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The General Council's Letter PDF Print E-mail
Written by General Direction   
Friday, 18 May 2007
REGARDING NGO, ASSOCIATIONS, “FOUNDATIONS”

“May the word of God keep on spreading;
and the number of the disciples continue to increase greatly”
(Acts 6: 7)


Dearest Missionaries,

 Among the many forms of missionary commitment in our Institute, are on the increase forms of involvement in NGO (Associations, “Foundations”, Movements …) linked to our service of Mission Animation, human promotion and evangelization. Faced with a variety of approaches of the individual missionaries and Regions, responding to the desire manifested many times and by many that there may be an intervention to reach a deeper communion and a stronger joint testimony, we wish to share with you some reflections and offer some criteria which may lead towards the realization of unity among ourselves and our missionary project be consistent with our IMC family style.

 First of all let us express our appreciation for NGO, Associations, “Foundations” of every type which for us are not only a strategy, but a gift of the Spirit and “strength from above”, offering new ways towards a current and renewed fidelity to our vocation. These new ferments and the consequent initiatives springing up from the base as an opposition to the neo-liberalism, protectionism, violence and war, proposing an economy founded on critical consumption, equable commerce, ethical finances, justifiable balances, solidarity economy, indicate that “another world is possible” and one wishes to offers his own contribution to bring it about. These are topics directly linked to Mission and to that behavior typical of our communities as indicated by the expression: “new styles of life”. During our present time new social organizations and new types of voluntary services are born and developed in the Southern hemisphere, having new characteristics which deserve to be considered especially by us.

 These NGO and other movements aim at:
Safeguarding political, economic, and cultural autonomy;

Promoting alternative options to the dominant mentality;

Provoking a serious debate on the challenges of contemporary world;

Involving the youth and professionals of various disciplines in social and religious projects;

Promoting a true service in the various fields of missionary involvement and evangelization: JPIC, reconciliation and forgiveness, at the local and global level;

Getting involved in an ever increasing network activities, whose entities are groups interested in working deliberately within a vast and shared project for a sustainable future, sharing the same values and having each one carry out his own task.

 These characteristics of NGO, Associations, “Foundations” … ought to be defended, without yielding to the rhetoric of the “good deeds”, rather opening ourselves up to that “doing well” without which will not be possible to reach a “well living” for all.

 To live and work together with these groups and associations becomes a stimulus to qualify our formation and missionary animation, going beyond generic approaches and becoming ever more evident and credible.

 To walk together allows us to experiment innovative forms of participation, makes it possible the exchange of experiences and inspires us to find alternative forms of communion and cooperation with all other forces.

 In order to give proper orientation to these ideas, respecting the creativity and originality of every entity, we wish to indicate some criteria which will offer proper directives to our service, as IMC family, in relation to our acting and being mission.

 As Institute we give support and encourage cooperation, participation and involvement in these initiatives of NGO, Associations, and Movements.

 Keeping in mind the teaching of our Founder on “unity of intents” and family spirit, we hold that no missionary, by his own initiative, may preside or be responsible of a NGO.

 Eventually, it must be the Regional Government to get involved and assume juridical responsibility for an already existing NGO, Association or Movement. If the Regional Government decides to act, or even set out to create a NGO, in order to support and qualify its missionary project in a territory or in the whole Region, then it must inform and consult the General Government.

 When an invitation is received to cooperate in a NGO, if the Regional Government deems it opportune, it may assign a missionary for a clear defined period of time but not in a position of responsibility as its director or administrator.

 We invite all missionaries involved in a NGO, Associations, “Foundations” … to conform themselves to these guidelines, reviewing their position within them if at all necessary, and starting a dialogue of discernment with their respective Regional Governments so that this service may become part of the regional missionary project.

 Besides, we invite the Regional Councils to make themselves available to these entities to help their collaboration and type of service.

 Finally, we recall what was stated at the XI General Chapter: “Our communities are invited to become ‘Houses and Schools of communion’, of cooperation and mission”.

“Today mission depends on new subjects; they too are called to work in communion and collaboration. To realize mission in communion and collaboration allows us to overcome that individualism and desire to be protagonists, which comes from an outdated concept of the role of the missionary Institutes, and be not the owners but the humble servants of the Church and its mission”. (XI GC no. 68-69)

 Hoping that these guide lines may contribute to clarify and assure a communitarian commitment, we fraternally salute and thank all, especially those who have been so innovative in this field.

 May our Blessed Mother Consolata and our Founder guide us on this road so that we may correspond ever more to our vocation, having: “Mission in the mind, on the lips, and in the heart”.

Fr. Aquileo Fiorentini, IMC
Fr. Stefano Camerlengo, IMC
Fr. Francisco López, IMC
Fr. Antonio Fernandes, IMC
Fr. Matthew Ouma, IMC
Last Updated ( Thursday, 17 May 2007 )