Rome: Meeting of the Central Commission on the Rule of Life

The first four days of the meeting, June 10-13, were given to completing and reviewing the examination and re-elaboration of the various proposals on the Rule of Life coming from the various circumscriptions, from the three General Secretariats and the Scholasticates, in order to prepare a draft of the revised text of the Rule itself to be given eventually to the General Chapter in 2021. The last two days, June 14-15, were given to a constructive encounter with the Comboni Consultants.

At this point in the process of re-visitation and Revision of the Rule of Life we must admit that it confirms our first impression, namely that there exists within the Institute a great desire to regain the spirit of the Rule of Life and to deepen the Comboni charism, in order to re-invent it and to live it in a new way within the various socio-cultural contexts where today we are called to practice our missionary ministry.

In fact, the participation of the majority of the circumscriptions has been quite good, especially that of the circumscriptions of Africa and Latin America and, more specifically, on the part of our African and Latin American confreres who, for obvious reasons, were not as present when the current rule was written 40 years ago. This is a significant fact. It underlines the need to translate the Rule in a less Western manner but in a more multi and inter-cultural one in a world which is always more pluralistic and at a time marked by an explosion of “differences.” This means the realization, always renewed, of Comboni’s dream about an Institute which is “Catholic,” the missionary and prophetic sign of “conviviality of differences – a feast of hospitality,” at a time when these differences run the risk of degenerating into a break-up which is overpowering, violent and destructive.

In the same line of re-creating the underlying spirit of the Rule, we find other proposals in favor of promoting the “Comboni Family” as a missionary subject, capable of proposing a mission in which God renews all things. The same can be said about the proposal for a description of religious and missionary obedience that will highlight the aspect of a constant and shared search of God’s will working in the world, more than the acknowledgement of authorities as “God’s representatives.”

In the current economic-financial system that glorifies profit, other equally important proposals point at the evangelization of the economy of the Institute, promoting internal sharing and also with the outside world of the poor and promoting transparency, responsibility, accountability and, above all, trust in Divine Providence.

All this augurs well for the future of the Institute.

We thank the confreres who took part in this process of re-visitation and revision of the Rule of Life for their reflections and their witness of missionary passion.
Fr. Benito De Marchi