Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Madrid (Fides Service) – “Without these efforts for formation our life is impoverished and our work of evangelisation loses in quality”: this emerged from the ordinary assembly of the St Francis Xavier Spanish Institute for Foreign Missions IEME held in Madrid last May. The 9th five yearly ordinary meeting reviewed the activity of the Institute, outlined future projects and elected a new directing council for the next five years.
Newly elected IEME Director General is Rev. Father Jose Antonio Izco Illundain, aged 65 from Navarra diocese, who spent 30 years on mission in Japan. The meeting was opened by the Archbishop of Seville Carlos Amigo Vallejo who is also President of the Bishops’ Commission Missions, whereas the new Director general renewed the profession of faith in the Mass presided by Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, Archbishop of Madrid and President of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference.
During the three weeks of the assembly the 26 missionaries working in 15 different countries reflected on five main themes: “Challenges of mission ad gentes today”; “Priestly and missionary spirituality ”; “Priority of the process of formation”; “New structures for new mission situations”; “An economy at the service of mission”.
Among the challenges of mission ad gentes, the Assembly analysed the situations of the countries in which the missionaries operate, underlining that these people are “excluded, ignored, attracted by hedonistic life styles and consumerism but at the same time suffering from marked spiritual thirst”. This calls for reflection on deficiencies in the work evangelisation, our response to the need of today and on the themes of ecumenism and interreligious dialogue. In this sense, the missionaries affirm, “faced with so many peoples excluded from the common table, it is necessary to insist on commitment for justice; faced with growing pluralism it is necessary to be better formed for dialogue and to harmonise the differences and the peaceful solution of conflicts; faced with the thirst for the transcendent it is necessary to live and deepen experience of God; faced with a violent world we must be men and women of peace and reconciliation; faced with the destruction of creation we wager on life in all its forms, on nature and all its resources; faced with the situation of poverty and abandonment of so many brothers and sisters, our presence must be a sign of life and love”.
With regard to priestly spirituality the missionaries agreed that it is founded on the Word of God and the Eucharist: it is following Christ, the Father’s missionary and sharing in his mission ad gentes. The Assembly stressed the importance of formation understood as an ongoing process: “– “Without these efforts for formation our life is impoverished and our work of evangelisation loses in quality”: Hence the need to animate and form the missionary conscience of the Spanish Church offering specific courses to young priests who wish to join IEME, courses of discernment and formation combined with the study of some European languages and a period of initiation in the field of mission. But formation – the missionaries affirm– “is a responsibility for every person who desires to respond to the challenges of evangelisation and God’s call to holiness ”.
The St Francis Xavier Spanish Institute for Foreign Missions IEME was founded in Burgos 1920 and it opened its first mission in 1923, in Rio San Jorge (Colombia). At present the Institute is a Missionary Society of Apostolic Life and it is organised in groups and teams. Its members may join for life or for a set period of time. IEME has 178 missionaries – all diocesan priests from 47 of Spain’s 67 dioceses – working in 15 countries: Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru Dominican Republic, Chile, Mozambique, Togo-Benin, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Japan, Thailand and Spain. Since 2001 IEME is also present in Cuba. (RG) (Fides Service 29/07/2003; lines 50 – words 68
