We will begin with personnel. As the Constitutions (30) tell us this is the most precious resource God gives to the Congregation. We have a special perspective. Through visitations to the Regions we have come to know so many missionaries engaged in initial or permanent formation. These individuals have spent long hours with the General Council discussing assignments or seeking appropriate solutions to problems or crises. Our understanding has been enriched by correspondence, reading the minutes of Region meetings and personal contact. This report will concentrate on difficult situations so that we can focus our attention on problem areas, discover possible causes and when possible suggest appropriate solutions for these problems. The fact that we say little about missionaries without personal problems who work zealously in no way means that we have overlooked them or that the Chapter should not be concerned for them and support them in their mission.

1. Numbers as of January 31
Year 1975 1981 1987 1993 1999 2005
Missionaries 1,081 1,046 993 991 995 987
Average Age 44 47 49 52 52 53.7

Priests
Year 1975 1981 1987 1993 1999 2005
Africa 6 3 21 40 77 152
America 54 61 72 94 107 135
Europe 792 780 688 620 560 470
Total 852 844 781 754 744 757

Brothers
Year 1975 1981 1987 1993 1999 2005
Africa 2 - 5 14 12 14
America 6 5 3 4 4 6
Europe 110 104 93 93 73 46
Total 118 109 101 111 89 66

Professed Students
Year 1975 1981 1987 1993 1999 2005
Africa 4 12 23 48 87 75
America 7 18 32 31 30 30
Europe 73 31 29 32 15 6
Asia - - - 1 - 3
Total 84 61 84 121 132 114

Movement of personnel 1999-2004
Year Novices Ordinations Per.Prof.Brothers Dead Left*
1999 26 26 - 20 21
2000 26 24 1 14 14
2001 30 30 2 17 21
2002 28 12 1 8 16
2003 43 12 1 20 17
2004 37 15 - 13 19
Total 190 119 5 92 98
* Left: Missionaries with temporary or perpetual vows who have left the Congregation definitively.

Average Age of Personnel in 2004:
Age 21-30 31-40 41-50 51-60 61-70 71-80 81-90 91-100
119 194 116 136 213 137 51 8
Certain facts emerge from these statistics that shed light on the current status of the Congregation.
- Our numbers have varied slightly but continually in the last three decades; from 1987 onwards the situation is relatively stable.
- The decrease in professed students is to some extent the result of the Kenya Region’s institution of a preparatory (propaedeutic) year. A year’s novice class was missing at Sagana. Along with this structural situation there is the continuing problem of young, temporary professed leaving. An average of eleven a year are leaving.
- The Congregation’s average age has stabilized at 52-53 in the last decade.
- The number of deaths in the last six years has remained stable.
- The number of missionaries who leave the Congregation after ordination and perpetual profession continues to concern us. We will discuss this problem at length later in this report.
- The largest age group are those between 61 and 70. Second is the 31-40 age group and then those in their seventies. The inevitable problem of aging personnel will have a negative impact on the Congregation’s commitments in coming years.
Along with this statistical information we would add other insights gained through experience:
- Missionaries who need medical attention because of advanced age continue to increase. Blessed Giuseppe Allamano House continues to provide substantial and valued service in this area; other large Regions are beginning to consider what kind of assistance they can provide their older missionaries.
- Recently there have been cases of young missionaries whose medical problems require constant attention.
- We cannot ignore the Episcopal Consecrations of four of our confrères between 1999 and 2001. The Congregation has its highest number ever of missionary bishops. There are now thirteen.

