The Beneficiaries of the Vincentian Mission

(by Fr. Celestino Fernández, CM)

[The third in a series of presentations on Vincentian Spirituality]

The Synod on the new evangelization asks Religious Orders and Congregations to be fully available to go to the geographical, social and cultural frontiers of evangelization. The Synod invites religious to move toward the new aeropaghi (situations) of mission. The Instrumentum Laboris of the Synod on the new evangelization also gave importance to a series of new situations or new aeropaghi --- where today evangelization is all the more necessary and urgent. It spoke of the vast area of culture, the phenomenon of migration, the media, the global economy, scientific and technological advances and civic life (#52-60).

 At the same time, even though we might be aware of the following,it is nevertheless restated that consecrated individuals ought to be in the forefront of the mission: on the periphery with those who are most poor; in those places where the calls of the poor are most urgent; on the frontier where the church confronts new and difficult missionary problems and challenges that are found in the new situations of poverty --- in new aeropaghi; in the desert where the gospel is little known, where the church is poor and a minority, where the church is taking her first steps.

It should be clear that the references that we have just made to consecrated individuals are equally valid for all the members of the Vincentian Family and for all the branches of this great family. Thuswhere do we put the emphasis in the process of evangelization? What are the new aeropaghi that are our concern? Are we in the forefront with regard to the mission or have we become accustomed to a pastoral style that is sacramental and focused on preserving and maintaining the faith? Are we where we should be in relation to our charism and our spirituality?

We can easily see that the previous questions are related to what we refer to as the beneficiaries of evangelization, that is, those persons to whom our Vincentian mission is or ought to be directed. If we want to be specific about who are or should be the beneficiaries of the process of Vincentian evangelization, then we could state the following.

a. The poor, and here we speak about the poor in the fullest sense of the word poor and from the perspective of the true reality of poverty … thus we refer to everything from economic poverty to cultural, moral, psychological and social poverty. We must also include the new poverties that, as John Paul II states in his encyclical, Solicitudo rei socialis, are always being fabricated by evil mechanisms and by the structures of sin (#40). So also we reach out to the victims of the intrinsically unjust and inhuman global system which includes those impoverished and ever more vulnerable individuals that have been “produced” by the economic and social crisis and by the realities that guide such an unjust system.

b. Those who are in need of Christian formation and spiritual attention and who are also poor … and who because of this need are the most poor. Pope Francis speaks about this in his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii gaudium: The worst discrimination which the poor suffer is the lack of spiritual care. The great majority of the poor have a special openness to the faith; they need God and we must not fail to offer them his friendship, his blessing, his word, the celebration of the sacraments and a journey of growth and maturity in the faith.

(Gaudium Evangelii, #200).

c. The poor whom no one reaches out to and whom no one wants to provide for. In other words, those persons who are not even viewed as statistics with regard to poverty and misery and social marginalization … those who have lost their visibility and whom no one is concerned about making visible.