Prologue, 3. Cf. also St. Augustine, Rule, 7; St. Francis of Assisi, Regula non bullata 1, 1; Regula bullata, I, 1; cf. Vita consecrata, 46.

16 Code of Canon Law, can. 618.

17 Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree on the Renewal of Religious Life Perfectae caritatis, 14; Code of Canon Law, can. 601.

18 Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelica testificatio (29 June 1971), 29.

19 Cf. Evangelica testificatio, 25.

20 St. Ignatius of Loyola, Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, 84.

21 Cf. Benedict XVI, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis (22 February 2007), 12.

22 Cf. Sacred Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes and the Sacred Congregation for Bishops, Directives for the Mutual Relations between Bishops and Religious in the Church Mutuae relationes (14 May 1978), 13.

23 Perfectae caritatis, 14.

24 Benedict XVI, Homily during the Mass for the beginning of his Petrine Ministry (24 April 2005), AAS XCVII (2005), 709.

25 St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to Polycarp, 4, 1.

26 Cf. St. Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos 70.1.2: PL 36, 875.

27 Cf. Fraternal Life in Community, 50

28 Benedict XVI, Address to Superiors General, 22 May 2006, in L'Osservatore Romano, English Edition, 31 May 2006, 13; cf. Starting Afresh from Christ, 24-26.

29 Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 11; Starting Afresh from Christ, 26.

30 Cf. Sacramentum Caritatis 8; 37; 81.

31 Cf. Vita consecrata, 42.

32 Cf. Mutuae relationes, 34-35.

33 Benedict XVI, Homily during the Chrism Mass, 20 March 2008, in L'Osservatore Romano, English Edition, 26 March 2008, p. 12.

34 Starting Afresh from Christ, 32.

35 Cf. Code of Canon Law, can. 590, § 2.

36 Cf. Vita consecrata, 46.

37 Vita consecrata, 70.

38 Cf. Fraternal Life in Community, 32.

39 Cf. Code of Canon Law, can. 617-619.

40 Code of Canon Law, can. 618.

41 Code of Canon Law, 618.

42 Code of Canon Law, 601.

43 Code of Canon Law, 619.

44 In fact, the religious community is able to follow and manifest the primacy of the love of God that is the end itself of consecrated life and, thus, also its first obligation and the first apostolate of individual members of the community, cf. Code of Canon Law, can. 573, 607, 663, § 1, 673.

45 Code of Canon Law, can. 619.

46 Cf. Code of Canon Law, can. 619; 602; 618.

47 Cf. Perfectae caritatis, 14.

48 Vita consecrata, 92.

49 Sacramentum caritatis, 15.

50 Cf. Vita consecrata, 42.

51 Fraternal Life in Community, 51.

52 Cf. Perfectae caritatis, 14.

53 St. Benedict, Rule, 3, 1.3.

54 Cf. Vita consecrata, 43; Fraternal Life in Community, 50c; Starting Afresh from Christ, 14.

55 Fraternal Life in Community, 32.

56 Vita consecrata, 92.

57 Cf. Vita consecrata, 43.

58 St. Benedict, Rule, 71, 1-2.

59 St. Benedict, Rule, 72, 4-7.

60 St. Basil, Short Rule Question 115.

61 St. Bernard, De consideratione, II, X, 20: PL 182, 754D.

62 St. Clare of Assisi, Testamento, 61-62.

63 John Paul II, To the Plenary of the Congregation for Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, 20 November 1992, in L'Osservatore Romano, English Edition, 2 December 1992, p. 2; cf. Fraternal Life in Community, 54, 71.

64 Fraternal Life in Community, 54.

65 St. Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, 95, 4-5.

66 Vita consecrata, 92.

67 Cf. Vita consecrata, 43.

68 Cf. Fraternal Life in Community, 50.

69 Cf. Fraternal Life in Community, 59.

70 St. Francis of Assisi, A Letter to a Certain Minister Provincial, 7-10.

71 Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Dives in Misericordia, 30 November 1980, 6.

72 Vita consecrata, 55; cf. Starting Afresh from Christ, 31.

73 Fraternal Life in Community, 70.

74 St. Benedict, Rule, 68, 1-5.

75 St. Francis of Assisi, Admonition III, 5-6.

76 St. Francis of Assisi, Admonition III, 9.

77 Cf. Paul VI, Evangelica testificatio, 28-29.

78 John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Veritatis splendor, 6 August 1993, 64.

79 Veritatis splendor, 64.

80 Evangelica testificatio, 28.

81 Aelred of Rievaulx, Pastoral Prayer, 1, 7, 10. CC CM Vol. I 757-763.

82 Vita consecrata, 112.

Year of Vocations Prayer

Prayer for Vocations

O Holy Spirit, Spirit of wisdom and divine love, impart Your knowledge, understanding, and counsel to the faithful that they may know the vocation wherein they can best serve God.

Give them courage and strength to follow God's holy will.

Guide their uncertain steps, strengthen their resolutions, shield their chastity, fashion their minds, conquer their hearts, and lead them to the vineyards where they will labour in God's holy service.

Amen.

Gregorian - Hymn

June - Month of Sacred Heart

The feast of the Sacred Heart was approved for specified dioceses by Clement XIII in 1765, and extended to the whole Church by Pius IX in 1856.

In 1889 Pope Leo XIII elevated it to the rank of first class, and through an encyclical letter in 1899 dedicated the whole Catholic world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart is also an essential component of Pope John Paul II's hopes for the "new evangelization" called for by the Church.

"For evangelization today," he said, "the Heart of Christ must be recognized as the heart of the Church: It is He who calls us to conversion, to reconciliation. It is He who leads pure hearts and those hungering for justice along the way of the Beatitudes. It is He who achieves the warm communion of the members of the one Body. It is He who enables us to adhere to the Good News and to accept the promise of eternal life. It is He who sends us out on mission. The heart-to-heart with Jesus broadens the human heart on a global scale."

Here are some of the relevant documents: Leo XIII in his Encyclical Letter Annum sacrum (1889) on the consecration of mankind to the Sacred Heart; Pius XI in Caritate Christi Compulsi (On The Sacred Heart) and Miserentissimus Redemptor (On Reparation To The Sacred Heart); Pius XII in his Encyclical Letter Haurietis aquas; Paul VI in his Apostolic Letter Investigabiles divitias Christi (1965) and John Paul II in Message on the centenary of the consecration of mankind to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1999), in L'Osservatore Romano, 12 June 1999.

