A. VALUES OF OUR TRADITION

Blessed Joseph Allamano, in proposing to us the way of our Ad Gentes, suggested
forms and ways of life and of apostolate which were dear to his heart. It is true that all our spiritual life, our formation and our apostolic activities are inspired by the Mission and to it are oriented. But some attitudes deserve special attention, since they were proposed by our Founder as part of his "spirit" and as form of life for the Consolata Missionaries.
With those attitudes he and our first missionaries laid the foundation of a style of life, and a method of doing Mission, which are still valid in our days, even if they, too, have evolved through the years and as the Institute moved to the various continents. To preserve and develop these original intuitions is to enhance the identification with our Institute, render efficacious and original our missionary service, and allow us to offer them to the new Churches.

1. APOSTOLIC COMMUNITY


The Inspiration

For our Founder, the "Mission" is entrusted to an "Apostolic Community" that includes all pastoral agents. His "missionary project" advances on the master road of communion among all those engaged in the various activities. From this, derives the need of discerning reality together, of programming what has to be done, and evaluating together the outcome.
In the eyes of our Founder, the Mission of our Institute is characterized by the "unity of intents", in which the family spirit can clearly be seen. It is the foundation of the missionary method willed by him. This directive became enshrined in our Constitutions that read: "We want to excel in our ability to carry out our pastoral work in a spirit of communion and co-responsibility among ourselves and with all other collaborators, taking as our point of reference the plans and operative criteria of the local church. We must discern, plan and review our pastoral work at community level" (Const. 74).
This communion is also extended to the Consolata Missionary Sisters, the Consolata Lay Missionaries, to those aggregated to us, our collaborators, catechists, and the more responsible and active members of the Christian communities. Furthermore, as soon as these communities come into existence, we must involve their members in the announcement, in the witnessing and in the various pastoral activities. This way, communion and mission "are profoundly connected with each other, they interpenetrate and mutually imply each other, to the point that communion represents both the source and the fruit of the Mission: communion gives rise to the Mission, and Mission is accomplished in communion" (Christifideles Laici, 32).

The Reality

The influence of individualistic tendencies that are strongly present in our times has affected us too. There are also other factors that render difficult the concretization of a true communion. Our Institute tried to react and stop this tendencies in diverse ways, particularly by suggesting that a Project of Community Life be formulated. (cf. CM 727-741).
In all honesty, we must recognize that its impact on the life of our Institute and on our apostolic activity has not been very strong. Too many missionaries follow their own project without any reference to the one of the community. Nevertheless, there exist persons and elements of communion among us. In some communities, meetings are held to program and evaluate together, to elaborate the PCL, to set norms of collaboration.
Sometimes we find it difficult to collaborate with the Churches that we helped found, with other Churches where we exercise our specific ministry, with the Consolata Missionary Sisters and with other pastoral agents. Wherever understanding and coordination do not exist, we walk away from the style of life of the beginning of our history, when the daily evening exchange was part of the normal style of doing Mission.

Practical Proposals

Missionaries
" The Chapter feels the necessity of a deep renewal for our style of life and for our method of doing Mission. It invites all missionaries to revise their mode of "living in community" and of "doing Mission", by opening themselves with generosity and without fear to the new trends and challenges of our days as fruits of the action of he Spirit.

Communities
" In the beginning of every new year of pastoral activities, every apostolic community should reserve time to elaborate its missionary project of evangelization and pastoral activities, with the participation of all pastoral forces. This will be done by keeping in mind our own style of doing Mission and the directives of the local church.
" By reason of the mobility that characterizes our life, and in order to assure continuity and coherence in our work and in our presence in places and activities, let the local superior: keep up the house diary, the archives, the files with notes and studies on the milieu and on the work done, considerations and evaluations of the various activities, the distribution of responsibilities, the collaboration with local people and organizations, and any other useful documentation.

