SCJs On Mission Ad Gentes
Guidelines from the VII General Conference
1. “Let Us Model Ourselves after the Heart of Jesus”
In great joy and hope we issue these “Guidelines” resulting from the efforts of the VII General Conference (GC). It took place in Warsaw from May 16-24, 2006, on the topic: SCJs on Mission Ad Gentes. Coming together all over the world where we are present with our charism, we asked ourselves about the meaning and responsibility of being on “Mission ad Gentes”.
Fr. General delivered an invitation: “Let us model ourselves after the Heart of Jesus”. This same invitation we come across, too, in the letter that was sent to the Congregation on the Feast of the Sacred Heart 2006. With the title “A Heart for the Mission”, this letter can be considered the inspirational part and these guidelines as the practical part for application to our times.
These guidelines were approved by the entire assembly as the result of much preliminary work followed by conference reflection. They present a few pathways for a new energy in the missionary commitment of the Congregation.
2. The Church Exists to Evangelize (Evangelii Nuntiandi hereafter EN, 14)
“The Church’s universal mission is born of faith in Jesus Christ” (Redemptoris Missio 4, hereafter RM). It is Christ and his Gospel message that we must proclaim and live in depth. Service to this mission is an essential element of our congregation as well as our response to the invitation from Christ to collaborate in his mission in faithfulness to our Founder, for whom “missionary activity was a privileged form of apostolic service” (Cst. 31).
Fr. Dehon always lived the mission as an extension of the Reign of the Heart of Jesus. To him, mission was seen to be an immolation (i.e., a total gift of self). Mission was a commitment to love.
As an international congregation, we feel the urgency of the appeal of the universal mission of the church and we wish to take part in it at various levels: individual, community, entity (province, region, district). Mission beyond our frontiers is, for all of us, a basic element of our consecration.
3. “We wish to See Jesus” (Jo. 12:21)
The following of Jesus Christ turns out to be the center and focus of missionary endeavor. When RM highlights the special importance of “initial proclamation” in today’s world, it reaffirms that absolute priority of the kerygma without at the same time diminishing the value of other types of missionary activity (n. 33). We are aware that this kerygmatic proclamation has a universal breadth: it supersedes all traditional geographical criteria, making that initial proclamation even to within new phenomena (yet present within countries that are Christian by ancient tradition) associated with urbanization, mass migration, the sectors of the world of communications, scientific research, international relations, and other realities that constitute the new Areopagus (cf. RM, 37).
As SCJs, we feel a particular need to go back to that “initial proclamation” that lies at the heart of the Gospel. It is a return to the essential message of Jesus, a return to his heart because – as Fr. Dehon wrote – “The Heart of Jesus, the love of Jesus, this is the entire Gospel (Oeuvres Spirituelles, V, 447).
This “initial proclamation” is not just a matter of technique but a life proposal that provides both substance and witness. The one who proclaims is drawn into an intimate relationship with the Word of God who is at the same time the person Jesus. This is how we respond to those many brothers who approach us with the same request that the Greeks made: “We wish to see Jesus” (Jo. 12:21). “The men and women of our own day ask believers not only to "speak" of Christ, but in a certain sense to "show" him to them (Novo Millenio Ineunte, 16).
4. A Passion for God, for the Kingdom, for the Other
In this setting, the conference traced out a portrait of the Dehonian missionary and listed some of his characteristics.
A Dehonian missionary is a person who:
has an experience of the God-Love, a responds to this love with all his heart;
has a passion for God, for the Kingdom, for the other;
is obedient to the will of God (Ecce Venio), lives contemplatively, celebrates the Word and the Eucharist, nourishes his faith, and grows in love;
lives his mission as a community work and considers fraternal communion as his mission (Sint Unum);
loves the local church and walks in its ways, giving the formation and building of vibrant community with openness to witness;
is capable of incarnational activity, inculturation in solidarity, a person rich in compassion and at the service of reconciliation; an expert in dialog with the world, with religions, with cultures (Adveniat Regnum Tuum);
shares in the sufferings of the world, and in particular those of the poorest peoples, and knows how to walk with them having learned practice of the social teaching of the church; lives the exodus (from self and from his own culture) to bring about authentic freedom (reparation);
lives mission as if a dimension of his own life that involves his entire person and its activities: in services within the congregation, in its mission ad extra in whatever part of the world in which he finds himself and even when it means carrying on his mission during old age, weakness, or illness (oblation).
5. “The Spirit Directs the Church’s Mission” (RM, 24): Missionary Animation
As a General Conference we have confirmed that the mission, a work of the Holy Spirit and our own, begins with a good missionary animation in every entity of the congregation. Even in countries with a lengthy Christian tradition it is necessary to “leave the sacristy” and relearn the primacy of mission.
We propose that:
in every entity, there be an organism for missionary animation (or at least a person designated for this task) that will promote meetings of our missionaries with parish communities and lay groups, mission days and other kinds of meetings; that will work with youth and vocation ministry. What should be avoided is that bureaucratic activity and various services (package sending, etc.) substitute for missionary animation.
missionaries should be more involved in missionary animation by giving their witness and helping local churches become more open to universality.
the entities should prepare for and put high value on the return of missionaries. In particular, those missionaries who are ill should be accepted as a precious gift because they actively support the missions by their prayer and the offering of their lives.