Scriptural Basis for the Devotion

Jesus, who is one with the Father (cf. John 10, 30), invites his disciples to live in close communion with him, to model their lives on him and on his teaching. He, in turn, reveals himself as "meek and humble of heart" (Mt 11, 29). It can be said that, in a certain sense, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a cultic form of the prophetic and evangelic gaze of all Christians on him who was pierced (cf. John 19, 37; Zac 12, 10), the gaze of all Christians on the side of Christ, transfixed by a lance, and from which flowed blood and water (cf. John 19, 34), symbols of the "wondrous sacrament of the Church"(St. Augustine).

The Gospel of St. John recounts the showing of the Lord's hands and his side to the disciples (cf. John 20,20), and of his invitation to Thomas to put his hand into his side (cf. John 20, 27). This event has also had a notable influence on the origin and development of the Church's devotion to the Sacred Heart.

These and other texts present Christ as the paschal Lamb, victorious and slain (cf. Apoc 5,6). They were objects of much reflection by the Fathers who unveiled their doctrinal richness. They invited the faithful to penetrate the mysteries of Christ by contemplating the wound opened in his side. Augustine writes: "Access is possible: Christ is the door. It was opened for you when his side was opened by the lance. Remember what flowed out from his side: thus, choose where you want to enter Christ. From the side of Christ as he hung dying upon the Cross there flowed out blood and water, when it was pierced by a lance. Your purification is in that water, your redemption is in that blood".

The Sacred Heart and Our Spiritual Life

Devotion to the Sacred Heart is a wonderful historical expression of the Church's piety for Christ, her Spouse and Lord: it calls for a fundamental attitude of conversion and reparation, of love and gratitude, apostolic commitment and dedication to Christ and his saving work.

Devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus are numerous. Some have been explicitly approved and frequently recommended by the Apostolic See. Among these, mention should be made of the following:

Personal Consecration
Personal consecration, described by Pius XI as "undoubtedly the principal devotional practice used in relation to the Sacred Heart" (Miserentissimus redemptor).

Family Consecration
Family consecration to the Sacred Heart, in which the family, by virtue of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony already participating in the mystery of the unity and love of Christ for the Church, is dedicated to Christ so that he might reign in the hearts of all its members (Aliae concessiones).

Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
The Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, approved for the whole Church in 1891, which is evidently biblical in character and to which many indulgences have been attached (Aliae concessiones).

Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart
The act of reparation, a prayer with which the faithful, mindful of the infinite goodness of Christ, implore mercy for the offences committed in so many ways against his Sacred Heart (Aliae concessiones).

The Practice of the First Fridays
The pious practice of the first Fridays of the month which derives from the "great promises" made by Jesus to St. Margaret Mary. At a time when sacramental communion was very rare among the faithful, the first Friday devotion contributed significantly to a renewed use of the Sacraments of Penance and of the Holy Eucharist.

In our own times, the devotion to the first Fridays, even if practised correctly, may not always lead to the desired spiritual fruits. Hence, the faithful require constant instruction so that any reduction of the practice to mere credulity is avoided and an active faith encouraged so that the faithful may undertake their commitment to the Gospel correctly in their lives.

They should also be reminded of the absolute preeminence of Sunday, the "primordial feast" (Sacrosanctum Concilium), which should be marked by the full participation of the faithful at the celebration of the Holy Mass.
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Sotto Voce

Gay couples vow to wed in Greece despite opposition

Couples who have found a legal loophole to hold the first gay weddings in Greece are determined to go ahead with the services despite threats from prosecutors and the wrath of the powerful Orthodox church.

Taking advantage of Greek civil law not clarifying the gender of people wishing to marry, a gay and a lesbian couple are planning to marry on the tiny Aegean island of Tilos.

While many European Union countries have established legislation allowing gay marriage or "registered partnership" rights to same-sex couples, neither are allowed in Greece.

A senior Greek prosecutor said on Friday the mayor of Tilos would face criminal charges if he proceeded with the weddings.

"Neither civil law nor the country's constitution refer to gay marriages," Greece's supreme court prosecutor, George Sanidas, said in a statement. "If the Tilos mayor proceeds, he will have committed the criminal act of breach of duty."

But the Greek Gay and Lesbian Community (OLKE) said the weddings would go ahead as planned but would not reveal details for fear they may be disrupted.

"We were sure the Greek state would resist and we are prepared for a legal fight," OLKE's Evangelia Vlami told Reuters. "The two couples will go ahead and marry within 15 days and these weddings will help end discrimination."

"We will go ahead despite the difficulties," said Tilos mayor Tassos Aliferis told Reuters on Friday. "I still can't believe that someone would be prosecuted for defending human rights."

The Netherlands were the first EU country to offer full civil marriage rights to gay couples in 2001 and Belgium followed in 2003. Spain legalised gay marriage in 2005, despite fierce opposition from the Roman Catholic Church.

Greece, where the Orthodox church remains influential, has long preferred to turn a blind eye to homosexuality rather than acknowledge gay rights. The Orthodox church strongly opposes marriage between homosexuals.

"We view this phenomenon of homosexuality as an illness of the body," Metropolitan Bishop Chrisostomos said.

"The church cannot accept the union of homosexuals."
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Sotto Voce

Canada begins examination of abuses at church-run schools for Indians

A truth-and-reconciliation commission examining what Indian leaders call one of the most tragic and racist chapters in Canada's history will begin its work on Sunday.

The commission will study Canada's decades-long government policy requiring Canadian Indians to attend state-funded church schools, often the scenes of physical and sexual abuse.

From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 aboriginal children were required to attend Christian schools in a painful attempt to rid them of their native cultures and languages and integrate them into Canadian society.

The federal government admitted 10 years ago that physical and sexual abuse in the once-mandatory schools was rampant. Many students recall being beaten for speaking their native languages and losing touch with their parents and customs.

That legacy of abuse and isolation has been cited by Indian leaders as the root cause of epidemic rates of alcoholism and drug addiction on reservations.

"It's the darkest most tragic chapter in Canadian history and virtually no one knows about this," Phil Fontaine, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, told The Associated Press.

The commission will spend five years traveling across the country to hear stories from former students, teachers and others involved in the so-called residential schools run by the Roman Catholic Church and various Protestant denominations. The goal is to give survivors a forum to tell their stories and to educate Canadians about that dark chapter in the country's history.

"It's about writing the missing chapter in Canadian history," said Fontaine. The Indian leader said he himself was a victim of sexual abuse at a church school.

"I'm just one of many," he said.

The commission was created as part of a US$5 billion class action settlement in 2005 — the largest in Canadian history — between the government, churches and the 90,000 surviving Indian students. About US$60 million (€38.69 million) will be used to fund the commission's work.

The government and churches will open their records to the commission.

"I think we're in for an eye opening," Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl told The AP.

The start of the commission's work precedes a public apology that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is scheduled to deliver in Parliament on June 11.

Fontaine and others have been seeking such an acknowledgment for years.