2. LAY MISSIONARIES

The Inspiration

Right from the times of our first expeditions among the Kikuyu, Joseph Allamano sent priests, brothers and sisters. He hired lay people and used political and economic mediations for the service of the Mission.
In our days, a theological vision has been developed which made us understand that each baptized person and every Christian community is called and sent to do Mission. "The lay faithful, precisely because they are members of the Church, have the vocation and mission of proclaiming the Gospel: they are prepared for this work by the sacraments of Christian initiation and by the gifts of the Holy Spirit" (Christifideles Laici, 33). Baptismal dignity gives the obligation and the right, "whether as individuals or in associations, to strive so that the divine message of salvation may be known and accepted by all people throughout the world. This obligation is all the more insistent in circumstances in which only through them are people able to hear the Gospel and to know Christ" (RM 71). The lay vocation is not just a fad of the times, it is a more complete vision of theology and ecclesiology. By vocation, the lay people are true agents of pastoral activities and of the Mission, and not only "technicians" at their service.
This renewed consciousness of the responsibility of lay people has produced several forms of lay commitment to the Mission. There are associations of lay people which are geared toward a temporary or permanent service in Mission countries; others are sent directly by their dioceses through agreements with the missionary Bishops; others aggregate themselves to missionary institutes, or to institutes which have missions. Among these, we might mention in a special way those who received some formation in an institute and desire to participate more directly in its charism and spirit through some form of insertion or responsibility. This is also true of those who participate in mission and vocation animation, especially by those who have had some kind of experience in mission countries.
These developments and the many requests for missionary service manifest the signs of the times, to which our Institute should pay attention. If it did not, it would forfeit a true missionary kind of service and would be missing out on possibly precious forces that could be placed at the service of the Mission. The presence of lay people exalts the value of witnessing, strengthens the capacity of collaboration and of living the Mission in communion and in complementarity, it is a help against solitude and pastoral individualism.
For the Chapter, the Consolata Lay Missionary is someone who, motivated by a desire to answer Christ's call, makes Mission the choice of his/her life, participates for a few years in the missionary project of our Institute, in his/her own country or in foreign missions, and is inspired by the spirituality of our Institute.

The Reality

In our Institute, we have opened ourselves to the collaboration of lay people who came from the northern areas of the world or from the Mission countries themselves. They are still present in several of our Provinces. After the Chapter of 1987, the General Government published a document on the Consolata Lay Missionaries. The Provinces were given the charge of its realization. Generally speaking, the collaboration between our Institute and these lay people was good, both in the professional and pastoral field, and in community living to the extent possible. Some difficulties were also experienced: candidates not sufficiently prepared or chosen, difficulty in finding communities ready to accept them, lack of formation for a specific job, insufficient clarity in preparing their work project.
Several initiatives in this area were started in various Provinces: some are still functioning, others closed down. In most cases, an effort was made to integrate these lay people in our structures and activities: this causes bewilderment. The Institute has not yet made a definite choice for the laity, does not have a clear program, and a definite statute to fulfil the desires and requests of those who already have walked on a spiritual and missionary road in our centers, and wish to share with us the Mission according to our spirit.
In some Provinces, programs of formation for these people were prepared, aiming at helping them mature humanly, at forming strong personalities that can stand up in their missionary work, and at rendering them capable of integrating themselves in the true reality of the Mission. In other Provinces, different situations and efforts are being made. No significant steps were taken in Africa as yet, although the post-synodal exhortation Ecclesia in Africa wished it to be done.

Practical Proposals

Missionaries and Communities
" Our Institute chooses to share its Mission with lay people as a form of evangelization. A change of mentality is necessary in order to understand and appreciate their role, learn how to dialogue, accept to work with them, and respect their specific contribution.
" In programming their activities, Mission communities should give space to lay missionaries. This does not diminish, but rather increases, the amount of attention that missionaries should give to the promotion and the appreciation of the local lay people, especially in Africa and Latin America.

Provinces
" As far as collaboration and insertion of lay people in the missionary activity of our Institute, the directive given in Consolata Lay Missionaries are to be followed for now. The form of aggregation too is to be practiced.
" The Conferences of the Provinces should establish in which concrete commitments lay missionaries can be inserted.
" The Governments of the sending and receiving Provinces, must see to it that they receive an adequate preparation. In the period before their departure, the preparation must include the language, culture, political and social situations of the country where they are going; and also the theology of the Mission and of spirituality, and an adequate knowledge of our Institute, of our spirit and of our style of life and of doing apostolate. The receiving Province will introduce the lay missionary to the cultural, social, political and ecclesial situation of the country, and to the programs and criteria of work of our Institute.
" The experience of those who come back from a missionary assignment, as well as the cooperation of those who cannot leave their country, should be put to good use, by involving them in the activities of our Institute, especially in mission animation.

