Zagreb, (IKA) – At the beginning of the Year of Consecrated Life, the Council of the Croatian Conference of Bishops for Institutions of Consecrated Life and Societies of Consecrated Life together with the Croatian Conference of Religious Superiors(CCRS/HKVRPP) issued a joint message on November 21, the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Temple, to religious and consecrated lay persons in the world. The message was cosigned by the President of the Council of the Croatian Conference of Bishops for Institutions of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Bishop Mate Uzinić of Dubrovnik, and the President the CCRS, Fra Jure Šarčević, OFMCap.
The message notes that the initiative for the Year of Consecrated Life came from Pope Francis, who declared that the Year of Consecrated Life was to be celebrated from December 1, 2014, to February 2, 2016. In keeping with the Pope’s apostolic exhortation to “the joy of the Gospel” and the need to “go out of oneself” and be “the Church going out of herself,” which means to live the freedom of Divine vocation, the message stresses the importance of the inspiration of the original charism of each community.
Such harmony leads to the “going out” of persons of consecrated life and the entire community from themselves, and opens them to the working of the Holy Spirit. However it is necessary to avoid the danger that in the conflict between ideals and reality, everything heretofore valued is disputed, as well as the danger of passive acquiescence to the status quo. The crisis, often viewed as the crisis of vocations for consecrated life, should be understood as a challenge for change and a call for personal conversion, as well as intensified following of the Lord together through the desert on the path of exodus. Trust in God, who chooses, calls and sends, is of fundamental importance. Living and acting with such trust, religious and lay persons consecrated to God in the world also become a sign of the Kingdom of God in our Croatian society, burdened by poverty, distrust and divisions of various kinds, according to the statement. It was also emphasized that the Year of Consecrated Life is an opportunity for the whole Church in our nation to develop a greater appreciation of such a life.
The celebration of the beginning of the Year of Consecrated Life will have a special role and will be organized in individual dioceses. There will also be a National Pilgrimage and meeting of religious and laity consecrated to God in the world in Marija Bistrica on March 14, 2015.
The message contains a call for all the religious and lay persons consecrated to God in the world to become involved in preparing, commemorating and living the Year of Consecrated Life in an atmosphere of prayer, “so that the full splendor of the precious pearl of their calling may shine again in our homeland.”