I. Introduction: The reason for this topic

A secret option for radicality

Today when one looks at the "geography" of the consecrated life, one finds the same spirit and alas expressions more diverse than the same. One discovers persons and communities living the secret option for radicality and creative fidelity that revitalisation requires. Its fruits come in martyrdom, the practice of prophecy, the living of fraternity as the essential nucleus of the Kingdom of God, closeness to the poor in the form of the "inserted" religious life, a return to Gospel poverty, mission shared with the laity. One discovers some places where an authentic revitalisation is already taking place and others in which it is only germinating. People have looked for and are discovering new forms of the consecrated life. The dawn of the third millennium invites us to go beyond many of the distinct shadows of the time and those of place. It is a spirit of "re-creation" that we are breathing with the arrival of the new millennium. It is necessary to succeed in incarnating it and channelling it in one’s way of living the mission, communion and identity of the consecrated life. The critical situation of some religious institutes lends greater urgency to a movement that takes into account the sources of the faith and charism and to decide to be visible, transparent witnesses of the God of Jesus Christ in a more decisive and radical manner.

In some places they have progressed further, and a new de facto paradigm of the consecrated life has been discovered and is already being developed; however, in practice this great option is notices at the personal or communal level. What is lacking are global proposals at the level of the whole institute. In general, we must confess with all simplicity, they do not produce the cure that is being sought; and, however, if one continues searching for what one intuits does exist, and will one day be found; one knows, moreover, that some of the works or forms of life have been very valuable in the past and exercise a great influence in the present, but it seems they will not help to construct the future. This search, which is in a certain sense the first step, is made with the certainty that the future is already germinating in the present.

More than a word

It is not easy to describe the whole task of changes and searching of recent years in the history of the consecrated life. People have spoken about renewing, revitalising, restructuring, reforming, refounding…. The latter word has been used to indicate the desire for a consecrated life that is genuinely religious life and seeking to rediscover the authentic foundations of the one consecrated life, that is the spirituality on a theological basis as well as the structures that have made it meaningful and fruitful. This word, and most of all this reality, make us think and react differently. For that reason, some people continue setting it off in quotes. I want to use some images to identify the best possible aspects of its content and meaning.

Without a doubt it has the effect of an alarm clock that awakens us from a dream, gives us a powerful incentive and calls us to begin a new day; it speaks to us of "novelty" and new demands. It brings us to the time of day to begin anew and allows us to make yesterday’s sunset a part of our history and transform it and thus face a new dawn. It reminds us that in order to begin the new day well we must greet Jesus Christ, the Lord of all ages, and follow him faithfully; to plant our feet firmly and quickly, wash our face in order to open our eyes and not look dishevelled, to put on our daytime clothes, start working, know where we are going and what we must do with the hours ahead of us and how to distribute the total time, with whom we are going to spend the day, and for whom we are dedicating the sweat and work of the whole day. This same word produces the effect of both a sting and a caress, as the song says; it moves, spurs on, challenges, confronts, makes one decide and achieve something, while at the same time it consoles and guides. It unleashes a process and offers a goal and some stages for the whole process. The Gospel metaphor of the house built on rock or sand clarifies for us what refounding means and what is at stake. The consecrated life can remain standing in this time of wind only if, like the house built on rock, it has its foundation on those same lasting foundations: the following of Jesus, evangelical poverty, the experience of community and going out to the margins, living in touch with the joys and hopes, the sorrows and fears of the men and women of our age. It leads us to focus on the basic problem of the consecrated life, not to remain on the surface, caught up in forms and structures. It invites us to centre on what is essential in the sequela Christi and not to emphasise what is "situational" or fashionable, as the refrain reminds us: "whoever is wedded to fashion is soon widowed". Refounding the consecrated life does not mean founding another type of consecrated life. It has already been invented. However, perhaps the way it is to be lived in our day has not yet been invented. This does not mean, however, ignoring the basic origins that continue to be a necessary reference point for every type of revitalisation. It is not possible to refound the consecrated life without returning to the evangelical inspiration at its origins.

