1. THE CHARISM OF THE FOUNDER AND OF OUR INSTITUTE

The Inspiration

1. The Charism
The charism is a gift bestowed on Blessed Joseph Allamano. God chose him with a specific purpose and rendered him fruitful, that he would gather around himself disciples to whom he became 'Father'. He welcomed this divine initiative and answered in total fidelity (cf. Const. 1-2).Enlightened and guided by the Holy Spirit, he read the Gospel in a very personal way, he formed a strong spiritual experience in which we too, to a certain extent, have been inserted, in order to respond to a special need of humanity.
The fundamental intuition for the Allamano which unites all the aspects of his charism, is the call to cooperate with God in the concretization of his universal plan of salvation. For him, this is the most "sublime" work, and it is "essentially divine". When he passes it on to his sons, the charism of the Allamano becomes the charism of our Institute. This charism, just as every gift from God, is a living reality, open to development, even to major changes if these are in unison with the founding inspiration (cf. Const. 3). Faithfulness to the charism is dynamic, it is real if there is an effort to grow; it develops properly, if it adheres to the original intuition.
The Founder himself invited our first missionaries to collaborate with him in nuancing some aspects of his charism, asking for the contribution of their concrete missionary experience. In a very special way, he profited from the material, intellectual and spiritual collaboration of James Camisassa. God put them together in a common project, the foundation of our Institute, which was actualized with diverse roles and tasks.

The essential elements of our charism are: (cf. Const. 1-4)

The mission ad gentes: this is the goal that characterizes and qualifies us in the Church. We are members of our Institute strictly to attain this goal: "this house is only for the Consolata Missionaries", and no one having a different goal can remain here. If he did, "he would be like a bone out of place" (VS 88,64)). For the Allamano, this choice was the fruit of attentive discernment, to the point that he did not accept places to work in, unless they were explicitly directed to the non Christian: "we want the infidels (Conf. II, 112).We assume this commitment through our total and perpetual consecration ad vitam to the Mission. For the Allamano, this is such a great ideal that it must be assumed in a radical and total fashion; to it, everything must be oriented: our existence, our spirituality, all our choices and all our activity.
Our availability ad extra is another element of our charism. This element implies going out of our territorial and cultural boundaries and leaving even the milieu of our own religion. It means going anywhere on earth to announce the Gospel in the frontiers of the Mission (cf. EN 69), where the Gospel has not yet arrived, or has not yet taken root, and where it hasn't permeated mentalities and the behavior. It is perfectly clear that, for the Allamano, the distinctive quality of his missionaries consists in leaving their country to meet other peoples, to face different cultures and religions; it consists in announcing the Gospel to those who have not yet received it: "We want the pagans" (Conf. II, 112).

Fraternal Communion, as a form of life anchored on "family spirit", on "esprit de corps". It comprises absolute parity between priests and brothers as far the missionary vocation is concerned. We are one "family" in which all members welcome one another as brothers, become interested in the others, live the Mission with one and the same purpose in mind, excluding all forms of individualism and personalism, and all make their own the joys, the sufferings and the hopes of the whole Institute, which they must consider as their personal belonging and to which feel deeply attached to (cf. Const.15). The Founder considered this as "soul and life" of the Institute (cf. Directory, 1901).

Consecrated Life, through the profession of the evangelical counsels, which for us is tightly connected with the Mission ad gentes.
From this flows a reciprocal spiritual and operative effectiveness. For the Allamano, we become holy as we evangelize, and we evangelize as we become holy. There is a close and necessary union between discipleship and Mission. We follow Jesus Christ in consecrated life and in the evangelization of non-Christians. Our Blessed Father Founder is convinced that there is an intrinsic relationship between holiness and Mission. For him, missionary vocation is possible, and the ministry of evangelization if efficient, only when there is a robust spirituality, an "extra" dose of zeal, of love for God and the brethren, of virtue and science. The Mission is done "in the holiness of life" as the Founder understood it when he said, "First holy, then missionaries" (Const. 5; cf. RM 90-91; AG 25). Among the motives that made him adopt the form and not only the spirit of consecrated life is his conviction that the former generates a constant tension towards holiness.

The Presence of Mary, model and guide, source of inspiration and Mother.
With Her and like Her we bring to the world the True Consolation, Christ the Lord (cf. Const. 11). The ministry of Consolation is part of our charism (cf. SL 574) and of our identity. The Consolata is for us more than a simple devotion, or a title. She inspires our way of concretizing our charism. In the tradition stemming from our Founder, to bring the joyful announcement of the Gospel is to work for the welfare and the happiness of people, it is to free them from all sorts of sadness and suffering, from fear and oppression. We do it with our eyes fixed on Mary, who is "sure sign of consolation" (Const. 70).

2. The "spirit"
In the configuration of our charism, we place not only the goal ad gentes, but also a certain way of living it. This entails some characteristics that, according to our Founder, are essential to the identity of the Consolata missionary. Such characteristics are given in our Constitutions. They refer to spiritual qualities (nos. 12-16), virtues (nos. 18-19) and a style proper to the Consolata Missionaries in the way of doing evangelization (nos. 71-76).
Common denominator that pervades everything in our life is what the Founder calls "spirit of…" in which we can find the soul of his spiritual exhortations, the dominant force that goes beyond the limitations imposed by time, and beyond spiritual forms too. He speaks of spirit of poverty, spirit of obedience, spirit of sacrifice, spirit of prayer, spirit of silence, spirit of humility, spirit of faith, spirit of work, spirit of detachment, spirit of charity, spirit of meekness. This "spirit" is a reality that permeates, directs and dignifies everything. It is flavor, just as salt is to food. It is a driving force and tension towards what is better. It is depth and vigor. It is intuition. It is the opposite of formalism. It is totality. It is truth, especially in living our vocation of missionaries. It is going to the essence of things. It is doing things well.
The "spirit" gives a sense of stability to what is mobile. It is unity, harmony. It is the agent of transformation. It is coherence. It is style of being and of behavior. It means to follow Christ, to imitate Him, missionary and the true model of missionaries. We must make ours the spirit of our Institute: "You must possess the spirit of the Consolata Missionaries in your thoughts, words and actions" (SL 66).

3. In the Mission of the Church.
Our choice of life is grafted unto that identity that is proper to the whole Church: to be witnesses and announcers of God's love as manifested fully in Christ. The Mission belongs to God, and he entrusts it to his Son, and the Son commits it to his apostles in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Missionary God willed a Missionary Church, sacrament of universal salvation. The Mission is the work that defines the Church, it is the Church in action (AG 3).
In the Allamano, this ecclesial vision of the Mission is very powerful. He begun from there, by perceiving the call to the evangelization of "infidels" as an emergency that bursts out of the nature of the local Church, which has a "broader Mission". He feels that he is sending out his missionaries in the name of the Church.
At the same time, our very presence is a strong proposal to the churches where we work. It reminds them that to be engaged in mission is their priority too, it is part of their catholicity, which requires of all to open their heart to the needs of the world, and to cultivate a form of love that is truly universal.

4. In communion with the Consolata Missionary Sisters
The aim, the end, and the characteristics of our Institute, as well as the common paternity in Blessed Joseph Allamano, are deep and strong motives of unity with the Consolata Missionary Sisters, whom we consider as sisters, animated by the same charism and spirit. Our common Founder willed that our Mission be accomplished in the masculine and in the feminine. By founding the Institute of the Consolata Missionary Sisters, he intended to obtain a fruitful complementarity vis-à-vis the evangelization, and also in relation to the family spirit and the unity of intentions with which he intended to perform it.
The distinction in two separate juridical entities guarantees autonomy and dignity to the two parties. It must be respectfully supported. But we believe it possible to achieve a higher type of union between us, made of a more welcoming spirit, sharing and collaboration. How beautiful it would be if everywhere we would generate attitudes characterized by that love between brothers and sisters so much wanted by our Founder, a love that is indeed practiced in many a situations where the Mission is done together. This desire of ours is based on the will of our Founder.
Both our Institutes have carried out a proper study of the charism, which should be deepened and compared in unison.