6. “Here I am Lord, Send Me” (Is. 6:8) Initial, Specialized, and On-Going Formation
We feel to form the young generation of SCJs for the mission. To accomplish this there is a need, before anything else, to form people:
in a spirituality that helps them discover the face of God-Love (kerygmatic experience) and to make searching out his will a life-long pursuit and criterion;
to a community life, valuing growth in the ability to dialog, to be available, and to serve.
to the missionary aspect of our charism: it is an essential part of our existence in the church;
to a respectful knowledge of one’s own cultural identity and of other cultures, to inter-province communion and to a sense of the congregation.
Additionally, we list of few concrete proposals that were put forth:
to present the dimension of mission ad gentes right with vocational ministry.
to guarantee that during the period of study there be a systematic presentation of missiology.
to keep young people in formation in close contact with the world of missions: (missionaries, missionary experiences, missionary publications) and with the reality of world poverty, teaching service to the poor even with concrete opportunities.
to promote a moderate life-style with sharing and instruction in the proper management of material things.
to require the knowledge of a second language prior to the end of initial formation (preferably English, or a Romance language for English-speakers), by promoting adequately lengthy experiences in an SCJ community in another country and also the possibility of a period of a missionary internship.
And, finally, for those who decide to go to the missions or who are already on mission:
the General Curia should become a reference point for exchanges of news items treating courses of on-going formation and up-dating.
each entity should assure departing missionaries an adequate and solid training. There should be initiatives of ongoing formation at various levels of the congregation; in the life of the person study and personal experience should have priority.
from time to time missionaries should be granted a sabbatical year and this should be opportunely planned for.
7. “Give from our poverty” (Puebla, 368): Missionary Personnel and Coordination
Faced with the changes that are taking place in our congregation and our new missionary undertakings, the General Conference foresees the need for the General Council to coordinate the management of human and financial resources at the congregational level, without creating new structures and always in dialog with the various entities of the congregation.
The General Conference is aware that to get a common mission project underway it is necessary that there be personnel available. For this reason, it proposes that:
each entity (even the most recently established) generously and reasonably should make its members available for commitment ad gentes outside the province, region, or district. Each confrere should have the possibility of making himself available for participating in missionary projects, with the discernment and accord of the entity that does the missioning.
The General Administration should put together a survey of the missionary commitments we already have and their personnel needs. It will be able to ascertain the availability of candidates, coordinate animation, coordinate the specialized and ongoing formation programs, promote and evaluate various missionary initiatives.
8. Our Future Lies in Mission: Missionary Projects
The VII General Conference extends an invitation to look ahead in order to face up to the challenges of evangelization, the situation in the congregation, and the growing need to be open to internationality.
It recommends greater collaboration at the levels of personnel and resource sharing.
For new missionary undertakings it seeks commonly held evaluation criteria, while keeping diversity of geographical contexts, various proposals that will arise, and the various needs of the congregation’s global plan all in mind.
The General Conference has specified certain guidelines required before undertaking a new missionary project:
the new project (ad intra or ad extra) must meet some concrete need (social or ecclesiastical and must be the result of mutual involvement and maturation at the level of (an) entity/entities, in dialog with the local church.
there should always be involvement with others in the geo-cultural area.
the project should be clearly and realistically defined, with a plan for obtaining personnel and funds included, both for startup and for future development.
from the very beginning there should be participation of locals, in the search for resources (personnel, means) for its future and in adapting a style of community life and structures that match the reality in which the project is inserted.
missionary presence should guarantee a minimum of three persons to a community.
The possibility and do-ability of developing our presence in evangelization work in Asia should be given a serious look.
9. “While Many, We Form One Body” (1 Cor. 10:17): Internationality
Recent missionary undertakings in our experience confirm our process of appreciating and endorsing greater internationality at every level, including necessary collaboration with other congregations and dioceses and thus uniting our forces for a more effective evangelization.
It is really helpful to:
promote and value international communities (even from a geo-cultural area) for the formation of our candidates, and permitting such exchange right from the stages of initial formation after novitiate.
be available for collaboration in inter-province projects through the exchange of personnel even for specific tasks for a fixed time period.
continue the reflection at the congregational level on structures that are more suited for directing and managing new missionary initiatives in the growing internationality schema, being open as well to inter-congregational activities and collaboration.
10. ”The Laity are all missionaries as a consequence of their Baptism (RM, 71): Participation of Laity in the Mission.
Every work of evangelization requires the participation of the laity, not merely as co-workers but as persons themselves responsible for evangelization and missionary animation. Many lay persons reveal a readiness to share missionary activity with Dehonians along with their faith and a explicit disposition to live the charism of Fr. Dehon in the spirit of the Dehonian Family; they complement this readiness with their competence and professionalism. They asked the SCJs at this General Conference to accompany them and support them, beginning with Dehonian spirituality. As Dehonians, we are called to receive them and value them by seeking forms of mutual exchange right from the moment of making plans and always respecting their autonomy. In this common participation in mission we must concern ourselves with giving continuity to missionary experiences.
In concrete terms, for Dehonians, this means we must:
promote initiatives in which the laity are the protagonists of the work of evangelizations and human promotion; they must have the possibility of sharing our missionary work in the sense that even lay volunteers from outside must be welcome for periods of more or less duration. We recognize that lay persons with all they bring in their freedom enrich Dehonian spirituality.
assure lay missionaries who wish to work alongside SCJ communities that they will be given a knowledge of Dehonian spirituality, a spiritual support, the introduction into a new cultural and ecclesial reality.
seek from the lay missionaries who share our mission human maturity, professionalism, lived Christian faith, respectful attitudes and dialog along with an ability for teamwork.