In what was undoubtedly a historic and precedent-creating first, Pope Francis sat down for three solid hours with 120 superiors of Orders and Congregations to respond to their questions, and dialogue with them about the place of religious men and women in the future of the Church and the world. He called them to return to the essentials of the Gospel, to be courageous in setting out afresh on mission to the edges of society, and to live differently here and now. “You have the potential and the responsibility to wake up the world,” he told them, with the implicit but clear challenge: “So now get on with it!” The challenge was set clear before all those present.
Towards the end of this highly significant encounter, which certainly created a model for the future conversation between religious and bishops throughout the Church, the Pope announced that he had decided to make 2015 the “Year of Consecrated Life.” The link between what he had shared with the superiors and this decision was clear for all to see: the Pope is inviting the whole Church – and not only religious – to grasp the opportunity of the present moment, both to celebrate the rich and varied present reality of religious life, as well as to welcome its future creatively and together.
This time is such an opportunity, no doubt. Pope Francis is the first religious to be pope in a very long time (“When was the last one?” he asked the superiors with a smile), and he does nothing to conceal this fact either in his words or in his actions. His sober and simple lifestyle, his outreach to the poorest, his enthusiasm for mission, his love for the Lord Jesus, his determination in reforming the Church – all this is a reminder of the way the founders and foundresses of the various religious families called the Church to renewal throughout its history.
So there is, in the first place, an opportunity for celebration. Vatican statistics suggests that, throughout the world, there are around 800,000 religious women and 200,000 men, many of them at the very frontiers of mission, often taking the first initiative in a whole myriad of contexts. Every year, the list of those who give their lives for the Gospel is sure to contain no small number of religious. It will do the whole Church good to become more aware of this impressive reality, to be grateful to the Lord for it, and to celebrate religious life as a joy and a wealth for everybody in the Church. As Ignatius of Loyola teaches in the Exercises, gratitude is the motor of mission.
Out of such a celebration will grow a challenge, and a challenge, once again, for the whole Church. Religious themselves will be led to go beyond a potentially superficial enthusiasm for Pope Francis and his message so as to reply in concrete terms to the simple question: How are you planning to change, grow and reform in line with the Pope’s words and example? They, too, will be challenged actively to seek dialogue and cooperation with the Church’s pastors, so that their activities are clearly seen as part of a common witness. These pastors, too, are challenged to welcome, as an enrichment for each local Church, the gift of religious life and the Spirit-given freedom and prophecy religious men and women are called to live.
In response to Pope Francis’ decision on the Year of Consecrated Life, the Vatican department responsible has drawn up a program of events and reflection which will no doubt bear good fruit. But it is evident that it would not be true to the Pope’s intuition to live this Year as a top-down event: this is clearly meant to begin from the grassroots. In other words, it is a time of celebration and challenge offered to us all.