The General Government
" At the general level, a person-in-charge follows directly and coordinates the sector of lay missionaries . He should awaken the missionaries on the need of widening our capacity of collaborating with lay missionaries, he should contact the provinces in order to learn their needs and concrete possibilities of inserting lay missionaries in their work, he should make sure that in the mission field there is a missionary who takes care of their spiritual and material needs.
" Before the next Consulta, the General Government should organize a meeting of lay missionaries who made or are making a missionary experience with us, and of those who are getting ready to do it, to evaluate past experiences in this area, and offer proposals which will help in the preparation of the statute for lay missionaries. The outcome will be presented to the Consulta.
" Following the findings of the Consulta, the General Government, together with representatives of lay missionaries, will prepare a statute for lay missionaries. This statute will contain our Institute's project for lay missionaries, the mode of coordination and collaboration among the various provinces, and the various aspects of the organization. Criteria of discernment will be drawn up, guidelines for their formation, rules on specific qualities they need to possess in order to do their Mission work, such as availability, balance, motivation, specific expertise. The service of a lay missionary to the Mission might be involvement in pastoral activities. In fact, the worth of the Christian lay missionary lies mainly in the witness that he or she gives. This is what distinguishes him/her from someone who does other forms of cooperation and human promotion.

3. MEANS OF SOCIAL COMMUNICATION

The Inspiration

In his own time, Blessed Joseph Allamano was considered a precursor of the means of social communication placed at the service of pastoral activities and evangelization. In this field his perceptions were prophetic. In a time when the development of the media was not even a hypothesis, he had understood the need to have recourse to the means of communication of his time to help form public opinion, to inform and to assure the presence of Catholic thought in society. His contribution to the foundation and the preservation of the Catholic newspaper in Turin was providential and decisive. With his moral authority, he encouraged those who were committing themselves to this new field of evangelization.
With Fr. James Camisassa, the intelligent and dynamic producer of the Allamano's initiatives, our Founder began the publication of the magazine La Consolata, with a double purpose: To develop the Marian devotion, and to inspire many devotees of Our Lady Consolata, and a larger groups of friends, to become involved in the work of the Allamano's missionaries in Africa. He printed post cards and several other subsidies of a missionary nature, encouraged the use of visual aides during lectures, insisted that an information channel be always open between the missions in Africa and Italy.
To his missionaries he often recommended the use of paper, pen and picture cameras so they could send news and document events and places. His comments in the matter reveal his shrewd mind in this field: "remember the reports in newspapers and the minute descriptions that they print to illustrate events; choose well the news items and dwell on what is original and interesting" in "the habits and the ideas of the natives…, your relations with them…, how they receive your words, how your words affect them, their conversations, their sayings" (Letter to the Missionaries in Kenya, January 6, 1905).
During the first years of missionary work, communication was a priority of evangelization, and it consisted mostly in meeting the people during the systematic visits to the villages. Afterwards, the Allamano and Camisassa set up printing shops both in Kenya and in Italy. Many publications came out of these shops. Worth mentioning in a special way, the newspaper Wathiomo Mukinyu, for many years published by the Consolata Missionaries in Nyeri.
The use of the media is essential to the work of evangelization for "an effective announcement of the Gospel and an in-depth communication of the faith…"(cf. Gen. Direct. 75.2); for a serious Christian formation, human promotion in its many facets, and mission and vocation animation, where " our Institute should avail itself of the means of social communication in an adequate, proper and realistic way" (Const. 85).
As the new era approaches, social communication grows in importance all over the world. "For many people, the means of communications have become so important as to be for many the chief means of formation and education, of guidance and inspiration, in their behavior as individuals, families, and within society at large", says Redemptoris Missio as it presents the world of communications as "the first Areopagus of the modern age" (RM 27). "Today, much of what men and women know and think about life is conditioned by the media; to a considerable extent, human experience itself is and experience of the Media" (Aetatis Novae, 2 & 4).

