My Dear Missionaries,

The canonical visitation to your region was initially scheduled for December 2002, but for a variety of reasons it had to be postponed. A date was set for February 2003 but the volatility of the political situation left that date equally uncertain. Thank God we were finally able to carry out the visitation peacefully during the first two weeks of February and gained first-hand experience of the many problems confronting people in this part of the world.
Along with Father Norberto Louro I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Father Agostinho Barbosa and his Council for making this visitation possible. In spite of its brevity we were able to visit all the communities and engage in serene dialogue with all our confreres. We met those bishops in whose dioceses we work and spent half a day with the Consolata Lay Missionaries. We celebrated the feast of Blessed Allamano with the Consolata Missionary Sisters and thanked the Lord for our missionary vocation in this Family the Founder gave us as a gift from the Lord to the Church and to the entire world.

VENEZUELA TODAY

The background of our visitation was the difficult social and political situation Venezuela is living through – a situation whose impact is felt in every area of the country’s life. We will outline the situation that has evolved in recent months – the news media have made this situation known throughout the world, but it is not always easy to understand exactly what is going on. We hope this give confreres in other circumscriptions some idea of the situation confronting the people, the Church and our missionaries in Venezuela.
On April 26, 2000, the Bishops of Venezuela sent a letter to President Hugo Chávez expressing their concern about the Government’s continuing attacks on the Church; one by one they spelled out their accusations. They concluded their letter with the hope that for the good of the country serene and mutually respectful dialogue between all parties could be re-established. They quoted a passage from the Medellín document on the role the Church should play in politics: “Essentially our pastoral mission is to inspire and educate the conscience of the faithful, to help them see the consequences of their faith in their own life and in the life of society … The lack of political awareness in our countries makes the educational work of the Church inevitable; this educational work has but one objective: to make Christians realize that their participation in the political life of the nation is a duty of conscience and an exercise of charity – in its noblest and most effective sense - for the life of the community” (Medellín, Doc. Justicia, 6 and 16).
Unfortunately continued conflict between government and opposition has shown that the bishops’ concerns for the future of the nation were not unfounded. Polarization has created profound fissures in the nation. Both those who defend the President and the ever growing opposition that condemns his policies have engaged in violence. This growing division has surfaced in the armed forces – whose task it is to ensure the unity of the country.
The last two years have been marked with proclamations and demonstrations in support of or against the policies of the government. Political instability and social tension have contributed to a gradual, relentless deterioration of the common weal – new segments of the population are joining the already swollen ranks of the poor. Open violence reached a high point in the first half of April 2002 – some seventeen people were killed and hundreds wounded during demonstrations and widespread looting. The government of Hugo Chávez was forced to resign but returned to power within twenty-four hours. The Dialogue Commission came into existence during the sad events of those days; its purpose was to resolve the country’s most serious conflicts. This commission was without visible result and from December 2, 2002 the country began to witness general and partial strikes in all areas of the economy – and especially in the oil industry. The consequences were devastating particularly among the weakest sectors of society.
Up to now both the government and the opposition seem totally unwilling to engage in dialogue - the only possible way to break the current deadlock. Both sides are uncompromising: from the strength of its constitutional legitimacy the government accuses the opposition of an attempt to destroy the nation; the opposition, on the other hand, complains of the President’s incompetence and increasingly totalitarian methods - it sees the enormous popular participation in demonstrations as evidence of the people’s desire for change at the top levels of the government.
The Venezuelan people have shown great patience in these trying circumstances. They live from day to day, waiting hours in long lines to acquire the fuel necessary for work and cooking. Basic necessities are in short supply, money has been devalued and strikes among oil workers have blocked the country’s primary source of wealth. Poverty is increasing and consequently common crime is widespread – especially in the large cities. Immigrants are returning to their countries of origin and this deprives the country of valuable workers.
Faced with this situation the Church has made its voice heard – the Bishops’ Commission has appealed to the Venezuelan people:
- To work for peace – this is the country’s primary and most important need. The government has been asked to open up negotiations and to accept all possible mediators both from outside and inside the country.
- To recognize each other as brothers – find methods, attitudes and words that will foster national reconciliation. The Bishops implore everyone to abandon the preconceived ideas and ideologies that automatically disqualify others.
- To look on the Church as a source of unity – and not as the tool of a particular political party or social class. The Church must work for the good of all – defending human rights, denouncing injustice and proclaiming the truth.
- To be committed to the common good – promoting and assisting efforts that foster encounter, dialogue and peace among the citizens. At the same time feels that in its action should not overlook those most in need.
- Proclaim hope – without creating unrealistic expectations or promising the impossible. Politicians and those running the media should listen to all sides and avoid facile party rhetoric. There should be continual and intense prayer for peace.

