Development within society

4. Society is in constant evolution and men and women religious, who are not of the world, but who nevertheless live in the world, are subject to its influence.

Here we will mention only some aspects which have had a direct impact on religious life in general and on religious community in particular.

a) Movements for political and social emancipation in the Third World and a stepped up process of industrialisation have led to the rise of major social changes, with particular emphasis on the "development of peoples" and, in recent decades, on situations of poverty and misery. Local Churches have reacted actively in the face of these developments.

Above all in Latin America, through the general assemblies of the Latin American episcopate at Medellin, Puebla, and Santo Domingo, the "evangelical and preferential option for the poor"(¹⁸) has been strongly emphasised, and has led to a new emphasis on social commitment.

Religious communities have been profoundly affected by this; many were led to rethink their presence in society, in view of more direct service to the poor, sometimes even through insertion among the poor.

The overwhelming increase of suffering on the outskirts of large cities and the impoverishment of rural areas have hastened the "repositioning" of a considerable number of religious communities towards these poorer areas.

Everywhere, there is the challenge of inculturation. Cultures, traditions, and the mentality of a particular country all have an impact on the way fraternal life is lived in religious communities.

Moreover, movements of large-scale migration in recent years have raised the problem of the co-existence of different cultures, and the problem of racist reactions. All of these issues also have repercussions on pluri-cultural and multi-racial religious communities, which are becoming increasingly common.

b) Demands for personal freedom and human rights have been at the root of a broad process of democratisation, which has favoured economic development and the growth of civil society.

In the immediate wake of the Council, this process, especially in the west, quickened and was marked by moments of calling meetings about everything and rejection of authority.

The Church and religious life were not immune from such questioning of authority, with significant repercussions for community life as well.

A one-sided and exasperated stress on freedom contributed to the spread of a culture of individualism throughout the west, thus weakening the ideal of life in common and commitment to community projects.

We also observe other reactions which were equally one-sided, such as flight into safely authoritarian projects, based on blind faith in a reassuring leader.

c) The advancement of women, which according to Pope John XXIII is one of the signs of our times, has also had many repercussions on life in Christian communities in various countries.(¹⁹) Even if in some areas the influence of extremist currents of feminism is deeply affecting religious life, almost everywhere women's religious communities are positively seeking forms of common life judged more suitable for a renewed awareness of the identity, dignity and role of women in society, Church and religious life.

d) The communications explosion, which began in the 1960's, has considerably, and at times dramatically, influenced the general level of information, the sense of social and apostolic responsibility, apostolic mobility and the quality of internal relationships, not to mention the specific life-style and recollected atmosphere which ought to characterise a religious community.

e) Consumerism and hedonism, together with a weakening of the vision of faith characteristic of secularism, in many regions have not left religious communities unaffected. These factors have severely tested the ability of some religious communities to "resist evil" but they have also given rise to new styles of personal and community life which are a clear evangelical testimony for our world.

All of this has been a challenge, a call to live the evangelical counsels with more vigour, and this has helped support the witness of the wider Christian community.