Last June, the traditional annual meeting of leaders of International Movements and Associations of the Faithful, organised by the Dicastery for the Laity, took place in Rome. This year, it coincided with the celebrations of the Jubilee of Movements. The General Council participated in these important events on behalf of our Lay Claretian Movement. In this missionary month of October, it is good to recall some of the experiences of those days, because of their significance for who we are and what we do within our Church.
Around the theme ‘Hope lived and proclaimed, the gift of the Jubilee for ecclesial communities’, the reflections and experiences shared at the meeting were an invitation to rediscover hope as the driving force of our life and mission. The welcoming words of Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Prefect of the Dicastery, already encouraged us to courageously face the challenge of being agents of hope for the contemporary world and to avoid stagnation through ongoing formation that helps us to better fulfil this mission, united with the whole People of God and in communion with the successor of Peter.
More detailed information about everything that took place at the meeting can be found on the Dicastery’s website. However, I would like to highlight the four evocative images that Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle offered us in his presentation to renew our mission from a place of hope. First, the open door as the threshold that allows us to turn our home into a place of welcome for others, and at the same time to go out to meet the world and show the face of Christ’s charity. Second, the table and food, as a place where we can gather as equals, with the same dignity and without discrimination, sharing all that we are and all that we have. Thirdly, music and songs as an expression of our joys, sorrows, fears and hopes, turned into prayer and praise to God. And fourthly, the synodal path that keeps us moving, journeying together, willing to discover with humility the gift of God manifested in other people and cultures… Cardinal Tagle concluded his speech by stating that ‘imagining mission in the light of hope means looking at today’s world through the eyes of the Risen One, who goes out to meet each person so that their heart may burn… There is no reality in which God cannot manifest himself.’
Fortunately, this year the meeting was extended, incorporating moments of celebration and group work. These moments facilitated greater interaction among the participants, allowing us to learn more about our different realities, share meals and conversations, celebrate and pray together, and discuss our experiences, confirming the plural and multifaceted reality of the Church. Both during the meeting and in the Jubilee celebrations, those of us responsible for the Movements were able to feel, with their values and fragilities, the heartbeat of a living Church, gathered around Christ.
This experience of a Church that longs to be a witness of hope for the world should also be an encouragement to continue developing our mission with enthusiasm and responsibility. Pope Leo XIV said to us, the Movements, in his audience at the end of the meeting: “Always keep this missionary impulse alive. Ecclesial movements today also have a fundamental role in evangelisation…” Let us therefore continue to persevere in our mission from the foundation of our ecclesial communion, collaborating with humility in the synodal journey of the whole people of God and their pastors in each of the places where we are present.
Miguel Ángel Sosa
Secretary General
