By Philip Mathew
Bengaluru: Reclaiming the charism and spirituality has to be a top priority if religious congregations in India have to survive, says Montfort Brother Paul Raj.
Addressing a gathering of the local unit of the Conference of Religious India (CRI) in Bengaluru on July 1, the Brother said that equally important is the creation of new apostolate and promotion of cultural formation in the congregations.
Some 500 sisters, priests and brothers attended the gathering and a local CRI general body that followed.
Paul Raj is a former director and principal of Vidya Deep College of Theology in Bangalore. He also served as the Congregation of the Montfort Brothers of St. Gabriel’s International executive secretary for the Desk on Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation in Rome.
Quoting French Jesuit Raymond Hostie, the Montfort Brother noted that the religious congregations go through different stages, such as foundation, consolidation, expansion, growth, stabilization, dissatisfaction, decline and death. Several congregations in the west are going through difficult transitions and many of them are declining or dying or already dead, he said.
He wondered whether some Indian congregations suffer from an “evangelical anemia,” and suspected whether young people who join the congregations have diminished passion and motivation.
Paul Raj noted a decline in the congregations’ leadership quality. If a person stays on for too long in the leadership, decline is bound to take place, he added.
He also called for constant evaluation by the congregations, and added that lack of it will lead to disintegration.
The general body that flowed the gathering reelected Salesian Father Edward Thomas as its new president. Montfort Sister Jayashree, Vincentian Sister Saleena Thottam and Holy Spirit Sister Mercy Kuriakose were among those who are reelected to be on the executive committee.
Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore was welcomed and felicitated during the general body meeting.