Claretian Formation

V. Meaning of the GPF for the Congregation

In his Presentation of the GPF to the Congregation, Fr. General tells us of its meaning in the present moment of the Congregation.778 Here is a synthesis of the principal aspects that it develops:

1. A Proposal of Missionary Life

Rather than considering the GPF as a formative compendium, we must see it as proposal for missionary life.

1.1. Our GPF can only be explained and make sense within the continuity of the charismatic life of the Congregation and, for that very reason, within a belief in the gift of one and the same vocation and mission. Only through faith in this gift, which is a life spread and followed, and a principle for unifying the diverse ways in which the members of the Institute think and act, can we set forth the proposal of this formative itinerary. Through it we expect to involve the life of the formandi in such a way that they may become the kind of servants of the Word that the Church needs in its evangelising mission.

1.2. Moreover, the publication of the GPF is an expression of the hope-filled life of the Congregation. In fact, only those who have hope can make plans. Hope leads us to plan, because planning is the decisive way of transforming and dealing successfully with the challenges that we meet. In deciding to publish the GPF, the Congregation is manifesting its hope that new vocations will be incorporated into it and that it will thus be able to strengthen and intensify its missionary service to the Church. From this viewpoint, the GPF is a lasting reminder of the impulse of the Spirit that gave us life, and a continuing invitation to recreated the missionary mystique that accredits us as authentic servants of the Word.

2. A Proposal for the Whole World

Fr. Claret stated that his spirit went out to the whole world, and his prophecy is still being fulfilled throughout the nations. From the time of the Council up to the present, the Congregation has kept on opening itself to ever-broader missionary horizons, with an attendant enrichment of cultural values and of new religious and social sensibilities.

This new shaping of the Congregation has been fairly crying out for a Formation Plan that would promote the re-creation of Claretian identity by blending the values proper of various peoples with the charismatic bent of our universal missionary vocation. This explains why the Claretian stamp is highlighted throughout the GPF. Inculturation, which is a challenge for all, is not achieved by decree: rather, it is the end-product of a process that begins in one’s initial formation and goes on providing a new understanding and living of the foundational insights gained in our surroundings. We hope that the GPF will be a good help in this process. It is drafted in such a way that each Organism of the Congregation can adapt it in keeping with its own context and exigencies.

3. The GPF, a Mature Synthesis of the Process of Renewal

If we examine the context of the Congregation’s life, we can appreciate the fact that the GPF is appearing at an adequate moment in the process of renewal.

Our Congregation, like other religious institutes, has lived through an intense process of renewal that has affected not only our ideas, but also our lifestyle and mission. The General Chapters held during that time have been moments of grace and light. They have allowed us to make an updated synthesis of those essential and indispensable values of our Claretian life that we can continue to transmit validly in the formation process. The Congregation has a mature self-understanding of its identity and a good capacity for discernment. It trusts in its
ability to keep facing, in a serene and warranted way, the challenges that arise from the continual changes at work in the world and in the Church. It is from this vantage point and from this maturity that the present formative proposal
has been drafted.

4. Magna Carta on Formation

The GPF can fittingly be considered as the Magna Carta on Formation that the Congregation, as mother and teacher, offers its members, and above all its new missionaries.

The reason why the GPF can be considered as the Magna Carta on Formation is that all have shared in its writing. All have been moved by an urgent desire to corporately spread the charism that we have received as a gift from the Spirit in order to announce the Good News to the poor.

One needs only to review the history of the drafting of the GPF in order to become aware of this. In it we find in concentrated form the whole formative experience of our organisms which, throughout the years of renewal and relying on the guidelines of the universal Church and of particular Churches, have drafted their own respective Plans of Formation. The whole Congregation has participated co-responsibly in its drafting, either through the International Formation Commission or through the many and valuable contributions and suggestions sent in by our brethren for the final drafting of the GPF.

Hence it would not be right to reduce the GPF to a more-or-less well made document aimed simply at fulfilling the norm traced out in the Constitutions and the Code of Canon Law. In the light of what we have embodied in it, we must persevere in this exercise of formative co-responsibility and help those who have been given to us as brothers to grow in vocational maturity.