"Never has the leader of the country apologized. It's seen as very symbolic," Strahl said.

In Australia, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a formal apology in Parliament in February to the so-called Stolen Generations — thousands of Aborigines who were forcibly taken from their families as children under assimilation policies that lasted from 1910 to 1970.

Strahl said Canada's legacy is worse.

"Our residential schools system was probably more systemic and more generational than even in Australia," Strahl said.

"The reason it was particularly horrible was that it lasted so long. It just didn't happen to a group of people for a few years, this was in many cases multigenerational and the results are still being felt."

Canada's nearly 1 million aboriginals remain the country's poorest and most disadvantaged group.

The high school graduation rate for Canadian Indians is just over half the national average, and their life expectancy is five to seven years lower than for non-aboriginals.

Suicide rates are threefold and teen pregnancies are nine times higher than the national average.

Michael Cachagee, president of the National Residential School Survivors' Society, attended three different residential schools in Ontario over 12 1/2 years beginning in 1944 when he was 4-years-old.

"I was physically and sexually abused," Cachagee said.

"They took away some of my language and cultural identity and the effects were pronounced. I had problems with alcohol and problems with marriages and relationships and my children. When I came home my mother didn't even know who I was."

Cachagee said most Canadians do not realize what natives endured.

"They just say 'Ah, those Indians are getting a bunch of money again,'" Cachagee said.

Under the settlement, students who attended residential schools are eligible to receive US$10,000 (€6,450) for the first school year and US$3,000 (€1,935) for every year after. Victims of physical and sexual abuse are eligible for further compensation on top of that.

Cachagee said it is not enough and doubts most Canadians will care to hear stories like his.

Aboriginal Judge Harry LaForme, who will oversee the commission, is hopeful Canadians will be more empathetic of the plight of aboriginals once they know more.

LaForme, appointed last month, said the commission will begin its work on Sunday and spend the first three months examining the budget and planning a course of action. The commission will issue a report in a few years. A memoir or an archive and an educational facility is expected to be created.

The commission's purpose is primarily educational and to foster healing and reconciliation. It will not recommend any further sanctions for individuals, churches or government agencies responsible for past abuses.

"People expect we are going to hear horrific stories of physical and sexual abuse," LaForme said. "What's going to be revealing to the general public is the breadth and width of the emotional harm that was done to generations of people."
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Sotto Voce

Anti-female priests decree not based on Bible (Contribution)

On Thursday, Reuters reported that the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano included a decree that women priests, and those who ordain them, will automatically be excommunicated.

The Roman Catholic Church, which already bans the ordination of women priests, now forbids those who participate in such activities from receiving the sacraments or sharing in acts of public worship.

Why does the Catholic Church ban women's ordination?

Because Christ chose only men for his apostolate, the pope says.

There are two serious problems with this assertion.

First, Jesus also selected women apostles. In fact, Jesus selected Mary Magdalene for his original apostle.

At the tomb scene, Jesus deliberately did not appear to his male disciples, including Peter and John; he waited until they left before appearing to Mary Magdalene (John 20).

Then he commissioned her to tell his followers he had appeared, making her the primary witness to the Resurrection.

This transformed her into the unique role of first apostle, the earliest person sent to tell Jesus' followers he had risen from the grave.

If Jesus could entrust a woman with the status of primary apostle, why can't the Vatican?

Even the Apostle Paul commended a female apostle. In Romans 16:7, he commended the woman He HJunia (later translated into a man "Junias" during the 13th century) as prominent among the apostles.

A second critical problem lies with the Vatican's explanation for excluding women. Even if we were to agree that Christ chose only males for his apostolate, it also is true that he selected only from among Jews.

If we follow the Vatican's reason to its logical conclusion, then the church should be ordaining only Jewish men from the Middle East for the priesthood.
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Sotto Voce

British bishop in warning on Lisbon Treaty

THE GOVERNMENT could pay a heavy political price for its refusal to have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, the Bishop of Chester has warned.

He told the House of Lords in a debate on the Treaty on Tuesday, May 20 that he suspected the matter will be “thrown back in their face for a long time to come”.

All three main political parties promised a referendum on the European constitution before the last election, but that document has since been replaced by the Treaty and the Government argues a referendum is no longer necessary.

The Rt Rev Peter Forster said: “Opinion polls and other ways of determining popular opinion show quite a strong undercurrent against membership of the European Union or, at least, against certain consequences of our membership.

“In the months and years to come that should be addressed very seriously otherwise the fact that we have not had a referendum will be a running sore.”

He said the underlying problem was a “lack of confidence in politicians” which was partly due to the way politics in the House of Commons was reported.

But he added that, in his five or six years as a member of the Lords, he had observed a “slight deterioration” in standards.

He told peers: “In the years to come, although we may not have a referendum on this question, there are profound questions about how our democracy works and, unless they are attended to, there will be further calls for a referendum.”

Bishop Forster said that it was his impression the European Union is going less in the direction of being a super-state than it used to be, partly because of expanded membership.

He said: “The treaty of Lisbon seems to be largely a response to the fact that the Union has grown so large. In many ways it has a more intrinsic recognition of the nation states within than previously might have been assumed to be the case.”

But he said he would not support calls for referendum on the treaty, because it “would be deeply damaging and in practice it would be a very difficult process to see through”.

He added: “There are, however, profound issues that underlie the reason why the Prime Minister [Tony Blair] and other party leaders gave that assurance foolishly at the last election.

“If we do not attend to these issues in the years to come we will find that this question will come back to us again.”
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Sotto Voce

Turin Shroud to go on public display

The Turin Shroud is to go on public display for the first time in a decade, sources at the Vatican have indicated, coinciding with a new set of tests on its age.

The linen has only been put on display five times in the last century

The Vatican keeps the 14ft by 4ft piece of linen, believed by some to be the death shroud of Jesus, in an aluminium case built by an Italian aerospace company to shut out all light, air and humidity.

The case is filled with Argon gas in order to prevent bacteria from eating the material.

However, the success of the exhibition of Padre Pio’s remains in Puglia has convinced the Vatican to bring forward the next public showing of the shroud from 2025 to the year after next.

The linen has only been put on display five times in the last century and the last time it was exhibited, in 2000, over half a million visitors arrived in Turin in two months.

The exhibition will coincide with a new set of scientific tests on the Shroud in order to verify its age.

Professor Christopher Ramsey, the head of Oxford University’s Radiocarbon Accelerator unit, first dated the Shroud to between 1260 and 1390 in tests conducted 20 years ago.

However, he has agreed to refresh his analysis after academics suggested that the presence of carbon monoxide in the material could have given a misleading result.

Believers think the Shroud miraculously shows the face and body of Jesus after crucifixion. Tests by John Jackson, a professor at the University of Colorado proved the image on the Shroud had not been painted, dyed or stained.

