HUA HIN: 5 March 2011 -- With the South Asia
Team Visit drawing to a close (today) and the imminent
movement of the Rector Major and some of his Council to
Bangkok and thence on to Hua Hin, where others are already
gathering, the East Asia-Oceania Team Visit (although the GC
Agenda notes it as 'East Asia'; hope they haven't forgotten
Oceania!) is about to start. What is a Team Visit, anyway?
We hear a lot about it, but only a few ever get to see one,
so it may leave the rest a little uncertain as to what goes
on there. Assuming we'll get as little news from them
as this one proceeds, we may be able to fill that out for
you in practice, but in the meantime....
The TV came about during Fr Ricceri's
time as Rector Major, and has stayed with us ever since. At
no point across that 30 year period has it ever been
introduced into the Constitutions or Regulations. It simply
remains as a useful tool for the Rector Major and his
Council, and takes on a particular slant according to the
direction the RM and Council of the day want to give it.
Almost always the TV comes around the
mid-term mark, and hence functions as a way of seeing how
the previous General Chapter is being implemented, but it
also has an eye on the next, so the occasion is used to
explore what might be possible major topics and issues for,
in this case, the 27th General Chapter. This is done mainly
by listening to where provinces are at at the moment and
where they hope to be heading, so a lot of work has been
done by each Provincial with his Council in the run-up to
the Team Visit.
At the same time, the opportunity to
bring all or most of the Provincial Council to an extended
session with the Rector Major and a number of his Council -
and in this case it includes a time of retreat/spiritual
reflection as well as the 'business side' - gives a
charismatic boost to the entire Region. The business side of
the event also focuses on this kind of thing - charismatic
identity, apostolic zeal and religious discipline.
Each region or particular zone (some
regions, like the over-extended Europe North Region are
broken up into more homogenous groups) is also assigned one
or two special topics. In the case of EAO these
'primacy of God and charismatic identity', and
'evangelisation in a non-Christian context'. While the
first of these might seem to be a common topic, it is not
necessarily the case for each of the TVs; Italy and the
Middle East, for example, is to look especially at
responsibility for initial and ongoing formation and
vocational fidelity, on the one hand, and 'heeding the
Church's pastoral guidelines' on the other.
As things get under way on 8 March, no
doubt we will glean a little more. Any meeting takes
on its own very particular shape as determined by the people
actually there and the issues they raise. Let's keep
them prayerfully in mind.
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