Second dimension: A REPENTANT HEART: Misere mei secundum magnam misericordiam tuam… Psalm 50

In its 400 years of history, the Congregation of the Mission could ask forgiveness for:

Today we have sufficient sources to know our history. Not everything among us has been light and glory; there is much darkness and sin. Recent studies, especially the seven volumes of the history of the C.M., must be sources that we must address in order to see our past objectively. The philosopher George Santayana said it well: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

• How can we not ask forgiveness as a Congregation for the infidelities of our confreres during the French Revolution who did not live up to their vocation, or for the scandals of the 19th century in which Fr. Etienne and Fr. Nozo were involved, or for the closed-mindedness towards the paths of evangelisation that Fr. Lebbe wanted to open in China? And at the provincial level, each of us knows the sad and painful pages that have been written in our works and among our confreres.

• Failures in caring for the poor and needy: Throughout its history, the congregation has had moments when it has not lived up to its mission to serve the poor and needy, such as the abandonment of the mission in Madagascar a few years after the death of the Founder, or the unwillingness to leave comfortable jobs to go to the poorest and most abandoned places.

• Since the formation of the clergy is an essential aspect of the charism, the abandonment of formation in seminaries, not so much because of a lack of personnel or because the native clergy took over their own formation, but because being involved in works such as these requires more heroism and dedication, and there is no shortage of works in which missionaries have caused great scandal in the territories and the Church, sadly leaving their leadership.

• Participation in structures of power and oppression: With its roots in France, shortly after the death of the Founder, the community took over royal parishes, and in opening and sustaining the new missions, it had to rely on the support of the French government, and at what price! I think that the Congregation became more French than Vincentian, which hindered progress in evangelisation. Suffice it to mention the difficulties in the missions in Madagascar and, sadly, the slave trade in which the community was involved in the United States.

P. Marlio Nasayó Liévano, CM

[Read the first part]