Consultation on Social Apostolate

Claretians, being 25 years in Sri Lanka have been engaging in different apostolates of the country. The delegation team organized a consultation to plan out the social apostolate in the correct perspective of our Charism. The consultation centered the discussion on ‘whether we are doing the right things, in the right way and whether we are doing enough’.
This consultation was held at St. Claret Seminary, Kattuwa from 11th to 13th of April, 2016. Fr. S. Jesu Doss, CMF, the director of the Claretian Spirituality Centre, Vic, Spain led the panel of resource persons and also moderated the sessions. Fr.S. Maria Arul, CMF, the former Vicar General and Fr. George Kannanthanam, the former director of Sumanahali, Bangalore and the present coordinator of the Project Vision were the other resource persons.
The group looked for different ways to respond to the directives of the various documents of the Church and the congregation which were promulgated at recent past. Among the Church documents, the special attention was given to “Evangelii Gaudium, Vita Consecrata, Laudato Si and Misericordiae Vultus. 25th General Chapter document of the Claretian Missionaries, “Witnesses and Messengers of the Joy of the Gospel” and the circular letter of Fr. General named ‘Missionaries’ (2012) were among the congregational documents used for the consultation.
The group, at the end, gave prominence in the areas such as: shared mission, gender equality, communication media, collaboration and other possible means to launch the mission during the coming years. The group also felt the need to go for the peripheries, giving better attention to the poor and to accept the challenging ministry.