An project to photograph the Shroud has also been recently completed. A 12.8 billion pixel image of the linen was made after the Vatican asked for a detailed reproduction to be made for scholars to scrutinise.

Mauro Gavinelli, who supervised the project, said 1,600 photographs had been stitched together, and said the result was like “looking at the Shroud through a microscope”.
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Sotto Voce

Vatican: Ordination of women priest runs counter to Jesus' wishes

The Vatican has reiterated that women attempting to be ordained priests and those attempting to ordain them, face automatic excommunication because such episodes have happened in "certain regions of the world" a top Vatican official said Friday.

Monsignor Angelo Amato of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's main disciplinary body, said the ban on women priests was based on a "single fundamental reason".

"The Church does not feel authorized to change the wishes of its founder, Jesus Christ," Amato said in an interview with Vatican Radio.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - for many years headed by Pope Benedict XVI, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - reiterated the ban in a decree published Thursday in the Vatican's newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.

"Both the one who attempts to confer a sacred order on a woman, and the woman who attempts to receive a sacred order, incur an excommunication 'latae sententiae,'" or automatically," the decree said.

Amato did not specify in the regions where "so-called ordinations" of women have taken place but said the Vatican wants to provide bishops with a clear response on the issue.

In a 1994 apostolic letter, "On Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone," Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul II, said the church's ban on women priests is definitive and not open to debate among Catholics.
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Sotto Voce

McCain, Obama Expected to Campaign on Abortion Issue

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain and leading Democratic candidate Barack Obama may both claim the title of Washington consensus builder, but when it comes to the abortion issue, the two have proudly embraced their differences and are expected to tout their contrasting stance to appeal to key constituencies in their party.

Republican John McCain, who has had an uneasy relationship with evangelical Christians in the past, is predicted to use his unbroken pro-life voting record to woo his party’s conservative Christians to his base ahead of November’s general election.

Evangelical Christians make up one in four U.S. adults and are a key support base for the Republican Party.

"Religious conservatives may not be wildly enthusiastic about McCain,” commented Matthew Wilson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, according to Reuters, “but they can point to his pro-life stance as reason to stay on board.”

Obama, on the other hand, has been extremely supportive of abortion rights, including bills that were controversial even among fellow pro-abortion rights supporters. The Illinois senator supports late-term abortions, which is performed in the later stage of pregnancy when the fetus is more developed, and was opposed to giving babies that survive failed abortions medical care – essentially leaving them to die.

“What we are doing here is to create one more burden on a woman and I can't support that,” Obama had said at the time he voted against the bill that would give medical attention to babies that survive abortions.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, Susan B. Anthony List president, countered, "That’s a living human being he would allow to die because he judges it to be an expendable annoyance,” according to LifeNews.com. “For him again, the unexpected born baby is a punishment and burden – an unnecessary affront to the woman’s decision to abort.”

She noted McCain and his wife Cindy had adopted two children from Bangladesh while visiting Mother Teresa’s orphanage in that country. The couple had not planned on adopting children at the time, but they accepted when two nuns pleaded with them to take the children.

"The McCains’ immediate and generous 'yes' to taking responsibility for two children in an incredibly inconvenient circumstance is revealing – and inspiring," Dannenfelser praised.

As a pro-life advocate, Dannenfelser declared, "No matter who you are, how smart or slow you are, how beautiful or plain you look, how much or little money you have, how healthy and physically fit you are – you are necessary. Your right to life is equal to all others.'"

Recent polls suggest that the new generation of evangelicals, which both McCain and Obama are courting, is even more pro-life than their older counterpart. The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that 70 percent of young white evangelicals between the ages of 18 and 29 said they support legislation that would make it more difficult for woman to obtain an abortion, compared to 55 percent of older white evangelicals.

Some experts expect McCain to do well with this demographic given his strong pro-life record and expressed concern for the climate change problem.

But others fear that if McCain speaks too strongly on the abortion issue he may lose support among independent or centrist voters.

"For the Republicans it is a wedge issue because their right wing is very vocal on it,” said David Epstein, a political scientist at Columbia University, according to Reuters. “To bring it up at all you either risk the wrath of the right or you risk sounding too extremist to the middle."

The abortion and gay “marriage” issues were key topics in the 2004 presidential election when President Bush clinched nearly 80 percent of the votes from white evangelical Protestants.

These two issues are again expected to stir debate between the two candidates considering California and New York’s recent legal support of gay “marriage.” +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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Sotto Voce

Iran arrests 12 Christian converts

Police in a southern city in Iran reportedly arrested 12 Christian converts from Islam in what appears to be part of a crackdown on the country’s growing house church movement.

The first arrests took place on May 11 at the Shiraz International Airport when two Christian couples were taken into custody before boarding their flight.

They were all sent to jail and interrogated for hours “just about their faith and house church activities”, an Iranian source told Compass Direct News, a Christian persecution watchdog.

Also on the same day, authorities raided the home of Hamid Allaedin Hussein, 58, and arrested him and members of his family.

Out of the 12 Christian converts arrested, eight have been released.

Carl Moeller, president of Open Doors USA, believes the crackdown on Christian converts is part of a fear tactic aimed at Christians who want to practise their faith.

He also warned that jailed Christian converts often face death.

"In many cases, some (Iranian Christians) just disappear,” Moeller says, according to OneNewsNow.

“And of course we assume, and evidence in the past has indicated, that these people are either killed outright or die during torture.

“In this case, four still remain in custody and at least two of them are without communication,” he said. “We really don't know where they're being held.”

It is illegal for Muslims to convert to Christianity in Iran, where apostasy is a crime that can be punishable by execution.

Moeller thinks the arrested Christians are being tortured to reveal names of others in the underground church.

Iran is ranked third on Open Doors’ World Watch List for countries with the worst persecution of Christians.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom also lists Iran as a “Country of Particular Concern”, a label given to countries with the worst religious freedom abuses.
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£290K cash windfall for Church after painting sells for 10 times estmate

A 16th CENTURY painting has been sold by the Catholic church for £288,500 - 10 times the estimate.

The Diocese of Argyll and the Isles sold the Anointing of the Crucified Christ to help pay for the renovation of St Donnan's Church on Eigg.

Auctioneers Sotheby's expected it would fetch between £20,000 and £30,000 but when it finally went under the hammer, it went for £288,500.

Father Andrew Barrett, of Arisaig Parish, which takes in the tiny flock of 23 on Eigg, said: "In our game we are not surprised by our prayers being answered.

"It is a very pleasant piece of news.

"Now we can support any renovation that needs done.

There is quite a lot, the chapel house is in a very poor state."

A row erupted over the ownership of the painting when the diocese first moved to sell it in 2002.

