pathways, August 2007
Dear Friends,
"Only God knows how many orders of nuns there are, how much money a certain mendicant order of friars possesses, and what the Jesuits are thinking". Whatever of these caricatures, considerable variety surely exists among the traditions, inspirations and personalities involved in the more than 180 religious orders at work in Australia. And rightly so.
Nonetheless, remarkable coherence and solidarity are also found among religious. Our lives express a common vocation to be both contemplative and prophetic. Increasingly, given the complexity of society, the opportunities of the means of communication, and the inadequacy of our own resources, we seek new ways of working together.
Our various State conferences and our national body, Catholic Religious Australia, promote cooperation among religious in our services to the Church and to those in need. These conferences seek to help individual communities in formation and reflection; they foster cooperation; they help distribute services more advantageously; they widen the apostolic horizons of smaller groups; and they provide a useful line of communication with other groups in the Church, especially bishops (cf. Decree on Appropriate Renewal of Religious Life, Second Vatican Council, 23).
Generally, leaders of religious congregations are expected to balance various roles. Leaders adjust with varying degrees of ease to the expectations placed on them. They are spiritual leaders for members of their congregations. They are often the chief executive officers of significant institutions. They have public leadership roles in the Church and indeed in society. In fostering communion within the Church they insist that communion has meaning if it gives energy and direction to the mission of the Church in the world. The conferences help leaders to assume their roles and to strengthen the essential contribution of religious to the Church.
A coherent sense of mission was certainly evident when 130 leaders met with 10 visitors from our neighbouring countries during our
2007 National Assembly:
Being Neighbours in the Pacific.
Central to our vocation as religious is our reflection on lived experience, so as to give voice to the needs of our time and help our contemporaries find a way forward. We want to avoid the fate of the returning Magi in T. S. Eliot's poem. They "had the experience but missed the meaning". By contrast, we are called to reflect together in order to encourage in each other a solidarity in our way of life and a spirituality that generates hope and life for all.
Respondents to a survey carried out by the council of Catholic Religious Australia late last year asked that it help others in the Church and society to know and to understand the contemplative and prophetic lives of religious today. Our new e-journal pathways is intended to meet this request.
Every good wish and blessing,
Mark Raper SJ, President, Catholic Religious Australia
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