Madrid, Spain. From February 20 to 22, 2020, the first encounter of Prefects of Spirituality of the five Claretian Provinces of Europe, grouped in the ECLA conference, was held in the “Centro Fragua” of Los Negrales (Madrid). At the same time, convoked and presided over by the General Prefect of Spirituality, Fr. Gonzalo Fernández Sanz, CMF, Frs. Renato Caprioli (Sanctus Paulus), Robert Pyrka (Polska), José Ramón Sanz Ortiz (Santiago), Georg Hopf (Deutschland) and Félix Jesús Martínez Lozano (Fátima) CMFF, attended.
The objective of the encounter was to discern together the best way to animate the Claretian spirituality in the Organisms of Europe, having especially in mind the celebration in this year 2020 of several Claretian events: 150th anniversary of the death of Claret, beginning of the formative and spiritual project “Claretian Year”, and the 150th anniversary of the definitive approval of the Constitutions.
The following eight topics were addressed during the meeting: 1) The animation of Spirituality being done in their respective Province; 2) The way to organize a Provincial Prefecture of Spirituality; 3) The 150 years of the death of our Founder as an opportunity for spiritual animation; 4) The animation of the Claretian Year project in the ECLA Provinces; 5) The participation in the Encounter with Claret programs (in French, English, and Spanish) and The Forge (in Spanish and English); 6) The collaboration of the teams of CESC of Vic and the Forge Centre of Los Negrales in the spiritual animation of the ECLA Organisms; 7) Possibilities of collaboration between the different houses of spirituality of the Claretians in Europe; 8) How to increase the collaboration between the Prefectures of Spirituality of ECLA.
Father General held a brief video conference with the participants in which he encouraged them to “touch the wounds of God” in suffering humanity and to rekindle the missionary passion because when we try to “tame” the charism our decline begins. He also recalled the value that the elderly and the aged represent for the Congregation and urged that in the processes of initial formation the meeting of the young with the elderly be made possible.
Fr. Pedro Belderrain, ECLA Secretary and Provincial Superior of Santiago, sent a message of greeting to the participants and asked the Prefects to choose one of them as a representative to the Conference, following the guidelines given by the Provincials, in order to facilitate communication between the Provincials and the Prefects. The Prefects elected Fr. José Ramón Sanz Ortiz as their representative.
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