From 16th to 22nd March, we held our annual assembly of our Province with joy and hope. Due to the pandemic, we continue to be united online, through the Zoom platform, to share our consecrated life and reflect on our missionary work. This year Fr. Ronald Flores encouraged us to share reflections and insights on how to “carry out a missionary pastoral in our parishes, in the context of a world wounded by the pandemic”, bearing in mind the document Lineamenta to maintain the Redemptorist character in our churches, parishes and sanctuaries.
The topics discussed were:
1. Pastoral care of closeness and welcome. In the midst of the pandemic and the “post-pandemic”, to be pastoral care close to the people and welcoming.
2. A pastoral care that walks in the midst of human mobility. The challenges of migration in the context of the pandemic and post-pandemic.
3. Discovering the facilitating and hindering elements (external and internal) for pastoral care.
4. Shared mission and renewal of pastoral agents. The pandemic’s impact on the commitment of pastoral workers (considering that not a few of them are older people or do not have a good command of new information and communication technologies).
5. The social dimension of pastoral care. Towards a more integral social pastoral care with a greater impact on the transformation of society.
6. The formation of pastoral agents (lay and religious) for the mission in a world wounded by the pandemic and its social and economic consequences.
7. A pastoral outreach, after a period of confinement, which goes out to meet others in the midst of their homes (parish, church in the midst of people’s homes – ChL 26).
Encouraged and strengthened by fraternal sharing, we prepare ourselves to live a different Holy Week, far from the faithful, but with the conviction that in Jesus Christ, everything is renewed. Happy Holy Week to all.
Oscar Reinaldo Cuadra Silva C.Ss.R.
