CASA GENERALIZIA CARMELITANI SCALZI
Corso d’Italia, 38
00198 Roma – Italia
LETTER FROM THE DEFINITORY (9)
+ Rome, July 18, 2011
Dear brothers and sisters in Carmel:
PEACE.
From 6th to 11th June, we met in Rome to hold our ninth meeting. As usual, we want to
share with you in this letter what happened. The first anniversary of our brother, Fr Anthony
Pinheiro, OCD, occurred during these days and he was specially present to us. May he rest in
peace.
First of all we analysed the results of our presence in some of the Chapters or
Congresses held in different circumscriptions in recent months. In general, we considered that
the Definitory was able to offer quite positive service to those areas which sought our help: on
the one hand, it helped us grow in our knowledge of the different territorial realities of the
Order; on the other, it permitted us to help our brothers at an essential time in the life of the
circumscriptions.
We spent sufficient time to inform ourselves and to reflect on the situation in the
Apostolic Vicariate of Sucumbíos. As you know, the said Vicariate was taken from the Order
and given to the Society of Apostolic Life Virgo Flos Carmeli. Alas, this produced heightened
tense situations, requiring Fr Emilio José Martínez, Vicar General, to carry out a fraternal visit
to Sucumbíos to be with and listen to our missionary friars. In Rome, Fr General continued
contacting the Congregation for the Evangelization of the Peoples and the Secretariat of State,
trying to clarify the position of the Order and that of our missionary brothers present there in
these situations. Finally, on 2nd of May, Fr General was summoned by the Holy Father,
Benedict XVI, who communicated the decision of the Holy See to ask the Order that the
missionaries presently there be substituted by others.
Entrusted by Fr General, the Provincial of Colombia, Fr Jorge Mario Naranjo, went to
Ecuador to inform our missionaries of the decision, taking with him a letter written for them
by Fr Emilio, in the name of Fr General and the Definitory. Afterwards Fr Marcos Juchem
also went there in his capacity as the Definitor in charge of Latin America.
Our missionaries received the news of the Holy See’s request for transferral in a spirit
of obedience and absolute willingness by leaving the Vicariate. Without a doubt, this
decision, after so many years of their life devoted to this mission, was not easy, rather quite
painful. However, for love of the Order and the Church of Sucumbíos, these feelings were put
aside.
Disgracefully, the leaving of our friars did not help to quieten the situation but, as we
feared, strained the situation even more. As a result it was decided that the Heralds of the
Gospel should also leave the Vicariate. We find ourselves now in a situation of parenthesis,
which includes the petition of the Holy Father to send new Discalced Carmelite Missionaries
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to Sucumbíos which, in the situation, is paralysed. We will wait to see how things go before
trying to proceed with replanting the Order in this missionary area so dear to us.
Before our meeting, Fr Emilio was sent by Fr General to Burgos to inform the
Provincial Council of the Province of the situation, at a meeting in which was present Fr Juan
Berdonces, a missionary in Sucumbíos.
At this time, we received notice of the beginning of a fast for peace by Monsignor
Gonzalo López, OCD, the last Discalced Carmelite Bishop of the Vicariate. We were kept
informed by Fr Juan Arias, OCD, a Discalced Carmelite from Ecuador, about the difficulties
of Mons. Gonzalo’s fast, which came to an end at the time we were writing this letter. We
feared that this gesture by Monsignor would be misinterpreted, and we were worried about his
state of health. Now that the fast has ended, we hope with all our heart, that the reasons for the
fast be fulfilled and bring about peace in these dear lands.
By means of this letter and before the whole Order, Fr General and all the Definitors
want to send to Monsignor Gonzalez and all our missionaries, as well as all the brothers and
sisters who work with them and also to Fr Jorge Mario Naranjo, OCD, fraternal and cordial
greetings, showing our support, our affection and our thankfulness. In the name of the Order,
we are thankful to you for so many years of unselfish commitment to God’s people in
Sucumbíos and Ecuador. We also thank you for your gesture of sincere obedience, in difficult
times, for accepting to leave the Vicariate as asked by Fr General at the request of the Holy
Father.
Gonzalo, Juan, José, Juan, Pablo, Jesús, Pedro Luis: may the Lord bless you and give
new joy to your life and open to you new horizons in which you can continue working for his
Kingdom. We hope to be able to give these wishes personally to Monsignor Gonzalo in the
meeting we will have with the Bishops of the Order in the Extraordinary Definitory to be held
at Ariccia, Rome.
As can be expected, preparation for the Extraordinary Definitory took up a great part
of our time. We will shortly send to the respective Major Superiors and the Bishops taking
part, the calendar of our work and the contents we hope to deal with in these days.
With our brothers, we will try to share our vision of the Order after the visits made in
the past two years. With them we will discuss our future and try to discern what steps we
must take so that our work bears fruit and our life as Discalced Carmelites continues being of
significance for the Church and today’s world.
In this context, we wish to make from now on a call to reflect on our experience
as Discalced Carmelites: friars, nuns and members of the Secular Order. We sense, and
thus share with you, that our fraternal life (prayerful, in community, and apostolic)
must make itself visible by means of new experiences, capable of giving expression to all
the work of reflection made by the Order in recent years, and be not visible just in the
Constitutions (see nos 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 91, etc., of the friars Constitutions), as well as in the
many documents from the General Chapters and the Centre of the Order.