The reality

A lot of work has been done since Vatican II, such as the updating of the Constitutions, the studies on our Founder and on the history of our Institute, and the beatification of Blessed Joseph Allamano. These works have stimulated our interest in knowing more about our own origins and the urge to understand better the whole personality of our Founder: his life, his activity, his teachings, and in identifying the enduring elements of his charism and of his spirit.
We also developed a greater recognition of his paternity and his charismatic function. We got closer to his teaching and to his evangelical intuitions, especially those related to basic formation. The main work now is for everybody to make the effort to go beyond the historical information and the literal interpretation of his words and writings. That way, we will be able to develop his teaching along the lines of the magisterium of the Church, of the theological progress and of the renovation of the liturgy.
The frequent request of missionaries, especially young ones, to leave the Institute, is a cause of suffering. The easiness with which some ask for periods of absence from the community, or want to do work that does not correspond to the purpose of our Institute, brings us to wonder about the depth of their identification with the latter and with our charism, and on how strong was their ideal of evangelization of non-Christians, how robust was their tension as missionaries ad gentes -- the tension that so deeply dominated the Allamano.
The specific charism of our Institute manifests itself in the local churches and it must be perceived and accepted by them. The organizational development of theses Churches as well as their urgent needs could sometimes create difficulties to the acceptance of our charism. Often, these Churches do not consider us an integral part of their organizational structures, because we are not there permanently, and our service to them is temporary. Other times, our engagements and roles in the past, which we still have to carry in certain areas until they can be passed on to others, weigh heavily upon us. We have the impression sometimes that we are being cast into and kept in commitments and services which do not correspond to our charism, even if, when we first accepted them, we were truly justified to do so. Our Institute must rethink its place in the local churches, and we must keep alive the charism ad gentes and its characteristics.

PRACTICAL PROPOSALS

Missionaries and Communities
The words and the spirit of the Founder must be for us a point of referral as we form our personal and community life project. To this effect:
- besides the celebrations that emphasize the charismatic elements of our Institute (such as the Anniversary of Foundation, the Feast of the Blessed Joseph Allamano, the Solemnity of Our Lady Consolata), we should celebrate "minor" important dates of the life of the Allamano (January 21, September 20, October 7), and of our Institute (April 24); these celebrations help develop our ties with our charism and our spirit;
- in every community, the 16 of every month is to be celebrated as "day of the Founder";
- we must remember the recommendation of the Founder "not to forget" Can. James Camisassa, what he was and did for our Institute. Special commemoration will be made on the anniversary of his death (August 18);
- let all missionaries engage themselves in making our Founder known, presenting his good example and exhorting people to have recourse to his intercession;
- once in a while, publications that offer the teachings of the Founder should be read also in community; courses should be held in which the charism should be studied in depth, all the while trying to keep in mind the present context we live in;
- references to the Founder should more deeply guide our spirituality and our choices. This should help us grow in the missionary attitudes which he both lived and emphasized, such as: the evangelization of non-Christians, zeal, stamina, leaving for elsewhere, dynamic pastoral activity, and also the foundations of the spiritual life which form authentic apostles: the Eucharist, fountain and apex of the evangelization; the word of God, "our book"; Mary, inspiration and Mother; a liturgy that is "full of spirit".

The General Government
" It its work plan, let the General Government prepare:
- the publication of a popular biography of the Founder, easy of understanding for the most simple people, which is to be translated into various languages;
- -a collection of texts chosen from the writings of Blessed Joseph Allamano: talks, letters, homilies, reports. Such texts will help people come in contact with his teachings, will help them meditate and learn the spirit that he transmitted to his missionaries.
" Let the General Government encourage the reading and the in-depth study of the doctrine of the Founder in the light of theology, of spirituality, of the present reflection on the Mission and on the cultural and social context of the various continents.
" If a new edition of the "Spiritual Life" seems opportune, it must be preceded by a revision of the sections no longer of actuality, and it should be linguistically corrected in order to facilitate its understanding.
" It should foster the publication of commentaries on the Constitutions and on other important documents of our Institute, and other similar studies by our African and Latin American confreres. The same process is to be initiated in Asia.
" As far as it is in its power, it will foster meetings between the General Governments and the Governments of the Provinces of both the Consolata Missionaries and the Consolata Missionary Sisters. They should treat themes relative to our charism and our spirituality. Such meetings will be an occasion for exchanging information and experiences, and for preparing some common initiatives and undertakings.

2.CALLED TO BE SENT

The Inspiration

In order to live the missionary charism of our Institute, we are called by God with a personal vocation. This means that we have to go back to the root of the apostolate of Jesus of Nazareth who calls followers to himself in order to send then into the world: "I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit" (John 15:16; cf. John 17:18). In the priestly, and missionary, prayer of John, the emphasis is placed first of all on the choice, the call and the consecration, and afterwards on the sending by the Spirit. The call is necessary to the sending. It is a call to stay with Jesus, in order to be sent by Him (cf. Mark 3:15-18).
It was the same for Jesus: He is the one whom the Father "consecrated and sent into the world". The Mission begins with the Father, is accomplished in the proclamation of the words and in the realization of the works of the Father, and has its apex with his return to him in his death and resurrection, and in the sending of the Holy Spirit. Jesus, Missionary of the Father, offers us the first lesson of humility in front of any attempt to appropriate the Mission to ourselves.
To be "sent" means also that the source of our missionary mandate is God himself, through the mediation of the Church and of the Institute. The Mission belongs to God. The Holy Spirit shows its specific places and its addressees. We are servants of a reality that is infinitely superior to us. To this referred the exhortation of Blessed Joseph Allamano on the need for the Consolata missionary to accept God's absolute primacy and the primacy of holiness (cf. RM 90), the need to be "totus Dei".
The sending includes the idea of going out and thus it strengthens one aspect of our charism. As people who are sent, we leave a certain reality in order to meet a different one. The tension towards what "is beyond" is a characteristic of our being missionary-sent. It is a territorial, cultural, religious and social "beyond". A "beyond" which allows us to meet what is ad gentes, and to make ours its call.
In the Gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles, we do not only see the going, but also the return, in order to tell the works of God and the wonders wrought by the Spirit among the peoples. That is part of the dynamic movement of the Mission, which is meant to build a bridge between the Church and the peoples, to serve the Churches that have given birth to the missionary, by developing the consciousness of their commitment and of their responsibility towards the poor and the non-evangelized of the world. The missionary is the one who leaves and returns: a coming back into himself, into one's own environment, into one's own Church of origin.

The Reality

In doing our missionary work, we often behave as "solitary sailors", as if the Mission belonged to us, as if we were its sole actors and specialists. We forget that we are part of the ecclesial community, which is missionary, all of it, and in which the Spirit awakens so many initiatives of commitment.
Some situations of uncertainty and resistance act counter our being sent:
" after many years of missionary work in Africa and in Latin America, it's easy to fall into the temptation of considering "ours" the Churches in which we have worked, and to consider our presence there necessary, and thus dispensing us from discerning when it's time to go somewhere else.
" despite the great steps made toward a maturation of the true sense of Mission, some Latin American Churches sometimes demand that we accept to work in their parishes because of their scarcity of clergy. This makes it difficult for us to concretize our a ad gentes, and risks our permanence in these parochial contexts.
" in Europe and in North America our confreres experience the difficulty to operate in social, cultural and ecclesial realities that are often very complex, to establish a balance between the ad gentes of our Mission and the local "missionary" demands, between sound methods and new strategies that present-day situations require. At times, our own way of life, with all its structures and styles, does not show the real face of the Mission as first evangelization, as going beyond, courageously and in new fashion.
" some missionaries resist going out. Others find it difficult to insert themselves in a Mission project outside their own environment. Some others feel uneasy in a style of missionary work that is individualistic and old-fashioned, and which pays little attention to the path trod by the Local Church.
" often, there is no will or ability of planning together. Consequently, missionaries take on personal projects that have no relation with the work of our Institute. It also makes it difficult to cooperate with lay missionaries, or to help them insert themselves in our missionary activities.
" for some, the Mission has become a temporary experience, rather than a firm and essential element of our vocation. Even studies and specializations seem sometimes to follow personal preferences and situations, rather than the needs of the Mission and of the Institute.
" going back to work in one's own country of origin is sometimes accepted with difficulty because it is not considered a part of the Mission, nor a form of being missionary. This penalizes those who have accepted it and also the provinces, because they must resign themselves to other non-programmed "returns". It deprives the missionaries of the chance to reconsider their style of doing Mission, which would prepare them to leave as renewed people.

Practical Proposals

Missionaries
" Conscious that he is sent, the missionary should periodically meet with his Regional Superior, and on the occasion of the Spiritual Exercises or in other moments of renewal, he should examine himself:
- on his spirit and style of work;
- on his relations with the Local Church in which he lives; with the other missionary forces, especially lay ones; with our Institute, the Province of origin, the confreres who come from other cultures.
" The missionaries who are engaged in activities of Mission and Vocation Promotion should have a clear awareness that they too are ad gentes, notwithstanding the disillusions, the fatigue and the aridity of their work.

The Provinces
In their plan of work and evaluation during the Conferences and the annual meetings, the Provinces should:
" elaborate and review their missionary project in conformity with the orientations given by the Chapter;
" evaluate the capacity of welcoming and collaborating with other missionary forces (religious, lay), and in a special way with the Local Church;
" establish concrete ways to facilitate the insertion of missionaries arrived from other geographical areas, and the re-insertion of the missionaries who are avvicendati to their own country in the social, ecclesial and operative situations of the province;
" help their missionaries to grow in the spirituality of those who are "called and sent";
" during the formative journey and in the Regional Directory of Formation, concrete means must be proposed that will clarify and develop the spirituality of the sending and of the return, and help the students evaluate its interiorization. This must be a criterion for acceptance in our Institute.

