August 21, 2010 in News, Statements

AMRSMP 2010 Biennial Convention Statement

“Understanding the Impact of Today’s Global Culture On Consecrated Life”

We, the members of the Association of Major Religious Superiors of Men in the Philippines, held our National Convention at Betania Retreat House, Cagayan de Oro City, on July 19-22, 2010. Together with eight Mission Partners and aided by the wisdom and experience of our outstanding resource person, we reflected, prayed and shared on the theme: “Understanding the Impact of Today’s Global Culture on the Consecrated Life”.

We have deepened our understanding of the complexity of today’s global culture and its immense impact on the different aspects of the consecrated life. In the context of our religious communities in the Philippines, we have seen the following factors of the global culture to have great impact in living out our consecrated life, be it at the personal, communal and congregational level:

The preponderant and absorbing use of technologies of social communications in the service of efficiency and productivity;

The excessive and “passive” exposure to the programs and products of today’s mass media;

The subliminal reception/absorption, without due discernment, of the values of the “market” (e.g., individualism, competition, profit, consumerism, etc);

Relativization of moral truth, relegating it to the sphere of personal “view” or “preference”

A materialistic and hedonistic model of human well-being;

The lack of reference to transcendent beliefs and values (predominance of secular world-view), undermining the local human and spiritual values.

In response we commit ourselves to:

Re-claim and contextualize the prophetic character and role of our religious life in the Philippine Church and society;

Re-root deeply our community life and mission in our respective congregational roots, identity and charism;

Intensify our commitment to the gospel values, especially of prayer, simplicity, humility, detachment, sobriety and discipline;

Promote “mass media education”, or seminar-workshops on the potentiality and spirituality of the use of mass media, especially among the members of our religious communities.

Focus on the proclamation of God’s reign in our ministries;

Provide greater support to and collaboration with our mission partners in the implementation of the vision-mission of AMRSP;

Prepare more and assign formators equipped to guide our candidates to address the challenges of today’s culture;

Adopt and develop more contextualized and wholistic formation programs, both at the initial and ongoing levels of formation;

Promote more inter-congregational collaborative and inculturated projects and activities in formation;

Embrace discernment as an indispensable element of our contemporary way of life and mission;

We recognize that the global culture is a dynamic and an ever-changing reality. It will have a continuing impact on our consecrated life. Our response to it will require from us, singly and collectively, a constant conversion to the demands of the word of God. At the bottom line, ours is a constant call to fidelity in our religious vocation and consecration, in the face of our contemporary culture.

As a Filipino nation, with the people’s overwhelming mandate and support to our newly installed national leaders, we find ourselves today at a critical and historic moment, at the threshold of national transformation. In this context, we re-affirm our commitment as AMRSMP to stand in solidarity with all our people in their struggle and efforts to address the pressing socio-economic and politico-cultural problems and concerns of our people, with our Mission Partners. By responding effectively to the impact of today’s global culture on our consecrated life, we would be in a better position to live our consecrated life with authenticity and power.