Nearly 600 Gather at Apostolic Religious Life Symposium
October 01, 2008
In the morning panel discussion, Father Hugh Cleary, C.S.C. `69, Superior General of the Congregation of Holy Cross, offered inspiration by calling consecrated life "a great living treasure of the Church."
Referring to the call by Jesus to "Come, follow me," Father Cleary said, "How blessed we are in our magnificent vocation to follow Him - truly follow Him."
Sister Gill Goulding, a member of the Congregation of Jesus and a professor at Regis College in Toronto, Ontario, stressed that the love of Christ is "the root, ground, heart of religious life." She encouraged religious to follow obedience out of love, not fear, and to reclaim the contemplative way in prayer and practice.
Father Joseph Lienhard, a Jesuit priest and professor of theology at Fordham University in Bronx, N.Y., focused on the importance of signs and symbols in religious life, like common dress and communal living.
He said a community without these signs has difficulty communicating its meaning, and loses the meaning it had meant to express.
Cardinal Sean O'Malley, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Boston, introduced Cardinal Rode for his afternoon keynote address, which was read in part by Father David O'Connell, president of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
Cardinal Rode said religious communities have been involved in a great crisis over the past 40 years. He cited the decline in the number of members, the abandonment of ministries, the closing of communities, and the debts of some congregations.
Yet despite these facts, he said, some communities are reversing the trend, seeking renewal based on a correct interpretation of Vatican II. While there was much in religious life to improve after the Council, he said, secular culture penetrated the effort, and that led to a dilution of faith, a rejection of traditional prayer, the exodus of members, and the disappearance of many apostolic ministries.
The true spirit of the Council, he said, encompassed both continuity and reform based on clear guidelines centered on Christ and the Gospels, and aimed at more faithful observance to the rule of the community.
New religious orders begun since Vatican II have adhered to that authentic spirit, he said, and they are growing because of it. Yet new vocations are not coming in many other communities, he said, and that points to the need for more formation programs aimed at the new generation, which he called "essential if we want to flourish."
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