Global Plan of the General Council 2019-2025

Luis José Maza Subero, O.Carm.

“Go and make disciples of all nations (…) I will be with you always until the end of time.” (Mt 28,19). Evangelisation is a demanding task. However, Jesus will always be present with his consoling and comforting presence in all the situations that are part of the mission of evangelisation.

A Carmelite community is a community of witness: it is a living memory of the death and resurrection of Christ. In living in allegiance to Jesus Christ (Rule 2) the Carmelite discovers the meaning of mission, in its relationship to the Reign of God to be proclaimed to the poor and the mar­ginalised. Carmelites as contemplative people have compassionate hearts. When love becomes weaker, everything loses its flavour. A love that is attentive and creative is like balm for the weary and exhausted (cf. Mt 11,28), for those who suffer and are abandoned, those for whom God appears to be silent, those whose hearts and souls are broken (…). Those who love God must seek him in the poor (Pope Francis address to the Carmelites 2019)

Carmelites are sent to a world that is thirsting for God. In the words of Pope Francis, “Carmelites, masters of prayer, can help people to escape from the noise, the hurry, the spiritual dryness. Of course, this does not mean helping people to accumulate more and more prayers, but rather that they become men and women of faith, friends of God who walk the ways of the Spirit”.

Evangelisation is the primary mission of the Church. [...] today it represents the greatest challenge for the Church [...] we cannot be content to remain in our temples and wait passively for something to happen.» (EG 15). Carmelites share in the task of evangelisation, they engage in pastoral work as a way of proclaiming the Good News to the geographical and existential peripheries, looking at “immense opportunities in such areas as charity, evangelical proclamation, Christian education, culture, and solidarity with the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed, and those who suffer discrimination” (Con., 109).

New Carmelite foundations must be guided by a sense of Carmelite presence in the place where a foundation is to be considered. That means that it may be best to open a foundation within reasonable distance of other Car­melite presences, in order to give support to or receive support from other members of the Carmelite Family. In this way Carmelites can work together to renew peoples’ lives through our discernment and commitment on the peripheries.

Plans

For all of this, the 2019 General Chapter approved the setting up of a General Commission that will work closely with the General Council and with provincials who are re­sponsible for new foundations. The tasks of the Commission will be the following:

1. Examine the new presences of the Order evaluating the resources and the needs of each one of them.
2. Establish a system for the distribution of the economic resources available for our missions. Examine the requests made, and the financial help received by each project.
3. Promote collaboration, especially in formation, and in other areas such as ministry and administration.
4. Find new forms of financing in the New Foundations, not only with pastoral activities, but also training religious, according to their abilities, in other areas that could be sources of income for the community or for missionary endeavour, for example, teaching, crafts and trades, science, manual work.
5. Receive applications for new projects, evaluate them, and carry out a feasibility study regarding their missionary objectives, possible collaboration, support within the Carmelite family and financing.
6. Study and suggest possible ways of resolution for those Provinces that have difficulties in financing their missions.
7. Make recommendations, after the appropriate study, regarding suitable processes for the independence of a mission with respect to its province of origin.

Members

• Luis José Maza Subero, O.Carm.
• Altamiro Tenorio da Paz, O.Carm. (Pernambuco, Brazil)
• Francisco Daza Valverde, O.Carm. (Betica, Spain)
• Carl Markelz, O.Carm. (PCM)
• Victor Alphonse Biramoto, O.Carm. (Tanzania)
• Joseph Hung Tran, O.Carm. (SEL, Vietnam)