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Cor Unum Et Anima Una - One Heart and One Soul

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THE SPIRITANS

CONGREGAZIONE DELLO SPIRITO SANTO
CASA GENERALIZIA
CLIVO DI CINNA 195, 00136 ROMA, ITALIA
TEL. (39) 06 35 404 61 - FAX: (39) 06 35450676
cssp@rm.nettuno.it - csspinfo@tin.it

DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY

2000 YEARS OF EVANGELIZATION
300 YEARS OF SPIRITAN MISSION

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EURO SPIRITANS
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Archives Générales

SPIRASI

VICS

Jacques-Désiré Laval

.VATICAN

A changing Congregation

A new stage of mission was ushered in by the end of the colonial era and the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). There was a considerable change in the life of missionaries and their apostolate in the service of the local Churches and the world. The Catholic Church began its "aggiornamento" and our Congregation its own reform.

Christ, the Church and Evangelisation

Evangelisation is tied to Christ and the Church. Its aim is to announce the Kingdom of God to all peoples. At the opening of the third session of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI reminded the Fathers of the Council that "the Church is not an end in itself, but ardently desires to be totally of Christ, in Christ and for Christ; and equally to be of people, in people and for people".

Changing its life-style

To live amongst a people as a missionary means allowing ourselves to be educated by them, while at the same time giving witness to Gospel values. We ourselves are changed. The pygmies, like all other peoples, have their own way of doing things and expressing themselves. They teach us their language and their customs and the Good News is inculturated into this oral tradition. It is the "incubation of the Christian mystery in the genius of a people so that its voice may be raised in the chorus of other voices in the universal Church" (Redemptoris Missio).

A renewal of missionary service

The development of Christian communities affects our co-responsibility towards the local Churches and the Universal Mission. The context in which our confrères worked when they first arrived on the East Coast of Africa in 1862 was that of slavery. Today, it is totally different. We have moved "from the ministry of slaves to the ministry of refugees, of youth and AIDS victims" (General Chapter, Itaici, 1992).

The one way North-South missionary model is definitively a thing of the past. "We have reached a decisive turning-point in the mission history of the Third World:

Inculturation in Masai country
(Arusha- Tanzania)

there is no return to the past...A new era has started, that of the Third World Mission, which grows harmoniously out of the past into a new future...They have now been entrusted by Divine Providence with a tremendous task: to be and to proclaim the Kingdom of God in the Third World...Even so, the Third World Churches are called upon to proclaim God's Kingdom not only to the Third World but far beyond to the whole world" (Manila Missionary Congress, 1979).

The Church belongs to everybody

Pope John Paul II said at Kinshasa in 1980: "No community can live closed in on itself; it is bound to the great Church, the one Church. Your Church is grafted onto the great tree of the Church from which for 100 years she has drawn the sap which permits her now to bear fruit and become missionary to others in turn".

There are many Christian communities which have a certain vitality but which bear little fruit. One such lively spiritan parish in Guyana came to realise that it was nevertheless "too introverted, too cut off from most Christians and not open enough to other groups, such as immigrants, Amerindians and Afro-Americans, who live in the vicinity of the town" (Itaici). The missionaries did their best to help realise the hopes of this parish which yearned to become more fraternal and welcoming.

Pope Paul VI visiting a children's hospital in Kampala in 1969

Our spiritan vocation

"Sent by the Father and consecrated by the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ came to save all people. He continues, in the world of today, this mission of salvation of which the Church is the sacrament. In the midst of God's people, among the numerous and varied vocations which the Holy Spirit inspires, we Spiritans are called by the Father and "set apart" (Acts 13:2) to follow Jesus and to announce the Good News of the Kingdom" (Spiritan Rule of Life).

A Congregation renewing itself

Missionaries, including us Spiritans, try to live close to the people and the Churches that welcome them. Our work contributes to the coming of the Kingdom of God and its justice. During our 300 years of missionary service, we have played our part in the birth of new Churches. Today, these Churches have many vocations and are making their contribution to the missionary activity of the universal Church. In its turn, our Congregation is receiving new life from those joining us from the Churches of the southern hemisphere. The African and Latin-American confrères are greatly adding to the diversity of the spiritan family and increasing our awareness of the international dimension of mission. They help to show the universal face of the Church's mission, thereby adding a new vitality to its outreach.

