INTRODUCTION

Thanks for the invitation: I have always received stimulation and enrichment from these meetings; and already the preparation of this talk offered more than one.

State of the question:  In this talk, which should be a take-off point for discussion on topics that relate closely and directly to us and which are of great interest to Institutes of Consecrated Life, I would like to treat especially the relationship between the Superior and his/her Council (seen both at the level of the general administration as well as communities or smaller groups—Provincial Community, Zonal, Regional or Local Community, or apostolic team) according to the mind of the Church, especially in view of a more effective evangelical service of authority and government.

On this subject we find a convergence of various topics and aspects, which on the one hand must be separate in order to focus on and understand  them better, and on the other hand, in concrete living must be integrated for a more authentic development of the spiritual life of the community to which reference is made (the whole Congregation, the province, the local community).

In fact, the various problems can be treated from the canonical point of view, that is the viewpoint of the universal law expressed in the CCL, and the particular law expressed in the Constitutions, Rule of Life or Ordinances and different decrees of each Institute of Consecrated Life: for example, we can look at questions regarding the validity and legality of juridical acts placed by the Superior without consultation of the Council (or a similar organ with another name) when this is provided for by Canon Law, at the difference between consent and opinion or the difference between consultative power and deliberative power, at a possible need for a vote on the part of the Council, to the superior’s belonging or not-belonging to the council as a member of it, to the ability of the superior to settle a question in case of a tie in the council’s vote, etc…

With these more properly juridical and canonical problems (even if they are not that), there are questions intertwined that are more properly theological/ecclesiological. I think that they are connected to our topic of the relationship between superiors and their councils in Institutes of Consecrated Life: directly the topic of Counseling in the Church and Communication in the Church, and beyond, the more global and inclusive ones of Co-responsibility, Participation, and especially of Communion/Mission in the Church

Finally, I feel that also some important, I would say even decisive, psychological and spiritual aspects enter into this question of ours: these do not regard only the underlying anthropological attitudes and the virtues that are required for councilors to live these ecclesiological topics well in the council, or  the superior/authority in respect to the council (e.g., the ability to take responsibility for others and the community, the ability to discern and exercise prudence, the ability to relate and communicate within the Council and with Authority, etc...), but they also have a more direct connection with the very nature of this organism which we call Council, seen in its relationship with the Superior’s spiritual government, especially as we will see with the gift of counsel and spiritual discernment, etc…

I think, however, that  the fact that the request for a treatment of this topic was made to me, a professor of spirituality, rather than to a professor of canon law or ecclesiology, indicates a desire on the part of the organizers, that the topic be treated above all from the spiritual viewpoint.

Still, we must remember that the spiritual perspective is not to be confused with a  spiritualistic, detached way of seeing problems, as though the spiritual life was just an isolated and separate reality. Therefore, “to put ourselves into a spiritual perspective” does not mean that we can then tranquilly bypass and ignore canonical data, the prescriptions of both universal and particular law, and theological and ecclesiological studies in particular. Canon law and ecclesiology are no impediment to true spirituality; rather they are its support and indispensable base, because they offer it the scene in which to be embodied and expressed. In respect to canonical and ecclesiological data the spiritual perspective does not stand like a separate or juxtaposed sector, but rather as  a dimension and synthetic view of all the elements in the light of faith and the journey toward holiness or rather “fuller” communion with Christ under the action of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, my intention is to try to do a wise and spiritual, unified and synthetic reading of legal information,, starting off from the nature of that reality that we call the council of the superior, which can have other names (college, group of persons, etc…). For this, I will divide my exposition into two parts:

in the First Part:  we will look, first of all, at the positive indications of the law and analyze them as carefully as possible in the limits of the time given us;

in the Second Part: we will try to give an interpretation of them and do a re-reading in a spiritual and synthetic key.