2. Assignment and transfer of personnel

Fully conscious of the delicacy of this topic, the XCG wanted to provide the General Government with guidelines for assigning personnel. The Chapter was mindful above all of how difficult it was for the General Government to replace a missionary who for one reason or another had left a Region. For this reason the Regions were asked to make serious efforts to restructure their various works. The Chapter recommended concentrating on new openings, strengthening initial formation, mission and vocation promotion and training personnel for particular aspects of missionary work.
In the past six years we have opened a new foundation in Mongolia and brought the Djibouti project to a successful conclusion. In both instances we have enjoyed the full cooperation of the missionaries involved. We have made a special effort to consolidate the formation teams in our seminaries. We were not always able to promote vocation and mission work; we can assign missionaries to a particular Region but the Regional Governments determine what work they will do. Often these Regional Governments do not share our criteria.
During our visitations we have not failed to call attention to the Chapter’s criteria for assigning personnel. We sent a letter to the Latin American Regions specifically on this issue: we were concerned with the scant attention their missionaries paid to vocation and mission promotion. Something else we emphasized during visitations and the annual meetings of Regional Superiors was the concern of the Chapter that each community include at least three missionaries when possible. We realize that some Regions took this recommendation seriously to the extent that they suspended new foundations and restructured existing commitments. Others, however, made a good beginning but soon relaxed their efforts in this area. The prevailing tendency is to increase the number of our foundations rather than restructuring which would make it possible to further train our missionaries and our communities. Local communities continue to lead a precarious existence and the General Chapter’s hopes for a reversal of this trend have not yet been realized. In spite of our own and the Chapter’s recommendations there are more communities now than there were in 1999!
Finally we note that the transfer of personnel from one Region to another has continued but there are signs of fatigue. The vast majority of annual assignments do not correspond to the normal transfer criteria. We believe that the main reasons for difficulty in reassigning personnel are the following:
- Almost all the Regions are simultaneously areas of mission/vocation promotion and missionary pastoral activity. In several cases both the missionary and the Regional Government prefer that transfers from pastoral work to mission promotion or formation occur within the same Region.
- We have noted that some missionaries are reluctant to leave their own country. For this reason we have often stressed the importance of ad extra – going abroad – for our Congregation. The Inter-Chapter Meeting of 2002 made explicit reference to this phenomenon and emphasized its importance.
- The last Chapter’s call that after nine years service in one Region missionaries should be willing to accept a transfer has had little effect. Only a few missionaries have responded to this invitation. Perhaps we could have done something more concrete to increase the impact of this Chapter guideline.
At this point let us state clearly and unambiguously that a willingness to accept change is part of a Consolata Missionary’s DNA and this involves a willingness to depart and embark upon a journey. This, we believe, is what the Founder had in mind when he asserted that obedience was the fundamental most important of the missionary’s vows. We cannot ignore certain problematic areas in the practice of transferring individuals: genuine involvement in a Region might prove impossible; the timing of a transfer is premature; it is a question of shifting a “problem” somewhere else. In the present context of growing internationalism our transfer policy requires further study if we are to establish new guidelines that meet the needs of our personnel and render genuine service to individuals, Regions and the Congregation at large.

3. Personnel in particular situations

We would like to address a subject that has taken up increasing amounts of time, energy and concern on the part of the General Government. We are speaking of Missionaries in special crisis or health situations or who are in need of special attention or psychological assistance. While the Vice-Superior General was primarily responsible all the members of the General Government have taken turns attending to these individuals.

a) Vocation crisis among perpetual professed
As we noted earlier the number involved is not negligible in comparison to the size of the Congregation. These crises occur in a variety of ways.
- Some missionaries faced with problems in community life or a specific situation think they can resolve by leaving the Congregation and joining the diocesan clergy. Generally bishops are more than willing to accept these individuals and are only concerned that they have not committed sex crimes and are capable priests. This is by far the most common situation. For our part we have done our best to help individuals overcome their difficulties, offering them prolonged periods to think things over both inside the Congregation and in special centers.
- A small number of missionaries who have difficulty with community life have been advised by their spiritual directors to seek admission into the diocesan clergy – a vocation considered more appropriate for their personality.
- We have asked two missionaries to leave religious life and the priesthood – we were advised to do this by the Congregation for Consecrated Life. Their problems were so serious that they could not possibly be resolved within the context of the priesthood and the religious life. Departure was considered the lesser evil. The fact that we succeeded in convincing them of this was a “grace.” These repeated vocation crises make us think seriously about what led our confrères to make these choices. We wonder how seriously we practiced vocation discernment when we admitted young people to the various stages of the formation process. We must also wonder about the quality of our basic formation without making formation a scapegoat for problems that often go beyond anything education can handle. It is worthy of note that almost all those who left our Family in recent years were not seeking greater commitment elsewhere than was possible in our Congregation.

