Claretian Formation

III. Period of 1979-1985
1. XIX General Chapter. Rome 1979

This Chapter painstakingly studies the apostolic mission of the Congregation in the present moment and draws up only one document entitled The Mission of the Claretian Today (MCT).

The MCT does not extensively deal with formation but gives a global principle of great formative importance677 and various criteria of on-going formation.678

Number 228 has been a very dynamic and profound principle that has given origin to studies and meetings in the Major Organisms and in the Interprovincial Conferences with a view to adapting the formation plans to the orientations of the MCT. We can say that it has been the occasion for a deep renewal of formation in the Congregation.

2. CMF Directory (1982)

On 30 May 1982, the new CMF Directory was published. As is expressly mentioned in the presentation, it replaced the C.I.A. and the previous Directories. Its elaboration started from the previous Directory (1975) and took up the orientations of the last General Chapter, particularly the part that referred to the MCT.
From the formative viewpoint, it must be noted that what the previous Directory said about the General Plan of Formation disappears. On the other hand, insistence is once more made on the formation plans at the provincial and local levels679 and on the formative plan for brothers.680

3. Fr. Gustavo Alonso681
3.1. Mission and Formation of our Missionary Brothers

On the mission and formation of brothers, Fr. Alonso wrote the circular letter The Brothers and the Claretian Mission Today.682 The theme had been dealt with on many occasions in the last years. However, he writes again because, besides the fact that their vocational situation is critical, it is clearly perceived that the process of renewal of the brothers has not reached its fullness. In this context, the brothers gathered in Rome (June-July of 1980) asked him for a word of orientation and clarification that might arouse a greater awareness and responsibility of the entire Congregation regarding the problems that affect them.

From the formative viewpoint,683 in general it’s a question of emphasising a new form of understanding and organising their formation, in such a way that it may fully assume the social changes and the new perception of a brother’s being and doing. And in a more concrete manner, it’s a question of urging on the practical application of certain very important orientations that were already given on previous occasions, but are not being implemented in the Congregation. Thus:

1st. The formation periods established for the brothers: postulancy, noviciate, juniorate and intensive preparation for perpetual profession, should be strictly observed.
2nd. During their formation, they must be integrated in a formative community.
3rd. Brothers should not be formed in a generic and as it were neutral manner, but totally for the Claretian mission.

3.2. The Renewed Constitutions

On the occasion of the definitive approval of the Constitutions, Fr. Alonso wrote the circular letter on The Renewed Constitutions684 on the significance of their approval for the Congregation. After describing the process followed from the Vatican II Council to the present moment and the sense they have after their approval, he makes some reflections so that our Constitutions may be understood and accepted as a book of life for our community.685 It’s a question of making them truly an instrument designed “to give a new quality and orientation to our life as followers of Jesus.”686 To this end, we must accept them with positive attitudes, live them and experience them with active responsibility as our life project and use them as an instrument of community animation.

Although Fr. Alonso’s message as a whole has a formative value in itself, however, it explicitly highlights the fact that the Constitutions must play a relevant function during the formation period. The vocational discernment of those in formation and their identification as Claretians would not be possible were it not for the Constitutions. They must, under the orientation of the formators, form part of the contents of the formation programs.687 The circular ends acknowledging the certainty of Mary’s presence in the whole process of renewal of the Constitutions and the assurance
“(…) that, through this instrument of grace, she will also form us in the forge of her maternal love (Aut., 270), moulding in all the sons of the Congregation the same apostolic spirit that she instilled in Saint Anthony Mary Claret.”688