The Reality

Eleven magazines are published by the provinces of our Institute. They are our most meaningful means of missionary formation and information, and of evangelization too. They are usually respected and well received in the local churches. The ones in Europe and North America have a good number of subscribers; elsewhere, the readers are fewer in numbers, which requires a pretty substantial financial support from the General Government. In our African provinces, Kenya alone publishes a magazine.
Few of our provinces publish books of a certain caliber. In other areas, local radio stations have been set up and are run by our missionaries. Rare is our engagement in TV: seldom do we have our news transmitted by major TV networks, or in well-known newspapers. Our audiovisual sector too has developed somewhat, but it has encountered much difficulty in continuing its productions, because they require a heavy cost, sophisticated machines which continually become obsolete, technical specialization, while the subscriptions have been rather limited. Even for our mission magazines and publications, the possibility of being recognized as viable pieces of literature is very low, and of utilizing the modern techniques of publicity very scanty.
The General Government and the governments of the provinces have found it difficult to provide personnel who is sufficiently prepared to publish our magazines and our press in general. Rarely, too, do we avail ourselves of the contribution of lay specialists in this field, also because of the heavy financial expenditures involved.
In some areas, we have entered the field of the Internet with our homepages.

Practical Proposals

Provinces
" The Governments of the provinces:
- should try to single out the persons who, after having lived an appropriate missionary experience, are apt to be involved in this kind of service. This should be done with the agreement and the help of the General Government. Such people should receive an adequate preparation;
- should study and prepare for the Regional Conferences a concrete plan that will help take better advantage of the means of social communication in the work of evangelization and of mission promotion. They should employ personnel and offer financial assistance in this field and, as much as possible, use lay people and other missionary forces;
" always aware of the ever-changing techniques in the field of communications, they must take advantage of the opportunities that E-Mail and the Internet offer. This will get more and more people to come to know our Institute and the Mission, will spread information about the events that refer to missionaries, and will inform on the religious, social, economic and political situation of countries and Churches. These interventions should be made inside each province, but also at the international level, through agencies and other proper channels.
" It is the job of the editors of our magazines to send news and other information to newspapers, news agencies and TV stations. Where we have no magazines, the superiors of the provinces themselves should have this task, or someone chosen by them.
" Our missionaries should feel the responsibility of promoting the magazines of their province , and also the job of writing on events, situations and meaningful experiences of the milieu where they exercise their missionary activity.

The General Government
" The General Office of Mission Promotion should periodically prepare meetings of the editors of our magazines and of all those involved in the means of communication. If possible, this should be done with the Consolata Missionary Sisters.
" With the superiors of the provinces or at a continental level, let the possibility be studied of involving the major nets of communication in programs about situations, events or projects that interest our Institute and its presence and activities in the various parts of the world.

B. PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS

The Mission, always new and always ancient, continually takes on new aspects and new methods of work which, though embrionically present in the missionary tradition of our Institute, did not have much ideological and practical development in the past, due to the diversity of mission situations. This development is responsible for the growth of new concepts, methods, attitudes in mission, which the missionaries must be prepared for.

1. INCULTURATON

The Inspiration

1. Inculturation is nowadays one of the foremost demands of the Mission. No one can doubt that the Christian message is open to all cultures and yet not tied up with anyone of the and that it must be made accessible to every human being through the path of inculturation (cf. RM 52).We must dialogue with the cultures so as to understand them better and open the way for them to meet the Gospel (cf. EN 20). In theory and in practice, this is such a complex challenge that it requires the commitment of every missionary to finding concrete ways to face and resolve it.

2. Evangelii Nuntiandi presents the meeting of Gospel and cultures as an integral part of the dialogue of salvation. God speaks all languages and the Holy Spirit breathes into all human groups. There is something beautiful, true and just in all persons and in all cultures. The Chapter of 1993 says: "We consider the external reality (person, culture, events) as a place where the Spirit allows us to discover the "new" of the Mission, molding and shaping our life and activity" (44). This vision of the intercultural dialogue as a specific, autonomous and full missionary activity is new in the Church. It presupposes an interior, deep intimacy with one's own spiritual and cultural roots.

