Communicanda
3
Rome, September 8, 1994
Prot. N.
0000 0237/94
To
Read the Signs of the Times
0. Introduction
0.1 During our visitation
of the (v)provinces, the members of the General
Council are frequently asked about the state
of the Congregation. Which units of Redemptorists are flourishing?
What is being done to assist (v)provinces that
are struggling with declining numbers and advancing
age? How does the General Council see the future
of the Congregation across the world?
We welcome such questions as a sign of the solidarity that
should unite us Redemptorists. But we believe
that it is necessary now to go beyond the informal
answers we have offered during the visitations
towards a deeper analysis of the present state
of the Congregation and share with our brothers
a more formal statement of our findings.
0.2 The General Council
has spent some time studying the statistical
portrait of the Congregation in the world today.
We tried to place the development of the Congregation
in the wider context of some significant changes
in the Church and in the societies in which
Redemptorists live. We brought to our analysis
the personal experience of the visitations.
This work has led to some very lively discussions
among us. In this Communicanda we wish to present the initial results of our work.
0.3 We believe that
the present state of the Congregation is an
invitation to all Redemptorists to discern the
will of God for us today. As a missionary congregation
we should not be so much concerned where we
are, as in what direction we are going. The
questions we should ask ourselves should be
"What can we see down the road?" "Are
we going in the right direction?" "Are
we moving at all?" This sort of discernment
is a most serious task and one which the General
Council cannot hope to accomplish on its own.
So we want to promote a wider reflection within
the Congregation.
We address this Communicanda in a very special way to the (v)provincial and regional councils
of the Congregation. We expect that each council
involve all the members of its unit in a reflection
on the contents. Furthermore, we ask that each
(v)provincial council itself formulate a response
to this Communicanda and forward it to the General Council by 1 June 1995.
First Part: The Statistical
Reality
1. A Short Survey of
the Development
from 1963 to 1994 and of the
Present State of the Congregation
The differences in the development of the (v)provinces over
the last thirty years suggest their presentation
in four groups: (see Appendix: Tables 1-4)
1.1 The first group
(Table 1) shows the 22 (v)provinces which have
experienced continuous growth over the last
30 years (the list includes some vice-provinces
erected since 1963). These units represent 29%
(1,688) of the total membership and have 52.5%
(343) of the students. According to geographical
region they are:
- Europe:
Bratislava (1603), Michalovce (1604), Warszawa (1700), Lviv
(4200)
- North America:
Extra Patriam (3401)
- Latin America:
Asunción (0705), Fortaleza (1304), San Salvador (1506), Resistencia
(1701), Bahia (1702), Perú-Sur (2201), São Paulo
(2300), Brasília (2302), Bogotá (2800), Porto
Alegre
- Asia–Oceania:
Kagoshima (0802), Weetebula (1003), Bangkok (1204) Ipoh (2103),
Bangalore (3800)
- Africa:
Luanda (3301), Niamey (0404)
1.2 The situation
of the 14 (v)provinces in the second group (Table
2) is more ambiguous. While most of these units
have suffered a net decline over the last thirty
years, they have most recently given evidence
of some modest growth. They represent 14% (824)
of the membership and have 24% (156) of the
students. They are, according to geographical
region:
- Latin America:
Manaus (1202), Caracas (1502), Perú-Norte (1507), Buenos Aires
(2200), Rio de Janeiro (2600), Santiago (3000)
México (3600), San Juan (3900)
- Asia–Oceania:
Cebu (1302), Tokyo (1902), Việt-Nam (3400)
- Africa:
Matadi (0603), Fada N'Gourma (1402), South Africa (4000)
1.3 The third group
(Table 3) represents the Regions and Missions
of the Congregation. These differ one from the
other. Most are recent foundations. Some of
them offer positive signs of growth. Taken together
they represent 2.8% (163) of the membership
and have 6.7% (44) of the students.
