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CHARITAS n. 223 RESERVED TO THE SERVANTS OF CHARITY YEAR LXXXVI - DECEMBER 2008 Index LETTER OF THE SUPERIOR GENERAL Together we can answer to the challenges of the future 5 MESSAGES OF THE POPE Message of the Holy Father Benedict XVI for the 43rd World Day of Communications 11 COMMUNICATIONS A. Confreres 15 B. Events of Consecration 18 C. Important events 21 DECREES 1. Chiusura definitiva di attività a Gaeta e alienazione della struttura 60 2. Erezione Provincia Nostra Signora di Guadalupe 61 3. Erection of a new Religious House 62 4. Erection of a new Community 63 5. Erezione a Casa Religiosa della Comunità pastorale/formativa di Como 64 6. Approvazione della Comunità di Campodolcino 65 7. Chiusura attività Scuola Patronato Nostra Signora di Nazareth 66 8. Chiusura della nostra presenza a Ceglie Messapica 67 9. Appointments 68 10. Passagge of Province 69 11. Uscite - Esclaustrazioni - Permessi 69 12. Rientri 70 3 DOCUMENTS 1. January 2009 Meeting with Superiors of Provinces and Delegation 71 2. Intercontinental Mass 76 3. Decree on the heroism of virtues of Bishop Aurelio Bacciarini, SdC 78 4. Authority within the Guanellian religious life 79 5. What kind of religious life has a future? Which religious life deserves a future? 92 6. Authority-Obedience in religious life in the Instruction “The Service of Authority and Obedience” (Faciem Tuam, 11 May 2008) 106 DECEASED CONFRERES Father Carlo Ferrario 122 4 LETTERLETTER OFOF THETHE SUPERIORSUPERIOR GENERALGENERAL TOGETHER WE CAN ANSWER TO THE CHALLENGES OF THE FUTURE Dear Confreres. Soon, we are going to close the celebrations remembering the centennial of the public religious profession of the Founder and his first confreres. I believe that all of us have gained some new spiritual and apostolic boost out of it. Though one hundred years apart, we too should be considered fruits of the Founder’s heart that passed on to us his zeal for charity that he had received from the Spirit. We have to share the same gift of love with as many people as possible. We are charged to carry out that responsibility 1) by spreading the Guanellian charism and mission within Church and society and 2) by forming a strong Movement of people united around the common vocation to do some good in favor of those in need of “Bread and Paradise.” In Italy, many audiences were fascinated by the musical “Bread and Paradise” performed by artists enthusiastic and caught up by the incredible charitable intuition of Father Guanella. What they performed on the stage so well, should correspond to what we are, what we feel and do in our daily apostolic ministry. The best fruit coming from this centennial should be a renewed and more creative fidelity to Father Guanella, to his spirituality, mission and broad-mindedness. The best fruit of the Jubilee celebration should be indeed our fidelity to Jesus Christ, made anew and more creative by our enthusiastic com- mitment in sharing the spirituality and mission of our Blessed Founder. 5 In the last few years we have expressed over and over our thanks to the Lord “for the joyful recognition that the number of lay people, called by the Spirit to embrace the Guanellian charism, is increasing together with other groups that take inspiration from the Founder.” That joy, however, compels us to show a greater responsibility in their regard. Within the enlarging Guanellian family, we Servants and Daughters should be more and more the foundations, the heart for the vitality and propagation of the charism of Father Guanella. Our two Congregations have found one more occasion to express the riches of the Founder’s charism by opening it to the laity through the Association of the Guanellian Cooperators. Father Guanella loved to say that the three branches of the Guanellian family are like three thin strings. By themselves, they are not strong enough, but when braided together they are (“funiculus triplex difficile rumpitur”). The strength and the riches of our charism is our unity; the spirituality of communion, that we should be able to live and pass on, is the cement that builds a beautiful house. We religious are expected to be the first ones to cultivate that spirituality. The Church many times appeals to religious to be open to collaboration with the laity because each vocation, by being faithful to its identity, helps other vocations. Pope John Paul II in 1897 wrote that, “lay persons cannot withdraw into themselves, into a spiritual isolation from the community, but they should hold a constant exchange with others. They should possess a strong sense of fraternity with each other, joyfully aware that they share the same human dignity and commitment to carry out the same immense inherited treasure.” We are still in need of a mentality change on how to understand and be a