Online meeting with the leaders of commissions and lay groups
On Saturday, September 26, an online meeting was held with the Superior General, Fr. Rogerio Gomes, and approximately 150 Redemptorist lay members from the five conferences. The meeting took place in Spanish and English, with simultaneous translation into French as well.
This meeting was promoted and facilitated by the Office and the General Commission for Shared Mission, with the support of the General Secretariat of the Curia. Miss Anne Walsh opened the meeting with welcoming remarks and introductions of the attendees. Bohuš Živčák, a lay missionary from Slovakia, led a prayer invoking the Holy Spirit, and subsequently the Superior General gave his presentation entitled “Leadership in the Discernment Process of Shared Mission.”
In his introduction, Fr. Rogerio presented the foundations of shared mission, affirming that, although not everyone in the Church exercises the same level of responsibility, “there is a capacity for leadership that arises from one’s baptismal vocation and that can be exercised by all Christians as cooperators in the Kingdom.” Echoing the letter sent to the Congregation at the beginning of the year, he pointed out that this leadership is at the service of the mission, which needs to be discerned, organized, and guided. Therefore, those who receive the responsibility to lead are called to guide, encourage, care for, and reconcile; these are verbs that converge on a fundamental responsibility of leadership: discerning the mission.
He emphasized that “the shared mission, therefore, does not simply mean distributing tasks or incorporating lay people into activities previously defined by religious. It also means sharing the charism and spirituality and discerning the mission together. It is about reading reality together, recognizing missionary calls, identifying the gifts present in the community, and seeking responses that express the richness and complementarity of the different vocations: lay, religious, and priestly.”
To conclude his presentation, Fr. Rogerio shared his personal experience of leadership, from his childhood, through his roles as a formator, provincial superior, and member of the General Council, to his current position as Superior General of the Congregation. He noted that “leading means being present, listening, trusting, working as a team, accompanying, encouraging, caring, planning, and sharing responsibilities, helping individuals and communities’ journey toward a common horizon… I don’t have a formula for leadership; I have all the limitations inherent in a person. What I have tried to do is put the gifts I have received at the service of the mission, learn from people and situations, and trust in the abilities of others. Above all, I have tried to help the Congregation not lose sight of what gives meaning to our structures, decisions, and responsibilities: the mission of the Redeemer.”
After his presentation, a question-and-answer session was held where some participants spoke and interacted with Father Rogerio. The meeting concluded with words of thanks from Vanina Chianí, from Argentina.
Fr. Cristian Bueno, CSsR.
