In Our Institute, Continental meetings on Mission and Vocation Promotion take place every two years. The last one was held at Iringa, Tanzania, July 4-11, 2004. The themes studied there are presented in an integral way in this issue (No. 65) of Documentation IMC.

Although we can’t separate Mission and Vocation Promotion, we decided to give more emphasis to the vocational side in its double aspect of the promoter (his/her identity and spirituality) and of the candidate (vocational accompaniment: discernment, vocational motivations).

As background for this choice, we have two engaging realities:
-- The majority of our IMC/MC vocations comes from Africa at present. It is logical for us to analyze and discern this phenomenon. We must study carefully the motivations of the candidates, we have to give serious accompaniment to their vocation.
-- On the other side, Africa is the continent where our Institute has the least amount of vocational structures and personnel dedicated full time to vocational promotion. If we want to take care of such a precious gift from God, as vocations are, we seriously need to provide our vocational promotion in that continent with personnel that is well-prepared for the job – although the witnessing by each one of our members is very important to mission promotion.

These realities were studied in depth in the context of Mission Promotion in local Churches in general, and in the context of African youth in particular. Three themes were dedicated to this kind of work: Our ministry of mission promotion as the IMC/MC see it (Fr. Francisco Lerma); The challenges that young African Christians meet today in choosing a vocation (Fr. Deogratias Mbiko, chaplain of the University of Dar-Es-Salaam); and Pastoral project for the young (Fr. Tarcisius Maina, IMC).

The central theme was developed in four interventions. Each one was done by a Consolata missionary priest/brother and a Consolata missionary sister. This way, certain particuliarities proper to each one of the two Institutes could be presented and studied. The themes were: Spirituality of the vocational promoter: Identity and aptitudes (Fr. Joseph Inverardi, IMC and Sr. Joe Mary William, CMS); Spiritual accompaniment of vocations: Discernment and vocational motivations (Sr. Jane Nugi, CMS and Fr. Dario Rampin, IMC).

The work was intense, but even so there wasn’t enough time to study all the contents of these themes. To each of the participants there remains the task of finding time to continue their own spiritual, intellectual and experiential formation. This they will do while keeping in constant contact with the Christian communities where they work and in their dealings with youngsters, and above all by giving joyful witnessing to their own vocation.

Besides the vocational themes, this issue of Documentation offers to its readers an interesting reflection by Fr. Ottone Cantore on the “a path to holiness”.

Fr. Norberto Ribeiro Louro