- Latin America:
Pilar (0101), Tupiza (1703), Haïti (1904), Reyes (2501), Propriá
(3201)
- Asia–Oceania:
Korea (0058), Colombo (3801), Alwaye (3802)
- Africa:
Zimbabwe (1103), Nigeria (2702)
1.4 The fourth group (Table 4) shows the 35 (v)provinces
which have steadily decreased in membership
over the last 30 years. These provinces now
include 54% (3,151) of the membership but have
only 16.8% (110) of the students.
- Europe:
Roma (0100), Napoli (0200), Palermo (0300), Lyon (0400), Wien
(0500), København (0502), Noordbelgië (0600),
München (0800), Amsterdam (0900), Koln (1000),
London (1100), Dublin (1300), Paris (1400),
Madrid (1500), Praha (1600), Strasbourg (1800),
Helvetica (2500), Bruxelles-Sud (3200), Lisboa
(3300)
- North America:
Baltimore (0700), Richmond (0704), Saint Louis (1200), New
Orleans (1203), Sainte-Anne de Beaupré (1900)
Toronto (2000), Oakland (2700), Edmonton (2900),
Yorkton (3100)
- Latin America:
Recife (0903), La Paz (1801), Quito (2400), Campo Grande (4100)
- Asia–Oceania:
Canberra (2100), Manila (2101), Wellington (3700)
There is no indication that this development will be reversed
in the near future. The following table uses
the example of a few selected provinces to illustrate
what sort of change would be necessary to halt
or even reverse the steady decline of personnel:
The figures in the first column indicate the average annual
loss of confreres during the period 1981-1993;
the figures in the second column indicate the
annual average of first professions for the
same period.
1981-1993 Average
Yearly Loss
Yearly Average
(Deceased & Dispensed)
of First Professions
Baltimore
18.6 5.61
Saint Louis 8.7 2.69
Koln
7.5 1.92
Madrid 7.4 1.92
Saint Anne 6.3 1.76
Canberra 6.1 1.38
Dublin 5.9 2.76
München 5.3 1.61
London 4.5 1.76
Napoli 4.5 2.23
Toronto 3.7 1.38
Roma 3.1 0.15
Strasbourg 2.9 0.23
A province can maintain its status quo in personnel only if the number of first professions equals
its annual loss. If a province expects to recover
from a decline in its personnel, the number
of first professions should be considerably
higher than the annual loss.
2. The Age Structure
of the Congregation
as of August 1, 1994
The age structure allows a different view of the world-wide
situation of the Congregation:
Congregation
80
- 
502
70-79 
968
60-69 
1133
50-59 
1046
40-49 
706
30-39 
869
-29 
602
25,2% (1.470) of the membership are 70 years and older, another
19,4% (1,133) are between 60 and 70, a total
of 44.6% (2,603). This situation will last for
at least the next 10 years because another numerous
group will soon enter the highest age brackets
of the Congregation.
Never in its history has the Congregation had so many elderly
confreres. There are two principal reasons for
this: the great number of men who entered the
European and North American provinces from 1930–1950,
as well as the longer life expectancy in most
regions of the world.
More than two thirds (68,7%) of the elderly are in the so-called
First World, i.e. North America, Australia and
New Zealand, and western and southern Europe:
1,114 (of a total of 1,470) older than 70 years
and 674 (of a total of 1,133) between 60 and
70.
At the same time, these very provinces have relatively few
young people: 558 are 50 years and younger:
Southern Europe: 129
Western and Northern Europe: 157
North America: 253
Australia & New Zealand: 19
3. Some
landmarks in the Redemptorist history
of the last 30 years
In order to understand the implications of this statistical
portrait and to be able to judge the quality
of our response to this situation, it seems
necessary to place these numbers in a broader
context that would include events within the
Congregation, the Church and world over the
last thirty years. Here are some landmarks from
our recent history that seem noteworthy to us.
3.1 Democratization
and Decentralization (1969)
The influence of the General Government has been considerably
reduced during the period covered by the statistical
portrait. In 1969, for the first time in our
history the (v)provinces themselves elected
their major superiors and councils. These (v)provincial
governments in turn appointed the local superiors,
another novelty in Redemptorist history.
