4069_Exploring the Religious Life Today

By Our Own Correspondent

Libreria Editrice Vaticana (LEV) 2016 -- The inner landscape of the present religious life is coming public through the 14 encounters - interviews with the Major Superiors of the main male Congregations: Jesuits, Franciscans, Salesians, Verbites, Marist Brothers, Cistercenses, Domenicans, Brothers of St. John of God, Carmelites, Benedictin Confederation, Paulines and Legionaries of Christ.

The interviews make feel a great vitality and hope within the religious life of today.

A fresh interviews with 35-45 questions to each superior stretches along 230 pages book with the Preface of former Domenican Order Master Fr. Timothy Radcliffe is quite interesting and serious X-ray of the vitality and challenges of consecrated life. Each of the Superior General (including also our Rector Major, Fr. Angel) does share first about own personal vocation journey, the growth, transformation and challenges of his Congregation or Order - like new mission frontiers, shifting of vocation geography out of Europe towards Africa and Asia and also specific points of each Charism.

A reader gets know about various interesting trends and aspect of present religious life of men Congregations - like:

• How difficult is to eliminate the virus of clericalism in the Church (Marist Brothers)


• What is the 'secret' of the only larger Congregation that does not decrease in numbers (SVD)


• How does progress the path towards unity among the Congregations of Franciscan tradition (OFM, Capuchins and Conventuals) with the first step of one single Pontifical university in Rome (2018)


• What does mean the 150.000 lay members of the Dominican Third Order for the growth of their Charism


• How all the major Congregation are reshaping their mission to stay closer to the poor people etc

According the Pontificio Annuario ed. 2015 the most numerous male congregations are the Jesuits (16.740), Salesians (15.270), OFM (13.632), Capuchins (10.598), Benedictines (6.970), SVD – Verbites (6.032), Dominicans (5.769) and Redemptorists (5.121).

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