A member of the congregation raised a petition claiming the work was owned by the parish and officials had no right to sell the painting.

That prompted Sotheby's to withdraw the painting and led to it sitting in storage until now.

The painting was allegedly stolen in the 1880s during the Chile-Peruvian war by adventurer and gunrunner, Robert Lawrence Thomas MacEwen, who became the owner of Eigg in the late 1890s.

In an act of penitence in 1910, the Presbyterian willed it to Father James MacNeil, parish priest of St Donnan's.

He stipulated that it was to be sold if the church fell on hard times.
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Sotto Voce

Churches induct men into the priesthood

For churches all over it's the season of ordinations as candidates for the priesthood complete their studies.

In Southern California, at least 20 men are joining the clergy in solemn and joyful ceremonies in this week.

The ordinations began Thursday night in Hollywood as Vahe Abovian and Mayis Shahbazyan were welcomed into the priesthood by Archbishop Hovnan Derderian of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America.

Following custom, Derderian gave the men new first names upon ordination -- Avedis for Abovian and Khajag for Shahbazyan. "Grant them to keep the priesthood pure with holy heart," he said.

The elaborate ceremony, conducted mostly in Armenian, was held at St. John Garabed Armenian Church. These were the first ordinations in the diocese in 10 years because many clerics serving in the region are from overseas.

Today, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will celebrate the ordination of 12 men, the largest ordination class since 1998, when 14 took vows. Mirroring national trends, the new priests reflect a variety of ages -- 29 to 49 -- and nationalities. Six were born overseas, three in Vietnam.

The Diocese of San Bernardino today will ordain six priests. It's a significant number, said spokesman John Andrews, noting that the diocese had ordained only seven priests in the previous 10 years. He said the diocese has seven fewer priests than when it formed 30 years ago -- even though the number of Catholics it serves has increased by 1 million.

On June 7, two priests will be ordained in the Diocese of Orange County.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops this month released a report on trends in priestly vocations.

The report, based on data collected in March, found 401 potential ordinands nationwide. Of those, 335 responded to the survey.

In keeping with recent trends, many of the men are in their 30s and one-third of this year's new priests were born outside the United States.

The report can be found on the conference's website, www.usccb.org.
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Sotto Voce

Pontifical Irish College remembers martyr-graduates

The Pontifical Irish College in Rome held a conference on martyrdom on May 31, to mark the first anniversary of the death of an Iraqi Catholic priest.

Father Ragheed Ganni, a Chaldean Catholic pastor, was shot and killed in Mosul, along with three deacons of his parish, on June 3, 2007. Father Ganni had studied at the Pontifical Irish College from 1996 to 2003.

The May 31 conference discussed the martyrs of Irish and English Catholic history, including St. Oliver Plunkett, who studied at the Irish College in the 17th century.

Then the conference moved on to contemporary Catholics who have died while serving the Church, including Father Ganni and Archbishop Michael Courtney, another student at the College who was killed while serving as apostolic nuncio in Burundi in 2003. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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Mention of priest's job banned at indecent exposure trial

The fact that a man charged with indecent exposure for jogging nude is a Roman Catholic priest won't be mentioned during his trial.

The Rev. Robert Whipkey, 53, is scheduled to stand trial June 11th in Weld County District Court.

He was arrested last June in Frederick, about 25 miles north of Denver, after an officer said he was seen walking naked on a street at 4:35 a.m.

District Judge Timothy Kerns approved a motion Friday to exclude any references to Whipkey's profession during the trial because it has no bearing on the charge.

But Kerns approved a motion allowing previous incidents, including that Whipkey has been seen walking around his home nude, to be admitted at the trial.
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Sotto Voce

The changing face of Catholicism

When she was a little girl growing up in Denver, Jaqueline Morales remembers when Hispanics were a minority, not only in the country, but also in church.

"Growing up in the 80s around here there weren't too many Spanish speaking masses, so we would have to travel across the city," said Morales.

Now, she doesn't have to go far from her Aurora home on Sundays.

The Archdiocese of Denver commissioned a special demographics survey of its own population back in March. The results found that 52 percent of the Catholic population within the Archdiocese is Hispanic. The survey stated that nationally, 37 percent of Catholics are Hispanic.

Morales used to drive to find a Spanish mass; today she can walk.

"It's changed so much, I mean we bought a house in the suburbs and there's a Spanish mass six or seven blocks away from me," said Morales.

"We Hispanics usually have many children," joked Luis Soto.

Soto is the director of Hispanic Ministries for the Archdiocese of Denver. While he jokes about why the Roman Catholic Church may be experiencing a spike in its Hispanic population, his tone becomes calm and serious when referring to the connection many Hispanics have to Catholicism.

"It's part of our lives, it's in our bones. I think it's part of our identity as a people," said Soto.

Soto, in many ways, personifies what's happening in the Archdiocese of Denver. He is an immigrant from Mexico. At the age of 19, he decided to join the seminary. After what he calls a "different calling," he chose to serve the church as a lay person. Understanding Soto's devotion to the faith and his ability to communicate fluently in Spanish and English, the church brought him to Denver. Most of the Hispanic parishioners likely don't share Soto's seminarian history or religious study background, but they do share his migration from south of the border to the U.S.

"We are coming from countries with a very long Catholic tradition. It's estimated that 75 to 80 percent of immigrants from Latin America are Catholic," said Soto.

There is an assumption that illegal immigrants are among the increased number of Hispanics in the church, and in the country. For Sen. Shawn Mitchell (R-Broomfield), there is no assumption taking place.

"It's practically certain. Only a hopeless optimist would assume everyone in any large public group is here legally," said Mitchell.

Soto, and the parishioners interviewed for this story, say immigration status doesn't matter when it comes to matters of faith. It is generally the position of leaders of Roman Catholic churches.

"We do not ask for identification to anyone coming to church or coming to mass or deny sacraments because of that. The mission of the church is different. Immigration is irrelevant to the church," said Soto.

Mitchell is quite clear on his stance against illegal immigration.

"I believe in securing the border. I believe in enforcing the law and ensuring our sovereignty is protected. There's no doubt that illegal immigrants put a strain on public resources," said Mitchell.

While illegal immigration is a fairly black and white issue for Mitchell, he says there is a gray area when it comes to how the Catholic Church, or any church, should deal with possible illegal immigrants among its congregation.

"There are institutions in society that play a different role and answer to a different authority and I expect them to pursue their mission and not the state's mission," said Mitchell.

Mitchell says his Mormon Church holds a softer position on illegal immigration than his own personal beliefs. A line of separation, Mitchell says, should be maintained between matters of faith and matters of government. Critics in the very much emotional and hotly debated issue of illegal immigration may disagree with Mitchell.

