Rome (Italy) On 21 November 2020, the annual meeting of the Association of Friends Members of the General Curie – Charismatic Families (AMCG) took place in online mode on the theme: “The shared charism as a leaven and an opportunity to take care of the common home”.
The event, moderated by Nunzia Boccia, belonging to the Murialdo family, saw the participation of about 400 religious, lay people, and priests reaching the goal of ‘never feeling distant and together today’.
Sr. Yolanda Kafka, President of the Italian Union of Superiors General (UISG); Friar Emili Turu Secretary General of the Union of Superiors General (USG); and Jolanta Szpilarewicz, of the World Conference of Secular Institutes (CMIS), greeted the participants and recalled two criteria for the discernment and approval of a community charism: a charism is authentic when it builds communion and when it is good for all the people of God.
Sr. Maria Luisa Miranda, General Counselor for the Salesian Family Sector of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, and Sr. Gabriela Patiño, collaborator of the Sector, animated the prayer and invited everyone as workers of the Kingdom, to praise the Creator and to give generous dedication to our Common Home and to all people.
The meeting began with the presentation by Father Antonio Porcellato, Superior General of the African Mission Society (SMA), of the historical path of the six-year journey of the Charismatic Families and the Planning for the three-year period 2020-2023.
The Cottolenghina family then shared one of the experiences carried out between crisis and opportunity during the Covid-19 pandemic: “Living the crisis generated by the pandemic for a reality that in Italy has about seventy centers including homes for fragile people – elderly or with disabilities – a hospital, schools, homes for retired and in-service religious, means being involved in a commitment to safeguard the fragile life and safety of the workers in service. ”
The Therapy day experience shared through a video, showed the courageous response that some women and men religious, priests, missionaries from different communities, offered following a tragic event that hit a Catholic parish in the state of Kaduna (Nigeria) . The missionaries offered their support to the parish community with coordinated interventions. The testimony of Father Emmanuel Dim supplemented the video: “In these circumstances it is difficult to limit ourselves to preaching on reconciliation, peace, and love. Thanks to the commitment of the Therapy Day missionaries, people were able to be accompanied and experience the concrete solidarity of the parishes and missionary congregations”.
The prayer of the Charismatic Families, prayed in different languages, an intertwining of communion and real friendship despite the online mode, concluded the meeting.