Given the extraordinary circumstances through which the Venezuelan people are living it is absolutely necessary that we understand what is going on in the country. As Consolata Missionaries we must share, make our own and promote the Bishops’ suggestions among the people we serve. We must work in harmony with all the local Churches in which we are present – especially through our Justice and Peace Commissions.

THIRTY-YEAR IMC PRESENCE IN VENEZUELA

This canonical visitation allowed us the opportunity to thank the Lord of the Harvest who never fails to raise up apostles in the Church and to assist them in their work of evangelization. Our heartfelt thanks go to those many missionaries who have done such extraordinary work in so many dioceses in often difficult circumstances over the last three decades.
To clarify our view of the Delegation’s future possibilities we will mention briefly what has been accomplished in the past thirty years. Bear in mind that almost all of our missionaries now working in Venezuela have been there for less than five years.
- The Venezuelan Delegation has been known for its clear and decisive missionary choices, among which work among the Guajiros indigenous peoples and the evangelization of the African population in Barlovento are especially noteworthy.
- Awareness of the continual, massive migration of people to the big cities has prompted the Delegation to open two mission centers in poor outlying areas of Barquisimeto and Caracas.
- From the very beginning our confreres have felt the need to support the missionary efforts of the Venezuelan Church through active collaboration with the Pontificie Opere Missionarie (Pontifical Missionary Works) and intense work at the Missionary Leadership Center in Barquisimeto. The bishops have been quick to recognize these efforts as an excellent service to the local Churches.
- Missionary work among native peoples has always been a hallmark of our mission service. This conviction has led the most recent Regional Conference to launch new mission activity among the indigenous populations.
- This delegation has engaged in a practice common among other small circumscriptions, where, in order to give its members a chance to pursue renewal courses, has exchanged personnel with other circumscriptions. For this reason over the last ten years the General Directorate has promoted the exchange of personnel and the introduction of new members into the Delegation. While this may have weakened the Delegation by removing strong and experienced members it had the advantage of introducing new ideas and creating a greater unity of purpose within the circumscription.
- In line with the directives of the Tenth General Chapter, the Delegation has emphasized the importance of having at least three missionaries in each community. This may have precluded new foundations on the one hand but on the other it is of great benefit to our personnel and their missionary work.
The visitation affirmed the value of both current missionary commitments and of the foundation among the native populations being planned in conjunction with the Consolata Sisters. The visitation reaffirms the General Directorate’s observations at the time the Conference Acts were approved. The remarks were made to promote development in the circumscription and to assure that no dimension of our life or charism be put at disadvantage.

MISSIONARY PERSONNEL

“The pagans have waited for many centuries, they can wait a little longer…”. The Founder addressed these words to those Institute members who wanted to rush basic training and did not attach great importance to giving missionaries specific preparation for their work. The tendency to concentrate on missionary work to the detriment of those who perform it was not just a problem of our early days – it recurs in every era of our history.
After speaking with missionaries during the visitation we feel the need to reaffirm the primary importance for a circumscription of caring for its personnel. Only those missionaries who fully identify with their vocation, who find strength in faith and our charism and are fully integrated in fraternal communion can carry out authentic evangelization. Encouraged by Allamano’s wise and paternal counsel we would call your attention to aspects of our life that merit your particular interest.

1. Cultivate community life
This is not a peripheral concern of Christian life and it is certainly not a peripheral matter for Consolata Missionaries. It is with good reason that John Paul II affirms forcefully that the Church must become “the home and the school of communion.” He goes on to say, “that is the great challenge facing us in the millennium which is now beginning, if we wish to be faithful to God's plan and respond to the world's deepest yearnings” (Novo Millennio Ineunte, 43).
The Tenth General Chapter is equally insistent: “According to the wishes of the Founder, the Consolata Missionary does not do mission alone. Communion of life and work are for us a priority value (Cf. Const. 22). To be together in fraternity and communion becomes a method and a way of presenting ourselves to the world as a true apostolic community” (p. 34).
These convictions are the foundation of our credo. For us our confreres are not just simple co-workers but people who belong to us, whose joys, sufferings, desires and needs little by little become our own. Consequently each of us must make an effort to see the positive side of our confreres and to appreciate it as a gift God has made to us and to the community.
To foster community life involves giving time to others - dialogue that goes beyond camaraderie - so that we can achieve a level of communication that enriches both the giver and the receiver.

