General Commissions for Social Pastoral Care and New Initiatives met online to discuss the current issues of Redemptorist ministry and new initiatives.
Two of the commissions that make up the General Secretariat for Evangelisation met on 12 and 14 May respectively by videoconference. Each of these commissions is composed of at least one member from each Conference.
The commission on Social Pastoral – Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (PS-JPIC) has been working on a resource for reflection and perspectives on this ministry within the Congregation. The understanding and expressions of social ministry are manifested in many ways according to the context of each unit. However, they all have a common factor and fulcrum the option for the poor, which for the Congregation constitutes its very raison d’être in the Church (cf. Const. 5). Our understanding of the poor extends today to our impoverished Common Home, as Pope Francis points out in Laudato Si. The commission hopes to offer a resource that can serve as an inspiration in the exercise of this ministry in the Congregation.
In addition, the Commission on New Initiatives, following the call of the General Chapter for a consultation that can offer guidance on pastoral ministry in the Redemptorist churches (Decision 9), has distributed working material and has received responses and comments from different communities around the world. At present, the commission articulates the various contributions within the working draft in such a way that it can eventually offer a resource for reflection aimed at making our churches and shrines places of welcome and encounter with the Redeemer.
During this week, the members of the General Secretariat for Evangelisation will meet by video conference to discuss the different projects of the commissions that compose it and prepare the report for the next General Chapter.
General Secretariat for Evangelisation
