PERMANENT MISSIONARY FORMATION

During the year 2017, we have started to collaborate, ad experimentum, with formation initiatives and activities in local Churches in Africa, Asia and Oceania. Cooperating with formative

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institutions, local human and material resources, PMU and CIAM have started the work of content, methodological and economical assistance in order to create courses and projects aimed at the permanent missionary formation of the clergy (mainly diocesan), the religious (particularly religious communities of diocesan right) and Christian lay people committed either pastorally (catechists, community leaders and pastoral agents) or in secular professional environments.

We have tried to transmit to every interlocutor our need for reform starting with true, effective willingness towards ecclesiastical collaboration where the universal and the local dimensions of the Catholic Church can efficiently cooperate. Solidarity and subsidiarity, within the ecclesial communion, express respect and awareness of the enunciation of the universal and episcopal Petrine identity of the PMS, with reference to the permanent missionary formation. The Congregation for the Evangelization of the Peoples (CEP) could, through these two entities, CIAM and PMU, find a new way of being present in the local Churches, in territories still related to its authority, through missionary formation as well as hierarchical-canonical service and financial support.

The missionary formation work, which is enunciated differently by PMU and CIAM, tries to enhance and endorse initiatives and local resources so as to be able to work together and better serve the national needs, opening them to the universal dimension of the Church’s faith. PMU favors a formative intervention at a diocesan and national level in agreement with the local Bishops.

On the other hand, CIAM wishes to offer missionary formation opportunities with more universal attention, by connecting and circulating resources, experiences and reflections coming from different parts of the world, from various Christian communities and from heterogeneous cultural and religious experiences. The mission of proclamation and witness of the Church represents the inspirational, originating, unifying and central principle to every intervention in both the Vatican offices of CIAM and the local situations reached by PMU. Given a healthy and communional subsidiarity, that which the Holy Spirit and the free creativity of the faith of the believers have already supported, appeals to the organizational and financial capacity of our central structures, so that by enhancing and supporting, both are reciprocally enriched. PMU and CIAM reserve the right to propose their own activities for the benefit of the encounter with and opening of every local situation to the universal dimension, through tangible collaboration at regional, national and continental levels.

The formation courses offered at various levels in the local Churches answer a specific need so that the missionary animation is inserted into the normal life of the Christian communities and can answer the real formative needs for the growth of their faith and their Christian witness. The development of local, regional or continental human resources, facilitated by a common language

55 (English, French or Portuguese), allows the encouragement and support (also financially) of a missionary formation and an opening towards the universality of the Christian faith which does not overlook contextualized needs and necessities. The wish is to overcome exotic heroism of isolated brilliance of the mission to serve the ordinary Christian life of the faithful lay people, clergy and religious communities who face the daily challenges of proclamation and witness in the territory where they live.

The visits to the particular Churches and a constant contact with the PMS National Directions help us, on one hand, to be increasingly aware of the needs for permanent formation and the local resources capable of responding and, on the other, progressively more contextualized ways for the participation of the PMU International Secretariat. Our Directors are always active in the formative work regarding the Churches they belong to, in communion with their Bishops and the Pontifical representatives in their countries. By specifically investigating the local formation needs and offering collaboration, the various encounters, contacts and visits are necessary so that thanks to PMU, the Pontifical Missionary Societies can be recognized and appreciated for a universal service which is greater than the simple collection and distribution of funds. The collaboration with the local Churches is an increasingly firmer commitment which regards their permanent formation and should help to renew the perception of PMS which are very often reduced to collecting and distributing funds and aid.

The main aim of the visits is not the exhaustive comprehension of the local Churches but paying attention to and reflecting upon the needs of the permanent formation of the mission for the process of discernment, in view of the reform process of the International Secretariat of PMU and CIAM. The formal meetings with their value of pastoral conduction and evangelizing energy helped the realization of our objectives. Following these there have been many occasional, informal meetings, characterized by spontaneity and simplicity, which we have tried to attend and correspond. These encounters have been a positive contribution towards a wider and more effective listening. Being fully aware of the fragmentary nature, incompleteness and precariousness of much of the information collected the help and support of the National Director or local Christians enabled us to better satisfy the purpose of these visits. I thank all those who have dedicated time, energy and knowledge to making them as fruitful as possible.

Also, another important development in the PMU reform process should regard the work together with the other Pontifical Missionary Societies (POPF, POSI and POSPA). The effective collaboration between the General Secretaries, with the President and the PMS Administration Representative happens regularly through monthly meetings of the Executive Committee and weekly briefings. The National Directions are the only structure at the service of the four PMS in

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the local Churches of the whole world. They carry out, help and elicit working together, unified in animating in a missionary way (PMU) through their educational, catechetical, pastoral and fundraising commitments. These three societies (POPF, POSI and POSPA) carry out true missionary animation in the local Churches around their annual prayer events, community awareness and fundraising, with reference to the days specifically dedicated to each one: World Mission Day (POPF), World Day of Vocations (POSPA) and World Day of Missionary Childhood (POSI).