Publications, courses, proposals, reports of the General Secretariat for Formation

The Meeting of the General Secretariat for Formation took place in Rome, March 9-13, 2015. The Secretariat is composed of the members of all Conferences in CSSR: Alberto Eseverri and Jeffrey Rolle (General Consultors), John Fahey and Charles Duval (North America); Sahaya Arockiasamy (Asia-Oceania); Arnaud-Guy Agbossaga (Africa); Marlos da Silva (South America); Jacek Zdrzalek (Europe) and Luis Roballo (Executive Secretary). The Superior General attended some sessions of the meeting during the last two days.
The members presented the situation of formation in their Conferences especially on the level of common formation structures as well as meetings and the challenges for Redemptorist Formation.
Special issues of the meeting:
– the International Symposium “Formation to the Consecrated Life in Today’s Church” for formators in the Vatican. The first part will be conducted by the Vatican and Redemptorists from all the Conferences will attend. After this symposium the GSF will conduct its own program for Redemptorist’s Formators, which will include a visit to the Alphonsian sites. The Symposium will be April 7-11, 2015 and the Redemptorist seminar will be held April 12-18, 2015, (contact: Fr. Luis Roballo, luisroballo@yahoo.com)
– the translation and the publication of the Constitutions and Statutes of CSsR in French is being pursued,
– Formation for Formators Course (second part) in English, Ghana August 3-15, 2015. Course input will be CSsR history, moral theology and Redemptorist spirituality. The course will have an African emphasis i.e. the process of formation within the concrete reality of Africa.

Coming Publications from the General Secretariat for Formation:
– a volume to commemorate the Year of the Redemptorist Missionary Vocation,
– the Manuale Formatorum (second part) is continuing to be worked on. This should be ready for publication at the end of 2015,
– the Core Curriculum (CC) for every stage of formation. The goal of the CC is to help formators at the different levels to realize the principles of the Ratio Formationis, including content. It will include elements of a program as well as thematic content, along with some methodology.
The General Secretariat for Formation made several proposals to the General Council. The decisions of the General Government regarding initial formation will soon be communicated to the whole Congregation. The Superior General will write a letter, which will include each of the decisions. The letter will be followed by a document, prepared by GSF, which will offer rationale and implications.
The secretariat started the work on the Report to the General Chapter as well as “Postulata”.
Fr. Jacek Zdrzałek