Priestly Fraternity Jesus Caritas
\nLETTER FROM PARIS
\nof the International Assembly from 6th to 21st November 2012
\nHaving just celebrated the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, at the beginning of the Year of Faith, 47 brothers from 28 countries and four continents assembled at the Foyer de Charit\u00e9 in Poissy near Paris. Among us were two older brothers, Mariano Puga and Jacques Midy, members of the Fraternity for over 50 years. The delegate from the Democratic Republic of the Congo was unable to get a travel visa and the Canadian delegate had to leave the meeting early because of his brother\u2019s sudden death.
\nThe choice of France as host country evoked the memory of Blessed Charles de Foucauld as did some significant places connected with his life: the Church of St. Augustine where his conversion in 1886 followed his meeting with Abb\u00e9 Huvelin and the Basilica of Sacre-Coeur at Montmartre where he spent a night in adoration with Louis Massignon. France is also the cradle of our priestly fratenity, founded in the early 1950\u2019s and also of other branches of the Foucauldian spiritual family such as Little Sisters of Jesus or Little Sisters of the Gospel who shared personal testimonies at our Assembly.
\nIn conferences we learned about French society and about the place of the Catholic Church in France today. Visits to parishes and to particular places of pastoral activity allowed us grasp the reality of a living Church in secularized surroundings. Liturgical prayer, daily adoration, celebration of the Eucharist, and our Day in the Desert gave the Assembly a spiritual and fraternal atmosphere. Besides, the conviviality, the sharings and common meals supported that climate.
\nAfter having heard the echoes of different world regions, we felt in a powerful way how faith is \u2018in genesis\u2019 engendering a new way of being Church and helping our fraternities by calling and giving new orientations.<\/p>\n
1.\tEchoes of World Regions <\/p>\n
The different reports of various countries and continents enriched us. They allowed us to connect with each other and to have a sense of our complementarity. They created a mutual respect for the different realities of our lives and a humble awareness of the multiple challenges which face us. <\/p>\n
The African fraternities are affected by political instability, economic weakness and social insecurity. Our presence as priests sharing the life of the people is often considered as a calming influence that gives them confidence. The long distances, the poor state of roads and the scarcity of financial and material resources that affect African fraternities make communications and meetings less frequent. Far from this being a source of discouragement to the fraternities these particular difficulties seem rather to empower them . The fraternities continue to deepen their own identity and grow in number by welcoming new young priests.<\/p>\n
Europe and North America enjoy a certain material prosperity, but at the same time are experiencing a deep economic crisis affecting the stability of many families and causing a feeling of great insecurity. There are many fraternities, but like the clergy in general, they are ageing due to a lack of young priests. <\/p>\n
Latin America is experiencing a certain economic growth, but also an increasing social insecurity in a religious context marked by different evangelical currents. Linked with other branches of our spiritual family, the fraternities enjoy a great deal of support and are growing.<\/p>\n
Asia has a rapidly growing economy. It is also a continent of great religions, like Islam and Hinduism. The Church is in the minority but fraternities are attracting young priests. Inter-religious dialogue is developing and preserving the identity of the Christian faith. <\/p>\n
2.\tProclaiming the Faith
\nDepending on the different places in the world and different faith situations, the proclamation of the faith has to be presented in different ways.
\nIn the first place, faith takes the form of courage to live and exist. In the various stages of personal and common life, faith is a matter of believing that life keeps its promise. That elementary form of faith meets the universality of the Gospel since all human beings face the same challenge: to believe that life is worth living. Faced with all sorts of evil, which strike at humanity, we announce the Good News of radical goodness. Together with Jesus in announcing the Good News, we believe that evil does not have the last word. That is also a condition to enable faith and the freedom to trust people so that faith may be born in them.
\nIn fact, Jesus of Nazareth, his way of being and living is the example to present the Gospel to all human beings. Jesus always said what he thought and did what he said. He expressed his compassion through his actions and always put himself in the place of the other while being true to himself in actions that gave expression to his compassion and he went to extremes in facing his opponents. Making the gospel humanly plausible, Jesus freely gave up his own life. This is echoed in the life and destiny of Brother Charles who sought to imitate Him in his own life and death.
\nThis imitation of the life of Jesus in closeness and hospitality, engenders a Church always \u2018in genesis\u2019. The Church is born where faith is sown. In basic encounters, in hospitality and in welcoming attitudes, the figure of the disciple is revealed. Rereading the Scriptures the disciple, who can be one of us, gives a visible dimension to the faith and this connects the sacraments with Jesus\u2019 messianic signs. Even a poor and small community discovers that its lived fraternity crosses the frontiers of time and space. If this community crosses the threshold of contemplation to reach liturgy and adoration, it will be revealed that the Body of Christ is built in it and that it is inserted into the immense people of God, the Church, advancing towards God.
\nWe have now better understood that the responses to the world\u2019s greatest challenges are to be found in the gestures of daily life. If Christian communities are open to the Gospel, they put aside their personal cares and, motived by the Incarnation, witness their solidarity with the weakest of people. Respecting everybody\u2019s individuality, through bonds of friendship and closeness, they live this respect for the other without fear and are open to the universal. These enable hospitality to be a place of God\u2019s self-revelation. God reveals himself in the unknown of the other person whom I meet, and expecially in the encounter with the most marginalized.
