Missionary Animation - Vocation Promotion - AFRICA CONTINENTAL MEETING
Nairobi, July 1-12, 2002

Very dear Animators,

The memory of the beautiful days we spent together in the IMC Allamano House of Nairobi is still very much alive and vivid in our heart. There we took part in the MA - VP Africa Continental Meeting.
Beautiful was the family environment we found; very rich indeed was the sharing of experiences; and deep was the common prayer.
In that occasion, we all reached a new awareness, in our reflections, of how difficult is the task entrusted to you! And yet, together, we also re-discovered the need for the task of MA - VP, its beauty, the fact that, by doing it, we become more and more authentic Missionaries, we become what we "should be", in a line fully according with our ad gentes missionary charisma, and with the directives of the Church.
Together we tried to discern and trace the path we should follow. We have found out, once more, that we cannot "light the fire", if we ourselves are not already burning; we cannot announce the Lord, if we ourselves have not yet received Him as the Lord of our life; we cannot invite, and present a vocation to Mission, if we ourselves do not live it already in fullness.
Everything has here, precisely, its starting point.
All the rest, objectives, projects, contents, methods, … is a certainly important corollary, but would be totally useless without this first, fundamental, starting point.
We put now in your hand this faithful collection of all the material which has been handed out, and used, during our Meeting. Here you will find: the synthesis of the talks that were given, the texts of the MA and VP reports from your own Regions, a faithful chronicle, by our Secretaries, of all that was happening, day after day, in our Meeting, and, more than anything else, the decisions that we, all together, have taken…
We count on your commitment and on your work. As well as on your effort for self-formation and on your courageous witness of a religious and missionary life intensively spent.
Our dear Mother Consolata, and Father Allamano will bless you and will accompany you in your efforts.

Rome, September 15th , 2002

Sr. Alfia
Fr. Norberto
Fr. Diego

OUR MA PROJECT

As fruit of our group work on the MA Project, and after a long exchange of ideas, proposals, changes, that were all discussed in the Assembly, we arrived at the definition of Our MA Project in each one of the four areas we had previously chosen.

Youth

Vision:
We commit ourselves to offer to the Youth a serious and well-structured
formation itinerary, so as they can reach a human and Christian growth such as
to transform them into witnesses and announcers of the Gospel values to other
youth.

Reality:
Positive:
" Young people are in search of ideals, values, meaning of life
" They are ready to assume responsibilities in the Church
Negative:
" They are in great need of formation, at every level (human, Christian, moral, …)
" They are often enclosed in their own interests and not open to others
" They often content themselves with low ideals (pleasure, power, riches)
" They lack a clear identity
" They are very much afraid of being considered "different" from the others

Objectives:

1. Human formation
2. Christian formation
3. Formation to Mission

Contents:
" Human formation: knowledge of oneself - sexuality - project of self-support - openness to others
" Christian formation: history of salvation - Word of God - Sacraments - to experience the values of the Gospel - Marian and Eucharistic spirituality
" Formation to Mission: the origin of Mission - the Missionary Church - Missionary witness and our Consolata charisma - to embrace the world as instruments of consolation - formation to the commitment of Justice and Peace - some concrete commitment to solidarity within society, at every level (in some challenging realities)

Method:
" To convoke, form and accompany at least one Missionary Youth Group of our own, with a complete itinerary of formation.
Or else:
" To insert ourselves, with a formation proposal of our own, in already
existing Youth Groups.
" To stimulate and accompany the formation itinerary of Youth Groups in our own parishes.

Means:
" The Animators' Community, as a place of communion and School of prayer
" Our witness of life
" Concrete formation materials and help from the experts
" The creation of at least one Centre of spirituality and of Missionary Animation; conferences, spiritual retreats; seminars; a good use of the mass-media; personal and group accompaniment.

Evaluation:
At least twice a year (more often, if it seems proper).

Parish

Vision:
" We commit ourselves to help the already existing Groups of the Parish (especially the Small Christian Communities) to become aware of the missionary dimension of their faith,
" Thus creating an environment favorable to the birth of missionary vocations.

Reality:
In every Parish there are already constituted several groups and Christian communities, but often they lack a clear conscience of the missionary dimension of Christian faith.

