In his speech the Holy Father remembered that the last two Assemblies of the Union of Superiors General had been dedicated to considering the future of religious life in Europe. “You are seekers of God by vocation, the Pope said. To this pursuit you consecrate the most precious energies of your life. You seek the definitive, you seek God. “Like the first monks”, the Holy Father continued, “keeping your gaze fixed upon him. you cultivate an eschatological orientation: Behind the provisory you seek what remains, what does not pass”.
To be a living Gospel
" The profound renewal of the consecrated life begins with the centrality of the Word of God, and more concretely in the Gospel, supreme rule for all of you, the Holy Father told all those present. The Gospel lived daily is the element that gives beauty to the consecrated life and presents you before the world as a trustworthy alternative. Contemporary society needs and the Church expects you to be a living Gospel”.
Referring to “another fundamental aspect of the consecrated life:fraternity", Pope Benedict underlined the fact that “fraternal life is one of the aspects greatly sought by young people when they draw near to your life; it is an important prophetic element that you offer to a fundamentally individualistic society”. In this sense "there is need of serious and constant discernment to listen to what the Spirit says to the communities (cf. Revelation 2:7), to recognize what comes from the Lord and what is contrary to him (cf. "Vita Consecrata," 73).
“Without discernment accompanied by prayer and by reflection, the consecrated life runs the risk of accommodating itself to the criteria of this world: individualism, consumerism, materialism; criteria that eliminate fraternity and deprive consecrated life of what is striking and attractive about it”.
Assembly of the Union of Superiors General. The mission
The Holy Father highlighted another aspect : mission. “Mission is the Church's mode of being and, in it, of the consecrated life itself; it is part of your identity; it moves you to bring the Gospel to everyone, without limits. Mission, supported by a powerful experience of God, by a robust formation and by a fraternal life in community, is a key for understanding and revitalizing consecrated life. Go, then, and in creative fidelity make the challenge of the new evangelization your own. Go, then, and in creative fidelity make the challenge of the new evangelization your own. Renew your presence in the Areopaguses of today to proclaim, as St. Paul did in Athens, the "unknown" God”.
Speaking of the drop in numbers especially in Europe the Pope said that ,”the difficulties, however, must not make us forget that the consecrated life has its origin in the Lord: It is willed by him for the building up and the holiness of his Church, and thus the Church itself will never be deprived of it”.
The Pope finished by encouraging everyone “to walk in faith and in hope, I ask you for a renewed effort in vocations work and in initial and permanent formation”.
Consecrated Life in Europe
150 Superiors General took part in this the 76th General Assembly of the Union of Superiors General who came together from 24th -25th November in the Salesianum to continue their reflection on the theme “ Consecrated Life in Europe: Commitment towards Evangelical Prophecy”. After the welcome given by Pascual Chaves, SDB, president of the USG, and a synthesis of the May Assembly presented by Mario Aldegani, CSJ, we might highlight the interventions of the Spanish Bishop Ricardo Blázquez who developed the theme “ Call to the future and religious life: Signs of Hope”; one by Wilhelm Steckling: “Religious life in Europe. Towards concrete orientations”; another given by José Rodríguez Carvallo, OFM, entitled “Consecrated Life in Europe: Commitment towards Evangelical Prophecy”. There was also a round table and group discussions. The Assembly finished with an audience with the Holy Father in the Sala Clementina in the Vatican Palace.