"I hope they would think twice before they urge any church to become an agent of the government and enforcing our immigration laws," said Mitchell.

Carl Raschke, a religious studies professor at the University of Denver, says while the Catholic Church in America may be seeing newer and more Hispanic faces, there are no real big surprises in the latest population trends and shifts. Raschke says dating back to the 1840s, immigrants like Irish Catholics were once viewed as minorities and not necessarily welcomed. The church, Rashcke says, did welcome them.

"The Catholic Church has always been in some ways, the faith of choice for immigrants or non-Anglo immigrants. Really since the 1840s, since we had a huge wave of Irish immigrants after the potato famine. Now it just happens. We've got a huge ongoing Latino migration that's obviously affected the Catholic Church," Raschke said.

Raschke says churches in general have historically gone against various governmental and secular laws in the name of maintaining the position of "moral authorities."

"Usually churches have a good moral reason for doing that. The 'sinner' has always sought refuge in churches. Hospitality to the stranger has been sort of the motto of the Catholic Church," said Raschke.

That hospitality is not universal, even in the Catholic Church. Jay Reszka's parish in Aurora has seen its Hispanic population grow rapidly. Reszka is a pastoral assistant at Saint Pius X parish. Reszka says 10 years ago, the percentage of Spanish speaking parishioners was between 10 and 15 percent. He says today that statistic is nearly 40 percent. Reszka says some parishioners initially did not embrace the newcomers.

"There was a lot of fear, even some of our long-time parishioners, the ones that perhaps lived in the more affected neighborhoods, were nervous because I think they were asking legitimate questions like, 'Well, what's going to happen to our neighborhoods?' It's all changing," said Reszka.

Reszka says for the most part, as the "traditional" parishioners interacted more with their new Hispanic fellow parishioners, some common ground was reached.

"A lot of them worked with the new parishioners and after a while there were these moments like, 'Hey, the Hispanic parents care about their kids just as much any other parent.' That establishes a great deal of mutual goodwill I think," said Reszka.

If current population projections hold true, the Hispanic population in the U.S. could triple by 2050.

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The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

Church shouldn't cross line on public officeholders

The Catholic Archbishop of Kansas City, Kan., has publicly admonished Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Catholic, for her recent veto of an anti-abortion law passed by the Kansas Legislature.

The archbishop also stated that she could not receive Communion, a Catholic sacrament, until she publicly repented her veto.

The archbishop's action flies in the face of the values of separation of church and state and religious freedom that are embodied in the American constitutional system.

This action also revives the long discredited notion that Catholics should not be elected to public office because they are subject to the control of a hierarchal church.

In his monumental speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association on Sept. 12, 1960, John F. Kennedy cogently argued that his being a Catholic would have no effect on his ability to serve as president and refuted the argument -- widely circulated in the 1928 presidential election against the Democratic candidate Al Smith -- that as a Catholic he would be subject to church control.

Kennedy stated: "I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish; where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the pope, the National Council of Churches, or any other ecclesiastical source; where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials."

The real significance of Kennedy's speech is that it set forth the proposition that in a pluralistic society and religiously neutral governmental system, it is possible for a candidate to separate that candidate's religious beliefs from that candidate's views on important questions of public policy.

So, while Gov. Sebelius or Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, as Catholics, may have strong religious objections to abortion, they may also believe that as a matter of public policy the government should not interfere with a woman's private decision to have an abortion.

Kennedy's speech had an enormous impact, and today it is widely assumed that public officials are able to separate their own religious beliefs from their views on matters of public policy.

Religious officials and religious institutions have a constitutionally protected right to try to advance their religious beliefs through political activity.

Just as other citizens should lobby Congress and their state legislatures to advance their agendas, religious officials and religious institutions should urge Congress and the state legislatures to adopt laws that advance their religious beliefs, whether it is prohibiting abortion or allowing abortion, imposing the death penalty or abolishing the death penalty, or supporting what they consider to be a "just war" or opposing all wars.

Likewise they may decide to remind their adherents of the tenets of their faith, and to contend as a matter of religious belief, their adherents should support or oppose public policies and candidates who support or oppose those policies.

But when religious officials demand that their adherents who hold public office conform their actions to the religious beliefs of their faith, they are crossing the line between separation of church and state.

They also cast doubt on the ability of members of their faith to hold public office.

President Kennedy had it right. No public official can request or accept instruction from religious officials on questions of public policy.

Nor should a public official be denied the right to practice her religion to the fullest extent of her beliefs because of her position on matters of public policy.

Some Michigan Catholics have argued that Adam Cardinal Maida should deny Communion to Gov. Granholm because of her support for abortion rights.

Cardinal Maida has wisely rebuffed any suggestion that he try to control the public actions of Gov. Granholm or any Catholic official.

In so doing, the cardinal has acted to maintain the constitutional values of separation of church and state and religious freedom.

The archbishop of Kansas City could learn a valuable lesson from Cardinal Maida.
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Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

Archbishop wants to take the Church into the ‘digital age’

The Archbishop of Malta Pawl Cremona is calling on young people to use the Internet, through chatrooms and websites such as hi5, to widen the Church’s message on the internet.

In a clear move to take the church into the ‘digital age’, making it more attractive to young people who feel detached from the traditional “sermons”, Archbishop Cremona is asking young people to build a ‘catholic community’ on the Internet.

Asked by maltastar.com about his invitation to youth to relay the Catholic message on the Internet, Archbishop Cremona said: “The proposal I am putting forward is aimed at young people who spend hours on end communicating on Internet everyday. I am asking young Catholics to take ten to fifteen minutes of their time and tell God: ‘I will dedicate this time to pass on Your message’.”

“This can take the form of sharing a spiritual experience with others, or send quotations from the Holy Scriptures to each other, or even use chatrooms to build a ‘Catholic Community’ on the Internet,” said Mgr Cremona.

Archbishop Cremona has been meeting hundreds of young people in the last weeks, celebrating youth masses around the island, asking them to take up Jesus’ invitation to his disciples to ‘go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature’.

He says that this message is still relevant to every Catholic and that this applies also for Catholics who can reach other people through the Internet.

“Internet today is like another ‘world’, like ‘another country’,” the Archbishop told maltastar.com. “Who knows, maybe a tree will grow out of the seed I am sowing today,” he said.

This e-newspaper is informed that various youth Catholic groups are already taking up the Archbishop’s invitation and launched hi5 profiles, websites and are also using virtual chatrooms to “pass on Christ’s message on the Internet.”

Why not Church on ‘Second Life’?

