“It has been an honor for me to exercise this service for years, an honor that fills me with humiliation for my limitations and if I have failed any of you,” he wrote.
“I give thanks to God for the gift of companionship that I have been able to enjoy, before the sight of your daily witness, from which I have constantly learned and from which I want to continue to learn.”
The Vatican decree issued in June limits terms of office in a movement’s central governing body to a maximum of five years, with one person being able to hold positions at the international governing level for no more than 10 years consecutively. Re-election is then possible after a vacancy of one term.
The new regulations state that where leaders have already exceeded the term limits, groups must provide for new elections “no later than 24 months from the coming into force of this decree,” or before Sept. 11, 2023.
Concluding his letter, Carrón said: “I wish you to live this circumstance as an occasion of growth of your ecclesial self-awareness, to be able to continue to witness the grace of the charism given by the Holy Spirit to Fr. Giussani, which makes Christ a real, persuasive and determining presence, which has hit us and drawn us into a flow of new life, for us and for the whole world.”
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