Spiritans and the Manila Congress

Baptism of a child by a lay minister in a Brazilian basic community

We live and work in five continents. Our current choices for evangelisation follow those described by the International Missionary Congress in Manila in December, 1979:

"It suffices for the present to indicate here the continued building up of the local Church as the focus for evangelisation today, with dialogue as its essential mode:

- through a more resolute, creative and yet truly discerning and responsible inculturation;

- through inter-religious dialogue, undertaken in all seriousness;

- through solidarity and sharing with the poor and the advocacy of human rights;

- through the creation of grass-roots ecclesial communities with structures of genuine co-responsibility and ministries of charism and service;

- through the fostering of evangelising education in schools and in non-formal education;

- and through an adequate media-ministry."

Missionaries witness to the Christian mystery. In allowing themselves to be led by the Spirit, they find themselves living and working in places where they would never have dreamed of going on their own initiative.

Discovering riches and diversity

Countries, races, languages and cultures are all an expression of the richness and diversity of the human race. In no way can they be seen as an obstacle to the proclamation of the Kingdom of God among the peoples. Missionaries often find themselves living in a non-Christian religious setting. This is the case for a third of the inhabitants of the island of Mauritius who are Christians, where two thirds are Hindus or Moslems. In the 1980's, we opened a centre which aimed at gathering together Christians, Hindus and Moslems in order to reach a better mutual understanding. Very few Christians were ready for such an experiment. Some found themselves disturbed in their faith and our Hindu and Moslem friends were very hesitant. But a small group decided to go further in the service of the mission, understood as a dialogue with those "believers in another mode" (Itaici).

This way of meeting and dialogue is taken slowly so as to give plenty of time for the growth of mutual appreciation and confidence. And by comparing religious experiences, the missionaries deepen their understanding of the Christian mystery. Their life of faith rids them of prejudices, misunderstandings and racism.

At the beginning of new Christian

communities

Missionaries are often involved in the creation of Basic Christian Communities (BCC). The BCC's put down their roots where the people live. In Sao Paulo , such a community was living in a situation of moral and social degradation. It seemed inevitable that the material decay would lead to spiritual decay. The people in this favela needed not only the force of faith, if they were to survive, but also drinking water. With time and leadership contributed by the priest, more people joined in the common effort until victory was achieved and water flowed. "It is clear that the victory had to be celebrated in the context of faith, fidelity and fraternity; a Brazilian celebration, with song, dance and a profound hope in the Lord of History" (Itaici).

The Basic Christian Communities create a place of material and spiritual solidarity. They take their inspiration from the Word of God and give flesh to the Christian virtue of hope. They help their members to eliminate all forms of racism, both amongst themselves and in the milieu in which they live. They denounce the social structures which produce all types of injustice. For example,

- the lack of the basic necessities for life (food, housing, work, education, and health);

- an inadequate wage for work done;

- the ignoring of the right of small farmers to own land, often expelled by the large landowners;

- the abuse of children and adults by those responsible for the organisation of prostitution and the drug trade.

This human degeneration swallows up the dignity and the most basic human rights of the people. The presence of missionaries, living close to the people, opens up new paths of hope. Through Jesus the Saviour, missionaries bring freedom to the oppressed; they work for the recognition of their dignity and respect for their freedom. The very preaching of the Good News is a denunciation of social injustice. The missionary community is the voice of the voiceless, the illegal immigrants, the exploited and the exiled. Missionaries today make use of the media to denounce those structures and practices that create poverty and new forms of slavery. They try to influence ways of thinking and are ready to use international pressure to promote justice and peace.

Love for the world

The proclamation of the Gospel is above all a witness of the love of God at work in this world. The suffering of people is shared by Christ and all those who are trying to follow him. Without this practical union with Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life, the missionary community would be trying to witness with its own human resources, a witness that would accomplish nothing.

Our Spiritan Rule of Life reminds us that we are "set apart" to respond creatively to the needs of evangelisation of our time, living with those peoples, groups and individuals who have not yet heard the message of the Gospel.

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