The General Government
Keeping in mind the requirements relative to the "sending" as constitutive of our identity, the General Government should:
" help the missionaries experience the "sending" by having him leave his own cultural and social environment;
" come up with a realistic plan of avvicendamento for every missionary that should take place every nine years. The missionary himself should make his availability known to the General Government;
" see to it that in the opening of new areas of evangelization decided by the Chapter, the missionary team be composed, whenever possible, of priests and brothers.

4. CONSECRATED

The Inspiration

The Mission is for us inseparable from consecrated life: "The Institute is a family of people consecrated for the Mission ad gentes" (Const. No. 4). The intuition of the Allamano on the need of holiness as condition to be a good missionary brought him to see in religious consecration the best element of an authentic missionary life. It renders one apt for the Mission, and then becomes its source. Consecrated life is the "Epiphany of God's love for the world" (VC 72). It is the most radical witness to the choice of "God alone", to the following of Christ as norm of life, to the opening up to the action of the Holy Spirit, who sends off to every part of the world, to announce the Kingdom of God and to serve the brethren in complete charity, out of love alone. The radical nature of consecrated life, becomes for the Allamano the basic form of being and action of the missionary, since it prepares him to a total abandonment to God's will and salvific plan. "The evangelical basis of consecrated life is to be sought in the special relationship of Jesus with some disciples during his life on earth. He called them, not only to welcome the Kingdom of God into their own lives, but also to place their lives at his service" (VC 14).
Consecration is the work of God, and it is accomplished basically in Baptism. By living in a new and consecrated life, a deeper syntony with Christ Missionary is achieved for the service of the missionary Church. The Spirit of the Lord, origin of every vocation and consecration, sets us apart for the Mission.

1. God as Absolute
The insistence of our Founder on God's primacy over all and on holiness, makes us attentive to the contemplative dimension of the Mission. It requires of us all to have a strong perception of God, of his presence in us and in the others, and a disposition to always search for him and his will. Concentrating on God will render us capable of loving the world with His own heart. If we always give first place to the God of Jesus Christ, we will give ample room also to the brethren. Only the person who belongs totally to God can belong totally to the others.

2. The Values of the Kingdom
Liberation and salvation, healing and forgiveness, brotherhood and a welcoming attitude, justice and peace, respect of human rights, solidarity and love, life and truth, are characteristics and requirements of the Kingdom (cf. RM 14). Consecrated life foreshadows them, and the Mission proclaims and witnesses to them. "With the profession of the evangelical counsels […], the eyes of the faithful are led to look at the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven already at work in our history, although it waits for its completion in the heavens." (ivi, 1).

3. Communion and Missionary Community
According to the wishes of the Founder, the Consolata missionary does not do Mission alone. Communion of life and work are for us a priority value (cf. Const. 22). To be together in fraternity and communion becomes a method and a way of presenting ourselves to the world as a true apostolic community. Communion guarantees the value of our pastoral service; it is the objective of the Kingdom of God, to which our missionary work tends. Our Founder's conviction on the indispensibility of communion in the Mission is very strong indeed because: it pools together energies, it helps support one another in fidelity, and it guides the work of all towards common objectives. In a clear way, he affirms that without communion the missionary will "work uselessly and maybe even destroy the good done by others". Consequently, his exhortation is, " work in harmony and God will bless your endeavors" (Letter to the Missionaries in Kenya, October 12, 1910).
The internationality of our communities expresses the catholicity of the Church and makes it visible. The international communities anticipate the accomplishment of the future Kingdom, where will be gathered in perfect unity all peoples and all races from all over the earth. To all, it will give plenitude of life and peace. These communities witness to the truth that it is possible to live in fraternity and to overcome any racial, cultural and social barrier. As in the Church of Acts, these communities attract the esteem and the sympathy of everyone and thus are true evangelization (cf. Acts 2:47-48). They accomplish in a more perfect way the task of promoting and realizing communion as a Gospel value (cf. VC 45).
The Founder considered it "very important" that his missionaries be at least three per community. This rule has had many exceptions right from the beginning of the life of our Institute, and even today is considered utopic and impossible to put into practice. However, if we really believe in the value of communion willed by our Founder as the way of doing Mission, we cannot simply give up. It would be truly utopic to aim at a deep renewal of our Institute, of our a ad gentes and of our modus operandi, if those who wish to follow this path cannot find the support, the reassuring help and the climate of a community that is truly a community.


4. Obedience
Obedience is for our Founder the attitude which better identify the missionary as sent by the One who came to do not his will but the salvific will of the Father. For him, obedience is first and foremost. It is the virtue that accompanies anyone who is on the way of responsibility and discernment, since it disposes one to recognize and to accomplish God's will in missionary life by way of human agents. Obedience is discernment, study, listening, personal and communitary abandonment to the Father's project. It is grafted unto the value of liberty which, although it is today considered an absolute value, must always come second to love. If our communities are not places, and "schools" of love by the esteem for one another and by the respect and friendship, then obedience is impossible. On the other side, if together we look for what is good, then our communities render us capable of renouncing our own freedom in favor of choices made by the community.

5. Poverty
We choose to be poor because Jesus Christ was poor and because the majority of humanity is poor. For the Allamano there is no Mission without detachment. It generates freedom and availability, commitment to God with no reservation--the only riches that thoroughly fulfills the human heart. In the same way, no Mission is possible if not "for" and "with" the poor. Poverty of consecrated life lays down its premises with a sobriety and a style of living that make possible solidarity, sharing and nearness to people. Poverty educates and endows people with a correct rapport with goods: it bans the extremes of uncontrolled desire for more, of waste and greed; it makes us aware that we are not owners of the goods we possess, and it induces us to place them at the service of the Mission.

6. Chastity
It reveals God's love, which is not exclusive and limited but extends out to everybody, without any preference; in Christ, it replenishes human solitude. It expresses our choice of God above anyone or anything else and therefore, it shows the primacy we accord to his Kingdom and to the brethren, without any limit or exclusion. It also witnesses to our faithfulness. In a world that made systems out of every puny contingency, fidelity appears today as an old-fashioned value. God himself is the First Faithful. Faithfulness in chastity reveals it. It is possible if founded on a relationship of inter-personal love: "I am faithful because I love You". Down deep, this is he reason for this and the other vows. Since the Mission is a story of love, fidelity to the vows in consecrated life is for the missionary the surest way to fulfill it. A climate of fraternity, communion and respect favors the fulfillment of this commitment in the face of God and of people.

The Reality

1. Consecrated Life
We have to recognize in all honesty that consecrated life has not among us the indisputable place that our Founder wanted it to have in the life of a missionary. The deep conviction of the value of consecrated life and of the vows does not seem to have created deep roots, not even among the young. In their case, we must keep in mind the aspects to which we referred in the cultural context. More often than not, consecrated life is looked at as something preceding and separated from apostolic activities. Some are afraid that it will produce some sort of disincarnated spiritualism, distant from people and from daily life experiences. Some consider it incompatible with the Mission and see no possibility of a synthesis between the two. Maybe it is in this area that lies a certain misunderstanding towards our Brothers, since they devote themselves to the Mission exclusively in the consecrated life.
In spite of this weakness, we cannot say that the values of consecrated life are absent among us. We could rather say that the traditional methods of expressing it are not visible, on account of their connection with the Mission. As a compensation for this weakens, other aspects are highlighted, such as: total self-giving to the Mission, including the gifts of personal goods and of goods received from others; not caring much for self, including one's personal health, as well as the time spent for Mission. This is true also of the spirit of the vows, which is best manifested in accepting the services and changes asked of us, even when they are demanding a lot of us, and require much adjustment; in the sense of "detachment", which for the Allamano is the "juice" or the core element of our poverty; in accepting to live a life of no ease, even when this means lacking necessary things; in showing love to everybody, especially the poorest and the marginalized.
There also are less positive aspects. In community life: lack of sense of responsibility in the realization of the project of community life, crisis over authority, difficulty in exercising the role of the superior, sense of independence and estrangement from community life. In the area of the observance of the vows: inconsistencies and fragility, lack of integration in the realm of affectivity; independence in the use of goods, projects and personal accounts, appropriation of things which, according to the Constitutions, belong to the community (donations, salaries, stipends, pensions), lack of responsibility in using the goods of the community, the means of transportation, excessive trust on material means in doing Mission, certain styles of life which really are a counter witness to evangelical poverty.
Totally taken up by missionary activities, some forget the urging of the Founder who says that the missionary must be a man of lots of prayer, who accomplishes more in a short time after engaging in prayer. Times of silence become rare, as well as meditation, personal and community prayer. A reduced number of community practices are considered sufficient; all else is considered part of one's personal tasks. The lack of a vigorous spiritual dimension makes our service to the Mission less credible. And then, our shortcomings emerge: a superficiality and shallowness in the various expressions of our life. It is fundamental to return to live the "absolute of God", a strong spirituality, and a deep experience of God, to animate and move ahead our ad gentes.