3. There are no references on this theme in the teachings of the Founder. However, we can inspire ourselves on his criteria and build upon them today's concept of inculturation. When he sends the first missionaries to Kenya and gives them instructions on what kind of missionary method to use, he recommends that they aim first of all at the transformation of the environment as a necessary condition for an effective evangelization. He insists that they look at the reality around them, become attentive observers of whatever happens, discover the needs and the various facets of the local culture, the habits and behavior of the local people.
This keen attention to everything, so much recommended by our Founder, can be considered a premise to a true inculturation. Even the first steps of inculturation, such as adaptation, cannot materialize without a deep knowledge of the milieu, the culture, the people, which allows to operate in pastoral activities with adequate choices, proper language and sensitivity. This is true for all countries of the world. True inculturation cannot be made by the mind alone, but also with the heart, by acquiring a sensitivity that can be attained only through a deep sense of respect and humility.

4. The process of inculturation is the fruit of a joint effort, done with different rhythms, of those who receive the Gospel, and of the missionary who plunges into cultural realities that are different from his own. This process is spread out in various moment. In some of these moments, the missionary, although a foreigner in relation to the culture in which he is inserted, has a very specific role:
- in the first encounter with the Gospel, when it is sown and received;
- in the process of assimilation, when the Gospel, already lived by the people, begins expressing itself through the signs of the culture in which it was announced;
- in the process of transformation, when the Gospel becomes an agent of culture by purifying and renewing it, and harmonizes it in Christ Jesus our Lord;
- in the process of opening up to the universality of the Church, which prompts the new community of faith and its culture to be renewed and go beyond their frontiers in order to live Catholicity;
The missionary is plunged into a process of inter-action between his own culture and the cultures he has been sent to. He does not evangelize cultures but men and women inside their culture with a rhythm which cannot be fast, like all cultural changes are not fast. Because they are ever-changing realities, cultures, too, require that inculturation be a permanent process.

The Reality

Inculturation of the Gospel
We do not always desire to place the Gospel in square dialogue with the values of the cultures. Many missionaries assume attitudes that are critical of the customs and of the cultures of the peoples where they work. Some still feel strangers to the local cultures after working a long time in the same place. An attitude of openness and nearness to the people is needed, but it's not always there. We do not make efforts to open our houses to hospitality; we prefer privacy, to relate to the people who belong to our own nationality.
There are some missionaries, even among those filled with zeal for the Mission, who do not oppose themselves to the idea of inculturation, but do not consider it realistic, who deem it a waste of time and energy. There is a growing consensus that this job of inculturation should be the task of the Local Church or to the limited number of our local missionaries. Or we just espouse the attitude of wait and see.
Deep interest for the study and the knowledge of the culture of a people and for its many expressions seems to be waning among us. It might be caused by excessive mobility. Other causes could be: the process of leveling of the cultures and relegating them to archeology, the rapidity of cultural changes, the globalization produced by the media, the environment of the megalopoles respect for more traditional cultures is lacking.
But there are everywhere efforts of inculturation that are worth mentioning. What scares missionaries is the way to concretize it. Some find themselves often in situations of cultural insecurity: globalization attacks cultures too. For these reasons, challenging the contexts mentioned in the first part of this document, especially the cultural context, is part of the process of inculturation. That means that every missionary, wherever he finds himself, must be aware of this reality. Another phenomenon that complicates the process of inculturation is the migration into big suburbia, which puts together groups of people belonging to different cultures. It is not easy to know which way to go!

Inculturation of the Charism
We find ourselves challenged by various tensions in this issue: tension between a creative fidelity to the Gospel and to our charism on one side, and on the other an authentic desire to live both of them in a new, more dynamic fashion; between the need for that unity which fosters a common faith and creates in us the identification with the one and only religious family to which we belong, and the multiplicity of cultures; between the urgent demands of accepting every culture, and the equally strong imperative not to undersell the Gospel values from which stem, in a special way, the values of consecrated life.


