Recent Profound Changes
Our Orientation for the Next Six Years
A Call To Reconciliation
Internationality

Recent Profound Changes

We have known for decades that ours is a world of rapid and far-reaching change and that it will continue to be so. Even so, nothing prepared us for the profound transformation in the international system since the last time the Society met in General Chapter. We have been living through an epoch future historians will doubtless define as a watershed in human social development. We have seen the collapse of Communism. We have seen the fact and the bitterness of apartheid overcome by those with a vision of what human society can and should be. We have seen walls fall through that we thought were immovable until people power broke through.

We are living with the consequences of the apparent triumph of capitalism and the distortions that result. We have seen the proliferation of arms but also the destruction of some nuclear weapons. The rapid development of communications technologies enables people around the world not only to witness, but also to participate in social movements. The rapid development of biotechnology means human beings are acquiring the capacity to direct organic processes, as well as social ones. All these developments give rise to ethical dilemmas and challenges. We have hardly begun to comprehend the implications of these transformations. The stripping away of familar international structures and landmarks, along with the ideologies that sustained them, has left us alternately elated or despairing, and often without a compass.

These extraordinary events have occurred within the context of other important social phenomena already underway for decades. Changing roles within the family and increasing burdens on families have significant social consequences in many parts of the globe, as does the crisis of family life. In some countries, many people experience a crisis of moral values and a lack of ethical moorings.

Not surprisingly, such fundamental change can provoke retreat to old, failed solutions. The world is witnessing the re-emergence of fascism, nationalism, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. New orthodoxies, such as neo-liberal economic theory, are spreading. Fundamentalist movements are prominent within all major religions. Everywhere, we see the resort to spriritualist solutions. In local, national, and international settings, we hear the appeal to "tend our own gardens."

Although we sometimes feel paralyzed by the complexity of global issues and powerless in the face of human suffering, we have reason to hope. The world has also witnessed the way human beings can pull together, against the odds, to acheive the incredible: small, creative steps that build civil society and defend human rights.

The changes underway in our world create a rare and important opening for new responses to urgent human problems, provided the human community can be creative and courageous enough first to imagine, and then to implement, new social, political, and economic solutions.

The General Chapter of 1994 calls the Society to particpate in this process as a crucial element of our commitment to defend life where it is threatened and to foster life where it is appearing in important new forms.

Our Orientation for the Next Six Years

Within Ourselves:

• Rekindle our hope and keep it alive.
• Keep trying to go to the roots of problems.
• Be there with the poorest and the marginalized and be evangelized by them.

Within Our Church:

• Act courageously on our conviction about the prophetic role of religious life in the Church.
• Whatever our ministerial service, make the connection between faith and life.

Within Our World:

• Act courageously on our conviction about the prophetic role of religious life in the World.

The 1994 General Chapter calls for the Society to join this process, to collaborate with such initiatives in our own settings, as a significant aspect of the prophetic role of religious in building the Reign of God.

In the face of change, imagine new human possibilities.

A Call

The reality of our deeply wounded and divided world, where change is rapid and far reaching, but where there are signs of hope; all this impels us to contemplate that world in and through the Heart of Christ.

It is as an international community, rooted in our spirituality and charism, that we are called to respond with a new urgency to the most pressing needs of our world as educators:

women of communion,
women of compassion,
women of reconciliation.

The Gospel invites each one, wherever she is, to search with compassion and hope for ways to build communion. We need conversion and we want to enter into the process of reconciliation which God offers us in Jesus.

Internationality

As the Chapter of 1994 we have experienced anew the strength of our internationality. We are convinced that our living internationality is no longer a choice but a responsibility in the face of the calls of today. This gift, which we have received from the time of St. Madeleine Sophie, is a joy for us.

The extent of our internationality, which is rooted in our charism, calls us more and more to respond to the needs of the world, especially to the powerless and marginalized. It also calls us increasingly to a deep contemplative outlook on the world, which leads to nonviolent political action in such areas as nationalism, violence, injustice, and oppression.

We experience the originality of each culture which enriches our internationality. At the same time, we notice the tension between our various cultures and internationality, and we suffer from this tension. Individualism, racism, the fear of losing one's own identity, the need for self-affirmation at the expense of others prevent us from going to the heart of each culture, embracing it without condescension and allowing ourselves to be challenged by it. To enflesh the Gospel in different realities we need constant conversion. We believe that to live in interdependence and solidarity is a sign and a witness of communion in a divided world.

To live our internationality at all levels is a challenge to authentic community living where we integrate our differences. To live internationality is a decision that makes for dynamism in local and provincial apostolic communities. To live internationality is a witness to the Good News.

Our reflection on the world has made us aware of how our communities are challenged and transformed by their local contexts. We asked ourselves, "How do we contribute, in this context, to the transformation of civil society?"