This led to a greater provincial autonomy in the Congregation
and contributed in part to the pluralism in
our Congregation mentioned in Communicanda 2, n.
14, with the dangers and challenges described
in nn. 22ff of that same document.
3.2 The renewed Constitutions
and Statutes
At the peak of the post-conciliar crisis in the Church we renewed
our Rule. As the old Rule was abandoned and
the new Constitutions not yet assimilated, a
whole generation of Redemptorists may have grown
up without any fundamental guidelines for their
religious identity. A common complaint at the
last General Chapter was that the Constitutions
and Statutes are still unknown to most of the
confreres.
3.3 New provinces, vice-provinces
and missions
- Some vice-provinces
became provinces: Việt-Nam (1964), Porto
Alegre (1964), México (1966), Wellington (1970),
Bangalore (1972), San Juan (1984), South Africa
(1989), Campo Grande (1989), Lviv (1989), Brasília
(1994)
- New missions or vice-provinces
were started in: Propriá (1963), Reyes (1970),
Extra Patriam (1984), Tupiza (1984), Nigeria
(1987), Kenya (1990), Hong Kong (1989), Korea
(1991), Côte d'lvoire (1993), Ghana (1994).
3.4 The crisis of mission
preaching in the late 60's
In the wake of the Second Vatican Council our tradition of
mission preaching was effectively halted. Some
provinces were later successful in renewing
the content and format of the mission; others
completely gave up mission preaching. For some
provinces whose work was almost exclusively
identified with mission preaching, the decline
meant the loss of their self-understanding as
Redemptorists.
3.5 The closing of most
of the formation houses
In the last 30 years, the following major seminaries (studentates)
were closed:
Cortona (Roma)
Sousceyrac (Lyon)
Mautern (Wien)
Leuven (Noordbelgië)
Esopus, Suffield (Baltimore)
Gars (München)
Wittem (Amsterdam)
Hawkstone (London)
Oconomowoc (Saint Louis)
Gal way (Dublin)
Waterford (Saint Louis)
Windsor (Toronto)
Beauplateau (Bruxelles Sud)
Valladolid (Madrid)
Echternach, Ostwald (Strasbourg) Aylmer (Sainte-Anne)
Floresta (Rio de Janeiro)
Ballarat (Canberra)
Villa Allende (Buenos Aires)
Dreux (Paris)
At the same, almost all the minor seminaries (juvenates) were
closed.
3.6 Losses in personnel
between 1964 and 1973:
- the first professions
dropped from 325 in 1964 to 88 in 1973, they
never returned to the level of the years immediately
prior to Vatican II.
- 2,332 professed members
left the Congregation, among them more than
500 priests. (In the ten previous years 565
professed members left, among them 60 priests!)
3.7 As the following
statistics demonstrate, we are not the only
religious congregation to have experienced a
severe decline in numbers over the last decades:
1966 1992
Societas Jesu (S.J.) 35.919 23.570 -34%
Ordo Fratrum Minorum (OFM) 25.272 18,558 -26%
Salesiani Don Bosco (SDB) 22.726 17.497 -23%
Fratres Minori Cap, (OFM Cap) 15.710 11.676 -26%
Confoederatio
Benedictina (OSB)
11.963 8.738 -27%
Ordo Praedicatorum (OP)
9.946 6.561
-34%
C.Ss.R.
9.052 6.052
-33%
Oblati Mariae Immac. (OMI) 7.890 5.273 -33%
Congregatio Missionis (CM) 6.230 3.668 -41%
Congregatio Spiritus Sancti (CSSp) 5.137 3.280 -36%
(Source: Annuario Pontificio, Città del Vaticano, 1968, 1994;
figures include the novices)
4. The Ecclesial Context
of this development
4.1 The doctrine of
Second Vatican Council has brought about immense
changes in the Universal Church and in the process
has indelibly marked the most recent decades
of the history of our Congregation. The renewed
ecclesiology of the Council, especially its
understanding of the universal call to holiness
of life, has served to empower the laity in
the Church and in a sense, questioned the consecrated
life as the "better" or "higher"
way. The Council rightfully acknowledged the
position of the laity and authorized their wider
role in the mission of the Church. But at the
same time, this reinvigorated ecclesial self-understanding
has contributed to the crisis in the identity
of religious and priests.
