Commission for the Review of the Constitutions and Statutes
The Commissionfor the Revision of the Constitutions gathered at the general house from Nov. 7 – 25. It is leading a process requested by the 21st General Chapter, which stressed that “a thorough revision of the Constitutions and Statutes, with the full participation of the Brothers, can help to revitalise our vocation.”
Its main work entails gathering and analising answers of the Constitutions.
The consultation’s openness revealed the wish of having two documents: the Constitutions and Statutes, which express the norms, the detailed interpretation of the canonical law in our legislation and the Rule of Life, which is still without a concrete definite title and speaks about the identity of the Marist Brother (life in community, mission, government and the Institute’s organisation).
Due to the time that is available, the Commission decided to focus its attention in its Constitutions and Statutes, in the norms to prepare a consultation on the complete text. The reflections of the administrative units, related to the first two chapters of the first draft, were analysed. The Commission prepared a revision of chapters one and two of the Constitutions of the first draft and then did the first draft of the other three chapters. The Commission will send this new document to the Brothers in February.
The Commission will then prepare a final draft and will send it to the capitularies at the end of August. A draft for the Rule of Life (a provisional name) is being prepared until July and will be presented at the General Chapter.
The current Commission for the Revision of the Constitutions is formed by Brothers Tony Clark (Australia), Eduardo Navarro de la Torre (México Occidental), Albert Nzabonaliba (East Central Africa), Antonio Peralta (Santa María de los Andes), Sebastião Ferrarini (Brasil Sur-Amazonia) and Josep Maria Soteras (general councillor and coordinator of the Commission).
In the video below, Br Tony explains in English the process for the revision of the Constitutions and particularly the work done in the last meeting.