Internationality
Because of the internationality of our communities, the difficulty of inculturation does not limit itself to the traditional indigenous cultures only, or those which have slightly moved away from the original culture of each member. It also applies to the western world, and it challenges those who are born into a certain culture, and those who enter it for any reason, such as to study, to work, to do apostolate. There also is a modern kind of culture with which we do not feel at ease. Perplexities in the face of the rapid cultural changes, in Asia and Africa too, cause great bewilderment. When we try to communicate especially with the young people our ideas, concepts, and even our forms of witnessing, we see that we were not able to communicate, we seem to speak a different language. We find it difficult to follow the paths trod by modern culture, which would give us the chance to evangelize the ever more numerous neo-pagans.

Practical Proposals

Since we are conscious that evangelization is impossible without inculturation, we must discover the transcendent aspects of the cultures, in which the Spirit of the Lord, present everywhere, manifests itself. Inculturation is not a one-way street: it concerns those who stay in their own milieu, and those who go from one continent to another; and all are involved in the cultural process which encompasses the whole world.
The General Chapter strongly insists that everyone must be interested in the many facets of inculturation. It believes in its validity and necessity also for our charism. It considers inculturation an element of fundamental and vital importance, which is already contained in our Constitutions when they say that "ecclesial, social and cultural situations demand that our Institute be open to renewal, 'inculturation' and pluralism" (n. 6). The process of inculturation is based on the charismatic values that characterize our family, which were transmitted to us by our Founder and consecrated by tradition. These values must be lived and expressed in harmony with the cultures. It is also a way of enriching our charism.
From these convictions, the following proposals and commitments of the Chapter come forth.

Missionaries
" Must see to it that people, especially in the small Ecclesial Basic Communities, absorb the Word of God, live it and share it with others: this is the surest road of the inculturation of the faith .
" Must develop an attitude of openness and friendship towards the people to which they are sent. Without sincere friends, we cannot consider ourselves part of the people and of their culture. The missionary must listen to the culture where he lives, and make a serious effort to understand and love it.
" Should participate with respect and openness in the meetings of indigenous theology periodically organized in various contexts, and accept the proposals of formation and the sharing of experiences promoted by the local, diocesan, regional and national teams of inculturated pastoral activities.
" During their years of formation, young people must be helped to understand, respect and love other cultures, so as to better fulfill the needs of the Mission later. In order to achieve this, they may be requested to do some pastoral experiences in cultural milieux that are different from their own. They should also learn the cultures of their seminary classmates.

Provinces
" The provinces must go back to the tradition established since the beginning of dedicating time and efforts to learn the language and the culture of the country. Every province should study appropriate ways of attaining this goal through courses, publications and formative initiatives. In collaboration with other institute, let them create new structures, or use the existing ones , where the newly-arrived are helped to inculturate themselves and to familiarize themselves with the local pastoral methods.
" In order to help the process of inculturation, the governments of the provinces should appoint missionaries for sometime to the same cultural area; should encourage some significant experiences done by our missionaries or by others, and share them through exchanges of information. They should also help the local church to take the lead in the process of inculturation by preparing people, motivating the local clergy, and by promoting studies and courses on the subject.

The General Government
" Should continue the reflection of the inculturation of our charism, already started in Africa and in Latin America, make known the results and the proposals that will ensue.
" The Continental Counselor, together with the superiors of the provinces, should form a commission made up of representatives of the various cultures in order to promote the study of the inculturation of the charism.
" A Central Commission should be formed, composed of the presidents of the Continental Commissions and of representatives of the General Government, representatives of the continents and representatives of the various cultures, to prepare themes for reflection on the subject of inculturation. These themes should be discussed in an intercontinental meeting.
" A report on how much was done in this area should be given at the time of continental meetings and at the time of the Consulta.

