The rapid and dramatic changes in today’s world have led the Congregation along paths of change and restructuring in recent years. Amid historical conditioning, the Redemptorist Charism, which does not change, gives us cohesion and unity. While maintaining continuity and fidelity to the founding ideals of St. Alphonsus de Liguori, the secularised world demands of us an attitude of creative fidelity that preserves the freshness of our charism and enables us to continue to be heralds of the abundant life in the Redeemer. This has been the intuition of recent General Chapters, which have seen the emergence of new dimensions in shaping our Redemptorist identity and mission today.
For this reason, the General Secretariat for Evangelisation wanted to initiate a journey of reflection and discernment on the state and trends of the Redemptorist mission in today’s secularised world. It is a path of preparation for the Jubilee Year 2025, a year which is also dedicated to the mission within the Redemptorist family. To this end, some confreres, lay associates and religious share their experiences in the concrete places where they carry out the Redemptorist mission and their fears and hopes for the future.
Advent and Christmas remind us that we live our charism today in expectation of future realities. Hope is the driving force of our mission and is also part of its content. Therefore, we understand ourselves as missionaries of hope who walk in the footsteps of the Redeemer. Our history and future are nourished by hope and enthusiasm, so we hope that with these reflections, we can read the signs of the times and continue to bring to others a life-giving and liberating experience of the Redeemer, especially the poorest.
Fr. Cristian Bueno C.SS.R.,
Chair of the General Secretariat for Evangelization
