#550
THINKING ALOUD is allowed at CG25.
Ivo Coelho, Provincial of Mumbai, shares his thoughts on 4 issues taken up at the chapter.
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Today is Sunday. Some thirty chapter members have gone to Florence, many others have gone out on their own, a few of us are here at home quite nice, really, to have some time for yourself after the hectic schedules of the preceding days.
I have been going through the paper that is to be discussed tomorrow, the paper presented by the first commission, on the topic of fraternal life as gift and prophecy of communion. Here are some random thoughts, recollections, memories that came to me from the last few weeks as I read the paper.
A topic that is being raised very frequently in this chapter is the quantitative and qualitative consistency of our communities or in simpler language, the size and quality of our communities. It looks like there are many communities (‘presences’ is the technical word) consisting of only two or at most three confreres. The point is noted in the Vicar General’s Report on the state of the congregation, it is being remarked upon by various members of the General Council, it has surfaced in several of the papers presented by the commission, and there is even a ‘canonical study’ being circulated among the chapter members, probably originating from the Secretary General’s office. I wonder how we are going to be able to balance the need to have communities with an optimal number of confreres, and the needs of the mission… I pointed this out to Fr. Joaquim, and among the things he said was that Fr. Vecchi used to quote Don Bosco, who sent at least eight confreres every time he began a new mission. That point will have to be checked. But I am beginning to think that there is a point behind all this insistence: can the processes of community life really take place when there are only two or even three confreres? At the same time, what do we do when the needs are so great? Maybe we need to reflect on this issue as a province, maybe we need to take some bold decisions, such as taking time to consolidate our communities rather than concentrating on expansion… I would welcome any comments and suggestions!
Another topic that has been mentioned, and that in my opinion should be one of the capital emphases of the current chapter, is the need for human and affective maturity. In our own province, and in India in general, we have, over the last 15 or 20 years, steadily and systematically built up viable processes of intellectual formation. Perhaps human formation has not yet received the same systematic attention, and it is time. We need to learn from what is happening in other parts of the world, where failures in human and affective maturity on the part of priests and religious are causing major crises for dioceses and congregations. The financial liabilities easily mount up to millions of dollars, the crisis of credibility, also the possibility of false accusation and unscrupulous exploitation of the existing laws. But the main problem is the unspeakable damage done to the victims by people who are ministers, pastors, educators… Taking care of our feelings and our sexuality is something that we ought to do as part of our vocation and as part of what we owe to our youngsters and to our people, knowing that we are not alone, knowing that we can count on the grace of God. What can we do concretely as a province? In our last provincial chapter we have already decided to offer the possibility of group therapy at all levels of our formation process, and we have also decided to introduce a process of psychological testing at certain levels. These decisions are being implemented, before I left Bombay we had a meeting of several confreres of our province who are willing to offer their services in this important area. What more can we do? We need to reflect on this.
Yet another topic will probably be insisted upon is what might be called the planning mentality. Planning, not in the first place because of efficiency, but as a way of growing to be of one mind and of one heart. Planning together is a question of getting together, being together, acknowledging our common values or growing into them, sharing what is closest to our hearts, learning to give and take, listening…. Even at a time when the whole community was engaged in a single project such as a school and boarding, such planning was essential. Now that more and more communities are becoming complex, the planning mentality becomes an essential expression of our vocation, an essential acknowledgement of the fact that the mission is given first and foremost to the community. This is not to say that brilliant and creative individuals must be suppressed or led back to the iron rails of conformism and mediocrity. This is only to say that even such individuals would gain by sharing their projects with the community, by having the backing of the community. All this means that our leaders must learn to bring their confreres together, listen to them, give them the necessary trust. It also means that confreres must acknowledge the role of the Rector and of the community, accept the principle of accountability, feedback, evaluation… I think we have already begun taking steps in this direction, with the whole process of strategic planning initiated by Anaclete (P. Economer of Mumbai) in response to the last provincial chapter…
Our commission mentioned the importance of participation at community prayer, but it was not really discussed: it was simply taken for granted as something that is happening and should happen in every community. I wonder what our own province feels about this. I am quite aware of the current of opinion that considers the four C’s creeds, codes, cults and communities as the superficial and external core of religion, and that gives pride of place to religious experience. But I think that as long as we are human beings it will be quite impossible to do without the community dimension of life. [A note for the philosophically inclined: The community is a constitutive aspect of being human, paraphrasing Gadamer (God bless his soul, he died a couple of days ago at the ripe old age of 102 in Heidelberg).] It is quite impossible to do without human expression. In fact, we never do without these dimensions in other areas of our life, we would be aghast at even the suggestion that we eat alone, or celebrate alone, or never give expression to our love or our feelings… This is a strange theory which would get rid of all expression when it comes to the spiritual and the religious, or at least downgrade expression till only the stump remains. What I am trying to say is: we NEED expression, we NEED the four C’s, creeds and codes and cults and communities. Every human being needs these. Every religion needs these. But a religion that claims that God has intervened in history, that he has spoken his word, that he has entered history in a very personal way, goes even further: it says that we cannot relativize the word and the expression and the community. God has saved us in community: that is fundamental to Christianity. What I am simply saying is: the rhythm of our daily community prayer is important, it is vital to our growing and staying together. I think much would change in our province, were we to be convinced of the central importance of this.
If this has been too heavy, please feel free to say STOP.
Ivo Coelho SDB
Provincial of Mumbai, India
(comments on the above may be sent directly to: ivosdb@hotmail.com)