These new experiences ought to be meaningful, they should make the Teresian
charism visible and it is essential that they come into being and develop, totally integrated in
the life of the Provinces. If they do not form part, they are doomed to failure and will not
contribute to the real objective, which is to renew the life of all – not just those who are
disposed to carry them out – by revealing new ways capable of responding to the needs of
new times.
Calling to mind Jean Vanier, we think of our communities subject to two forces: one
centripetal which calls us to live interiorly, the other centrifugal which asks us to live for
others. If both tensions are not brought into a positive equilibrium, the individual and the
community can become a sect, the movement toward the interior prevails, or the force which
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called us outwards quickly flags. Probably, our present structure of life, founded many times
on doing rather than being, as I have already written on more than one occasion, tends to lead
us more towards a breakup, a de-structuring of community. As an answer, especially in
younger religious, the call is felt to live more interiorly. But if this does not find a way to
express itself, in a bodily manner of service, it ends up by being sectarian and leads to
alienation and dissatisfaction in those who propose it and, in this case, express it.
The call to a greater closeness in community life is not just for a few, it is for all: by
means of this call, our life – and that of all the community with regard to the Province and the
Order – ends up being once and for all a private issue: to transform ourselves into persons
who truly live for others (this implies sacrifice of all our personal projects, as valid as they
may appear, to place ourselves once and for all at the service of others).
It seems to us that this was the dream of Teresa, which she expressed in the Way of
Perfection, in putting in writing what she hoped would be a reply to the historical and
ecclesial situation in her time: “The news distressed me greatly, and, as though I could do
something or were something, I cried to the Lord and begged him that I might remedy so
much evil. It seemed to me that I would have given a thousand lives to save one soul out of
the many that were being lost there. I realized I was a woman and wretched and incapable of
doing any of the useful things I desire to do in the service of the Lord. All my longing was
and still is that since he has so many enemies and so few friends that these few friends be
good ones. As a result I resolved to do the little that was in my power; that is, to follow the
evangelical counsels as perfectly as I could and strive that these few persons who live here do
the same. I did this trusting in the great goodness of God, who never fails to help anyone who
is determined to give up everything for him” (Way 1: 2).
By these words, directed today to us, who are the little ones of this age, Saint Teresa
calls us to make space to experience deep prayer, so that by remaining in him, we can
discover God’s great goodness which changes all. St Therese of Lisieux, in her turn, through
doing this, teaches us that it is possible to live with equilibrium even when the structure is
imperfect.
How do be come to reach this experience? If we asked Saint Teresa, she would reply
that there is not other way except to live with determined determination love for one another,
with detachment for all created things and with humility. These are the virtues which, lived
within the community, can make our Carmelite life meaningful, founded as we believe in this
manner by the Holy Mother.
We can never forget that this Teresian call is based on a deep missionary impulse.
Because of this, we as an Order ought to reflect on the Mission ad gentes and find out to what
point we are disposed to reply to this demand of our vocation and of our being baptised
Christians: as individuals, as monasteries and as areas of jurisdiction.
We do not want to be pessimists, but we feel that our desire to maintain at every cost
the structures within which we live today is extinguishing our missionary spirit. Certainly we
are facing a fact that is quite grave. We make this statement not from a purely theoretical
point of view, but from the difficulty we experience as a Definitory to reply to the missionary
needs that are presented to us. For example, despite being able to carry out many things, it has
been impossible for us to find a group of friars to strengthen the missionary presence of
Carmel in Tangier. As another example, Superiors have made known to us the difficulty they
have in launching or reinforcing other missionary foundation in America, Africa or India.
Since this reflection is already quite long enough, we limit ourselves now to making
know some matters we dealt with in this meeting of the Definitory, some of which you would
already know through Communicationes.
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General Definitory Letter No. 9 - June 18-2011
We have decided to raise to a Province the Commissariat of Andhra Pradesh, to make
the Regional Vicariate of Indonesia a Commissariat, and the Manjummel Province have
advised us that they want to make the Provincial Delegation of Orissa a Regional Vicariate.
We also approved the new statutes for the Cairo community, dependent on the General
House and we studied various matters referring to the Delegation of the Holy Land, which we
will tell you about more in detail during the Extraordinary Definitory. We also examined our
situation in South Africa. As well, we also started to draft our plan for visits for what remains
of the sexennium.
It is worthwhile mentioning apart, the study we have done on the Formation Courses
planned for Mount Carmel of which we have already informed you. It is of capital importance
that the respective Major Superiors of the Spanish speaking area, particularly those of the
Iberian Peninsula, promote as well as designate friars who could be interested in taking part in
the first round of courses, since at the present time, we have few bookings.
Finally, you also know through Communicationes, we have made the following
appointments in this meeting: Fr Jean Joseph Bergara, Procurator General; Fr Romano
Gambalunga, assistant to the Postulator; Fr Rafał Wilkowski, personal secretary to Fr
General.
We are grateful to these friars and their Provinces for the willingness shown in
accepting these duties and, above all, we wish to thank most sincerely and from the heart, Fr
Rafael Mendoza, as Fr General has already done in his personal letter to Fr Rafael, for his
work as Procurator General, which he has carried out until now, as well as for his active and
willing presence in the General House community.
With our best wishes, your brothers:
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General Definitory Letter No. 9 - June 18-2011
Fr Saverio Cannistrà, General
Fr Emilio J. Martínez
Fr Albert Wach
Fr Augustine Mulloor
Fr Robert Paul
Fr Marcos Juchem
Fr Peter Chung
Fr George Tambala
Fr John Grennan
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