In order to achieve this refounding, the most important thing is not to demolish but to rebuild. A building can be given new foundations and a new structure without destroying it. Refounding does not mean declaring the history of the consecrated life "null and void". There is no genuine revitalisation without fidelity to the great tradition. Neither does it mean allowing oneself to be trapped by the "immediacy" of the present, closing one’s eyes to the living currents of tradition and the lessons of history and being content with short range plans that only serve to worsen problems on the long-range. Refounding the consecrated life means going back to build the basis of the consecrated life on the eternal foundations, the only foundations capable of giving it meaning and sense, from within it and externally as well and to live in properly for today. In this sense the word refounding is interchangeable with the idea of "laying a new foundation".

We are faced here with a word and reality that can do good and can fail without knowing what route to take to avoid offering concrete content; as if it could serve alone to arouse an concern and not channel dynamism and action. However, it serves to multiply life if we let it evoke evangelical newness on the one hand and the challenges coming to the consecrated life from today’s society, marked by its culture which is post-modern and, in a certain sense, post Christian.

When the Union of Superiors General uses it in its report to the Synod on the consecrated life, it was aware that it was using a "high calibre" word, which is not easily found in dictionaries, and which arouses effervescence and whose meaning is therefore not always easy to understand. In all forms, everything comes together in what helps us to state that the consecrated life today needs to change its foundations if they do not correspond to its nature or reaffirm the true foundations which will allow it to win back its vitality, fruitfulness and radicality. However, in order for this to happen it is necessary to enter into the creative dynamism of the charisms that lead to the change of structures when necessary and offer the cultural reality an alternative that is born of the Gospel inspiration. The charism becomes a foundation reality in the same way that baptism is foundational for Christian life. The first fruit of an authentic charism is that those who live it make God the single Absolute and everything else relative. The only way of preserving the charism in its pristine form is to reinterpret it and share it. It is from the heart of our identity that the vitality springs and blossoms, the vitality that leads to the different realities that constitute the consecrated life. The foundational charism is something living and acts like something that is alive.

Sometimes it is necessary to plant it and cultivate it in new land, in new cultures. In doing so, this charism is refounded. This new reality interpellates it, challenges it, and the charism challenges and interpellates this new reality. In this mutual interaction the consecrated life and an institute are both revitalised. This will be seen in new expressions. Thus refounding consists not in repeating or doing what the founder did, but doing what the founder would do today in fidelity to the Spirit. Neither does it mean replacing the founder since there is nothing in the institutes that leads to consensus and most of all so that it continues to be an instrument and mediation that leads us to the original inspiration.

Vita Consecrata moves us to take this direction

An attentive reading of Vita Consecrata also leaves us looking in this direction when it evokes the transforming power rising from the original inspiration that comes from the Trinity, which we catch a glimpse of on Tabor and which has come to the religious institutes through history (VC 37). It is affirmed with the constant reencounter of the members with Jesus Christ; and when it recalls that this new life is a gift of the Holy Spirit (VC 62) to the world. It is the same spirit that must lead to the revitalisation of society and the Church and to sum up all things in Christ (VC 1 and 2): this revitalising action must reach the person of the religious (VC 39), fraternal life and pastoral activity (VC 13). It must be noted in formation (VC 68). In order to bear this fruit it is fitting to intensify community life, poverty and prayer (VC 13). To put it simply, this revitalising and foundational action that comes from the Trinity must reach into the charisms, forms of presence or ministry.

However, there are three sections of the document that require special attention in the context of the reflection we are making.

