Visibility and transparency of the Consecrated Life

I understand that I was specifically requested to reflect upon and to present one of the elements which, in my opinion, forms part of this "rise in quality" of vocational promotion: "contagious vocational promotion", or, more fundamentally, to ask ourselves questions about the visibility and transparency of the consecrated life that actually creates this contagion, i.e. as it provokes questions amongst those around us, the desire to know more about the reasons and motivation of our lives and, finally, the radical following of Jesus according to the charism of a real religious family.

It is therefore logical, in the context of contagious vocational promotion, to speak of the visibility of the consecrated life, even though I do not think this visibility should refer only to the vocational aspect. Now is not the time to discuss the visibility of such and such external signs, or the existence or otherwise of institutions. These are subjects which were relevant in the post-conciliar years when people were beginning to discuss the whole question of the appropriateness of the visibility of the consecrated life and of the Church. Today, in my opinion, we are dealing with a factor which can have a great impact on the renewal of the consecrated life; which is an important aspect of the way this life is conceived and lived in the present-day circumstances of our culture; an element, that is to say, a "model" of the consecrated life which, I think, is opening up to the future of the Spirit.

That is how the Executive Council of the Union of Superiors General seems to have understood it in thinking that it was "appropriate to pursue and develop study of the "refoundation" (or renewal or revitalization) of the consecrated life. It is time to deal with the more specific themes that will help us to enter into the various elements of the consecrated life and, in so doing, give the efforts towards renewal a more concrete form. We wish to help the Superiors General to carry out the effort to give their own Institutions a new face that more faithfully reflects the founding charism".