Guanellian family. We should know already that, together with our Sisters, we are carrying the main responsibility in animating the Guanellian charism. What is this new mentality that we should perfect? – First, we have to believe that the laity with which we are in contact or working with (collaborators or people drawn by the example and charitable works of Father Guanella) are they themselves the recipients of our mission. Because the Lord sends us to them, they are expecting from us an example of serious consecrated life and visible passion towards the poor. They expect to be inspired in their working and personal life. – Secondly, in today’s world, we cannot cling any more to the illusion that we religious are still self-sufficient in carrying out our 6 charitable works. On the contrary, we have to seek and rely on the collaboration and professional abilities of lay people in our apostolate. We have to enter into collaboration with other organisms and organ- izations (Church, civil society, local groups, etc.) because they are carrying out our same purpose: to build a better society sensitive to the poor. The Italian Bishops in a letter to the laity on Easter 2005 wrote that, “only through cooperation and a life of truth in love, our evangelization and Christian witness would be effective and credible. Only by uniting the complementary tasks of clergy, religious and laity, the Church will be able to make Jesus the heart of the world (CEI, Fare di Cristo il cuore del mondo, Pasqua 2005)”. Already in 1973, Pope Paul VI warned, “We should commit ourselves, Bishops, priests, and laity, to that unity so that, being a comforting fruit and sign of identification to the world, it may take roots, be strengthened and grow more and more”. – Finally, for years, the Congregation (general and provincial chapters) has been asking for and expecting a new presence of ours in the Houses and apostolate: individual religious as well as the community should be their “animating core.” The former superior general Fr. Nino Minetti was urging us to take that direction. We should recall his excellent intervention on the “community as animating core” later on published on Charitas 215 and 218. The difficulty revolves usually around “how” we apply those indications that demand wise discernment and a lot of courage. At times, the concept itself of “animating” is not properly understood. It seems that religious are “animators” only when dealing with spiritual activities in the House. On the contrary, “animating” concerns the charismatic, spiritual and educational patrimony that we need to make more visible in our Houses, especially in this present time when the reduced number of religious personnel could make us insignificant in regard to those aspects of our mission that are more essential. If we want to be animators in our Houses, we have, first of all, to make our presence more visible and explicit among our residents. It is the responsibility of each community to make its presence felt and carried out by even non-traditional ways. We have to invent these new ways, dear confreres. We have to pay more attention to the individual person and spend more time in listening to those who are living under our same roof, especially when they are asking for an answer to their innermost needs. We have to give them our 7 availability and our time, assured that in doing so we are procuring for them a better and happier life. We have to build more serene relationships with them. Our presence as religious should give a clear message to residents, staff, families and volunteers that we are not representing the owners or managers of a business (not because the Servants are no more the owners of Houses; they still continue to own and run them), but because we prefer another approach: to be fathers and friends responsible for their good, and advocates of a House that looks more and more like a welcoming family. However, that approach is still insufficient to describe at present the community as “animating core.” Though the number of collaborators in carrying out our mission has increased, not all of them are on the same tune as ours. It is imperative, therefore, on our part, to guarantee that our charism be carried out properly and faithfully. Years ago our Houses clearly showed their identity, for a large number of religious were directly involved in running the ministry. Today the religious community is so small in number that has become a minority among the lay staff with whom religious, more than often, feel uneasy to enter into dialogue and sharing the responsibility of their mission. This should open new perspectives to our mission, and, at the same time, require much more care in making our specific presence and substantial contribution more effective.

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