Rome, Italy, May 24, 2007 / 13:07 pm
The Father General of the Society of Jesus, Father Peter Hans-Kolvenbach, said this week no religious congregation or institution has a guaranteed future and that each one “could disappear” if the work entrusted to it by the Lord has been fulfilled, as the history of the Church has shown.
“I am convinced that religious life should always be in crisis, if we really want to be constantly attentive to the Spirit, who never rests. It’s not enough to follow the constitutions, the rules, in order to have a certain future,” the Jesuit superior said in an interview with the magazine “Jesus” and quoted by the Spanish daily “La Razon.”
In this sense, he said, there must be discernment of what the Lord is asking of each congregation in the different circumstances of life and history, since for example, “He may ask of a certain group of consecrated a specific task during a determined period of time,” and when that is finished, “that institute may disappear. This is not something new in the history of the Church.”
Father Kolvenbach recalled that throughout history, the Holy Spirit has raised up in the Church new charisms to bring her out of periods of crisis. When the Church “ran the risk of erring with the Empire,” he explained, “the Holy Spirit inspired hermits to renew in her the value of spirituality and of prayer.”