From “Panama, bridge of the world and heart of the universe”, we send this final message of our III Assembly of the Claretian Missionaries of America (MICLA).
They have been intense days of coexistence, intercommunication and work, from Sunday 8 to Friday 13 April, where we, representatives of the nine organisms of MICLA, have been present.With the presence of our Superior General, Fr. Mathew Vattamattam CMF, we have felt united in a special way to the whole Congregation.
Being in the Central American Province, land of witnesses and martyrs, all of them represented in the person of Saint Romero of America, we have received the apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis, “Gaudete et exsultate”, which calls us to holiness in the current context. “Rejoice and rejoice” (Mt 5:12), Jesus says to those who are persecuted or humiliated for their cause.
As Claretian Missionaries, witnesses-messengers of the joy of the Gospel, we join the Church in America that makes a committed memory of the 50th anniversary of the Second General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate held in Medellin, Colombia. We invite you to return to the spirit of Medellín by accompanying the basic ecclesial communities (CEBs) and working for the dignification of the impoverished, the achievement of justice and a firm commitment to human rights and the rights of peoples. This has to affect our spirituality and our initial formation: more incarnated.
In this III Assembly of MICLA we have updated the Claretian Missionary Project for America and ratified our two priority options that must be present in our pastoral and evangelizing structures. They invite us to be a Congregation going-forth, which moves to the peripheries and does not imprison our charism as servants of the word:
- Biblical Animation: the strength of the Bible Diary, of the Claretian Biblical Network of America (REBICLAR), of the formation Centers and Biblical Schools is well known.
- Solidarity and Mission: JPIC, Interculturality, presence in the UN, Procures and projects.
During the assembly, the following preferential matters strongly resounded:
While in Panama, nine months before the World Youth Day (WYD), we have felt strongly the call to evangelize the younger generations. We therefore propose:
- To present to the young people this Church of the poor and of the martyrs, and to make them part of it.
- Make sure that the young people we accompany be prepared in their participation in the WYD as a Claretian family or in the World Meeting of Indigenous Youth (EMJI).
- Make visible faces of other young people: poor, indigenous, afros, peasants, migrants.
During these days, we have been especially concerned and have prayed for these two situations that challenge us in America: migrants and the reality of the people of Venezuela that our brothers Claretian Missionaries are accompanying. Likewise, we also thank God for the testimony and prophecy of our brother Pedro Casaldáliga in America. We unite and show solidarity with him by praying his prayer to Mary of Pentecost:
Mother!
Open our ears and our eyes,
take us out of fear and of the inertias,
give us a heart of flesh and chrism,
clothe us with joy and boldness,
send us to the Wind that takes you!
Panamá, April 15, 2018
Ismael Montero Toyos, cmf José Vidal Pérez, cmf
President of MICLA Executive Secretary