2. Give importance to prayer
Daily prayer fosters authentic community. Our Blessed Founder considered prayer “our first duty” (SL 438). We reaffirm the norm of the Tenth General Chapter – each community should “meet at least twice daily for prayer of significant quality; the practice of lectio divina is the preferred form of inspiration for both our personal and our common life” (p. 39). All our communities gather for Lauds in the morning but it has proven difficult for our apostolic communities to get together for evening prayer – their pastoral commitments are largely confined to the evening hours. We could possibly resolve this difficulty by placing more emphasis on midday prayer.
We applaud the communities’ praiseworthy initiative to meet weekly for reflection on the following Sunday’s Scripture readings. This not only improves our preaching it is a moment of genuine lectio divina.
Finally we would like to include the people in our prayer. Our Constitutions urge us to do this: “As missionaries we feel solidarity with the local Christian community and by preference we pray with them; we help them to grow in prayer; we make an effort to recognize the peculiar values of prayer and contemplation that can be found among the people and in the local Churches” (Const. 59).

3. Relaxation is a duty
Apostolic work often leaves us with no time to rest. We find it hard to take a day each week from our crowded schedule and spend time entirely on ourselves – relaxing, studying, reading, engaging in sport (this is especially important for young people). The tensions that sometimes arise in our personal lives and in our communities may well derive from this lack of sufficient relaxation.
We must not neglect annual vacations which our General Directorate believes should last three weeks. We would ask the Delegation Superior during his visitations to assume responsibility for making sure that relaxation is included in the Community Plan of Life.

4. Formation should be “permanent”
During the visitation we came across repeated difficulty in providing permanent formation for both individuals and communities. There were complaints that lack of personnel made it difficult to carry out ambitious programs with qualified personnel for prolonged periods of time. Without denying the truth of this observation there are still ways of making permanent formation available to every missionary. Here are a few:
- Your Delegation Assemblies ought to devote more time to questions of formation.
- The Delegation Directorate must inform everyone of those projects the Venezuelan Church organizes for priests and religious. Each missionary should make a personal commitment to attend one of these gatherings every year.
- Spend time – especially during the “weekly community day”- reading the many useful and informative books and reviews available nowadays.
- Look into the possibility of allowing Delegation Missionaries to attend gatherings in neighboring Columbia. This is something special that could be considered if there is need.

5. Young and new personnel has special needs
The delegation has a healthy number of young missionaries and for some time now the Institute has been especially concerned with their formation. We understand these concerns.
This is a good place to list projects that could help our younger and newer confreres:
- Maintain and promote special projects for confreres with less than five years of priesthood or perpetual profession.
- Confreres who have only just arrived in Venezuela should be helped to understand the local situation and the pastoral method of the Church. They should be introduced to the Delegation’s pastoral commitments and life-style.
- Newer and younger confreres should have access to lectures and formation courses in the local Church.

