Page 114 - Reflections on St. Joseph

certain teaching methods), bullying and exploitation by anyone. We above all value the person
for who he is. It isn’t important whether he has money, if he is a bishop or cardinal, if he has
letters of recommendation, if he represents some grand personage, if he has a political
office....thus so many injustices within our communities, once considered as insignificant,
today are not easily put up with and become sources of dissatisfaction and the abandonment of
Religious Life.

We realize that in this Year of St. Joseph, looking to the future recovery of our spirit of family,
we have a lot to do. The first step, I think, is to invest time and energy, not in the return to
ancient ways (as some would want) but in putting into practice those mechanisms of
participation (in truth, now not so new!) foreseen by our Rules.

So as to not draw out excessively what is to be a simple article without any other pretension
except to stir some reflection and perhaps a community discussion, I will but touch lightly
upon, an example, the situation of our Community Councils. Is it not true that in many places
(not due to anyone’s bad will but by demand) they have become a mere organizational meeting,
where a sharing of opinions and participation in decision making is seen as a waste of time?
Isn’t it true that many decisions that effect the lives of individual members are made from
above, without even a minimal regard for personal needs? Isn’t it true that, if by chance a
superior were to let confreres speak, he is met with silence, because no one is used to a
procedure which, after 50 years from Vatican II, has still remained foreign to us?

We truly have a journey to make towards a life of true fraternity, where the members of a
community wish each other well, respect one another, where there is an acceptance and care
for one another and we are capable of fraternal correction. And where superiors exercise more
authority and less power.

This is what I would call a journey which promises to be long, slow and difficult, whose
endpoint is not clearly visible to human sight, but - what can we say? - with you O Joseph, we
are sure to journey well.

90 Reflections on st. joseph