Dear brothers and sisters: 

I send my regards to each of you with the hope that the school and pastoral year that we are initiating can be a time of blessings and graces.  

I ask the Holy Spirit to give each of us, the apostolic fire that characterized Conchita when she exclaimed, Jesus, savior of all people, save them, save them! and the one that Fr. Felix carried in his heart when he said: after God and Mary, more than anything I love the Works; they are the life of my life.

This purpose of this letters is:

¨        To notify you that we have ended the process of discernment that the four Curias of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit (MMSpS) and the Central Council of the Apostleship of the Cross (CC-AC) initiated on the modality of the relations between both Works;

¨        To officially present to you the Document that in the future, will govern the path that the Apostleship of the Cross will take in our Provinces and other regions where the Work grows and develops. The Document was approved unanimously at the corresponding meeting.

¨        To invite you to study it, and to use such Document when you pray, to understand it in depth. Afterwards we will send you an explanation in PowerPoint, which will make it easier to comprehend the Document and its history.

DOCUMENT ON THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE MISSIONARIES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE APOSTLESHIP OF THE CROSS 

1.   The Apostleship of the Cross (AC) and the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit (MSpS) are two different Works but intimately related by their charism, mission, and history.

2.   With interdependency between both Works, at the various levels the Provinces would adapt the general lines of the General Assembly of the AC, similar to how the one of the General Chapter is adapted by the Provinces.

3.   Each Works has its own government structure:

a.    AC: General Director with the Central Council, Regions who are directly dependent of the Central Council, Centers.

b.    MSpS: Superior General with its General Curia, Provinces, Communities.

4.   The Central Council of the Apostleship of the Cross: It is constituted by members of the AC and Missionaries of the Holy Spirit (of the General Curia and from each of the Provincial Curias.) The Regional Councils will depend on this Council.

5.   The Councils of the Regions of the Apostleship of the Cross: (each of them corresponding to the provincial structure of the MMSpS). It is composed by members of the AC and of the MMSpS (that at least one of the lay members of the AC of this Council belongs to the Central Council, and that a MSpS belongs to the Provincial Council.) Each of these Councils will be responsible of all the Centers that it covers, and will determine the concrete ways and means of working.

6.   The Centers which the Provinces can assist, will depend on the Regional Council of the Apostleship of the Cross, adapting to the organization of the Province, without the absence of the essential elements that give the AC its identity: defined processes of personal and group sanctity, experiences of the community, integral formation, apostolic compromise with social projection, and expansion of the Work.

7.   The AC stretches beyond the territory of the Province of the MSpS.

8.   The Centers which for a given reason the Provinces are not able to assist, will depend on the Central Council of the AC.  This Council will determine how to assist them.

9.   To advance, both Works must do part of the work together, bringing them closer and adapting the structures. The AC should participate in Chapters and Assemblies of the MSpS in what pertains to the AC, and the MSpS should participate in the General Assembly of the AC.

10. That there is more participation from the two Works, in associated scopes of action.

11. We will have to find the means to prevent the Provinces or some MSpS from taking ownership over the AC, or the AC or some of its members from becoming reticents in the relation with the Provinces, or that they walk aside from them.

12. The AC will have to adapt the plans of the Provinces in the Centers that the Provincial Regional Councils oversees. This supposes a close two-sided link between the two Works, with a compromise on both parts.

13. The corresponding government teams and all the members will drive the fundamental compromise in the sense of a “movement”, widening the horizons of the AC.

To monitor the pastoral implementation of the Document in each of the Provinces, we will schedule some meetings that can bring the two Works closer in the spirit of numbers 9-12 from the Document that was just presented. We have a strong hope that this relationship will bring positive fruits to the Works, to the Church, and to the world. 

Dear brothers and sister, the parable of the mustard seed that Jesus told to teach us how the Kingdom of heaven grows in this earth, gives us a promise that fills us with hope: the grain becomes a big tree. With a thankful heart we can say that it has been like that throughout our history. We hope that the future of the process that we are initiating will be like that! 

I invite all of you, that by following the example of Christ Priest and Victim, contemplative and in solidarity, we put our feet and heart in the world that we are called to live in; that we become open, without reticence, to its demands of justice and peace, and that we listen to and are moved by its need of God and of salvation. That as one body we may walk through this path with a renovated enthusiasm.

 Your brother in Christ Priest, 
 
Domenico Di Raimondo, M.Sp.S.
Superior General of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit
and General Director of the Apostleship of the Cross
 

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