MISSIONARY ACTIVITY

Our ministry of presence and evangelization is problematic at present. The country’s current political and social travails add new challenges to those outlined three years ago at our Fifth Regional Conference. Simple pastoral work is not difficult – there is much evidence of popular religiosity and continual demands for sacramental ministry on the part of the faithful. Countless obstacles make it difficult to transform this simple ministry into genuine missionary activity. Let me name some of the obstacles that came up most frequently during the visitation.
- Most people in the areas of our ministry are poor and live on the fringes of society; consequently there is frequent violence, drug use and prostitution.
- The people of Barlovento suffer from an “ethnic minority complex”; they show little interest in social and economic development and are apathetic about their own culture. People in Carapita (Caracas) and El Ujano (Barquisimeto) endure a cultural poverty and diversity that creates hostility in surrounding society and makes it difficult for people to get in touch with their cultural roots.
- The number of people who take an active part in parish life is minimal - in some cases 2 or 3% of the population. The majority define themselves as religious but it is a religiosity that makes only sporadic appearances – baptism, first communion, funerals. Many people are becoming involved with evangelical churches or other pseudo-religious cults and movements.
- The “faithful” lead a life of deprivation: sketchy religious education, indifference vis-à-vis the challenges of authentic Christianity, scarce participation in Church life.
- Young people are not sufficiently engaged in our parish communities and show little response to the work of mission promoters. Young people seem highly unstable and are loath to make serious commitments.
- This sort of Church background fosters few vocations to the priesthood or religious life. Since people here are extremely attached to their families there are even fewer vocations to the missionary life.
- The missions appear peripheral to the life and concerns of the faithful. In spite of some signs of renewal the Church is not particularly interested in this aspect of its life.
Far from causing discouragement, this long list of problems should act as a stimulus for our missionary activity. The visitation and our conversations together gave no evidence of defeatism, rather we perceived a renewed commitment to missionary service. Certain statements that emerged during our talks together made a profound impression: the Lord’s timetable is not our timetable; we must do the sowing; we are Consolata missionaries – we must provide consolation and hope to the poorest; the more difficult and critical the situation of the people and the country, the more we find fulfillment as missionaries; the aridity of the land we work in does not make us envious of missionary work on other continents.
We would like to point out aspects of missionary work that were the object of special attention during the visitation. We are aware of the incomplete nature of our observations but a broader and more extensive treatment of these concerns has come out of the recent Fifth Conference.

1. Formation, Formation, Formation …
Formation is the secret of effective evangelization; it is the unavoidable path to creating authentic Christian communities and it fulfills the charismatic dimension of the IMC missionary apostolate. Our greatest concern must be the training of catechists and lay leaders: the communities under our care are vast and complex. Catechists and lay leaders can reach areas we will never penetrate.
The family is the basic nucleus of both society and the Church and it is suffering a profound and extensive crisis. We must find ways of improving religious education for adults and families. We should promote groups and movements that have the family apostolate as part of the charism.
The Sunday homily – and a more simplified version at daily Eucharistic celebrations – is a precious and important method of helping people grow in faith.

2. Promoting Lay Associations
In Novo Millennio Ineunte, the Pope calls upon lay associations to exploit their potential for a new evangelization: “Another important aspect of communion is the promotion of forms of association, whether of the more traditional kind or the newer ecclesial movements, which continue to give the Church a vitality that is God's gift and a true "springtime of the Spirit". Obviously, associations and movements need to work in full harmony within both the universal Church and the particular Churches, and in obedience to the authoritative directives of the Pastors. But the Apostle's exacting and decisive warning applies to all: "Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophesying, but test everything and hold fast what is good" (1 Th 5:19-21).
In this context we have something special to say to those Consolata Lay Missionaries we had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know during the visitation. Both male and female Consolata Missionaries are involved in the formation of lay missionaries. Some of these missionaries have already done mission work outside their own country and others are preparing for this undertaking. We sincerely hope that the new Statutes will clarify their identity and improve their formation in the missionary spirit of Blessed Allamano.

3. Continuity in missionary work
Certainly the mobility of missionary personnel and the resulting lack of continuity harm the efficacy of our apostolate. Unfortunately our reduced numbers make this movement of personnel within the Delegation unavoidable. While the Delegation will do all it can to alleviate this problem there are other factors which can improve the continuity of our apostolic work:
- a common apostolic plan prepared by the community can be a guarantee of serious long-term work;
- involving lay people in our work and training competent and zealous ministers are indispensable elements in missionary work that will last;
- a new missionary arriving in a community should be sufficiently intelligent to realize that he is not there to start from scratch and undo his predecessor’s work. He must first accept, continue and exercise discernment before effecting changes to improve the situation.

4. Enlightened Method
Allamano wanted his missionaries to use an “enlightened” method, i.e. a method that was studied, devised and agreed upon in common. It became the accepted practice in the Institute to prepare annual community plans. This is an important and valuable moment that should be exploited to its full potential if our apostolic activity is to be effective.
We were pleased to note that each community has a community plan of life. It is primarily concerned with common life, it plans daily activity and includes permanent formation.
We are also aware that some missionaries draw up a personal plan of life during their annual retreat. This method is rooted in the spirituality of St. Ignatius and is a great help in laying out a path of personal formation that covers the various dimensions of our life.
In some communities the IMC team and its lay collaborators draw up an apostolic plan. It helps analyze the situation, outline work, provide operative guidelines and determine goals. It can cover several years and provide continuity and coherence to our work.
We urge everyone to avail themselves of these methods and would like to point out something that is frequently neglected: review. It is not enough to make plans, one must sometimes go back and review the efficacy of our plans or even redefine our goals. Our ability to review our work and life plans effectively can often spell the difference between success and failure.

