THE UNION OF SUPERIORS GENERAL
Half a century of service to the Consecrated Life

P.Camilo Maccise, OCD

    Our first bi-annual Assembly of the year 2000 is entitled: "The USG is on the road to the Third Millennium, A look at the past, our present commitment, future creativity".

    Throughout the 45 years of its official existence, the USG has had to face the challenge of incessant and rapid changes in the Church, in the consecrated life and in society. As we begin the Third Millennium, and following on from the synod on the Consecrated Life (1994) and the publication of the pastoral document Vita Consecrata (1996), we have once more become aware of the meaning and scope of our charism and our mission within the Church, as well as the challenges we must meet if we want to remain faithful to Christ, to the People of God, to our Institutes, to the man and woman of today (cf. VC 110).

    Following our reflections on the theme of refoundation, which we began two years ago, we now wish to look more deeply at the real reasons that motivated the birth of the USG, in order to re-read them in the context of the history and institutions of today. In this way we can re-interpret the Union’s objectives in the light of the present demands for it to give real service to the consecrated life.

    We live in a world of communication and globalization that is opening up new perspectives and presenting us with unheard of problems. And that requires us, as the USG, to renew our will to serve the consecrated life. In creative fidelity, we need to revive our Union’s original dynamism and entrepreneurial qualities so that we can continue to be an active and living presence in the Church and at the service of a Church of communion and sharing. We are called to identify new ways to improve collaboration amongst ourselves and with the National Conferences of Religious, to achieve more effective dialog with the Holy See and with the Bishops’ Conferences.

    The object of this talk is to look at the past in order to remind ourselves of our Union’s origins and the road we have already traveled. This will enable us to be actively faithful to the guidelines which inspired the Union, and to give a fresh impetus to those guidelines and to its achievements, using as our starting point a reinterpretation of history in the light of today’s challenges. My lecture is divided into three parts. The first is a simple overview of the USG’s history. The second tries to bring out both the great successes and the limitations that have accompanied the USG throughout its existence – almost half a century. In the third part, by way of introduction to the two lectures that follow and to the subsequent reflection and work of identification, I will present the main challenges that test and pose questions for the USG at the beginning of the Third Millennium.