2. Community Life
Our communities are becoming more and more international. It can be easily predicted that in the near future a strong transformation will happen in their composition and a radical process of inculturation will be needed. This will then demand that we re-study the organization of our community life, the criteria to practice the communion of goods, basic and ongoing formation, apostolate, how to choose leaders for the various tasks.
Uneasiness in our communities comes from various angles: they are too small, or live in a situation of constant emergency, with too frequent changes; sometimes they are engaged in too many activities to the detriment of fraternal life, interpersonal communication and community prayer. There also are a myriad of tasks and engagements that produce diverse rhythms of life, something that must be taken into account when organizing a community in such a way that it will be able to satisfy the requirements of the services it renders.

3. Internationality
It is a gift, but it also creates concrete problems to the communities: a sense of cultural superiority or inferiority, aggressive nationalism; uncertainty in the use of the common purse; division between missionaries who have a great number of benefactors and means, and those with minor possibilities; diversity in interpreting the values of consecrated life, the way of understanding hospitality and relations with one's relatives. These are aspects that deserve closer study and attention, since a certain mentality and certain forms of behavior have crept everywhere, that are contrary to the nature of our Institute, evangelical perfection and being ad gentes. Internationality requires mature personalities that know how to go over their own culture while they identify themselves with it, and the culture of others, in order to create communities which make the Gospel credible.

Practical Proposals

Missionaries and Community
" Animated by its superior, each community should prepare and evaluate every year its own Plan of Communal Living (PCL). Efforts should be made to discover its weaknesses and its potentialities, and it should utilize the means to overcome whatever is negative. The PCL must be as concrete and as realistic as possible, and all the members of the local community must prepare it; each member's role must be clearly specified. The plan must be approved and supported by the superior of the Province, who, during the visitations, should verify its implementation.
" In order to promote spiritual and community life and a sense of human relations, the PCL must include:
- at least two moments of daily meaningful prayer, and the practice of the "lectio divina" as the privileged form of inspiration for personal and community life;
- moments of communion for planning, formation and evaluation must regularly establish the rhythm and the journey of the community;
- reflection on how to concretize the dimension ad gentes of our charism;
- the development of adequate human and spiritual attitudes, beginning with the "being", rather than the "doing", which would help to create fraternal relationships of true friendship, to fashion community environments which have greater human warmth, to increment occasions of communication, and also of lighthearted moments;
" A member of the Provincial Council should be present during the redaction of the PCL of each community;
" It would be helpful to have some practical and succinct document from the General Government that could serve as a model in the preparation of the PCL. It could be a follow up of a document that it already prepared in the past on this subject.
" Following the method of programming and evaluating the journey of growth in the spirit recommended by our Founder, each missionary should write down his own Personal Project of Life, prepared in advance of the PCL. In it, the whole dimension of life must be considered: human, spiritual, community, ongoing formation and interpersonal relationships.

The Provinces
" The Provinces, together with the General Government, will carry on the reflection on consecrated life.
" In the concretization of the program of reorganization proposed by the Chapter, care must betaken that no missionary be alone. As an ideal aim to reach, each community should be composed of three members, whenever at all possible. When the tasks are multiple and at great distances from one another, a program must be elaborated that guarantees the fundamental requirements of community life. In this case, it might be opportune to appoint zonal leaders.
" The "cassa comune" (or common purse) is an indispensable means to concretize the vow of poverty and to overcome individualism, especially in international communities. Provincial Councils and each community must put it into practice and render it efficient. Donations of benefactors should be included, with no privilege for those who requested them donations or who received them.
" In every Province, let more space be given to revelation on poverty and how we live it. Regional Conferences must denounce serious abuses, since they degrade community life and brotherhood, and must establish the criteria that will regulate the making up of the cassa comune, and how each one uses it.
" Let the Conferences of the Provinces weigh the opportunity of holding zonal meetings and establish the modes and the times of their realization. They will help community life, pastoral projects and common initiatives.

The General Government
" Let the General Government continue with unabated commitment the reflection on the values of consecrated life that they began in 1994-95. It can be done through various initiatives such as spiritual exercises, days of recollection, zonal meetings, personal encounters and other services.
" It also should help the superiors of the Provinces to be good animators of communities.
" The General Government is asked to consider the preoccupation of the Chapter which deemed it necessary to question seriously the ways in which poverty is often practiced just about everywhere in the Institute, abuses which were succinctly mentioned in the analysis of the reality in this document, as well as in the assemblies of the Chapter. Consequently, the General Government should send out to the missionaries a document on the requirements of the vow and of the spirit of poverty. The coming Jubilee is a good occasion for an deep and appropriate reflection on this theme, as well as on other themes connected like sharing, equity rights to goods, detachment and the use of goods intended for the missions and the poor. The destination of these goods should be the one intended and not a different one, and should be effected without unjustified delays.

4. EVANGELIZATION

Inspiration

"Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize" (EN 14). We participate in this task through our Mission ad gentes. To evangelize is an essential and constitutive element of our vocation, our "supreme reason for being" (cf. Allamano's letter, 18,12,1920). We engage ourselves "to announce the Good News to the peoples who are not yet evangelized, preferably to the most needy and neglected" (Const. 17). It is a very specific commitment from our Father Founder: "Give yourselves 'toto corde et omnibus viris' to the work of evangelization. For this special reason you chose the work of the Mission that will make you holy, and you preferred our Institute to many other congregations that work in other ministries" (Letter to the Missionaries in Kenya, October 12, 1910).
Just as for the Apostle of the Nations, we too "were chosen to announce God's Gospel" to the peoples of the world (Romans 1:1), and to proclaim his loving design of salvation to all humanity. This is the heart of the Mission, the answer to the Lord's command, "Go throughout the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15).
In the New Testament, to evangelize is a multiple reality, depending on the christological, ecclesial, soteriological and missiological vision of the different authors. Nevertheless its main elements are: the announcement (in an understandable language), witnessing, healing, love, forgiveness and mercy. At the heart of these diverse expressions Jesus places the Kingdom of God, as the evangelists remind us. This Kingdom is not simply an idea, it is the reason of all Jesus' actions, and the final aim of any kind of evangelization.
In the concretization of her Mission, the Church has also developed its concepts of evangelization, by stressing one or the other of its aspects. Traditionally, evangelization was defined as the first announcement of the message and of the person of Jesus. In the conciliar decree Ad Gentes, it appears as an essential element of the Mission, while In Evangelii Nuntiandi, all the activities of the Church are forms of evangelization: the first announcement, the catechumenate, catechesis, witnessing, sacramental pastoral works, inculturation, dialogue, human promotion, justice and peace (cf. EN 19). The encyclical Redemptoris Missio prefers to speak of paths of the Mission, and it does not use many times the word evangelization. If in the past there was only one aim (to go, to announce, to convert and to found the Church), the purpose today is much broader. The experience of missionaries confirms this.
From this wide and rich array of meanings of the word evangelization, we want to consider some particular aspects:
" Evangelization is to discover the Semina verbi in every place where the Gospel is announced. Today, more than ever, missionaries recognize that God speaks to humanity through creation which tells his glory (cf. Psalm 118; Romans 1:20), the people of the first alliance, the religions and the cultures of the other peoples.
" Evangelization is to announce explicitly the Gospel and Jesus Christ as the only Savior: this is more than merely teaching a doctrine, morals, condensed creed of truths to which one must adhere. The purpose of the announcement is to change people from within, and lead them to live, think and act according to the evangelical ideals of the Kingdom of God, leading to the formation of Christian communities and local churches.
" Evangelization is to witness to the truth of the Word through the life of the evangelizers and the transformation of the evangelized. Witnessing to the style of life of Jesus, which He proposed to his disciples; even without an explicit announcement of the Gospel, is evangelization.
" Evangelization is to promote an authentic development of the persons and of the peoples, with justice and love for all, through the cooperation of all forces towards the good of all: God's Kingdom.
" Evangelization is to address the Gospel message to the communities and not only to the individuals. The content of evangelization cannot be understood outside the context of a community which lives it in a meaningful and comprehensible way.
" Evangelization is to evangelize also the culture, the structures and the paradigms of life, so as to purify all that is in contrast with the Word of God and his salvific design (cf. EN 19).
" Evangelization is to dialogue with the cultures and with other religions, and to encourage the inculturation of the message of the Gospel.

