Forty Redemptorists and lay people continue their meeting these days in Tuchów, Poland, for the deliberations of the third, European phase of the XXVI General Chapter of the Redemptorist Congregation.
The second, canonical phase of the General Chapter for the entire Congregation, which concluded a year ago, made decisions in the areas of understanding Redemptorist identity, Redemptorist mission, consecrated life, formation, and governance. The task of the third phase, which takes place on each continent in so-called conferences, is to translate the decisions into concrete terms and prepare implementation in the lives of Redemptorists and lay co-workers in the mission.
The first few days of the meeting in Tuchów were devoted to deepening the methodology of the work and the decisions taken, as well as plenary and group discussions on how to put them into practice. This is also done partly using the synodal method – with adequate time to listen in silence to the Holy Spirit in God’s Word and how it is understood and received by the other members of each group.
The fruit of the work so far is a draft of the Action Plan for the Conference of Redemptorists in Europe for the next six years (2023-2028), which will be discussed and clarified in the next days of the meeting.
The chapter deliberations will conclude probably on Tuesday, while Wednesday and Thursday will be devoted to the Assembly of the Conference, which will deal with, among other things, reports on the past years of its work and the election of candidates for its coordinator, who will be presented for appointment to the General Government.
A nice break in the proceedings was a Sunday whole-day trip to Krakow with a tour of the Wawel Royal Castle and the Old Town. Earlier that morning, we prayed together with the faithful at the Shrine of Our Lady of Tuchów, entrusting to her also, according to the local tradition, the matter of priestly and religious vocations to our Congregation.
Fr. Mariusz Mazurkiewicz CSsR, Tuchów