\nWhile the Church may disappear in some places or areas, it reappears in other places as a community \u2018in diaspora\u2019. It cannot fail to be born where faith emerges anew. The Church allows faith to serve the common good. Here we can find the expression of Jesus\u2019 good news for today. He calls us into fraternity. We want to live fraternity in response to his continued calling.
\n3.\tCalls to and Directions for our Fraternity
\nIn the International Assembly, we experienced the diversity, differences and originality of representatives coming from different national and regional fraternities and cultures. We have lived with joy our communion and communication in the spirit of Jesus of Nazareth. But what about those who do not know Jesus Christ? And if they do not know him or have not heard him spoken of, how can they take him into their daily life?
\nToday\u2019s globalisation and its zones of destruction means we can encounter the other as different from ourselves, provoking reactions of welcome, but also of rejection or of fear. So how can we come together?
\nToday ethical discussions reveal that a great many people have resistance to one another, especially towards those who exercise power. To build a world which may be a home for all, setting out from our own situations without either exclusion or domination of one another, what is our contribution as Fraternity?
\nOur ideal is to live the absolute of God, the love of Jesus Christ in the manner of Brother Charles, as a fruit of the Spirit, in closeness to and with respect for the other, setting out from littleness, from the ordinary, always in relation to the weakest, the poorest and the most marginalised whom God loves and on behalf of whom he appeals to us.
\nAs diocesan priests we must recognise the reality which is ours in certain countries: we are few, ageing, and may be misunderstood in certain priestly circles and by some young priests. However, we also see huge commitment, self-giving and faithfulness among our brothers in so many parts of the world. Everywhere we feel called to exercise fraternity with all our brother priests.
\nThis demands that we strengthn our community life \u2013 in the Review of Life, in listening to and sharing the Word of God, united in Eucharistic Adoration, in the Desert Day and with the simple witness of daily life, wherever the Church has sent and placed us as diocesan priests.
\nIt is important that younger priests get to know us, not in order to gain prestige or reputation, but as a sincere service to the spiritual life of the Church, in fidelity to her and to bishops. That much we owe to the poor.
\nElderly brothers belong to our fraternites and are for us witnesses to the mission that they have lived. We need their witness and their support in prayer. We also know that the brothers who have gone before us are still in communion with us.
\n\u2022\tTo enhance our solidarity and our missionary awareness at a local and international level, as universal brothers especially when today\u2019s culture favours and values individualism causing both isolation and loneliness in so many of our brothers.
\n\u2022\tTo not become inured to reality but rather to let ourselves both question and be challenged by it starting from the Gospel and the wisdom of the poor. To take the way of Jesus in the exercise of authority as service.
\n\u2022\tTo be signs of gratuitous and loving welcome towards migrants, refugees and exiles which today\u2019s world system generates, recognising the contribution they offer us more than the difficulties that they cause for us. To recognise all the new forms of slavery which appear, crushing and alienating so many of our brothers causing them to be devoured by the prevailing system which privileges only the few.
\n\u2022\tOur great suffering and shame in relation to sexual abuses by some priests has made us more humble and more faithful to God. \u201cBe alert!\u201d
\n\u2022\tTo mature, to grow and to live life in fraternity – the fact of being alone or isolated ought to be only an exception spurring us on to address this promptly. That is our greatest strength, helping us discern with others what Jesus is calling us to do today. It is the most effective help for affirming our own vocation in the Church and in the world and in our own milieu.
\n\u2022\tTo give silent witness, with a real presence, by a life of prayer that links faith and life, and daily actions of even simple solidarity, is the most appropriate response to all forms of fundamentalism which obscure the love of God the Father and prevent real and meaningful encounter with respect to our own identity. It is precisely there that we find ourselves with the Risen Christ.
\n\u2022\tWe are serious about planning the Month of Nazarth so that all brothers of our fraternities may have the possibily of living this experience, in the spirit of Brother Charles, in the intimacy of the love of Jesus Christ who steers our directions and actions, both in fratenal life at the service of the poor and in allowing ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit in solidarity with them.
\n\u2022\tFinally, to deepen, and hold regional and continental meetings so as let us get to know and live communion with each other, in the service of the poor, in the manner suggested to us by Brother Charles, in love and faithfulness to Jesus Christ who gives us life, who restores us to our dignity as children of God, and so as brothers bearing responsabilty for each other.
\nWe have elected Aurelio Sanz Baeza of Spain as General Responsible and approved the international team he has chosen for this task: Jean Francois Berjonneau (France); Emmanuel Asi (Pakistan); F\u00e9lix Rajaonarovelo (Madagascar); Mauricio da Silva (Brazil) and Mark Mertes (USA).
\nSpecial thanks were extended to French fraternities for organising the assembly and to the outgoing international team.
\nConclusion
\nIn these years when we commemorate Vatican Council II let us remember how much the spirituality of Blessed Charles de Foucauld has inspired several council texts and how much the Foucauldian family, of which we are part, contributes to the birth of the Church of our time spread throughout the world, making itself accessible to all people. Both as witnesses and bearers of the Gospel of goodness, in ever evolving fraternities with the original place of our charism and our vocation, we present this God of love, who became incarnate as a brother to us in Jesus of Nazareth.
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