4.2 The Council also
broadened the Church's understanding of the
work of redemption, proposing that God's saving
power is in fact at work in other religious
traditions and even in people who have never
known Jesus Christ, The narrow understanding
of extra Ecclesiam nulla salus has been
laid to rest. This expanded notion of the economy
of salvation, together with a diminished emphasis
on the individual's task to "save one's
soul" has greatly affected the missionary
thrust of the Congregation, both in our parish
missions as well as the mission ad gentes.
4.3 The conciliar renewal
has been accompanied by the phenomenon of growing
secularization, especially in the so-called
First World, where the institutional Church
continues to lose influence in the political
sphere and even meaning in the lives of individuals
and of families.
5. Landmarks in the
Secular History
of the last 30 Years
5.1 The present situation
of the Congregation has been affected by circumstances
beyond ourselves and the Church. There are no
factors that seem common to all the cultures
in which the Congregation lives and each unit
of Redemptorists ought to consider the recent
history of its particular society. An understanding
of socio-cultural changes is a necessary condition
for comprehending the present situation.
5.2 While the social
history of each unit should be analyzed in it
self, many of the (v)provinces which have experienced
a steady decline in members have been affected
by such cultural phenomena as the students'
revolution in Europe (1968), the Viet nam War
(1963-75), the feminist movement, the sexual
revolution and a plunging birthrate. In most
parts of the world the growth of universal education,
with a consequence of increased social mobility,
opened heretofore unknown possibilities for
young people. Self-realization and individual
fulfillment have become ideals. A life-long
commitment of any sort is increasingly seen
as something unrealistic. The pressures of modern
life have resulted in a sort of fragility among
many young people.
5.3 A global phenomenon
which continues to mark Redemptorists is the
ever-widening gap between the rich and poor
of the world. This fact has not only influenced
the pastoral options of a vast portion of the
Congregation, but has led to some debate within
(v)provinces and among regions (see Final
Document, n. 9).
It should be clear that the Congregation has never developed
in a vacuum, insulated from the conditions of
the cultures in which it has lived and worked.
To understand the present situation of Redemptorists
it is indispensable to attempt to grasp the
wider context. But acknowledging the profound
effect of these forces does not at all dispense
the Congregation from responsible action.
Second Part: Trying to Read
the
Signs of the Times
6. What is God saying
to us?
The Word of God speaks to people through the events of their
particular history. The Hebrew nation understood
God revealing Himself in the circumstances of
their exodus from Egypt and entry into Canaan
(e.g.: the whole Book of Deuteronomy), as well
as in the tragedy of the Babylonian exile (e.g.:
Jer 13,l8-19) and subsequent return (Is 40,lss).
The preaching of Jesus, as well as many of His
parables, counsel the disciples to a watchful
attitude and a sensitivity to the circumstances
that surround them (confer Mt. 24; 25, 1-13,
14-30, 31-41; Mk. 13,28-29). He chides them
for their ability to interpret signs from nature,
while remaining callous to the divine communication
inherent in the events of their lives (Luke
12,54-56). Our Constitutions forcefully remind
all Redemptorists to discover the plan of God
in history (CC. 2; 43; 73-1°; 83). For God speaks through people and the signs of the
times (C. 73-1°).
The question that we must courageously ask ourselves is: What
is God saying to us in the present circumstances
of the Congregation?
