EUROPE/ITALY - Letter from the Italian Missionary Institutes to the Bishops: “A diocese needs ad gentes missionaries, just as it needs priests and pastoral agents in the parishes.”

Rome (Agenzia Fides) – In thanksgiving for the “solicitude for all the Churches” shown by Fidei donum and the 10th anniversary of the publication of the Letter of the Permanent Bishops' Council of the CEI (Italian Bishops' Conference) entitled “The Love of Christ Urges Us,” for a renewed missionary commitment, are the main reason behind the Letter written by the Missionary Institutes (exclusively ad gentes) present in Italy and gathered at the CIMI (Conference of Missionary Institutes in Italy) to the Bishops of the Church in Italy.
In the letter, the present situation is analyzed: “The number of our missionaries of Italian origin is in continual decline; there are hardly any vocations, and our communities are increasingly formed by elderly persons who have returned for reasons of age or health. Our own missionary identity, within the Italian ecclesiastical world, has somewhat confusing connotations...The reaffirmation of the 'missionary responsibility of the local Church' has marginalized us from that which, until just recently, saw us as its only protagonists.”
Thus, they recognize the need for a “repositioning” in the local Church of the missionary institutes that, founded in a context that was much different that the one today, “today strongly affirm their role in the local Church, to whom they offer their own charism and whose priests are united to those of the diocese (PO 8).” From these consierations comes the desire for a “more intense participation in the daily life of the diocese, in fraternal relations with all the 'missionary forces' that are present there,” in order to strengthen “the bonds that link missionaries with their Church [diocese] of origin, to which they continue to belong, although they are working in sister Churches [dioceses].”
Among the signs of the missionaries' openness to the local Church, there is the solemn presentation of the Mandate from the Bishop to the members of the Institute on their way to the missions, “an act that greatly recalls that the local Church is the one who sends, although the missionary belongs to a specific institution in the Church.”
Once the missionaries return to their Church of origin, they offer their consecration “ad vitam,” “a powerful testimony to the missionary nature of the Church,” and they can also collaborate in the Diocesan Missionary Centers and Offices. Other forms of collaboration can be examined, as the letter suggests: missionary formation for youth and adults, seminarians, priests, and religious; contribution to the care and accompaniment of priests and religious from other cultures and countries, now called to work in our own. “We see a strong need for a better preparation of our members, so they can more adequately carry out missionary animation as catechists, education of the youth, apostolate in the mass media, liturgy, etc...Our presence in the midst of foreigners of other religions and in particularly extreme situations of poverty and emigration, considered by some among us as a natural continuation of their charism of ad vitam evangelizers, could be for all an occasion to offer a contribution to the presence and assistance that rightly belong to the pastoral workers of the local Church.”
In the perspective of “an exchange of gifts” with the younger, so-called “missionary Churches,” the missionaries who return from those Churches often invite us to examine their experiences and see if they could be a resource as well for the Church in Italy. In particular, this could include: the centrality of the first evangelization, which people and groups in Italy are also in need of; the wealth of the charisms and ministries for the life of the Church and her mission in the world; the vitality of the ecclesial base communities or small Christian communities; prophetic freedom that is shown, when necessary, with a denunciation of corruption, of abuse, of collusions between politicians and criminals, and especially with a closeness with the poor and suffering; the need for inculturation; the practice of the catchumenate; the opportunity for ecumenical and interreligious dialogue.
The letter concludes with a two-fold request: “In our efforts to work 'in' the Italian Church and not 'parallel' to her, we recall that we are not called to stay, but to go. Our specific charism makes us exclusively “ad gentes” even within the Italian diocese. The consecration “ad gentes” can take various forms and can be inserted into the missionary work of every local Church, however it cannot be reduced to merely substitutive tasks in ordinary pastoral activity. Help us to acknowledge ourselves as ecclesial patrimony of your dioceses, and we ask that you grant us the joy of experiencing this, in promoting the missionary vocation with the same conviction with which priestly and religious vocations are promoted. A diocese needs ad gentes missionaries (priests and laity, religious, ad vitam and fidei donum), just as it needs priests and pastoral agents in the parishes.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 28/7/2009)