5. Mission and Vocation Promotion (MVP)
This aspect of our missionary work is not just the concern of mission and vocation promoters even though they are most directly involved. It concerns all members of the Delegation. By our vocation we are called to promote the missions among the people of God and to raise up new vocations in the Church. In spite of the meager and sometimes discouraging results we must not lose faith in the Lord of the harvest who continues to call and send workers into His vineyard. It is up to us to help and support the vocations of young people so that they can respond authentically and courageously.
We are convinced of the importance of mission/vocation promotion in the Delegation and would like to mention a few things that might be added to the extensive treatment this subject received in the Fifth Conference:
- Each parish should have one or two vocation groups; they should constitute the most important sector of our youth work.
- The goal of a vocation group is to assist young people in their faith journey to the point where they ask themselves: What does God want of me?
- Consolata Lay Missionaries should become involved in mission promotion among the people of God; they can draw from their own training and missionary experience in this activity.
- We should collaborate with the Pontifical Missionary Works (OMP – Opere Missionarie Pontificie) making ourselves available for work in the youth sector (Joven Misión).
- The annual budget should provide money for mission and vocation material. In collaboration with the formation director the young people in our seminaries should produce a vocation newsletter – the positive experience of other circumscriptions can be helpful in this regard.
- The sixteenth day of each month is dedicated to our Father Founder and should be a day of prayer for vocations and a time to plan our vocation campaign.

6. Basic Formation
We are in favor of the Delegation’s plan to acquire a new house for a seminary. Its relative distance from the Regional House can assure its independence but should not remove it from communion with our confreres. Everyone must be committed to stopping by, meeting and sharing missionary experiences with our young people on a regular basis.
We are aware of the serious commitment our young people have made to their own formation. We can only hope that this is an indication of the growing perseverance of those who hope to become Consolata Missionaries.
We must double our efforts to increase the number of young people in formation – not just to have more vocations but to improve the very quality of formation.

ORGANIZATION

Some things that came up during the visitation concerning organization within the Delegation .

1. Restructuring the Regional House
Plans have been under consideration for several months but a variety of reasons has blocked their execution. The Delegation Directorate believes that these plans can be carried out shortly – this will provide not just healthy and more convenient accommodation for the members of the community but the possibility of improved hospitality for missionaries during their periodic meetings.

2. Administration
The recent visit of the General Administrator has found the Delegation’s administrative procedures in order. The commitment on the part of the General Directorate to provide financial assistance should not exempt each missionary from the obligation of seeking out the necessary financial support for himself and for his community. The monies destined for evangelization and aiding the poor should be distributed carefully in a relatively short time.
We urge you to express solidarity with the problems of so many people in this time of general economic crisis for the country and suggest that you devise a concrete plan to assist those who are suffering economic hardship. This would represent authentic sharing and solidarity and could be done with the assistance of the Justice and Peace Commission.

3. A new foundation among the native peoples
This was proposed at the Fifth Conference and is under consideration as a common project with the Consolata Sisters. Some progress has been made in the area of research and we hope that the imminent arrival of new missionaries will give us sufficient personnel for such a foundation.

CONCLUSION

Since we are called by our vocation to bring consolation to the world we feel especially close to and in solidarity with the Venezuelan people in their hour of great suffering. We express this solidarity through our charism, proclaiming Jesus Christ – the loving revelation of the Father’s tenderness for all those who suffer. We strive to be close to the people, listening, helping and offering consolation. We are aware that our work to promote human welfare must provide consolation-liberation. Because of our charism we pledge ourselves to the poor and to those who suffer – with them we will struggle for justice and peace.
May our Mother, the Consolata, be with us and assist us. May our Father Founder bless us – his feast occurred during our sexennial visitation. We entrust to their intercession the hope that everything we have planted with prayer and reflection will now bear fruit.
Fraternally yours,