2. INTER-RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE

The Inspiration

"The Church is dialogue", said Paul VI in the encyclical Ecclesiam Suam in 1964. "Dialogue can be understood in many ways. First, at a purely human level, it means reciprocal communication in order to reach a common goal. At a deeper level, it means an interpersonal communion. Second, dialogue can be considered as an attitude of respect and of friendship, which penetrates, or should penetrate, all the activities that constitute the evangelizing mission of the Church. This could be called, and with reason, the spirit of dialogue. (Instr. Dialogue and Announcement, 9).
According to Redemptoris Missio: "inter-religious dialogue is part of the evangelizing mission of the Church"(n. 55). The Pope places dialogue among the ways of the Mission, such as: witnessing, first announcement, conversion and baptism, formation of the Ecclesial Basic Communities, inculturation, development and liberation, and finally the exercise of charity. "Understood as a method and means of mutual knowledge and enrichment, dialogue is not in opposition to the Mission ad gentes; indeed, it has special links with that Mission and is one of its expressions" (ibid).
Thus inter-religious dialogue entered with full credentials the field of the Mission ad gentes. We can no longer dispense ourselves from it. Also because, in Africa, we are in constant, tormenting and difficult contact with Islam; just about everywhere we meet the traditional religions and new religious movements. We have begun a new opening in Asia, where inter-religious dialogue has great importance.
The same considerations are valid for the indigenous religions of North America. They, too, are on a journey of theological development which takes into consideration the daily life and the historical project of their peoples.
In the Mission of evangelization, ecumenical dialogue, too, has great importance, especially for people who feel the scandal of competition between various religions (Catholics, Protestants, sects, etc.) in the same area. Ecumenism is not optional, it is part of the Christian life and Mission (cf. AG 4). It is necessary to the credibility of the Mission: "that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me" (John 17:21). Consequently, ecumenical activities are part of the ecclesial Mission (cf. AG 4). We do not discuss this theme here, we want to address ourselves to what today is becoming new and specific in the Mission.
An authentic dialogue of ideas, life and heart demands certain fundamental attitudes:
" an authentic identification with one's faith, based on a true experience of God;
" a recognition and welcoming of the truth present in the other, all that is good and holy in non-Christian religions commitment to the service of truth and of goodness;
" formation of a concrete change of attitude in our understanding of religious experience. The gospel cannot announced as if outside it there were no possibility of truth and salvation. To recognize in the others an authentic search for God; to admit that the Spirit of God and the Semina verbi are present in the other's religious experience. There can exist inter-religious dialogue only between two people who have made an authentic experience of God.

In the present socio-religious context, especially where a vast process of secularization and neo-paganism can be seen, communion with those who search for God constitutes the humble contribution that we can give to humanity today: a strong value against any form of impoverishment, degradation, fanaticism and intolerance.

The Reality

In the history of our Institute there is no real tradition of inter-religious dialogue, not even with the traditional religions that we met in Africa or in Latin America. In relation to "the others", pessimistic and negative evaluations and opinions are most common. We often lived in conflict with other Christian religions, and not all of us have developed an ecumenical sensitivity. It is also true that dialogue is particularly difficult with sects and religious movements. However, we cannot simply fight or ignore them. Inter-religious dialogue presupposes also a new theology with which many of us are not familiar.
But a certain sensitivity for the theme of inter-religious dialogue is developing in our Institute. After several trials, our young delegation in Korea is setting itself on the way of dialogue with the great religions of Asia. The intuition of enlarging the horizons of our Mission to Asia opens for us the way of Mission of the future.
It was only recently that some Regions in Africa thought about specializing missionaries in the field of Islam.
We feel today the need to deepen the theological and pastoral meaning of dialogue, not as an alternative or a downgrading of the proclamation of the Gospel, but in order to see in it another face of the ad gentes. We consider it very urgent to engage ourselves in this activity, even if we are not sufficiently prepared.

Practical Proposals

Missionaries
" Every missionary should consider inter-religious dialogue as a facet, an activity and a new method of the Mission today.
" Let him form himself in the theory of dialogue and in the attitudes that are necessary to practice it. Let him shed any attitude of auto-sufficiency, closeness, ideological intollerance and fundamentalism, and set himself in a state of conversion so as to live his faith in depth and with all conviction. He should educate people to respect religions.
" Let him motivate the laity to enter into viable forms of encounter and collaboration in daily life with other religions, and, moved by common values of solidarity, justice and peace, to conduct projects of human promotion and development.

Provinces
" The Governments and the Conferences of the provinces should promote sensibilization on inter-religious and ecumenical dialogue; they should favor and support participation initiatives of theological and practical character. They should allow new missionary activities based on this dialogue.
" In agreement with the General Government, they should have some missionary become specialized in the theory and practice of dialogue with other religions and sects.
" In Latin America: there must be coordination, at the continental level, among those who work directly with ethnic minorities, and a deeper study must be done of the Indigenous and Afro religions.
" In Africa: in one of the Regions, a study should be made on the possibility of opening a special presence among the Muslims, based on dialogue.
" In Asia: the new center to be opened should give priority to inter-religious dialogue.
" In North America and Europe: in our centers and in the work of mission promotion, particular attention should be given to the new religious movements.

