The General Council meets with the directors of the Secretariats and Departments of the General Administration
From September 11 to 15, the General House hosted Collaborative Week, a traditional meeting of the General Council in September and February with the directors of the Secretariats and Departments of the General Administration. This period during the plenary session of the General Council is a privileged moment to share the service of animation of the Institute and to support the initiatives that each area carries out in the process of leading the Marist mission and life.
Opening the working sessions, Brothers Ernesto Sánchez, Superior General, and Luis Carlos Gutiérrez, Vicar General, underlined the intention that the meeting should not simply be a time for information about the journey, but a space for reflection on what the Institute has experienced in recent years, looking ahead to the next two years, which will be the last of this General Government. In this dynamic, each director had his own presentation space, with a moment of sharing in which the other participants contributed by indicating the areas that needed to be consolidated.
During this meeting, a large amount of time was dedicated to formation. The theme chosen was synodality, the theme of the 2021 – 2024 Synod. Br. Ernesto will take part in the October assemblies this year and the one for 2024. He will represent the religious, having been elected as one of the 5 representatives of the Union of Superiors General. During the first two days of the Collaborative Week, the Superior General presented the group with the challenges of synodality, a topic that is also very useful for the animation of the Institute. He invited everyone to reflect on the particular methodology of this process, which is “Dialogue in the Spirit”, a method that allows us to move from the “I” to the “we”: it does not lose sight of or erase the personal dimension of the “I”, but recognises it and inserts it into the community dimension. The fundamental question is: “What is happening in the other person and in me, and how is the Lord working here?” The goal is to try and understand others as they are.
The week is also characterized by moments of prayer, dialogue within each secretariat and department and between the three areas (Marist life, mission and services) and the respective link councillors.
In addition to the General Council, the following took part in the meeting: Andrea Rossi (Director of FMSI), Br. Ángel Diego García Otaola (Director of the Secretariat of Solidarity), Dorotea Cinanni (Director of the Archives of the General Administration), Br. Guillermo José Villarreal Cavazos (Postulator General), Br. José Sánchez Bravo – Pepe (Director of the Secretariat of Education and Evangelization), Br. Lindley Sionosa (Assistant Director of the Secretariat of Brothers Today), Luiz da Rosa (Director of the Communications Department), Manu Jesús Gómez Cid (Assistant Director of the Secretariat of Laity), Mark O’Farrell (Assistant Director of the Secretariat of Laity), Br. Niño Mayor Pizarro (Assistant Director of the Secretariat of Education and Evangelization), Raúl Amaya (Director of the Secretariat of Laity) and Br. Valdícer Fachi (Director of the Cmi Department).