Asked by maltastar.com about the Church’s drive to have a voice on the Internet, technology journalist Martin Debattista said: “The spirit is right, but having a website and sending e-mails quoting from the Holy Scriptures is not really ‘cool’, that’s the Internet of the 1990s. The Church needs to step up its participation in the so-called ‘Web 2.0’ interactive elements such as social networks and, why not, virtual worlds like Second Life. That way a whole forest, and not just a tree, grows up.”

“I do not fully agree [with the Archbishop] that Internet is ‘another world’. I think it is our world, at least a virtual world that springs out of our real world, with real people and real lives interacting virtually. Having said that, I think the Maltese Church has tried over the years to have a presence on Internet, but it needs to do more,” said Martin Debattista.
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Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

Defying hierarchy, bishop urges change

He is an unlikely hero for the Catholic left: a retired Australian bishop who served for years as an aide to the very conservative cardinal-archbishop of Sydney.

But now Bishop Geoffrey Robinson is under investigation by the Australian bishops conference, and multiple American bishops are trying to ban him from their dioceses after he published a book suggesting the Catholic Church examine the roles that power and sex played in the clergy abuse crisis.

The Catholic left - whose weakened influence was captured in a Time magazine essay this month headlined "Is liberal Catholicism dead?" - has rallied to this little-known bishop, packing his speaking appearances and driving up sales of his book.

On Thursday night, Robinson drew a crowd of about 550 to St. Susanna Church in Dedham, which he said was the largest audience he has drawn on a US speaking tour that began earlier this month. On Wednesday night, 110 showed up to hear him speak at the Paulist Center in Boston.

"If we are ever to look to the future with a clear conscience there must first be profound change within the church," Robinson told a rapt audience in Dedham at the start of a 60-minute talk, in which he questioned the extent of papal infallibility and the rationale for mandatory priestly celibacy. Perhaps most daringly, given the adulation directed toward Pope John Paul II since his death, Robinson repeatedly criticized the late pontiff for not taking enough action against clergy sexual abuse.

To those who despair of change within the church, he said, "Communism changed. Apartheid changed. It just may be the church might, too."

Some people traveled to Dedham from New Hampshire three hours early to make sure they could get a seat, and the event had to be moved from the basement to the church nave to accommodate the crowd. Every copy of Robinson's book sold out.

"The fact that this event attracted many hundreds of Catholics, large numbers of whom traveled many miles to attend, indicates to me that there is still significant dissatisfaction among the laity with the church's response to the sex and cover-up crisis to date," said Deacon Larry Bloom of the Dedham parish.

Robinson is one of the first bishops since the abuse crisis to break ranks publicly and call for a discussion of the most sensitive issues in the Catholic Church. And the hierarchy responded swiftly. The Australian Bishops Conference issued a statement declaring "doctrinal difficulties" with Robinson, in particular what it described as his "questioning of the authority of the Catholic Church to teach the truth definitively." A top Vatican official and several American bishops asked him to cancel his trip to this country.

"Canon 763 makes it clear that the Diocesan Bishop must safeguard the preaching of God's Word and the teachings of the church in his own Diocese," Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, the archbishop of Los Angeles, wrote in a letter to Robinson. "Under the provisions of Canon 763, I hereby deny you permission to speak in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles."

But where Robinson was denied Catholic venues, he found others.

On Long Island in New York, he spoke at a Unitarian Universalist parish, which waived its rental fee because, he said, the congregation viewed the bishop and his audience as "an oppressed minority." In New Jersey he spoke at a Lutheran church; in southern California he is speaking at a university, a community center, and a hotel.

In New England, the bishops have been quieter. Robinson spoke at Fairfield University, a Catholic college in southern Connecticut, as well as at St. Susanna Church and the Paulist Center. Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley has declined several requests for comment.

At the same time, Voice of the Faithful, the reform organization founded in Wellesley, last week gave Robinson its top honor as a "priest of integrity."

And Liturgical Press, the Catholic publishing house that is printing Robinson's book, "Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church," said it sold out its first run, of 3,000 copies, and is rushing a second run into print.

"What's significant here is that you've got a bishop who, once retired, decided he'd speak his own mind for a change - that rather than being part of the orchestra, he decided he wanted to do a solo," said the Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. "It's clear there's a real thirst among the laity and some priests for a more open discussion of issues in the church, and this is the kind of thing he's trying to stimulate. But it's not the kind of thing the Vatican or the majority of bishops want to see happen."

The sympathetic crowds coming to hear Robinson are clearly heartened by his outspokenness. In Dedham, he was given two standing ovations.

"He understands that the crux of the Roman Catholic problem lies squarely with the Stalinist-style power structure of the institutional church," said Peter Hartzel, a parishioner who lives in Dedham. "He honestly broached the 'hot' sexual issues with which the bureaucracy is unable to broach in a realistic manner."

Robinson, 70, has spent a considerable amount of time thinking about the abuse crisis and meeting with victims.

In 1994, he was named to a committee charged with coordinating the response of the Australian Catholic Church to clergy sexual abuse, and from 1997 until 2003 he was the committee cochairman. Robinson said he is also a victim of childhood sexual abuse, although not by a priest.

Of his work with victims he said, "It was an experience that changed me in so many ways that even if I wanted to I could not now go back to being the person that I was before."

Robinson said it is incumbent on Catholics to examine "institutional factors" that contributed to the abuse, as well as "the inadequate response to the abuse," which, he said, "created at least as much scandal as the abuse itself."

Robinson said that in an effort to prevent debate over mandatory celibacy, the Vatican had blamed gay priests for the abuse crisis.

"The scapegoat they found was priests whose sexual orientation was homosexual," he said. He called that argument "mistaken" and said, "Homosexuals are no more likely to offend than anybody else," and, "It's an avoidance of the truth in order to protect papal authority."

Robinson did not spell out solutions, but called for Catholics to use the moral force of the abuse issue to push for greater conversation about the church's teachings regarding power and sex.

"All church leaders have at the very least been through a profound humiliation and embarrassment over this issue," he said. "Deep within themselves they know that the popes have not given them the leadership they would have hoped for. However much they might pretend to the opposite, they also know that we still have a vast amount to do before we can look to the future with a clear conscience."

He praised Benedict XVI for his statements about abuse during his recent trip to the United States, but called on Benedict to make a public apology to victims from St. Peter's Basilica, surrounded by the cardinals.

And he called for the pope to commission a study of ways in which church teachings, including mandatory celibacy, may have contributed to the abuse, and for an investigation of institutional factors that contributed to the moving of abusive priests from one parish to another by bishops.