In number 13 there is an evaluation of the post-conciliar period. It was a "delicate and difficult" work and there was no lack of tension and trial and the consecrated life was strengthened by it. The Pope admits that this period needs to be "crowned" and "strengthened" by a new impetus. Number 37 is dedicated to creative fidelity and can be a key for reading, understanding and putting into practice the entire Document and for every effort of revitalisation. In it we are asked to have the same creativity that our founders and foundresses when the institute was born. In his address to the USG congress the Pope had already described the founders as "those who were able to incarnate the Gospel message in their day with courage and holiness. It is correct that, faithful to the breath of the Holy Spirit, their spiritual sons continue this witness in time, imitating their creativity with a mature fidelity to the founding charism, always attentive to the demands of the present" (John Paul II, Address to the USG Congress, 26 November 1993). Refounding cannot be seen as a programme that comes from us, from the urgent demands of the present day or from our initiative. It is born of the Spirit and as long as this action is not understood, it is better not to speak of refounding. The Pope also asked for creative fidelity from the Capuchins gathered in their General Chapter: "A creative and concrete fidelity" that should lead them to read the signs of the times to discover what the Spirit is saying to the Capuchins today (John Paul II. Address to the participants in the General Chapter of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, 1 July 1994). Number 62 speaks of innovative impulses of the consecrated life and of new forms of the evangelical life that are born of this impulse. Forms that respond to, and will respond to, the new challenges of the present and thus will give life to existing institutions or create new ones. These new forms are not an essential condition for revitalisation but they help to give a better understanding of its meaning and guiding its process. These new forms of the consecrated life do exist. They have been, and they will continue to be the fruit of a long gestational period. This gestation begins when some specific forms are depleted or when we simply witness the rise of other forms, filled with newness and the fruit of a desire to try everything and retain what is good (cf. 1 Thess 5:12; 19:21). In the history of the consecrated life new forms always were added to previous ones. They are alternatives. They are the result of the continual fruitfulness of the Gospel and the creative novelty of the Spirit in the Church and the world. At the present these forms are more than a copy of what existed previously, they are small groups scattered among various countries, which have already passed through their phase of initial enthusiasm. At the time of the Synod on the consecrated life the Secretary presented a few pages describing the various characteristics of these groups. A good part of the novelty of these forms is that they are leading to, as happened in other times in the history of the consecrated life, is a special closeness and relationship with lay movements.

The intention of Vita Consecrata is to trace the path of creative fidelity and through it respond to the genuine demands of refounding. This is the understanding of those who read it thoroughly in view of implementing the demands of creative fidelity: "Confidence in the evangelical vitality of the consecrated life" must not be lost, says the Post-synodal document (VC 63c).

However, if we truly want to have "a great history to build", we must retain the value of returning to what is essential, shedding already obsolete cultural layers and, in creative fidelity elaborate not only the responses to present challenges but first and foremost analysing and becoming aware of the situation that exists. And then refashion our present form of life, language and programmes in a social and cultural context that is in a phase of rapid and profound change.

Is it possible to respond to the "new challenges" without risking as well the system in which we live and that is the fruit of "ancient responses" to "ancient challenges"? Is it possible to avoid exporting to the whole world a model that is culturally the product of the western Baroque era or the restoration of some past century? It is not a question of mere external challenges, of problems in the "global system". At present the challenges come from within our own world, there is some suspicion about the plausibility of the way in which it is used, of the possibility of a creative "refounding", far beyond the frontiers of the sacred patrimony.

In the past some of our founders: on behalf of in appreciation of them today we refuse to "reproduce courageously their enterprising initiative, creativity and holiness" (VC 37a). We limit ourselves to imitating prudently and temperately their "holiness", identifying this with some devotional practices or penitential exercises. However, the initiative and creativity scare us; we do not think they are opportune.

The courage to act

Refounding must be simply that; it is a task and an activity that becomes a process. It must be carried out at the opportune moment in such a way that it bears good fruit. In fact, in the last more than twenty years, individual religious and groups have begun to think of a profound revitalisation of the institutes, to orient them in this direction, to weigh its exigencies and, to put it very simply, to adapt to necessities, to make room for it, to formulate questions and seek adequate responses to the great task that we want to undertake. Now I want to share with you my personal response to these important questions. We cannot fail to say, at the outset, that we are talking about a topic that is still open that, without a doubt, demands decisiveness and conviction as well as clarity and openness to the Spirit.

It is important to shed light on this topic. Let us begin by making our own the great questions that always come to us and we must begin a colossal task that is before us and awaits us. Men and women religious will lose a great part of the anxiety they have amassed the day they manage to intuit and articulate their thinking on the form to be taken by the charism and ministries which they are going to incarnate in this process of transformation in which we are involved. There are many institutes that have stopped doing certain things and there are few who feel that they have already discovered the new presence and tasks. The great majority are still searching. If the process of fidelity is to take place, it lack the courage to stop, close, or transfer communities or works must not be lacking, nor the boldness to transform or open and the realism to restructure administrative entities or the communities of an institute. However, this leads us to discuss the big questions about our topic.