Q.- What does the election to the post of prior provincial mean to you?
A.- At the outset, it is a huge responsibility. Looking at it from a merely human perspective, it is a heavy and very demanding burden that falls on my weak shoulders, a task that overwhelms me, a challenge that requires very great preparation and qualities that I do not possess. I have accepted this post only from faith, wanting to see the hand of God behind this, putting myself in his arms, hearing time and again in my heart the words of Jesus: “Without me you can do nothing”. Only with the eyes of faith can I recognize the invitation of the Lord to continue serving the brothers in a new ministry and with a new responsibility.
Q.- What do you think are the strong points of the Province?
A.- I do not know the Province sufficiently well yet as to answer the question fairly. But I believe that the first strong point are the religious: the majority of them have the needed spirit, enthusiasm, desire and determination to live their religious life with joy, to be witnesses of God among men and women of today, to serve the brothers there where the Church needs us. The second strong point are our communities, which, though not perfect, are the milieu which allow the religious to live, to live with, to love each other, to help each and other and strive to construct fraternity. From these, from enthusiastic religious and from communities where fraternity, prayer and worked are lived, we can face the challenges that the world now poses to the work of evangelization.
Q.- Which are the most urgent needs?
A.- As most urgent necessities: to continue consolidating the communities so that fraternal life and shared mission can be strengthened; to be able to attend to our ministries, especially those in the mission, as they deserve and need; to persevere in the effort on continuous formation; to continue praying and working for vocations; to care with affection and diligence our elder and sick religious; to open to and share with lay people our charism, our spirituality, our mission.
Migrants and China
Q.- What do you think of the Order’s near future in China?
A.- It is one of the great challenges that we have in the Province. China is a vast country and it is open to hope. There are encouraging signs: the coming of some religious to Spain so they could be formed better, the vocations that continue to arise, the greater contact and relationship that we have with them, the greater freedom that little by little is being felt. But the difficulties remain and the task is not easy. If we have confidence it is because the Spirit of God is acting in the mission since the beginning sustaining, promoting, provoking, surprising. The chapter has ordered the creation of an evaluation team that could help us attend with greater accuracy and efficiency the changing and increasing needs of our mission. We will have to establish it soon, so as to be able to follow attentively the situation of our religious in China. Though not in the very short term, we would also have to begin to prepare some religious in the Chinese language, so that the future would not catch us empty handed.
Fr. Javier has worked in the schools and parishes in Spain. Q.- Why did the Province of Saint Nicholas decide for the ministry with the migrants?
A.- It is true that we have increasingly greater contact with the migrants, although I do not know whether it was something thought of and planned or if it came out gradually, spontaneously. But we give them particular attention at Centro Guadalupe in New Jersey and in the parishes in the United States, in the Latin-American Chaplaincy in London, in the parishes in Almeria and in the parishes in Madrid… It is a sign of the times. It is one of the new poverties, where religious life has to be present. Our Province cannot afford to be isolated or be indifferent in the face of this demanding reality. We want to attend it because God walks and lives among the poor.
Commitment of the 0.7%
Q.- What would you underscore among the directives of the provincial chapter?
A.- Above all, because it is the most salient and it deserves favored treatment, the priority objective: fraternal life and shared mission. We have to focus on this, place our eyes and our dedication, so as to be able to assure, maintain and promote the fraternal life of the religious and to make ourselves more capable of sharing our mission with the lay people in our ministries.
From this priority objective are derived some important tasks in the same direction: to strengthen as much as possible what can help communitarian life and foment the spirituality of communion, to carry on with continuous formation and vocation ministry.
The preparation and implementation of the “Augustinian Recollect Formative Itinerary” can help us all to joyfully live our vocation as Augustinian Recollects. The chapter insisted much on our attending to our ministries with diligence and charity. Also important were the prompt decision to share responsibilities in our schools and the desire to give a more leading role to the lay in our parish ministries. Moreover, the need to continue to diligently care for our vocations obliges us to study the appropriateness of experimenting the formands’ insertion in the communities prior to their definitive commitment and to make a decision on the formation house in Las Rozas. The chapter spent a long time on the care of our sick and elderly brothers, sign of the interest and appreciation that they deserve. Perhaps what has caught attention is the ordinance to contribute 0.7% of our income to the underprivileged, which aims to highlight our commitment to the poor, our option for them.
Q.- What do you think are the biggest challenges now facing the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine?
A.- The same challenges facing religious life everywhere: how to give today a valid, attractive, clear, courageous and determined witness of the following of Jesus. To continue, not only to maintain, but to augment, by updating creatively and courageously the missionary witness and the pastoral care, now that we are less, older, more tired, and sick. To discern which ought to be the priorities so as to center our effort and preferential attention on them. To continue the work of renewal, of conversion, of continuous formation.
International vocations
Q.- What changes in the organization of the Province are demanded by the change in the source of vocations?