The Reality

In nearly one hundred years of history, we have done a lot of evangelizing, bringing the message of Jesus of Nazareth to many countries and to many human groups that had not yet heard its announcement. From this work, Christian communities and local churches were born. In them we have continued to work in order to deepen the kerygma through catechesis, pastoral activities and initiatives adjusted to the various situations and demands of the times. We are still working in some of them, even if they do no longer totally respond to our specific charism.
We also paid attention to the new forms of evangelization inspired by the Spirit in these times of the life of the Church, such as the Basic Christian Communities rooted on the ever challenging Word of God.
In our evangelization, we have also initiated many other works, such as schools, laboratories, health centers and hospitals. These too are an integral part of evangelization because they give witness to charity and raise the level of life of the people. However, because these activities are often so demanding and complex and, when they coexist with other projects relative to structures, projects of development and other community commitments, they absorb so much more time and energy to the detriment of direct announcement of the Word, and generate uneasiness in some missionaries in relation to their desire to direct evangelization. These missionaries ask that discernment be promoted on the form, the mode and the number of these activities, to create a better balance between them and the work of direct evangelization .
One of the priorities of evangelization consists in a constant biblical updating. Unfortunately, we do not often let ourselves be evangelized, and this fact may estrange us from the paths of faith that we propose to others. Many missionaries seem to bank on the past, and evangelize using methods which go back to the times of their studies, methods that are now obsolete and do not take into account the reality of our days and the needs of the people of today.

Practical Proposals

Missionaries
Conscious that he is a privileged subject of the announcement, the Consolata missionary must constantly develop in himself the sentiments proposed by our Founder: passion for the announcement of the Gospel and a burning desire to make the Lord known by the greatest number of people (cf. Conf. II, 3). He must make his the craving of St. Paul: "Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!" (1 Cor. 9:16). Therefore the missionary:
" must identify himself with the Gospel by constantly living in a state of search, dialogue and challenge, allowing himself to be questioned by the Gospel he preaches to others;
" must make Sacred Scripture his "sacred book" and the object of his daily meditation; as announcer of the Word, he must become the first listener;
" must be convinced of the need of ongoing education. Let him remember that, what our Founder said of an ignorant priest, is even truer of a missionary: "He has a mouth with which to spread the word of God, but because of his ignorance he keeps it shut. In a certain sense, this causes less harm, because by speaking he'd only talk nonsense" (SL, 144).
" The missionary who wants to grow spiritually, and intends to do a vital and appropriate form of evangelization, must meditate on the Word of God. He has to reflect on the documents of the Church, and consider the events happening in the world. People, cultures, nature and art become for him open books that must continuously be re-read, books on which to pray, alone and within the Christian community.

Communities
Every community:
" must give priority to the first announcement of the Gospel; it should periodically review its ways of doing it, if it wants to maintain itself faithful to this priority. Eventually, it should rethink its own plans and ways of evangelizing.
" must seriously compare how much time it gives to direct evangelization, which includes the formation of the individuals and of the community, and to the other activities.

Provinces
The Governments of the Provinces, while verifying their activities and areas of action, especially at the time of their Conference and during other regional meetings:
" should examine their methods of doing evangelization in order to make eventual necessary corrections and adopt alternate ways of evangelizing. This will give large space to evangelization and will be an occasion to update it; this will render its methods effective, and will help, support and promote new evangelizing initiatives. In order to make this renewal possible, the Provinces must see to it that the communities have adequate books and other appropriate publications.
" should encourage the formation of communities which work in a more specific way in evangelization, and which study the methods and problems of evangelizing. This will also help other missionaries in the Province.
" should reduce the number of missionaries who work in activities and projects of development when they can be done by non-missionaries. This will give missionaries more time for direct and explicit evangelization and to its preparation.

5. AD GENTES

The Inspiration

The expression ad gentes, already consecrated by its use, drives us directly to the core of the original inspiration of our Founder, of our charism and also of this General Chapter. All that we have said before and will say afterwards has its center and its convergence here.

1. The concept ad gentes
The area encompassed by the expression ad gentes is so vast and complex that, even in the general context of Mission, its meaning varies according to the choices made by each institution, group or person engaged in it.
It is not only a question of choices; its theological foundation too has undergone deep transformation. From an almost pragmatic vision of the Mission as salvation of souls and foundation of the Church, we have come to look at Mission in its true origin, the Trinity. God the Father wants everyone to be saved. His design of salvation has its apex in the Mission of the Son, who associates us to his work as collaborators of God in the concretization of his project. The Holy Spirit, sent to complete the work of the Son, is present in the action of the missionary: Both collaborate always and everywhere in the concretization of the Father's plan (cf. AG 4).
In the area of activities, the ad gentes is a reality in becoming, on account of always new contexts in which it is exercised This corresponds to the teaching of Blessed Joseph Allamano and of his exemplary zeal. He never ceased to indicate the "extra" that the Mission always requires. For him, the choice of Africa was not exclusive: he had foreseen the possibility of the presence of our Institute in America and in Asia. This was his exhortation: "You must imitate St. Francis Xavier who wanted to convert the whole world" (SL 385).
Redemptoris Missio endeavored to clear things up, recalling that, "The boundaries between pastoral care of the faithful, new evangelization and specific missionary activity are not clearly definable, and it is unthinkable to create barriers between them or to put them into watertight compartments" (RM 34).
In the light of recent documents of the Church, we can point out what makes the ad gentes:
1. Those who still have not accepted the Gospel. They represent the traditional ad gentes, a reality now present everywhere in the various continents.
2. The human groups who had once accepted the Christian message but that, through a process of secularization and de-Christianization, no longer live it. This is one of the pagan areas of modern societies that need a profound work of re-evangelization which should not be confused with the new evangelization: the latter is directed to "non-practicing" Catholics (cf. RM 34, 37).
3. The ideological movements and the new concepts of life, which we see expounded everywhere, are a new type of challenge to the Gospel and require evangelizers that possess a specific preparation.
4. Some modern forms of "Areopagus" mentioned by Redemptoris Missio: "the world of communications; the commitment to peace and to the development of peoples; the rights of individuals and of peoples, especially minorities; the promotion of women and children; safeguarding the created world […]; the immense areopagus of culture, scientific research and international relations" (No. 37): These and others are areas, worlds, phenomenons or cultures not yet reached by the Gospel, that spring up even inside the Christian world.

2."Our" ad gentes
1. Article 17 of our Constitutions gives a list of the activities which correspond to our ad gentes. It first mentions what is primary in relation to the aim of our Institute: "The announcement of the Good News to peoples not yet evangelized". We are invited to go to the frontiers of the Church, to the human groups that do not know or have not yet received Jesus Christ. These people and the new "pagans" of our days are the reason for being of our Institute. The Founder himself expressed this very clearly when he said: "We are for the non-Christians". This must be the priority of whoever enters our Institute; it is the fundamental principle that inspires every one of our activities; mission and vocation promotion, formation, organization and all the activities of the Institute.
This was the dream and desire of generations of missionaries. Some of them shone in a particular way. Among many, we recall Msgr. Philip Perlo and, among the most recent, Msgr. Charles Cavallera, who, after having consolidated the Church in Nyeri, began all over again, under a tent, among the non-evangelized. The older missionaries are witnesses among us of a difficult mission, frontier mission, mission of first evangelization, mission lived in different contexts - but always a mission that was lived in total donation to the announcement of the Gospel and to the continuity of the mission. Sometimes they carried in their bodies and minds the stigmata received, and silently wait for its total fulfillment, in prayer and in suffering.

3. Our Constitutions attach to this primary aim the following: "temporary cooperation with those local churches that have already been evangelized, but have not yet become self-sufficient in ministries and in the maturation of their Christian communities (Const.17).
If we want to be faithful to the specific aim of our Institute, we must adhere strictly to the terms used in the Constitutions: for a time only, inadequate evangelization, and insufficient maturity and autonomy.
3 Within the ad gentes, our Constitutions place mission and vocation promotion. When we assume the specific commitment of evangelizing the world, we do it in the name of the Church, which must continuously make us conscious that we exist to bring the happy announcement of the Gospel to the world, and that we must keep on sending out missionaries, for without them there is no Mission. Blessed Allamano understood this and became promoter, in Turin, of the universal Mission, by asked the cooperation of God's people. He appealed to the Pope too, asking him to do his part in awakening interest for the Mission.
4 At last, included in the ad gentes, come the activities of formation and organization.
5 The Consulta of 1996 made a summary of the missionary contexts which, for a while now, have become our choices of work: pastoral activities for indigenous people, the Afros, emerging cultures, ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue (OB 73:4).
We may also add other kinds of activities: Street children, AIDS patients, health, the university world, urban suburbs, ethnic minorities, and the abandoned and impoverished rural world.

