Rome (Italy). On November 16 and 17, 2019, at the Generalate of the Christian Brothers Schools, the two usual days of the 2019-2020 social year of the Charismatic Families took place with the theme: “Charismatic families that beat with the heart of the outgoing Church.”
This meeting was attended by Sr. Maria Luisa Miranda, General Councilor for the Salesian Family, Sr. Leslye Sàndigo, World Delegate of Salesian Cooperators, and Ms. Mariella La Mura, Past Pupil of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.
During these days the Charismatic Families – born from the solicitation of Pope Francis to give charisms a universal breath as a gift of the Spirit – placed attention on the “Church People of God of, among, and in peoples.”
This is the theme that will also inspire the day of May 23, 2020, promoted by the Assembly of the AMCG-Charismatic Families, chosen precisely because, after the last two Synods of Bishops destined to mark the journey in the coming years, the Charismatic Families would give special attention to the Church for which they exist and work.
Fr. Gino Buccarello, O.SS.T., addressing the theme “outgoing Church, people of God”, focused attention on the meaning of “outgoing Church” in the two directions of “entrance” into the mystery, and of “going out” towards the Peoples, through a suggestive parallelism between the vocation of Abraham, and the vocation of the Church and of the Charismatic Families. Abraham, a decentralized man because accepted God as the absolute protagonist, entered the mystery that allowed him to come out of himself, to meet his true self, and become the father of all believers. The task to which one is called as lay, religious, priests, religious or diocesan within and among the Charismatic Families is to witness in the Church, people journeying, the joy of belonging to God and to their brothers and sisters, in the richness of charisms accepted and given.
The reflection entitled “Missionary Synodality: from the Synod of Youth to the Panamazon Synod” was presented by Fr. Rossano Sala, SDB. “It is beautiful to experience that the Church is truly Catholic, that it is universal! It is really beautiful to recognize that the Church is ‘Church of the people’ constituted and established ‘from’ and ‘for” all people, where there is a real exchange of gifts,” were his words. Great appreciation was aroused by the experiential, simple, and engaging way in which the speaker succeeded in transmitting the very heart of the experience of the two Synods lived, offering valid ideas to understand the importance of embracing the synodal method to build new relationships within the Charismatic Families, between the different Families, and in the Church.
The presentations were followed by some testimonies of life. The first “Good practice of the outgoing Church” was presented by Fr. Enrico Muller FSC. The second experience: “Good practice in the Amazon Mission” was enthusiastically shared by Sr. Izabel De Carvalho, SCVI.
This Assembly also had a special importance because it was called to vote on the Magna Carta of the AMGC-Charismatic Families Association and to renew the Commission, formed by the members that each Charismatic Family identified and made available, also charged with electing the Executive Committee.
The commitment to an “outgoing Church” in a synodal journey, characterized these two days, leaving in all the participants a deep sense of gratitude to God and to the Church, together with the desire to continue to grow in the experience of communion and interchange, for an increasingly joyful and effective mission.
