Board of Directors of the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious (CLAR); from Left to Right: Brothers Carlos Lovatto. Secretary General: Sr. Daniela Cannavina, HCMR ; President: Sr. Liliana Franco Echeverri, ODN – Brother Walter Muñoz ; Vice-president: Fr. José Luís Loyola Lawyer, MSpS
From November 22nd to 24th, 2024, Latin American and Caribbean Religious Life gathered in the City of Córdoba, Argentina, to celebrate its Fifth Congress under the Theme: “Religious Life, Sentinel of Hope.” More than a thousand Consecrated Persons from different Nationalities and Continents participated in Person or Virtually. Four hundred people did so in Situ, among them the Mennaisian Brothers Walter Muñoz and Carlos Lovatto; the Entire Community of Mennaisian Brothers of Huatusco was also present every day of the Congress in Remote Mode.
“Religious Life, Sentinel of Hope.” Using the “See-Discern-Act” Methodology, different Speakers, from Various Perspectives, provided Insights to uncover the Questions that come to us from Social and Ecclesial Realities. With the “Panel” Methodology, the Hopes and Despairs that lie at the Heart of Humanity and also of Religious Life were addressed.
Personally, the experience of participating in such a Congress was an Immense Wealth. I felt a living Religious Life, capable of looking at itself and putting a name to the despair that inhabits it, such as the Significant Reduction of Congregations and the lack of entry of New Members; the Crisis of Relationships that we experience within Our Fraternities that marginalizes us in an Individualistic Activism, a Sterile Silence or practices of “Giving Everything to the End”, but which is not a Healthy Way of Living the Mission.
In this Context of a wounded Religious Life, Signs of Hope are making their way, such as a Synodal Religious Life capable of listening, open to the Needs of Humanity and in Permanent Discernment to direct its energies towards the creation of Structures of Co-Responsibility in the Mission, where each of its Members is listened to, respected and valued. It is the Fire of the Spirit that I feel burning in Our Latin American and Caribbean Religious Life.
Bros Carlos Lovatto and Walter Muñoz
A Religious Life that is increasingly a “Sentinel of Hope.”
Testimony of Brother Carlos Lovatto, Visitor of the Divina Providencia District.