The Reality

The many activities and engagements of our Institute in its various Provinces, and the diversity of situations, make it difficult to have a complete and unified vision of our reality. To some, this vision might be too optimistic, to others a negative and hurtful vision. We present here some general aspects which emerged in the preparation of, and in the course of the Chapter.
" In our Institute, the ad gentes orientation is well and alive. This can be seen in its milieu, in the new requirements, in the search for activities that correspond more directly to our charism. There are also fears: members who do not feel qualified for the tasks they are given; the average age of missionaries; uncertainty on whether present activities will continue when taken over by others. We notice also little willingness for change, and a preference to leave things the way they are rather than taking risks.
" Attention was also given to "situations" ad gentes by overcoming the "geographical" context of the Mission. The latter however is still very much alive in those who continue identifying Mission with the territories where we have been traditionally present, and in those who are preoccupied in safeguarding the ad gentes characteristic of our charism.
" Some of our presence's were greatly redimensioned by giving certain missions to dioceses or other institutions, thus allowing us to adhere to our ad gentes. In some urban areas, Preferential choices were made is several urban areas, and in the field of AIDS victims, street children, universities, and several experiences somewhat different from our traditional parochial context. Our presence in Asia was strengthened and a center was founded for inter-religious dialogue and missiology.
" Our wish to requalify our engagements and to respond to certain urgencies of evangelization was not quick enough at times. There are vast sectors, milieu, and "human" situations which still have no response among us, at least an adequate response, such as Asia, Islam, the many forms of practical atheism, the phenomenon of de-Christianization, the world of sects and new religious movements. We still hold on to areas which do not agree with our specific aim. In a particular way, we must question our presence in sectors we entered a long time ago. There's a feeling that we must define the criteria of temporary presence and of self-sufficiency or maturity (cf. Const. 17b).
" There also is the impression that our engagement in areas of true 'first evangelization' is scarce. Even in places considered Mission areas, we are not attentive enough to the ad gentes situations and to people not yet evangelized: this is caused by the fact that we are engaged in too many activities for those already baptized. This might be caused by a certain concept that is still too much wrapped up in the geography of mission, which makes us feel in sentry with our charism when we work in places traditionally considered Mission areas. This uneasiness of many among us is a positive sign, even if it runs up against the reality of the members and of their qualifications. We need skilled personnel if we are to face new and difficult situations, if we desire to pass beyond generalities and stagnation, and take risks.
" The necessity of skilled personnel, of renewed styles and methods, of a greater capacity of collaboration with all the agents working for the Mission, is perceived also for mission and vocation animation, especially in the Regions of Europe and North America. In the latter places, and on account of requests made by the local churches, and also through the reflection of some of us, missionaries ask whether any commitments in those territories can be considered ad gentes, always in full respect for our charism. They want authoritative answers to be given, they need criteria that will guide choices.

Practical proposals for the milieu ad gentes

Since we cannot go to all the areas ad gentes, we must define clearly which ones we will choose, and which priorities must guide us in our options. These choices and priorities must correspond to our charism, to our specific aim and to the tradition of our Institute, the expectations of the world today, and the availability of personnel.
Bearing in mind the documents of the magisterium of the Church, our Constitutions, our past choices and our capabilities, the Chapter chose five areas it wants us to address, which are given here in their order of precedence: Non-Christians, urban poverty, ethnic minorities, qualified services, and justice and peace.

1. Non-Christians
The announcement of the Gospel to peoples and human groups not yet evangelized, preferably those in most need and most marginalized, takes precedence over all other activities which are in keeping with our aim (cf. Const. 17).
In this context, the Chapter reserves a privileged attention to Asia because it is the most populated continent in the world and the least Christianized, and where the great religions are found, and the countries experience a deep poverty. The documents of the Church invite us to urgently choose Asia as a priority area for the Mission ad gentes (cf. RM).

" Let our General Government, during the first triennium of its mandate, intensify our presence in Ivory Coast, and do a study about opening a new center in Asia. This new opening should be carried out during the second triennium.
" The General Chapter feels that the time has come to considers Europe and North America as having areas ad gentes. Criteria and ways of concretizing this principle should be done in accord with the General Government.

2. Urban Poverty
The exodus from the rural areas brought into the big cities masses of unemployed people who survive through daily meager means. They are the new poor, marginalized from everyone and everything. They constitute a challenge to our evangelization, an object of our ad gentes, and thus are part of our priorities.

" Let the Provinces that consider it opportune and feasible, program the opening of one or two centers in the poorest areas of suburbia, or let those Provinces which already are engaged in this type of work continue it.
" This work must be done in a team. Its purpose must be the evangelization and formation of these people into Christian communities. Our presence in these cases may be diversified: we may opt for a gradual insertion among these groups, or it may take the form of parish activities or of works of "consolation".

3. Ethnic Minorities
By ethnic minorities we mean those human groups that are victims of discrimination, oppression and marginalization; those whose culture is threatened with extinction; those who are deprived of their land or in danger of being so; those who are forgotten or non-adequately looked after, even by the church, or in the work of evangelization.

" In the next three years, let the Government of the Provinces where there are ethnic minorities begin or strengthen the work of evangelization of these minorities, in accordance with the respective plan of reorganization.
" et the Government of the Province put together a team of missionaries whose purpose it is to elaborate a clear project for the announcement of the Gospel. This plan should include the necessity for dialogue, for appreciation of the culture, the defense of human rights and the rights to the land, and work for human promotion.
" Some members of the team should specialize in subjects relative to anthropology, missiology and pastoral care, and in matters that are linked to the minorities in question and to their culture. This could be done in specialization centers; the experience of our Institute in this matter should also be of help. As much as possible, the continuity of such a team should be guaranteed.
" In each continent, the coordination of the various teams that work with ethnic minorities will be done by the respective Continental Counselor and by the Superiors of Provinces that have entered such projects. They will follow the development of these missionary projects, encourage and support them, and verify their effectiveness.

4. Qualified Services to the Local Churches
Are considered part of this priority: animation for the promotion of the universal Mission, which is the more specific and qualified service that our Institute offers to the Churches (cf. Const. 80) and the formation to ministries.
These services are ordinarily given when requested by the Churches, or as a prophetic challenge to them, especially in the field of their mission animation.

A. CONCERNING THE MISSION PROMOTION OF THE CHURCHES:

Provinces
" During the Conferences of the Provinces, a plan of revitalization of our centers and of our activities of promotion should be prepared, so as to make them an efficient sign and a reminder of our characteristic ad gentes.
" The Governments of our Provinces must keep on aiding our missionary magazines, with personnel and subsidies, so that they may continue to be more effective and qualified means of Mission promotion of the Christian communities.
" Let the Offices in charge of mission and vocation promotion:
- collaborate in the development of missiological reflection, and in the publication of national magazines, and a more active participation in the convocation, preparation and direction of diocesan and national conventions on mission promotion;
- help diocesan missionary centers to become more active and effective in their missionary activities throughout the diocese;
- prepare during the next three years, and with the help of the general offices, subsidies and initiatives on the missionary aspects of pastoral activities, liturgy, catechesis and solidarity;
- offer to the missionaries who come back for their vacation the opportunity of participating in some activity of mission promotion.

General Government
" During the next six years, the General Government should prepare five missionaries as mission promoters in the Provinces. The latter will present their names to the GeneralGovernment.
" Through its offices, it should continue to organize, at the continental level, courses for the mission promoters. With other Missionary Institutes, it should prepare subsidies for the development of the missionary spirituality of God's people.

B. FORMATION OF "LEADERS" IN THE NEW CHURCHES:PRIESTS, CATECHISTS, LAY LEADERS

" After consulting their community, the Governments of the Provinces:
- should study the commitments in which they are already involved and the requests presented by the local churches relative to the preparation of leaders: seminaries, catechetical centers and universities;
- should offer their qualified services, through appropriate agreements with the Bishops, but always in conformity with the priorities established by the Chapter and the plan of the Regional Conferences or assemblies.

4. Justice and Peace

Today there is a consensus among peoples about rejection of violence and war, respect for the human person, its dignity and human rights, the desire for freedom, justice and brotherhood, the condemnation of different forms of racism and nationalism, and a sensitivity towards the safeguard of creation (cf. RM 86).
These dimensions are essential parts of the evangelization ad gentes and of our ministry of consolation. This ministry presupposes choices and concrete gestures of solidarity towards the poor, and the commitment to carry out reconciliation.

The Provinces
" In order to render missionaries more aware of the need to practice justice and peace as an essential dimension of their own life, each province should hold every year a meeting on the social, economic and political reality of its own country. The point of departure for such exercise should be the life of the poorest and most marginalized in that society. Every year also, an evaluation should be made of the activities realized in this field. This evaluation should be kept in mind as the programming for the future is prepared, so as to produce some practical future commitment.
" The Regional Commission for Justice and Peace should invite all missionaries to participate actively in the initiatives of the various diocesan, national and international organizations of solidarity and defense of the poor.
" In their evaluation of possible projects of development, the Regional Governments should also see to it that such projects meet the aims of justice and peace.
" In the context of the Jubilee Year and of our own Centenary Celebrations (2,000-2,001-2,002), as a sign of solidarity with the poor, each community and each province should give part of its own profit to projects in favor of the poor. The General Government will channel these contributions to those most in need.

