We make available a reflection written by Fr. Félicien Ntambue, CICM, a Scheut Missionary from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. He is a member of the General Council of his Congregation. This article has been published in January 2020, on “CHRONICA”, the CICM Bimonthly Bulletin, with the title: At the root of the CICM identity: the Charism and mission ad gentes. What specificity and implications?
In August 2018, in Nepi (Viterbo), Fr Felicien gave a conference exactly on this topic to 43 Superiors General and General Councillors of eight missionary congregations “ad gentes” that originated in Italy. In that conference, as much as in this article, the leitmotif is the following: is the “missio ad gentes” a general mission that embrace everything indiscriminately without having any specificity of its own?
The article is very thought provoking and reflects perfectly the struggle that the missionary Congregations ad gentes are facing to remain faithful to their specific charism at a time of epochal changes; epochal for the world but also for the Church and its mission.
We publish this article with the author's approval, thanking him for his kind permission.