b) Old age and illness
Forty per cent of our missionaries are over sixty years of age and 18.5% are over seventy. These numbers are cause for reflection. What can we offer these confrères so that they can approach this new stage of life positively as a gift of God? We will handle the formation aspect of this problem elsewhere; here we will speak only of organizational considerations.
Caring for aged or infirm missionaries is not just a fact to be faced, it is a duty to which we must respond to the best of our ability. Mention of care for our aged and infirm brings up the magnificent service the Region of Italy is performing for so many of our confrères. This is not just the concern of a single Region – it is a growing problem and the majority of our Regions are handling it in one way or another. Before we begin to consider support structures we must consider the individuals who are aged and infirm. A list of some problems encountered in this area may lead to guidelines being formulated in this chapter assembly.
- Many missionaries resist the idea of getting old and do all they can to carry out commitments they are no longer up to performing. The idea of retiring from direct work terrorizes them.
- Other missionaries are reluctant to recognize their age and unwilling to hand over projects and responsibilities to younger confrères. There are cases of missionaries who do everything possible to remain active often causing many problems for their communities and undermining the efficacy of their missionary work.
- Finally there are missionaries who do not take care of their health and neglect the medical attention required in old age.
- We recognize the need to launch specific formation projects for confrères in the “third age.” These projects should address not just the spiritual or charismatic dimension of old age, but many other practical problems as well: living in community, physical and mental health, idleness.

c) Psychological problems
The number of confrères (22) sent to special centers for therapy and support over the past six years is surprising. They represented psychological problems in the area of affectivity and sexuality. There were a few cases of individuals suffering from alcoholism who asked for help. We did not force any of these individuals to seek help – although we must confess certain individuals needed a good deal of encouragement. At the end of these treatments the prognosis was always positive. In some cases missionaries asked to prolong the treatment or return to the center for a check-up.
We must recognize that our age is producing an enormous number of individuals who are fragile, vulnerable and needing psychological support. Maybe we should encourage young people while they are still in formation to go to these centers which exist in many countries. Preventive care may ward off later problems. The classical, brief visit to a psychologist before entering the seminary or a few superficial group courses are no longer sufficient. It seems that younger people genuinely need a more detailed and extended personality analysis if they are to know themselves in depth and completely and to learn how to use support mechanisms during their subsequent life.
These treatments are often long and expensive; the General Government has been willing to handle the expenses lest Regions be tempted to forgo them. In these cases the Vice-Superior General is the man to approach on behalf of the General Government.

d) Assuming responsibility
Two documents were presented to the assembly during the Inter-Chapter Meeting of 2002. The first document was a form entitled “Declaration of Responsibilities and Decisions” that each missionary was asked to complete (of his own free will) and forward to the General Secretariat in Rome for inclusion in his personal file. Region superiors distributed this document to their confrères. Only a few filled out the form and sent it to Rome. We think the Chapter should discuss this document and if appropriate establish specific norms concerning this matter.
The second document prepared by the General Government is also linked to assuming responsibility. It concerns the Congregation’s policy in cases of sexual abuse. It contained norms for Region superiors, their role and responsibility when confronted with abuse cases. Participants in the Inter-Chapter Meeting discussed the text and made some modifications. We think this document too should be better known and approved by the General Chapter.