II - ORGANIZATION OF THE USG

1. Structures for serving and promoting the Consecrated Life

    a. The Constitution. Like any other organization, the USG has drawn up a Constitution. The first text, formulated and approved in 1962, was revised in 1972. A further revision, in 1990, established the present rules and has been approved by the Holy See.

    b. The USG Council. It was in 1961 that the President and Vice-President of the USG began to have a real Union Council. It was composed of 6 other Superiors General from the different types of consecrated life. Later the Council expanded, at first to 8 members, then 10, as is the case today. The Council’s tasks are set out in the Constitution.

    c. The General Secretariat. This body is vitally important in order to pursue the USG’s plans and projects. For the first 10 years of its existence, the Union had no Secretariat – the General Curia of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate provided the service. From 1965 to 1968, it was Fr. Salvatore Bocella, T.O.R. who carried out the work of the Secretariat, but without any special staff or office. It was in 1968 that the USG appointed a full-time Secretary General, Fr. Malcolm La Velle, C.P. (Superior General of the Passionists for 12 years) and opened its first official headquarters at 226 Corso Vittorio Emmanuele (1970-1976). The second headquarters was at 13 Piazza Capponi. Since 1979 until the present, the General Secretariat has been situated at 19 Via dei Penitenzieri. Owing to building work at the Jesuits’ General Curia, in 1989 the Secretariat was temporarily housed for a year at the General Curia of the Salvatorians, 51 Via della Conciliazione.

    With his little team, the Secretary General is responsible for organization of the Meetings and Assemblies of the USG, meetings of the Council, of the Commissions, the Councils of 16 and 18; for preparing the Minutes of the meetings and Assemblies, for arranging translation and publication of the conference papers and decisions of the bi-annual meetings of the USG; for relations with the Roman Curia and with the National Conferences for Religious; for providing information to USG members; for financial administration; and for publication of the Index Personarum, which contains the names and addresses of the General Curias of the Institutes that are members of the USG

    d. Commissions.

    It is important to note and remember that almost all the USG commissions in fact pre-date the Second Vatican Council. They had been created, on an informal basis, somewhat earlier, when the discussions on the problems the Council was to face first sprang up. Some of the commissions made their real contribution before and during the Council and were then dissolved. Others assumed a formal structure immediately after the Council, with the intention of implementing what the Council had said, opening up the way for decentralization, solidarity and auxiliary bodies. One might think of what happened in the Orders and Congregations when, soon after the Council, the need was felt for special Chapters to study the problems and identify ways of implementing the Council.

    Four commissions were created to study the various aspects of religious life in the light of Vatican II. Another eight were added almost simultaneously. In all there were a total of twelve commissions. A number of them were active for many years. Others were dissolved because the reason for their foundation no longer existed. Other commissions were formed later, as required by the events in the consecrated life at the time.

    Amongst the commissions, it is worth recalling the Commission for Formation, the Theological Commission, the Ecumenical Commission and the Justice and Peace Commission.

    The Commission for Formation was particularly active between 1969 and 1974. The Congregation for Religious requested the collaboration of the USG in preparing what would become the document Potissimum institutioni, on formation in religious Institutes, published in 1990. The Commission organized a wide-ranging inquiry at an international level, which involved 15,000 young religious and 1,900 people working in the area of formation.

    The Theological Commission was created in 1972. Its first aim was to study the religious life and the priesthood. It was organized after an interdisciplinary conference on Relationships between psychological and spiritual growth (November 1976). Other subjects studied by this Commission have been the Theology of the Vows, the Nature of Lay Religious Life, Religious Spirituality, the Spirituality of the Priesthood, Religious Poverty. A large number of these studies resulted in themes that were presented to various bi-annual assemblies of the USG

    The Joint Commission (USG – UISG) on Justice and Peace. This Commission, created by the two Unions, has had a separate administration and Secretariat since the outset.

    Commission VI was created before the Council because of the important and increasing need to establish relationships between the mission and the consecrated life. It had an influence on the Council and on the preparations for the Plenary Session of the 1972 CEP, in the area of collaboration between the CEP and the Episcopal Conferences.

    The Ecumenical Commission holds one meeting per year with Anglican, Protestant and Orthodox religious.

    The USG used to have an organ of information that operated on a universal scale: the "Ephemerides notitiarum" began in 1973 and was suspended in 1995 because a different, more effective image was wanted. The unstable situation regarding staff has meant that this wish has not been fulfilled.