6.1 Many confreres see
in the statistical portrait of the Congregation
a deepening crisis. A crisis is not necessarily
a disaster because God is speaking to us precisely
within this crisis. But in order to listen to
God, we must first accept the situation, but
not with the resignation of hapless victims
or with a desperate hope for some magical intervention
or simplistic solution. The first step in discernment
is to accept the situation as it is. Only then
will we be able to listen to God and hear a
call to honest reflection and an invitation
to a faithful response.
6.2 Is God telling us
that our particular charism is no longer a gift
to the Church and therefore we are to disappear?
Is the crisis experienced by so many religious
Congregations the harbinger of the final demise
of the consecrated life? We are not permit ted
to quickly answer these fundamental questions.
Because they are so very important, they demand
a most profound reflection on our own responsibility
for the present situation.
6.3 Is God telling us
that we have not been faithful to the original
charism of the Congregation, that peculiar gift
He Himself gave to the Church? Is it possible
that we do not know how to adapt our charism
to the circumstances of today's world? Or, if
we begin to understand what God is asking from
us, do we shrink from the sacrifice such adaptation
would entail?
6.4 Is God telling us
to honestly evaluate the testimony of our missionary
life? Have we sacrificed the radical nature
of our consecration and abandoned our rightful
position in the van guard of the Church? Is
it possible that in trying to inculturate our
lives, we have forgotten that there should also
be a necessarily counter-cultural witness of
Redemptorists?
6.5 Is God telling us
that we have been more concerned about ourselves,
our power and our prestige rather than building
the Kingdom? Have we been more interested in
constructing a Tower of Babel (Gen. 11, 4),
rather than the Kingdom of God?
7. Reflections of the
General Council
We do not propose to attempt to answer these questions that
emerge from our consideration of the present
crisis in the Congregation. We must together
discern God's will for us through a reflection
on the "signs of the times and places",
so we will offer some of our own thoughts, inviting
all our confreres throughout the Congregation
to join the General Council in this search for
God's message in the present circumstances.
A sense of solidarity should impel all units to take active
part in this reflection. It may well be that
nothing further can be done to guarantee the
future presence of Redemptorists in some parts
of western Europe and North America, at least
in the existing provincial structures. But it
would be a tragic error for confreres in provinces
not yet seriously affected by a decline in numbers
to ignore the experience of these aging and
diminishing units.
7.1 As we have suggested
above (nn 4 and 5), the dramatic ecclesial and
social changes of the last thirty years have
not left the Congregation untouched, We have
experienced a violent rupture from our past
and have not successfully adapted the fundamental
values of our Congregation to the changed circumstances
of the modern world. It would seem that the
renewed Constitutions and Statutes and knowledge
of the history of our Congregation do not normally
affect the lives and the decisions of individual
confreres or units. We are afraid that in many
areas of the world confreres simply cannot agree
on what it means to be a Redemptorist. What
is even more frightening is an apparent unwillingness
to search together to discover the Redemptorist
identity today.
7.2 If our most basic
values are unclear or do not really affect our
lives and decisions, we are unsure how to respond
to a changed world. It is understandable that
such uncertainty often breeds a fearful and
defensive mentality. Therefore, we can become
quite inflexible in our pastoral methods. We
may agree on a few common apostolates, but without
a common vision or purpose.
7.3 If we are doubtful
about our common mission today, it is not surprising
to find difficulties in carrying it out as a
community (Constitution 21). Our common prayer,
our style of life, our religious consecration
and our manner of making decisions of ten say
nothing to our world, to our Church and in all
honesty, to ourselves. Our spirituality risks
becoming a very private and personal affair.
7.4 The failure to discover
our missionary identity today not only distorts
our community life. It has very deleterious
consequences for the recruitment and initial
formation of our candidates and students. For
what sort of missionary life can we effectively
prepare them for, if our understanding of the
Redemptorist task is unclear? And how can we
appeal to the idealism of the young, if the
actual state of our community life offers weak
testimony to the visionary aspirations of Alphonsus?
7.5 Perhaps at the root
of the widespread uncertainty in the Congregation
there lies a fundamental doubt about our future
and, indeed, the future of the consecrated life.