Method:
" To offer a missionary awareness Formation itinerary to the leaders of the various groups already formed in the parish, so as to make them capable to transmit the missionary commitment to their own groups.
" Or else to offer ourselves to constitute and accompany with an appropriate formation itinerary in the parishes (especially our own) a Parish Missionary Group (PMG), that might become "memory and conscience" of Mission for all the other groups of the parish.

Activities of a PMG:
The members of the PMG insert themselves in the various Committees and/or parish groups, and from within they try to create a missionary awareness. They work especially from within the Small Christian Communities, maintaining regular contacts with the families.

Contents:
Christian formation: Word of God - theology of Mission - Catechesis - Eucharist - sacraments - Missionary and Marian spirituality - reading of reality - living experience of the values of the gospel.
Formation to Mission: origin of Mission - the Church as such is missionary - the Christian community exists in view of the non-Christians - vision of the religious situation of the world - missionary witness and comprehension of our missionary charisma - to embrace the world as instruments of consolation - commitment for justice and peace.

Means:
A complete formation itinerary for a PMG, with seminars, prayer, experts, mass-media, concrete commitments of MA.

Evaluation:
At least twice a year.

Mass-Media

Vision:
We take the commitment to make the mass-media - in the measure possible to us - instruments of communication of a living faith, capable of giving to those who make use of them, a good information and missionary formation..

Reality:
" mass-media are present at all levels of society
" they are very effective as means of communication
" We have some of them at our disposal: our web-site (consolata.org); the Missionary News Agency (misna.org) and some missionary magazines.
But mass-media can also be:
" Often devoid of values
" Instruments of corruption and consumerism
" Means that empty the community conscience

Method:
To use well, with the help of our experts and as far as possible, the means of communication at our disposal. We should strive to build good relationships with other experts, that may be not only technically capable, but also persons of deep faith, in order to make our influence felt on the dominant mass-media, by offering to those communication experts contents and ideas to use in their programs.

Means:
Press, TV, radio, audiovisuals.

Contents:
They are the same as those of MA in general (see: "Youth" and "Parish").

Ecclesial Leaders

Vision:
We will look for ways and means with which to help in a particular way Bishops and Priests to reach and show a clearer awareness of the essentially missionary dimension of the Church.
"The whole Christian community must be instructed, motivated and empowered for evangelization, in each one of its members, according to the specific role they have within the Church" (Ecclesia in Africa, 75).

Reality:
We notice a scarce missionary awareness in the leaders of the Church, at all levels.

Method:
" We will try to find ways to bring this topic of the missionary awareness of the Church in the Meetings of Episcopal Conferences, through the mediation of the Presidents of their Missionary Committee, the person in charge of POM or the Association of Religious Major Superior.
" We will offer a copy of the Documents of the Institute and of other activities of MA to those Bishops we feel nearer to us, through the Regional Superior.
" We would suggest to use for our purpose, one of the yearly Meetings between the Episcopal Conference and the Association of Religious Major Superiors.
" Work through the appropriate layers of organization, so as Missiology Courses may be offered in Diocesan Seminaries and in the Religious Houses of formation.
" Our personal relationships of friendship with diocesan priests will be important for our purpose.
" We shall offer spiritual retreats with a missionary dimension to diocesan priests and other religious.
" We should try to take an active part in the priests' Deanery and diocesan Meetings.

Contents:
These are the same as those of MA.

Agents of MA

We realized, at this point, that we ourselves, as Missionary Animators, must be better prepared to face the challenges that our MA Project for Africa puts in front of us.
The following are the commitments we have taken for ourselves:
" It is of utmost importance that MA Animators be well formed, given the complex reality they work with
" To this purpose, we should use well, apart from the Meetings such as the one we are having, of other possibilities of formation, which are available in our Regions, such as Courses of different kind, Pastoral of Youth programs, Course of Lumko, and others still.
" Regional Superiors may, and should, indicate available Courses, but we are aware that nothing will substitute for our personal commitment to self-formation.
" It is important that also our Regional Superiors, and the other Agents of pastoral activities of our Regions, have a clear understanding of our MA Project.
" In the Addis Ababa Meeting, we had stated that the ministry of MA requires from those who receive this task to dedicate to it a minimum of 6 years, for the ministry itself to be effective. We renew here our commitment to "stability" in our work.
" Those of our seminarians that are deemed capable of the MA ministry, should be prepared to it in good time. It is worthwhile that they take part to Meetings such as this.
" Formators are invited to signal to the General Direction, particular capabilities or charismas of some students for the MA-VP.

