There are many international movements and organisations that use “World Day Celebrations” to highlight their reason for being and their messages. Media coverage provides a forum for these movements and organisations to communicate with the world.

The Church now participates in the same process. It uses “World Day Celebrations” to highlight various themes in Church life.

World Youth Day is one of the more famous celebrations. It not only gathers (on average) about a million and one half young people from the international community to celebrate their faith, it also offers them the presence of the Vicar of Christ who travels to be with the young, to teach them, to witness to them and to challenge them to grow as believers.

Another “World Day Celebration” in the Church is the World Day for Consecrated Life which is celebrated on February 2, unless local circumstances require a change of date. For example, due to the schedule for Carnival, World Day for Consecrated Life will be celebrated on January 26 in the Archdiocese of Port of Spain. 

The celebration offers the Church the opportunity to explain to an increasingly secularised world the purpose and meaning of the Consecrated Life.

It is also intended to keep the Consecrated Life before the eyes of all people – especially the young and middle aged – who are still searching for a way to live the one life God has given them to live.

The concept

Canon 573 defines the Consecrated Life very precisely. “It is life consecrated through the profession of the evangelical counsels as a stable form of living in which the faithful follow Christ more closely under the action of the Holy Spirit and are totally dedicated to God who is supremely loved.

By a new and special title they are dedicated to seek the perfection of charity in the service of God’s Kingdom, for the honour of God, the building up of the Church and the salvation of the world. They are a splendid sign in the Church as they foretell the heavenly glory.” 

For those who may not be very familiar with the consecrated life, let us briefly examine the elements of the definition:
1) Profession of the evangelical counsels – the counsels are poverty, chastity and obedience. In addition to the radical commitment of baptism, which is common to all Christians, the dedication of profession is a new and special title, namely, a more radical identification with the dying and rising of Christ;
2) Stable: In an age of instability and struggle with permanent commitment, the reference in the canon is that the consecrated life is a permanent way of life which for perpetual profession requires a permanent commitment.
3) Mission – There are four aspects of mission listed in the canon: the motivation of service is love; the giving of honour to God is fundamental; the building up of the Church either exclusively by prayer (contemplative consecration) or through ministry (apostolic consecration) is essential; and working for the salvation of the world defines the scope of consecration’s meaning which, similar to the Church itself, is universal.
4) Eschatological – it is a sign of the transcendental elements of Christianity and a reminder of the reality of eternal life.

Recruiting for the Consecrated Life

One of my principal efforts as Archbishop has been to encourage the members of the archdiocese to pray and work for vocations to all the various calls in the Church. I have made special efforts on behalf of the Institutes of Consecrated Life. Specifically, I have asked the Institutes of Consecrated Life to be more aggressive in their recruiting methodologies.

There is no doubt that vocation ministry is a challenge in contemporary culture. However, the Church has faced and successfully overcame similar challenges in the past. The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life in the Vatican has observed that in some cases there is a lack of confidence in the Consecrated Life. (Confer the Congregation’s Instruction, “Starting Afresh From Christ”, N. 12)

Obviously, a lack of confidence, whether in the hearts of the members of Institutes of Consecrated Life or in the minds of the members of the Archdiocese who are attracted to the Consecrated Life, will certainly complicate recruitment efforts.

Over the last few years, a small but encouraging number of professions in the Institutes of the Consecrated Life that serve in the Archdiocese has been celebrated.

Considering the pastoral needs of the archdiocese in communications, education, religious education, parish ministry, retreat ministry, social ministry and specialised services such as nursing, the entire archdiocese must work together to make these modest statistics a discernible trend of recovery for the Consecrated Life.

The internal needs of the Institutes themselves are a distinct and important aspect of the issue of recruitment. The Provincials of each Institute, or their equivalents in Canon Law, must try to meet these needs with energy and confidence.   

The Consecrated Life and the Synod

For the first two sessions of the Archdiocesan Synod, the Institutes of the Consecrated Life chose to participate in the Synod as members of the parishes in which they were located. While the participation was excellent, the decision led to a very low level of visibility for the members of the Consecrated Life.

I am pleased that for Synod 2008, the various communities of Consecrated Life in the Archdiocese have decided to participate as a distinct unit. I am convinced that this positive move will improve their visibility and help the archdiocese appreciate the commitment they make to the total life of the archdiocese.

Conclusion

The Episcopal Delegate for Religious, Sister Adriana Noel O Carm, organised an Assembly for Religious of the Archdiocese of Port of Spain in 2007.

The Assembly was facilitated by Fr Jason Gordon. Each Community presented a report on the various pastoral ministries in which it was involved.

The reports have been gathered into a final document that will be presented to the Synod.

When I read the final document I had two reactions:
1) I was impressed by the significant amount of pastoral service that is offered to the people of the archdiocese by the Institutes of Consecrated Life.  
2) I was deeply grateful to the members of the Consecrated Life for their witness, pastoral initiatives and persevering service.