VATICAN (SE): “Do not be passive in the face of the dramas that many of our contemporaries live, but rather play your part in the struggle for human dignity and respect for the fundamental rights of the person,” urged Pope Francis when he met with Claretian missionaries at the Vatican on September 9.
Addressing participants in the congregation’s general chapter in Rome, the pope also stressed the importance of prayer as the foundation of effective missionary work.
“Your apostolate must always be that of being close to the people. Be burned by his love, do not be passive, fight for the basic rights of the people,” he said during the audience with around 100 participants representing over 3,000 missionaries working in 70 countries around the world.
The XXVI General Chapter of the Claretian Missionaries—officially known as the Missionaries, Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary—was celebrated in Rome from August 15 to September 12 with the theme, Rooted and audacious. Father Alberto Rossa, assistant parish priest of Epiphany Parish, Mui Wo, was present at the chapter.
On August 30, Father Mathew Vattamattam was re-elected superior general of the religious community of priests and brothers founded in Spain in 1849 by St. Anthony Mary Claret.
In his written text, the pope challenged missionaries worldwide to imitate their founder, who travelled on foot from mission to mission through his native Catalonia.
“Following the example of Father Claret, you cannot be mere spectators of reality. Take part in it, to transform the realities of sin that you find on the way,” the pope told the chapter delegates.
“Let yourselves be touched by the Word of God and the signs of the times, and in the light of the Word and the signs of the times reread your own history, your own charism, remembering that consecrated life is like water if it does not flow it rots,” he said.
“Do not separate prayer from missionary action: if you want to be true witnesses, do not cease to adore. Let yourself be burned by the Lord, by his love, so that you can be incendiaries wherever you pass, with the fire of divine love,” said the pontiff, adding, “Focus on the essential: Jesus, to place your security in Him and only in him who is all good, the supreme good, the true security.”
‘Do not separate prayer from missionary action: if you want to be true witnesses, do not cease to adore. Let yourself be burned by the Lord, by his love, so that you can be incendiaries wherever you pass, with the fire of divine love’
Pope Francis
Pope Francis said, “I believe that this could be one of the best fruits of this pandemic that has called into question so many of our false securities.”
The pope urged the Claretians “to focus on the essential elements that define consecrated life today,” including “consecration, which values the relationship with God; fraternal life in community, which gives priority to an authentic relationship with our brothers; and mission, which leads you to go out, to become less self-centred in order to go out to meet others, especially the poor, to bring Jesus to them.”
It is this conviction, said the pope, that will “lead you to go forth, to set out and to go where nobody else wants to go,” where the light of the gospel is needed, “with the people.”
The pope said the Claretians’ mission must be one of closeness and that simply observing from afar out of curiosity is not enough.
Pope Francis concluded on a lighter note, urging the missionaries, “Do not lose your sense of humour, please; laugh in community, make jokes. A sense of humour is a grace of joy and joy is a dimension of holiness.”