"He is living proof that bishops are not as united as they might be thought to be," said Paul Lakeland, a professor of Catholic Studies at Fairfield. "They try to paint him as a lone dissenter, a good man who has gone slightly off the rails, but I think there are lots of other bishops quietly cheering him on from the sidelines."
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Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

Pope's prayer for Church in China banned in some dioceses

Priests under house arrest; others forced to visit a Buddhist temple; others under surveillance for days, to prevent them from praying "with the pope"; dozens of faithful in Hong Kong warned not to go to Sheshan: this is the world in which some of the dioceses of China have experienced (or better: forcibly omitted) the World Day of Prayer for the Church in China instituted by Benedict XVI.

The day was suggested by the pope for last May 24, to coincide with the traditional pilgrimage to the shrine of the Virgin of Sheshan, near Shanghai.

The local government and the Patriotic Associations permitted the pilgrimage only for the priests and religious of the diocese of Shanghai, and prohibited the faithful of other Chinese communities from participating in it.

For this year, because of the pope's initiative, the diocese of Shanghai had been expecting at least 200,000 people. But because of all of the limits imposed, only 2,500 faithful were able to visit the Marian shrine on May 24.

In order to enforce the prohibitions and bans, in some dioceses the police monitored or arrested official and underground priests.

According to information obtained by AsiaNews, underground Shanghai bishop Joseph Fan Zhongliang and all of his clandestine priests were severely controlled or placed under house arrest since the beginning of May, to prevent them from participating.

About a dozen underground and official priests of Zhengding (Shijiazhuang, Hebei) were arrested on May 23, and not released until after May 25. Some of them were forced to "take a trip" in the company of the police, or were forced to remain at home or in a hotel.

The official priests of the diocese of Shanbei (Shanxi) were forced to "take a trip" to a Buddhist temple in Shanxi, beginning on May 23. They were not set free and allowed to return to their dioceses until May 25.

The priests of the diocese of Hohhot (Inner Mongolia) were required to meet with the police. An official of the office for religious affairs ordered them "not to respond to the appeal of the pope of Rome", and prohibited them from making any public gesture of prayer for the Church in China for May 24.

In the diocese of Taiyuan (Shanxi), the Shrine of our Lady of Graces (Bansishan), a traditional pilgrimage destination, was closed by the local government. On May 24, thousands of police blocked the access road to the shrine to stop the flow of pilgrims, who were forced to return home. According to eyewitnesses, the police forces greatly outnumbered the pilgrims.

The priests of the diocese of Xuanhua (Hebei) were threatened with "serious consequences" if they should dare to carry out religious activities on May 24. The same was done for the underground priests of Linqing (Shandong).

To this depressing picture must be added the hardships of 80 Catholics of Hong Kong, who were stopped in Shanghai and blocked from going to Sheshan. The diocese of Hong Kong had originally planned a pilgrimage of 1,000 people for May 24.

But the difficulties and obstacles posed by the local government led Cardinal Zen to cancel the pilgrimage. In spite of this, 80 people of the diocese went privately to Nanjing, and then to Shanghai.

From here, they hoped to obtain permission to go to Sheshan. Instead, the group was blocked and prohibited even from celebrating Mass in the churches of Shanghai.

The police and the office for religious affairs threatened to revoke the license to operate in China from the travel agency that had planned the trip.

Some of the faithful interviewed by AsiaNews affirm that the restrictions and controls are connected to the tension created by the uprisings in Tibet, which are casting suspicion on any assembly of people. But it is now also clear that there was an attempt to override a gesture called for by the pope, to create unity between the Church in China and the universal Church.

One underground Christian has told AsiaNews that there is a genuine "war" underway on the part of the Patriotic Association, against the instructions of the pope. "The pope's letter [editor's note: published last June 30] condemns the interference of the PA in the life of the Church. The secretaries of the PA are thus afraid of losing their privileges of control over the life and property of the Church. For this reason, they are blocking the Holy Father's instructions any way they can".

"All of this", he adds, "hurts China: is this the kind of religious freedom that the Chinese government is presenting to the world, a few months from the Olympics? If China wants the respect of the international community, before all else it must respect its people's right to religious freedom".
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Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

Archbishop Louis Sako: Do not abandon Iraqi Christians

"Do not leave us alone. Do not leave us isolated and abandoned": this is the appeal to all Christians of the world issued by Louis Sako, the Chaldean archbishop of Kirkuk, who this morning in Oreno di Vimercate (Milan) received the prize "Defensor Fidei" from the foundation "Fides et Ratio" and from the magazine "Il Timone". The prize is accompanied by an award of 10,000 euros.

In his impassioned speech, the archbishop recalled "the terminal exodus" of the Iraqi Christians, who are fleeing the country under the pressure of lack of security, misery, and "ethnic-religious cleansing" carried out by fundamentalist groups.

"There are 100,000 refugees in Syria", the archbishop said, "30,000 in Jordan, many thousands in Lebanon, Egypt, and Turkey. They know that their situation is temporary, and the prospect of returning home seems like a dream. They are desperate. Many others, especially the poorest, have taken refuge in the Kurdish region in the north, which they had been forced to leave by Saddam's regime. The Kurdish government, thanks to the concern of the finance minister, who is a Christian, has rebuilt their homes in their villages, but they lack sanitary structures, schools, and work. In the villages of the plain of Nineveh, 7,000 families live who have emigrated from Mosul, Baghdad, Basra. Rent prices are high, and many young people are unable to attend school or university".

Recalling the sacrifice of Archbishop Paul Faraj Rahho, who died after being kidnapped last February, and of many Iraqi priests and faithful, Archbishop Sako asked western Christians to "take stock of the seriousness of this . . . tragedy, and apply diplomatic and political pressure to the United States, the Iraqi government, and also to the countries that support the Islamisation of Iraq, in order to guarantee the respect of personal dignity and fundamental freedoms, and to stop the persecution and ethnic cleansing".

The archbishop stressed that Iraqi Christians "are one of the most ancient components of the Iraqi population. Since the beginning, they have blended with other groups, like the Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, and Yazidi; they were the pioneers of Iraqi civilisation. Moreover, they have always defended the unity of the country in a courageous way, together with their Muslim brothers".

"Unfortunately", he continued," recently the Christians have been singled out as scapegoats, to be exploited or eliminated. In some areas of Iraq, Christians suffer through emigration, rape, kidnapping, extortion, threats and killings carried out with religious motivations. This aberrant behaviour contradicts the humanitarian values of the Iraqi people, and the moral values of the Islamic religion. It must be understood that an Iraq without Christians would be disastrous for all Iraqis! . . . Forcing Christians to flee leads to the deterioration of the concept of coexistence, and to cultural destruction".

Archbishop Sako concluded his speech by asking the Churches of the world to help the Iraqi Christians stay in the country, offering "signs of hope": "The Church is capable of acting, helping us to remain in the country not only through words, but concretely. Priority must be given to the opening of schools and professional institutes, as well as clinics; to the creation of little agricultural projects and economic and sanitary organisations".
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Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce