Under the motto “Let us be one so that the world may believe in Shared Mission,” the First Congress of Lay Redemptorists of the Pedro Donders Province was held from Thursday 10 to Sunday 13 October 2024 at the student body of the Most Holy Redeemer in the city of La Plata, Argentina. In this spirit of shared mission, lay people and religious from the Pedro Donders Province (Chile, Paraguay, Argentina) met.
The theme of the meeting was the Directory for Shared Mission and its proposed guidelines for creating a common project for missionary outreach together. The four chapters of the Directory and the pillars that support our shared mission were reflected upon. In group work, diverse feelings and resonances were expressed regarding the contributions presented. The richness of what was shared provided new insights into the process of knowledge and integration in which we find ourselves as a province, knowing and feeling that we are part of the whole of the Congregation. All that we have experienced leads us, the lay people and religious of our regional areas, to deepen the Constitutions and Statutes of the Congregation and thus seek new spaces for dialogue, synodality and encounter, activating as Redemptorists the hope of the Redeemer in the midst of this wounded world. We take with us many challenges and tasks to continue walking together in a shared mission.
We counted on the participation of the Coordinator of the Conference of Latin America and the Caribbean, Fr. César Torres, the virtual communication with the coordinator of the Commission for the Shared Mission of the General Government, Anne Walsh, the greeting and encouragement given to us by the Provincial Father, Fr. Javier Machado and the priests and lay people who make up the Provincial Commission for the Shared Mission. We feel always accompanied and hopeful to continue working together knowing that a long but encouraging road awaits us, being certain that we are following in the footsteps of the Redeemer.
We entrust this new process of the congregation into the hands of Jesus, Mary our mother, and Blessed Peter Donders, so that they may move hearts to a new way of bringing the Gospel to so many who need it today, to announce the abundant redemption together with lay people and consecrated people of the Most Holy Redeemer in a shared mission.
Vanina Chiani
