THE CONSECRATED LIFE
IN THE MISSION "AD GENTES"

A Reading of the Changes that have occurred in the Consecrated Life, from the View-point of the Relationships that now exist between Institutes of the Consecrated Life and the Local Churches

The title of the Conference that was assigned to me is perhaps, when you first look at it, rather complex: "The Consecrated Life in the Mission "ad gentes": A Reading of the Changes that have occurred in the Consecrated Life, from the View-point of the Relationships that now exist between Institutes of the Consecrated Life and the Local Churches, especially as these Changes are seen from the Perspective of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples!" Whence the expression, "local Churches" here refers to such Churches in mission territories. This might seem to be at first sight a rather huge "mouthful"! But really it is not all that complex or complicated, as we shall see in the course of our "Reading of the various changes that have occurred".

Before, however, getting into these changes, I think it would perhaps be helpful to consider the context in which these changes have occurred, that is the socio-psychological changes as well as those which have taken place in the Church, and in the Consecrated Life Itself.