MISSION AD GENTES
IN THE LIFE OF THE SOCIETIES
OF APOSTOLIC LIFE

The Societies of Apostolic Life are different from the Institutes of Consecrated Life, and in particular from the Religious.

That which characterises religious life is consecration through the vows, by practising the three evangelical counsels.

That which characterises Societies of apostolic life is simply the call for the Mission.

This call, rooted in the baptismal grace and in ordination eventually, is a way to holiness. In order to answer it, men and women choose fraternal life as a support and a school of apostolic charity. No consecration through vows; simply a commitment through promise or oath of incorporation.

15 out of 30 societies of apostolic life (of Pontifical right, men) are exclusively missionary. Some of them go back as far as the XVII century. One could say that these societies at service of the Church mission ad gentes, are a prophetical group in the heart of the church missionary movements

Various factors make them capable of facing the challenges of mission today.

Habitually their members make a permanent commitment to the mission ad extra, a proven pattern and always valid form of missionary commitment. Moreover, many accept, as associates, priests or lay people prepared to play an active role in missionary apostolate and to stir up missionary consciences in the West. Their rule and structures, moulded by many years of missionary commitment make them adaptable and mobile instruments at the service of the Church’s mission ad gentes, particularly into areas evangelised for the first time. These Societies of Apostolic life can go into very difficult, non structured situations, giving the necessary "  new and audacious thrust "(RM 66) to the spreading of the mission ad gentes. They accept candidates from Young Churches, and want to help missionary vocation promotion, and eventually, the foundation of missionary Institutes in those Churches, as encouraged by RM 66. They also work on missionary animation, in communion and collaboration with their home churches, considering this task as inherent to their charism. These Societies of Apostolic life, whether national or international, are giving effective witness to the particularity and the universality of the Church as well as of its mission.

The other Societies of Apostolic life, in their own way, are also summoned by the Church’s invitations, particularly after the Fidei donum encyclic, (1957), the II Vatican Council, the document of Congregation of the Clergy: Postquam Apostolici (1980) and more recently Redemptoris Missio. So, they responded according to their charism to the request of the Church to go and work at the mission ad gentes.

II. Some questions raised by the Societies of Apostolic life that are exclusively missionary

The need to revise Mutuae Relationis, to think even of a particular document of the same kind, in regard to the relations between Bishops and Societies of Apostolic life exclusively missionary, taking into consideration their specific identity in the Church and their specific role in the service of the mission ad gentes. The Societies of Apostolic life that are exclusively missionary consider it very important to establish new church structures, like special mission commission at the diocesan or inter diocesan levels to express and facilitate collaboration. Hence, they need an official organism allowing them to communicate their point of view, their preoccupation and expectation to their home Church and vice versa. The Societies of Apostolic life hope the CEP will help them obtain a new legislation corresponding to new developments in their apostolate . In applying the general norms of Church Law into their Constitutions, the Societies of Apostolic Life base themselves on their specifically missionary pattern. The norms for religious do not necessarily concern them. It is in the CEP’s competence to make the necessary adaptation of those norms to the particular situation of the Societies of Apostolic Life. The Societies of Apostolic life hope the CEP will be able to offer scholarships to their students as it does for diocesan priests coming from mission ad gentes areas. The Societies of Apostolic life exclusively missionary expect from the Church and particularly from the Bishops in the mission territories, encouragement and necessary support with regard to the integration of lay missionaries in their communities and apostolates.

For this reason, once more, we, the Societies of Apostolic life exclusively missionary and the others, would like to take advantage of this USG meeting to better define the situation of the mission ad gentes, to understand the problems, the challenges, the perspectives, so that we may the better involve ourselves according our specific charism.