CENTER-FORUM COMMISSION
A report on the meeting held in Rome, February 2003

As we are about to leave for our respective places of work, we wish, as a commission, to send greetings to each of our brothers in the Congregation, and, through you, to extend our greetings to all those who have become a real and living part of the Passionist Family throughout the world.  This brief account is intended for all of you.

We gathered in the Passionist generalate in Rome.  Those attending were the Passionists:  P. Ottaviano D’Egidio (Italia), José Agustín Orbegozo (España), Christopher Monaghan( Australia), Ernesto Henau (Bélgica), José Luis Quintero (España), Adolfo Lippi (Italia), Tito Amodei (Italia), Tarcisio Gaitán (Colombia) and Octavio Mondragón (México).  Two members of the commission were unable to be present:  Donald Senior (USA) and Stanislaus Breton (Francia).

As an interdisciplinary commission, we have altered some of the responsibilities of the members, one such change, accepted by the commission, was to name Octavio Mondragón as executive secretary of the commission.

Of special significance for the commission has been the development of a methodology for the individual's and for the commission's work in view of the task presented to us on behalf of the Passionist Family.  It is a small step, but will have very valuable consequences.

Our starting point shall always be one's own personal experience, drawing on the broad and extensive personal experience of each member.  With that as the basis, we want the work of the commission to be the fruit of a reflection-in-common, a mutual collaboration carried out in a style that is sincere, friendly, discerning and spiritual.

Up until the present, the members of this commission have belonged to our one Congregtion.  However, beginning with the next meeting, we will include as participants other religious and laity who are part of the Passionist Family.  The same methodology will prevail with them as well.

In accord with this orientation, we do not believe that we should immediately offer a series of presentations which are largely intellectual.  In fact, such work has been done repeatedly with Passion themes.  As a commission, we have decided to re-enter the experience of returning to our charismatic origins, as this commission proposed in its first meeting, and as was reported to the Synod in Korea.  The outline of this process can be found in the Acts of the Synod, in the section on the Center-Forum.

We went over the outline as a whole, which we are initally calling "the formative process"; as well as on each of the four stages which make it up.  As you will see, the process begins with solitude and silence, and proceeds to mission.  This is fundamentally a theological-spiritual dyanamic which will bring us to the roots of the charismatic Passionist experience for our time and place.

Our first instance of communion with each one of you will be this experience of sharing with one another, as a commission, as a group, as brothers, as we live this process through.  We expect it to be an event which in the near future will offer us new grounds for mutual encounter and re-definition.  Surely, while we are at Monte Argentario next June, you will be present with us in the diverse and new ways that you carry the name of the Passionist Family.

Following this experience, the commision will reflect on the process, assessing its strengths and examining it under the light of theological reflection.  This will undoubtedly be an intense time of interaction for us: reflection, interpretation, research, and the writing of projects on the Passion-themes which have emerged.

From this little shoot of experience and labors, we hope to evolve our next meeting, which will be in January of 2004.  For that meeting we will expect the participation of other members of the Passionist Family.

Together, as a type of microcosom of the Passionist Family,  we will look for the method by which we can prepare the resources and the formats, the supporting structures and the methodologies which we must have in order to accomplish what we have come to understand is meant by  "returning to the Passionist charismatic origins."

At a later period, building on this meeting, we will be able to organize workshops for each linguistic group of the Congregation, for formation personnel, for married couples, and for young adults.  Once achieved, we will see before us the realization of what is now only a dream and a hope: the replication of this kind of commission in the many areas and contexts of Passionist Family life.

I leave you with a personal request.  In order for us to create the appropriate environment for the engagement of our Passionist Family, send us your suggestions, whether to the commission as a whole, or to an individual member.

Let us make the most of this time and our being apart to create opportunities for sharing our lives.

E-mail address of the Center-Forum: cf.argentariocp@libero.it