Provincial’s letter, March 2016
By Father Paul Borowski, C.Ss.R. |
March 7, 2016 |
Dear Brothers:
Over the past week and a half, the XXV General Chapter officially began in the North American Conference. With representatives from all the North American Conference as well as Michael Brehl, Enrique Lopez, Jeffrey Rolle, and John Vargas, there were 21 members who gathered at San Alfonso Retreat Center in Long Branch, N.J.
Father Brehl is his initial remarks said to those gathered: “The first phase of the General Chapter process will take place at the Conference level and deals with the tasks outlined in Constitutions 107 and 108. This will offer the possibility of a broader participation of Units, confreres, and lay associates. As an integral part of the General Chapter process, the representatives of the Conference will examine its life, mission, and priorities.”
As a group we spent the time discussing various reports and the experience of the apostolic life here in North America. A time of evaluation was spent looking at the Working Document as well as the various postulata that are being presented. While we can often get weighed down with the discussion of aging and lack of vocations in the Northern Hemisphere, it was a time of great hope as we discussed the way the charism of the Redemptorists is being lived throughout the entire world.
The canonical phase of the General Chapter is not until November of this year in Thailand, but the feeling at the end of the gathering at San Alfonso was that it has given us a chance to truly look at, discuss, and evaluate the state of the Congregation. Often one may be skeptical of such gatherings, but the sharing of the confreres at this meeting exhibited a great hope for the Congregation and its mission throughout the entire world.
I’d like to share some statistics about the Congregation as of February 21, 2016. As I offer these statistics, let us remember what Mark Twain once wrote: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
Total number in the Congregation: 4,963
Total number in North American Conference: 529
- Decrease of about 250 confreres in the last sexennium for whole Congregation
- Decrease in North America of 100 confreres
Average age of confreres in Congregation: 55.33
Average age of confreres in North American Conference: 66.93
- Average age is largely unchanged, but
- Congregation: 40 percent over 60, 60 percent under 60
- North America: 70 percent over 60, 30 percent under 60
These numbers show (and there are more to share) that while the Congregation may be decreasing and aging in the Northern Hemisphere, it is certainly growing in Latin America, Asia/Oceania, and Africa. We are truly an international Congregation, and the idea of Conferences throughout the world is to help us appreciate and deal with this reality.
With the publication of our own recent Catalogue, many have remarked about their “own number” as well as the total listed. It is a sign that the way we live and minister here in North America (particularly in the Baltimore Province) is changing. However, there is life here in our Province and certainly life in the Congregation throughout the world.
As a Province, we are still entrusted with the mission of preaching the good news to the most abandoned, especially the poor. As a Congregation, we are truly living the charism handed on to us from St. Alphonsus.
Phase 1 of the General Chapter began to examine the apostolic life of the entire Congregation, and even with challenges, that apostolic life is being lived to the fullest. May the Spirit of the Living God continue to enable us to be faithful to living our apostolic life, even with its challenges, here in the Baltimore Province.
As always, we remember in prayer our men in formation and all our infirm confreres at Stella Maris, the Villa in New Smyrna, Boston, Brooklyn, and Ephrata.
In the Spirit of the Redeemer,
Paul Borowski, C.Ss.R.
The members must give all their attention to putting on the new self, created in the image of Christ crucified and risen from the dead, so as to purify their motives in judging and acting. For conversion of heart and continual renewal of mind should characterize their whole daily life.
(Constitution 41 1o)