CONCLUSION

The Soul of the Mission

"If you want to be apostles, you must be on fire!" (SL, pg. 384). This meaningful sentence of our Blessed Father Founder concludes our reflection and orientation for the Mission ad gentes during the next few years. It expresses the action of the Allamano for the Mission, his apostolic zeal, his opening wide to universality. It must be the same for us, too. If we do not burn with zeal, we can do nothing.
Zeal is fire, it is "the characteristic proper to a missionary". Through it, we make ours the words of the Apostle: "all I do, I do it for the Gospel" (1 Corinthians 9:23); and the Allamano adds more emphasis : "All, everything! I will spend and sacrifice my entire self" (SL pg. 383).This zeal leads us "not to put any reservations or obstacles in the path of dedicating ourselves to the salvation of souls…. Ah, no one will ever be a missionary who doesn't burn with this divine fire!" (Ib., pg. 384).
If the Mission totally invades our existence, it becomes that unspoken "vow" which our Founder considered included in the profession of missionary life of our Institute: "We should bind ourselves with the vow to serve the missions even at the cost of our lives!" (Ib., pg. 384), or in any case, just as St. Paul, to become, like St. Paul, all things to all (1 Cor 9:22; 9:18-23).
And all this bursts out of love: "We have to possess so much charity that we will be ready to give up our lives. We missionaries vow to give up our life for the salvation of souls. To love our neighbor more than ourselves must be the life project of a missionary"(SL, pg. 384). Without this we would lack the truth about, and the soul of the missionary, and every reflection of ours would be purely academic, and our resolutions would remain dead letter.
Ideally, we would like to speak all the languages of the world in order to preach the Gospel and to inculturate it everywhere. But the apostle reminds us: "if I speak in human and angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing symbol (1 Cor 13:1).
We have selected as one of our main commitments to work for peace and justice among nations, to defend the rights of all people, and the equality of all persons; we would like to have so much faith as to move mountains. But, "if I have the gift of prophecy, and comprehend all the mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing" (1 Cor 13:2).
We want to continue giving a new impulse to the dimension of consolation. We want to go to the aid of the needy, alleviate the suffering, finance all projects of development, to be ready even to suffer martyrdom as some of us already did. But, "even if I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. (1 Cor 13:3).
This apostolic energy, which bursts forth from love, has its first expression in our relations within our own community, and in our apostolic service. These relations must be filled with that love that renders our communities joyful, serene and pleasant, a love that must characterize our rapport with the others: "love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it's not pompous, it's not inflated; it's not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all tings, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Cor 13:4-7).
In this love consists the authentic proposal of the Mission, which, in turn, energizes and supports it. If we are to be renewed in charity and in Mission, we must banish those forms of personalism still strong in us, we have to overcome the unwillingness to programming together, and the inability to open up to and appreciate the talents of everyone, especially the qualities of the lay people and of the cultures, we have to appreciate the successes of others, as was the wish of our Founder.
We must increase our ability to forgive, which our Founder so much recommended to all of us, and extend it to recognize our own mistakes and ask forgiveness from our confreres and from all those whom our rudeness, our intransigence and our hardness of heart have offended.
Let us strive for personal renewal, so that can go back to being the Institute that the Allamano wanted to be a family, where each one loves and helps the other, as true brothers: "You're all brothers: you must live together, in order to work together for life. In the Society, we must form one unit, one and the same dough… Love one another fraternally. The sorrow of one should be the sorrow of all, the interests of one should be the interests of all (SL, pg.340). "I would love to say: 'we might lack many virtues, but, charity, that we have'… I want to see your charity always in full bloom" (Ib., pg. 330).
Again Allamano insists: "the last recommendation I gave to those who first left for the missions, and to the members of the second and third expedition was: 'That you love one another as true brothers'" (Letter to the Missionaries in Kenya, November 27, 1903).
Behold, this is the fire, the heart, the password given to us by Blessed Joseph Allamano!