The General Government
" It should support the General and Provincial Commissions on Justice and Peace, so that they may really function, especially where they are not yet functioning. Such Commissions should collaborate with those of the Consolata Missionary Sisters, and with the offices of Mission Promotion. Pastoral workers and lay missionaries should be sensitized and involved in projects of Justice and Peace.
" It should encourage the composition of the guidebook on Justice and Peace proposed by the Continental Commissions. Such guidebook should be a permanent subsidy of research, reflection and consultation for our ways of thinking, programming and acting in the Mission ad gentes.

Other Practical Proposals

Formation
" The General Government in its plan of work, and the Provinces in their Conferences, should promote a strong renewal of all missionaries. This renewal should be done through ongoing formation, and it should be more than just another kind of updating. It should motivate the whole person by a deepening and an assimilation of our charism, of the spirit of the Founder, of the ideals of consecration, of communion and of Mission.
" The Provincial Conferences should formulate a program of ongoing formation for all the missionaries.
" Superiors should help missionaries to reflect and become aware of the progress made by the theology of the Mission, the knowledge of peoples, religions, and ecclesial realities in the various parts of the world, the phenomena of migrations and the problems they create, and help them get more information on world situations relative to peace, justice, and globalization in all its forms.
" Our Councils should prepare adequate initiatives to animate the missionaries in special occasions such as anniversaries (of ordination, of religious profession…), and also in the various stages of their life: the young, the middle-aged, the elderly.
" The General Office of Formation, in collaboration with the Governments of the Provinces, should help to complement the basic formation with studies on the Mission. These can be done through appropriate initiatives during the scholastic year, or during the holidays.
" A truly missionary formation must be given to the young candidates in our Institute: a missionary formation in its various dimensions and in accord with our ad gentes. The ad gentes must permeate everything in their formation and must constitute one of the essential criteria for receiving the candidates, for their admission to the religious profession and for their ordination to the priesthood. This formation must always keep in mind the new options made by our Institute.

Reorganization and Requalification
" All Provinces must, at the time of their Conferences, elaborate a program of reorganization and requalification in harmony with the orientations of the Chapter. Consequently:
- they must review their commitments;
- they must decide which commitments to abandon, when and how;
- they can accept new commitments, writing out clear agreements with the local bishops; these commitments must be within the limits of the real capabilities of the Province and the decisions of the Chapter;
- they must sympathetic with certain missionaries who, because of age or for other reasons, cannot adapt themselves to new changes.
" The new General Government, besides approving the acts of the Conferences, must encourage and help the Provinces put into practice what in those acts is formulated.

5. CONSOLATION

The Inspiration

Right from the start, the Consolata Missionaries chose activities and means that we today could call "of consolation". In this, they were enlightened by the One who is for us inspiration of the kind of Mission which is the expression of a God who "comforts his people and has mercy on his afflicted" (Isaiah 49:13). This Mission is born from the compassionate heart of God, and it brings consolation to all humanity. In our title of Consolata Missionaries, and in the spirituality that underlines it, this mystery is enclosed. All our works of evangelization are permeated with its light. Some of its particular facets are worth looking into:

1. The Announcement of the Gospel
The first consolation given by Mary to the world is Jesus Christ. We, too, like Mary, make Christ present in the world. We, too, are invited to bring the good news to the poor (cf. Luke 4:18), to "comfort those who are in any affliction" (2 Corinthians 1:4), to reveal and witness by works to the tenderness of God towards the marginalized and the needy. Evangelization, as consolation, is "the first service that even today the Church can render to every person and to the whole of humanity" (cf. RM 2).

2. Being Near to the People
Our Founder and our first missionaries perceived the truth that the dialogue of salvation comprises a sharing of life. In this attitude is manifested God's compassion, the compassion of Jesus, the Good Samaritan. It maintains today all its force for a humanity that is full of pain, so much offended and so sore-filled. Our Constitutions put it this way: "Our desire is to live among the people with whom we work, in a simple and fraternal way, making personal contacts and being concerned about their problems and concrete needs"(73). If we want to stay with the people, we must be able to dialogue with their culture, their traditions and habits, and with a vision of a world in constant change.
It is also necessary to intensify our relationship with the Lord, and reinforce our identity with the Him who "did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness…" (Philippians 2:6-7). If we are to fulfill the plan of salvation of the Father, with whom we are called to collaborate, we must walk the same path, emptying ourselves of our ego in order to embrace the condition of the people we work with, and appreciate its values. Our inflated knowledge, our superiority complex, our supposedly unquestionable dignity that must be saved at all costs, contradict a methodology of communion and sharing.

3. Human Promotion
The Allamano perceived in the name given to our Institute the countenance of the One who is Consolata, the One who is consoled by the good that we do to others as we promote their dignity: "first make them fully humans, then form them into Christians". Following the model Mary, who is always attentive to the welfare of humanity, the Mission promotes the institution of the Kingdom of the God who is love, goodness and mercy.
It is not difficult to discover the intimate relationship between consolation - liberation-promotion and Mission. God who saw the misery of his people and listened to their cries for help, sent Moses to free them from oppression (Isaiah 3:7-11). Clearly, the consolation-liberation model, is a divine Mission, is a gift of Christ the Savior. To us was entrusted the ministry of taking it to all humanity.
Our method of evangelization has always combined the two components of evangelization and human promotion. The teaching of the Founder on this matter was clear and frequent. He took a strong stance to defend his principle: "In the past, some people dared to criticize our method of evangelization, as if we busied ourselves too much with material things and not enough with spiritual ones; missionaries must preach and baptize, they would say, and not care about much else. But after the publication of the Decree of Approval[…] they changed their opinion, and many people of good will confessed to their change of mind. (Letter to the Missionaries in Kenya, October 12, 1910).
For our Founder, human promotion and the promotion of the milieu are not like prefaces to evangelization, thy are essential part of it, a typical characteristic of our style of doing Mission. The important thing is to discern which kind of human promotion is more adequate to each epoch and environment. This we Consolata missionaries have accomplished in many ways: in the beginning by promoting work, erecting schools, forming skilled people in various professions, establishing health centers; afterwards by encouraging and supporting development. It's a path that we must walk, since the "Mission is a preferential option for the poor, in the reality of their suffering, their yearning for justice, and their openness to God" (General Chapter of 1993, 32).

4. Commitment to Justice and Peace
Nowadays, without neglecting the needs of the peoples, a lot of attention is focused on the craving for justice and peace. With a critical conscience grounded on the Gospel, we become voice of those who in one way or another are excluded from the mainstream of society. This is a criterion of doing Mission clearly suggested in many documents of the Latin American Bishops, and also in Ecclesia in Africa. The latter document states: "Since the announcement of justice and peace is an integral part of the task of evangelization, it follows that the promotion of these values must also be part of the pastoral program of every Christian community" (No. 107). To announce the true God revealed in Jesus Christ presupposes fighting against all idols and oppressions, even if certain options mean confrontation and conflict. The evangelizer must unmask all the idols that are hidden in the economic, social and ideological systems, and discover the paths which promote the authentic values of God's Kingdom.
Many are the situations of injustice and of conflict in the world: the gap between rich and poor countries, violence and guerrilla, the international debt, crushed human rights, the arms race, the commerce of arms, threats to the environment, dictatorships. The Programming of our 1987 Chapter also included: "Hunger, illiteracy, refugees, corruption, discrimination, poverty, injustices in international relations and in commercial exchanges, economic, cultural and political neocolonialism" (CM 743-744). The list could go on and on.

The Reality

In our one hundred years of existence, we have tried to be faithful to a kind of Mission that places us close to people and caring for human promotion. Our economic welfare and our style of life place us far from the people - if it doesn't completely separate us from them. It is not a consoling reflection, but one which we cannot escape.
Out commitment to human promotion has been concretized in the ways that we have already mentioned, as an expression of charity and of cooperation with development, and through projects of all kinds. In our days, neo-liberal laws and the globalization of the economy impose on us other forms of human promotion.
Working for peace, justice and solidarity is one of today's expressions of consolation. The remark of the two General Governments (Fathers-Brothers-Sisters) made in 1991 remains substantially true: "In all honesty and humility, we must confess that, in these areas, our two Institutes have advanced rather slowly. The promotion of Justice and Peace does not always proceed side by side with our work of evangelization. The advancement of Justice and Peace is hindered by a scanty knowledge of the social doctrine of the Church, the reticence of many local churches in seriously facing this problem, a certain naïve attitude still present in our concept of spirituality, and our situation of foreign missionaries which often requires a high degree of prudence" (CM 802). In this field, we might say that we have just begun walking.