A.- It is another challenge that we have to face. The truth is that at present, if we look at the simple professed, the majority of our vocations come from Mexico (13), Costa Rica (5), Brazil (5), China (4)… For some years now, Spain has ceased to be a fertile ground and has become an arid soil. Last year, the last Spanish candidate was ordained priest, and in the short term we don’t see green offshoots that can allow us to foresee a bright future. This situation, which has been there for various years now, obliges us to see the bigger picture in the medium and long term. It is necessary to arrive at a consensus or agreement on formation: what type of religious do we want to and need to form (hence, the necessity of the Augustinian Recollect Formative Itinerary); what type of formation experiences do we have to favor (hence, the study of the conditions of the insertion of our formands in our communities); which place could be ideal for the formands to realize together the last stage of formation (hence, the ordinance on the house of Las Rozas). I believe it is very important and necessary that our professed formands come and live in common and spend several years together, because that gives rise to knowledge, affection, awareness of family, sense and identity as Province and as Order. But there must be a general agreement in the Province on this matter, on formation, especially prior to starting or not the plan to remodel the house of Las Rozas.
Q.- You have been working in formation in the last years; what do you think of the formative process and the formation teams?
A.- I think the formative process is well directed. I believe that basically it has been outlined and agreed on, that we have taken steps towards having the same formation process, stages and content. What is lacking is the completion and implementation of the Augustinian Recollect formative itinerary which would give all of us an air of family, a proper style, an identity.
I cannot say the same thing for the formation teams, which only in the last formative stage has been sufficiently endowed and equipped with adequate personnel. As to the rest, the attention has sometimes been minimal, only given by the one in-charge or at most by two (formator and prior). We have to try to empower and complete the formation teams, because much is at stake in the task of formation. Our immediate future is at stake.
Q.- Do the youth respond to the demands of the Augustinian Recollect charism?
A.- Our youth are children of their time. One of my greatest surprises in these last years is finding out that chronological age is not always accompanied by matching maturity. Some are burdened with the problems of today’s youth: marked individualism, search for personal fulfillment over and above a shared and communitarian project, strong nationalistic tendencies that hamper the universality required in our communities and in our province (present in 9 different countries and in three continents). But they also have many qualities, personal virtues, a sincere desire to consecrate themselves to God in our family, a sincere affection for our religious, missionary and pastoral concerns… The art of formation consists in gradually and patiently decreasing the former and strengthening the latter.
Sense of Order
Q.- How foment the sense of Order and bring out greater communication and interprovincial collaboration?
A.- That is a new thing for me. I am not familiar with these circles and I do not know which are the urgent needs in this matter. But everything points to the need for greater cooperation and a richer communication. For example, why not think of greater cooperation in formation? Why not pose the need for us to be closer to each other, to join efforts in various tasks, aside from collaborating or uniting in missions, countries or provinces? We cannot take anything for granted. We cannot exclude anything. We must not be afraid of the challenges that God will give us in the future.
Q.- Do you think that the missionary spirit continues in the Province?
A.- I believe so, I hope so, I wish so. Judging from recent experiences, I see that it is so: 4 religious have immediately made themselves available to strengthen the missions in Brazil, two of them are young and the other two are older, who have never left Spain. And others are in waiting, wanting to go, but saddled with duties that at the moment prevent them from going. Another religious is willing to wager his failing health in order to continue helping in the mission. I think these are encouraging signs that the missionary spirit continues to live in the Province.
But the generosity and the missionary spirit cannot be limited only to the mission of Labrea or to Brazil. Other religious have responded with admirable willingness to the call of formation, leaving their homeland for other countries in order to collaborate in such a basic, valuable and necessary task and mission. In the chapter it was mentioned that in some places, like in the Vicariate of Mexico, the missionary spirit would need augmenting. Would that the latest moves serve to revive that awareness in each one and awake that concern which we need so much and does us so much good.
“We do not need altar boys”
Q.- How can mission be shared with the lay people in the ministries of the Province?
A.- I believe that we have had a marked delay in this field. Let me put an example: in Brazil, in the mission of Labrea, for many years now, the lay people have been assuming the task responsibly, efficiently and enthusiastically in many apostolates: that of children, of health, of liturgy, of social concerns… And these are persons with much less preparation and formation than the lay people that we have in other ministries and other places, whom we have not been able or willing to give the leading role, the responsibility, the place that corresponds to them in the shared mission.
I believe now is the time to take the step forward. In the schools it is going to be implemented immediately. We cannot afford or want to delay more. It is not out of necessity, because we can still bring out from the religious some more years. It is out of conviction, because we want to add, multiply, share with the lay our spirit and our mission. The same thing we have to do in our parishes. We do not need altar boys. We need collaborators, we need to trust, confide, allow to act, support, give responsibility and leading role to the lay people who wish and are able to help us.