Our VP Project

We start by taking into consideration the specific ways of our Vocation Promotion. We dedicate one hour to personal reflection and the rest of the morning to group work.
In the afternoon, we held our Assembly, to share the results of the group work.

Central question of the group work:
On top of what we are already doing, ask yourself: what could we do: better, more, or different…

Answers of the groups
" To expand our VP action in new places - to visit the missions already given to the Diocese, and those Parishes where Ordinations, Religious Professions and Missionary Mandates have been held - to have full time personnel for MA-VP - to have a budget appropriate for the VP work - to involve more in VP work the leaders of the local church.
" To work more seriously in vocation Groups - to organize summer camps and Vocation Days for the vocation groups - to encourage openness on the side of the candidates, and accompany them towards a personal relationship with Christ - in case of serious doubt, to convince the candidates in question to look for other ways in which to realize themselves - to have a MA-VP Centre, for specific programs of formation and productions of appropriate aids - the MA-VP Team should send in time their action program to parishes and schools.
" To encourage VP Animators to follow the MA-VP Directory of both IMC and MC - to obtain in every Region the establishment of a full-time Coordinator - to better our team-work methodology, through a constant action of on-going formation - to better the cooperation between IMC and MC, as well as that with other VP Animators and Associations, such as KAVA, DARVAC, MAC, etc. - to have regular visits to groups and families - to have a greater stability of the personnel in this ministry.
" To find out appropriate strategies to offer help and accompaniment to possible candidates in those regions where only one of our two Institutes is present - to find the way to encourage a more serious VP, especially in our own parishes - to prepare a serious formation project for Vocational Groups - better organized visits to schools by the whole team - if necessary, to reduce the number of schools, parishes, groups to be visited, so as to increase the frequency of our visits and make them more meaningful - to try and offer a greater number of seminars and spiritual retreats for Vocation Groups.

After having examined and cleared the answers of all the groups, the Assembly enucleates some priorities, which become the Basic Lines of Action of our VP Project. Here they are:

1. To form in every Region a well organized Team of MA-VP, with a full-time Coordinator.
2. To care very much for the on-going formation of Animators.
3. To constitute, at least in those Regions where it is possible, a Centre of MA-VP, provided with all the necessary resources: office, budget, means of transport, means for preparing formation material and receive young people for personal dialogue and other formation activities.
4. To prepare a serious and complete formation itinerary for young people: MA dimension, VP dimension, discernment.
5. To improve the cooperation between our two Institutes, and with other congregations, dioceses, associations, etc.

EVALUATION OF THE MEETING

Everyone agreed that this Meeting was very positive and enriching, because of its contents, the family spirit and the sharing that was experienced, the serious commitment of everybody to make the Meeting meaningful, the enthusiasm and the positive contributions made by our young Animators.
Fr. Norberto's and Sr. Alfia's presence was very much appreciated by all of us, because of their great capacity of listening and the great respect they showed. It is so good to see that our two Institutes insist on working together, as a team, and the presence of respectively the IMC Vice-general Superior and the MC Vice-general Superior demonstrated that point quite obviously.
A heartfelt thanks goes to the whole community of the Allamano House, that offered us hospitality. They have really put themselves at our service with joy and great generosity.
Obviously, some less positive element made its ways into our Meeting, too, as, for instance, a poor preparation of common leisure moments in the evenings, or some or another of the Liturgies, not properly prepared because of lack of time, but none that might have really impaired the Meeting.

With heartfelt gratitude we thank the organizers of the Meeting, and we exchange our last-minute recommendations:
" We commit ourselves to exchange promptly among us the various MA-VP aids that we will be able to produce, as well as any other material we may find useful for our ministry;
" And we commit ourselves to share that same material also with the others IMC - MC communities of our Region.

We end our Meeting with a cordial and deeply-felt thanks to each other, and with a last, solemn, Liturgy.