Nairobi, Kenya.
On Friday, November 24, the sessions started with a video, a scene from the video of the audience with Pope Francis during the XXV General Chapter, particularly the part where he spoke of the verb “adore.” This day was dedicated on the third process of transformation: “Men who adore God in the Spirit.” The day was facilitated by Fr Gonzalo Fernandez, General Prefect of Spirituality and Fr Leo Dalmao, General Prefect of Formation.
The whole morning was dedicated on formation. Fr. Leo presented the current different formative centers in our Congregation. From novitiate (Sri Lanka, India, Philippines, Indonesia, Poland, Spain, East Nigeria, Cameroon, Kenya, Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala) to the different formation centers of the professed members (Sri Lanka, Philippines, India, Indonesia, Korea, Spain, Poland, East Nigeria, West Nigeria, Cameroon, Tanzania, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Argentina, Peru, Colombia-Venezuela, USA, Brazil, Mexico, El Salvador, Dominican Republic). And then he presented the current statistics of formands in the Congregation. His presentation was followed by a sharing and interaction among the participants. Then the group was divided into five to answer the following questions:
- What can we do to prevent the challenges of our missionaries in initial formation?
- What are the formative challenges in each one of the respective Organisms?
- What activities, dynamism, can we carry out to strengthen intercultural awareness and the competence of our formandi in this dimension of universal mission?
- What can we do to strengthen the dimension and awareness of JPIC in our training centers and prepare our formandi in this perspective?
- Other elements that we consider important and that we want to propose in this meeting … for example, how to facilitate and promote the missionary vocation of brothers … etc.
After the sharing, Fr. Leo gave them a document entitled “Some Basic Formative Guidelines” which includes some of the basic criteria and guidelines in formation. Likewise, Fr. Manuel Tamargo, General Econome, also handed them another document entitled “Houses of Formation: Application of Expenses for Students.”
On the other hand, the whole afternoon was dedicated to the presentation of Fr. Gonzalo on Spirituality withthe document “Third Process of Transformation: Spirituality” that included the missionary method that the General Chapter proposes, the featured actions included in the Action Plan of General Government, and the recommendations to the Major Superiors. He also presented to them the current Forge project that is currently being held in Los Negrales as well as the website of CESC and its team. And lastly, he solicited suggestions for the Claretian Itinerary that will be created in 2019.
Before the dinner, the participants gathered together by prefectures together with the corresponding General Prefects. And after dinner, the General Government met with the Government of the Independent Delegation of Congo.