Rome, Italy, May 16, 2004 / 22:00 pm
Addressing the 800 superiors of major religious congregations gathered in Rome, the Prefect of the Congregation for Consecrated Life, Archbishop Franc Rode, said the source of consecrated life is holiness.
“We should listen to the call of our times by giving a true witness of life,” Archbishop Rode told the superiors gathered together for the Assembly of the International Union of Religious Superiors.
The Archbishop said the source of consecrated life is holiness and he underscored that the founders knew and desired to “respond to the concrete needs of the life of the Church.”
“They saw a problem in the Church and in the society of their day and they tried to resolve it. They were convinced that with the grace of God they could do it,” he said. “In the life of founders and their followers, difficulties spring up, they are confronted and they are overcome, and they are overcome with holy dynamism,” he added.