I. Charism - La Salle.org

III. CHARISM IN THE CHURCH 41
Religious and Human Promotion, 12 August 1980, issued by the
Sacred Congregation for Religious and for Secular Institutes,
directs all religious institutes to focus on justice and on human
development. The document “very opportunely states the correlation
between charism and new forms of ministry.” 19
The Spirit, who constantly inspires new forms and institutions of consecrated
life in answer to the needs of the times, also animates the
already existing ones with a renewed capacity for involvement in keeping
with ecclesial and social changes. (6b)
In the Church’s openness to ministries and in a continuous and orderly
communal growth, 20 religious are able to discover new forms of
active participation, involving the Christian community increasingly
in their initiatives and works. In this way they have the opportunity to
show what their own particular charism brings to the promotion of
ministries which correspond to the apostolic and social purposes of
their own institutes. (6c)
One paragraph, both complex and encouraging, blends citations
from several Church documents:
Nor should religious fear any obstacle to the generosity and creativity
of their projects 21 from the hierarchical nature of this ecclesial communion,
because every sacred authority is given for the purpose of
harmoniously promoting charisms and ministries. 22 Indeed, on the
contrary, religious are encouraged 24 to be “enterprising in their undertakings
and initiatives”; this is in keeping with the charismatic and
prophetic nature of religious life itself. (27)
19
Bruno Secondin, O.Carm., Horizons of the Charism of an Institute: The ‘New’ Participation of the Lay
Faithful, in Consecrated Life 17 (1992), 93.
20
Lumen Gentium 9-12, 34-36; Christus Dominus 33-35; Evangelii Nuntiandi 13, 58; Apostolicam
Actuositatem 2, 6-10.
21
Mutuae Relationes 5.
22
Ibid., 19; 41.
23
Lumen Gentium 10-12, 27; Presbyterorum Ordinis 9; Apostolicam Actuositatem 2.
24
Evangelii Nuntiandi 69.