We feel that many confreres and even entire
communities do nothing to promote vocations.
This might indicate a lack of confidence that
our way of life is still an ideal worth sacrificing
oneself for. And there are confreres who will
never physically abandon the Congregation, but
dispense themselves from any personal responsibility
for the life and the future of their local community
and their (v)province. These confreres invariably
have a most harmful effect on their brothers.
7.6 We are concerned
about the frustration of the few young people
who have entered the aging and declining (v)provinces.
The reduced number of the young and frequently,
the rigidity of their confreres, often make
it impossible to attempt any new pastoral initiatives
or experiments in community life. These young
Redemptorists are so few and so dispersed that they
have little effective voice in the future of
their unit or support from other Redemptorists
their age.
7.7 While
(v)provinces generally dedicate personnel and
finances to the initial formation of their members,
there is often little special care given to
young Redemptorists in their first years of
ministry. Does such inattention contribute to
the elevated number of young Redemptorists who
quickly abandon the Congregation?
7.8 Many (v)provinces
have responded to the growing number of elderly
confreres by enacting very admirable policies
on retirement and health care. As praiseworthy
as these policies are, we do not believe that
they represent the final word. Aging does not
absolve any Redemptorist from living some of
the demands of our missionary consecration.
Are the elderly in many units really challenged
to continue to proclaim the Gospel through their
contribution to community life?
7.9 We sense a variety
of responses to the crisis in the Congregation
and these can be found in individuals and governments,
including our own Council. Some recoil in fear
from the statistics. Others deny the severity
of the crisis and its deeper implications. Some
feel the crisis is a problem only for western
Europe and North America. But, the most dangerous
and least evangelical attitude to the crisis
is a quiet resignation to the disappearance
of the Congregation in many areas of the world.
The real crisis is not of statistics, but of
passivity. Provincial Chapters and councils
often fall prey to the temptation to man age
the day to day affairs of their units without
ever venturing into the more difficult analysis
of their Redemptorist identity. It may be a
far easier task to deal with finances and personnel
matters than to try to read the "signs
of the times" and honestly question the
quality of our response.
7.10 There are those who
would see the present situation as a result
of unwarranted experimentation done in the name
of "renewal" and would therefore call
for a return to the past structures of the Congregation.
An appeal is made to the apparent growth of
certain traditional movements in religious life.
For our part, we do not believe God is calling
us to frantically reassume all the structures,
traditions and practices of our past. But the
actual crisis of so many units, with its potential
to touch (v)provinces as yet unaffected, may
be God insisting that we reconsider the meaning
of our religious consecration in the circumstances
of today's world.
7.11 This insistence of
God is nothing less than a call to conversion.
The invitation is not a vague summons addressed
to Redemptorists en masse, but a personal proposal directed to the heart of each confrere.
Its content is not a set of propositions goals
or objectives, but rather a single Word. The
present situation of the Congregation is the
Lord leading each of us to a desert where He
can "speak to our hearts" (Hos 2,16).
In a desert where the Congregation is stripped
of the dubious security of an ideology and the
shelter of unimpeded growth, where we have no
other choice but to depend on God and on each
other, the Lord might well “speak
to our hearts”, urging each of us to be converted
to the person of the Redeemer.
7.12 Simply listening
to the voice of the Redeemer in our present
circumstances is not enough. We must respond.
We may protest that what the Lord requires is
hard to endure and difficult to take seriously
(Jn 6,60). We may ignore the invitation, protesting
that we already have too much to worry about
(Mt 22,5). We may "go away sad", because
the sacrifice is simply too much (Lk 18,23).
Or, we may conclude that we have "no where
else to go" (Jn 6,68) except to remain
with the One who has the words of eternal life.
This last conclusion can never be discovered
except in prayer and never lived in theory,
but only as a praxis
amandi, a life of unselfish love.
In the name of the General Council,
Juan Manuel Lasso de la Vega, C.Ss.R.
Superior
General
The English text is the original version.
