In September 22, the members of this Technical Commission gathered at the Seminary of Our Lady of Good Counsel, in Monachil, Granada, Spain, to start their assigned task. Fr. Gneral, Javier Guerra Ayala, in the opening session reminded the members of the importance of this task and the freedom of action that they should enjoy in order to elaborate their task with competence. First the members spent time and effort in evaluating the received proposals and in integrating alternative texts. Some of these proposals were more concrete while others were more general. The observation of the commission of experts was that there were very few proposals for important chapters on daily life. It is expected that the revision of the constitutional text will be finished in less than a month. It will only be then that this commission will give its finished task to the Prior General and his Councils so that they can present it to the next General Chapter of the Augustinian Recollects.
In compliance with the ordinance num. 25 of the 53rd General Chapter on the process of revising and updating the Constitutions, a coordinating commission on study and understanding of the constitutional text was previously formed. Its purpose was “to encourage and promote the active participation of all religious of the Order in the process of reading and continuously and systematically studying of the Constitutions, that would allow the identification of numbers that need explanation, improvement, change or deletion, and to formulate possible alternatives.” (Cfr. Ordinaciones 1, 1, and 25, 2, a-b).
The proposals coming from Provinces, Vicariates, Secretariats and individual religious on the matter, were given to the Technical Commission composed of Frs. Javier Ruiz Pascual, Samson Silloriquez Subaldo, Noberto Escobar Guzmán, Imanol Larrínaga Bengoechea and Carlos González Castellanos. These Augustinian Recollects experts in canon law and religious life were assigned to elaborate alternative texts to the numbers of the Constitutions that were being questioned.