"When autonomy and dependence become an experience of love, obedience and authority are balanced and a great interior joy arises," said the new prefect.
Communion is the key to combating the crisis of faith and the fall of vocations, not just in religious life, but across the board, he said.
"As the faithfulness of the baptized to their vocation as disciples increases and their testimony is given in communion with other charisms and realities of the Church," he said, "vitality will reappear."
Archbishop Braz de Aviz also spoke about the role consecrated men and women played in creating and developing the liberation theology movement. He said that movement had good intentions and noted that man's salvation depends on assisting the poor. Liberation theology, he explained, was the result of a "sincere and responsible look from the Church at the vast phenomenon of social exclusion."
He remembered a letter from John Paul II to the bishops of Brazil in which it was asserted that this theology of outreach the poor was "not only useful, but also necessary." However, he added, more theological work is needed to free up the the evangelization of the poor from an ideological approach tied to Marxist method.
Again, he suggested a methodology based on the Trinity to resolve the outstanding issues.
For him, it is a very personal matter. He remembered the period in which liberation theology was born as a time of "anguish" for him.
Throughout history, he concluded, as "pearls" and "'words' of the Gospel," religious communities have come up with spiritualities that have given the Church "important schools of theology."
"Fidelity to founders and profound communion with the Church," he said, "will be able to bring the consecrated life back to a brighter splendor in service of the Church itself and humanity."