Practical Proposals

Missionaries and Communities
" The Marian dimension which nourishes our spirituality must concretely be expressed in our communities with expressions such as: a welcoming attitude, the art of listening, meekness, solicitude for confreres, concrete acts of consolation. Each community should evaluate, and make corrections if needed, the relations among its members and suggest concrete means in order to express these attitudes in daily life.
" Missionaries should pay attention to the social doctrine of the Church and develop their sensitivity towards the themes developed in it. They must follow the proposals of their Provinces relative to the matters above mentioned, including promotion and defense of the ecology, and establish with the community how to apply these principles to the pastoral activities.

Provinces
" Through a serious examination of conscience, each province should find out what attitudes may keep people away from us, such as personal attitudes, or the structure and the use of economic goods, corrective decisions must be made.
" The concretization of the many forms of human promotion must be based on the maturity of Christian communities concerned, so that they can be made sensitive to their own needs and become themselves promoters of development (cf. RM 58-59; EN 30-39. Consequently:
- No project will be approved by the Government of any Province if it is not the result of a journey "by" the people and "with" the people, and if it is does not change the environment.
- -Each province must attentively study the local situation, and in dialogue with the local churches, should formulate a program of intervention by setting priorities, trying to avoid the use of only charity, but promoting a true human development and education to justice and peace.
- Brothers can play a privileged role in this area because of their nearness to the people. They should be encouraged, supported and helped in their professional initiatives.
" Each Province should develop its knowledge of the local and worldwide situations of injustice and violence, and courageously denounce the abuses and violations of human rights; it should involve its missionaries in these problems and have them collaborate with organizations and other ecclesial and social forces. This collaboration with other forces is very important.

The General Government
" Let the General Government promote through the whole Institute a deep reflection on the spirituality of consolation, on its meaning in relation to our charism and its fundamental aspects, on the consequences it should have on our ways of doing apostolate, on our relations with the other members of the community, and in the manner we express our devotion to Mary. This deep study will be presented in a circular letter, and it will also propose the steps to be taken in concretizing it at the local community level, at the level of the provincial communities, and at the level of each member.

7. DISTRIBUTORS OF THE MINISTRIES OF SALVATION

The Inspiration

In our evangelization ad gentes, we collaborate with God in the fulfillment of his plan of salvation for the whole of humanity. This project, which was totally accomplished by Christ, was entrusted to the Church, so that she may apply it concretely to the people of all times and places. In realizing this task, the Church needs the help of all its members (cf. LG 1). In this sense, we are the "dispensers" of these mysteries, God's privileged instruments. This is the first "ministry", a word used by Joseph Allamano himself, even if during his times that word was not usually used in this context. He applies that word to all his missionaries, brothers and sisters included. In this identity of ministry he sees a strong reason for unity among the two Institutes by him founded and among their members.
The announcement of the word is itself a saving event, but it needs a complement. As the Word was made flesh, so the word proclaimed must also become concrete in real life, it must give life to communities of faith, it must materialize in the sacramental actions of the Church. The Mission requires that those who accept the Word also become children of God in Baptism, and take place at the table of the Risen Lord (cf. SC 10). This makes the missionary, just like St. Paul, the "Minister of Christ Jesus among the Gentiles so that they may become an acceptable offering, sanctified by the Holy Spirit" (Romans 15:16).
The missionary makes it explicit among the peoples the presence of Christ the Savior. He leads them in experiencing the action of the Holy Spirit through dialogue, in the proclamation itself, and finally in the invitation to celebrate the sacred mysteries. Word and sacrament are the essential elements of the Mission understood as the proposal of salvation in Christ. The word is a call to faith; the sacrament is faith lived in the community and given again in the witnessing of life and in the service to the Mission.
The post conciliar theological renewal has amplified the concept of salvation from redemption from sin to salvation as mercy. The God of Jesus of Nazareth is the Father "full of tenderness and mercy". His project for the world is a flow of love, life and forgiveness (cf. John 3:16-17).
It also explained better that salvation is for the whole of the human being, body and soul, since Christ is "bodily and spiritual medicine" (cf. SC 5). Consequently, the ministry of salvation contains the idea of caring for the physical and moral ills of humanity, for its progress, and it includes the recognition and the defense of human dignity, and the inviolable rights of the human person. There also was a development of the concept of salvation by seeing its possibilities outside of Christianity itself. The many ways of salvation belong to the mystery of God, and find their accomplishment in Jesus Christ.
On this theme, it is essential that we continuously go back to the Gospel of Jesus, so as not to form for ourselves a subjective and unilateral vision of salvation. There also is the danger of developing a humanistic form of salvation that will give to missionary activity a purely horizontal dimension: this would necessarily lead us to identify Mission with human promotion or development. Humanity needs a deeper and more integral form of salvation, a salvation that will renew it from its personal and social sin. This can only come from God. On the other side, a strictly "spiritualistic" understanding of the Mission would be incompatible with the "founding inspiration" of the missionary vision and action of the Allamano. (cf. Letter to the Missionaries in Kenya, October 12, 1910).
Under the guidance of Msgr. Philip Perlo and of our Founder, our first missionaries in Kenya, waited for some time to administer baptisms; they first cared for the persons and for the "betterment" of the environment. This criterion should still be kept in mind, not to plunge into a sacramentalization that goes too fast and forgets about an adequate evangelization and preparation, and does not take into account the cultural and social contexts.

The Reality

Our Institute needs to deepen and to update the theological dimension of its cooperation in the work of salvation.
Every sign of salvation that we offer has its origin and is concretized in the Word and in the sacraments, which have their apex in the Eucharist. It seems that there meanders among us a lesser appreciation for this essential dimension of our way of being missionaries. We must question the level of our faith and of our participation and spiritual intensity in the celebration of the sacred mysteries, which shows lacunae such as: poor participation, the weakness of our sacramental life, and the little attention we pay to the word of God, improper idea of the importance and the value of community celebration, and our feeble sensitivity towards the real presence of Christ and towards the transforming action of the Holy Spirit in the public proclamation of the Word and in the liturgical actions.
In the vessels of clay of our human fragility, God placed the mediation of an authentic experience of his saving presence. More than ever, humanity needs today to understand this nearness of God in the liturgical celebration and in communion, where the Church is molded into the true body of the Christ living and operative among us. We all have a serious responsibility in this field, and in a special way those of us who are ordained ministers. Some have often recourse to individualistic forms of piety and old and spiritless styles of celebration. Not always are our liturgies "full of spiritual zest", as Blessed Allamano wanted them to be. He gave a marvelous example of spirit-filled celebrations which, by itself was an act of evangelization.

Practical Proposals

Missionaries
" The Chapter recommends that all missionaries celebrate the mysteries of our salvation with joy, participation, fullness of meaning and spirit, and strive to practice in their life what they celebrate in their faith. Celebrations must be prepared with care and with pastoral sensitivity, without improvisation, especially in the case of the homily. The mystery of Christ should be expressed in a language and signs which are easily understandable, inculturated in the reality and the life of the people. In the celebration of our salvation, the life of the Christian communities should be inserted and mirrored, their joys and their sufferings, their riches and their weaknesses. This way, it will be a truly saving celebration: it will change behavior and relations with others; it will bring about conversion and reconciliation; it will produce consolation and life, and cure sores caused by hatred, divisions, social sins and injustices; it will produce commitments to perform charitable actions, apostolate and Mission.
" Since the liturgy is the apex to which all missionary activity tends (cf. SC 10), an "inheritance" which we received from our Founder, and a characteristic of our Institute, the Chapter invites the formators of our seminaries to impart a deep liturgical formation that should cover the theological, pastoral and spiritual aspects of the celebration, as required by the Ratio Formationis. Since Christ is the main agent of liturgical actions, the formators should help the future missionaries to mold themselves according to the heart of the Good Shepherd, the Priest of the New Covenant.
" Elderly or ailing missionaries should develop the dimension of participation in the mystery of salvation, by the sacrifice of forced inactivity, their physical and moral suffering, and their prayer life. Their presence among us is very precious, and all missionaries appreciate it, especially those fully active in missionary work. They need to feel supported by the intercession of their bothers who are sick, whose prayerful intercession is made more powerful by the offering they make of themselves to God and to the Mission, and by the interest they show in their missionary work.

Provinces
" In their programs of ongoing formation, the Governments of the Provinces should include meetings on salvation, touching in a special way the aspects that relate to the Mission, relationship with the world, religions, cultures, society, and also the celebration of the sacraments and of the liturgy, and their influence on the various expressions of human promotion.

The General Government
" For the centenary celebrations of the foundation of our Institute and of the beginning of our evangelization in Africa, the General Government should study and promote a serious reflection that will engage all our missionaries in the following:
- deepen the sense of our identity as distributors of the mysteries of salvation;
- develop a more lively awareness;
- analyze and, if necessary revise the concrete ways of announcing, communicating and living them.