PASSIONISTS INTERNATIONAL
211 E 43rd Street #704 • New York NY 10017
Warmest greetings from myself, the General Council and all the Congregation, as you gather to meet at our Jamaica house. In these two days you will have to evaluate not only certain institutional formalities but also the work you yourselves are carrying out as a Non-governmental Organization at the United Nations.
We all greatly appreciate your efforts in favor of Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation. May your services be ever more generous and efficacious, sustained by a full communion if intentions and activities of the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ and the Sisters of the Cross and Passion.
Research into an adequate answer to questions about justice and compassion must be rooted in the very charism of the Congregation, since we’re certain that our Lord’s Passion continues in the passion of the crucified and in the passion of the Earth, which go hand-in-hand to the point of posing a threat to the very existence of humanity and nature. To be present in the world’s poverty is part of our mission. In fact the 2000 General Chapter, confirmed by that of 2006, decided that our missionary presence in those 60 countries in which we Passionists and Passionist Sisters live and evangelize should be enhanced by a presence at the United Nations in order to help oppose decisions and orientations of the powerful and mighty of the earth when they generate sin against justice, peace and the integrity of creation.
The consequences of such decisions can be found in the hunger and thirst assailing so many people, especially the poorest and weakest, such as small children, in so many parts of the world.
Thus we have two poles, one in the lands where we operate and the other at the United Nations, seeking to make the world more just and viable, even as we seek to distance it from the danger of self-destruction. The present-day Church magisterium continually seeks to promote and point the way toward the values of social justice.
Likewise our last General Synod in 2008 has pointed out, as the very core of our Restructuring process, the values of solidarity and sharing. Reading through the history of our Congregation one cannot help but feel impressed by the manner in which those holy religious of the past, together with their collaborators among the laity, helped the crucified of their time in so many ways and with such great effort.
So this is my personal and heartfelt wish: that with your presence at the United Nations you may make every effort to continue that same history and mission. A great deal of work – and I am especially mindful of our NGO accredited before the UNO by the ECOSOC – has already been done by our representative, Fr. Kevin Dance, C.P. Srs. Mary Anne Strain and Joanne Fahey and Mr. Timothy O’Brien, together with the collaboration of the other board members, yet so much more awaits our loving presence among the desperately poor and deprived. Working together with the Passionist Secretariat for Solidarity and Mission, it should be possible to carry out a process of sensitization of our Congregations and within our communities, in order that our Passionist Family remain ever close to the crucified of our times.
We thus invite other Congregations of our Passionist Family to join in this effort as this will contribute to helping us work ever more efficiently. Passionists International, if you continue to see your birth in the Cross, and work in the light of the Gospel and the empty tomb of the risen Christ, your Institution will be transformed into prophecy! Therein lies our hope.
