GC 35 And Languages

The Congregation has completed its first week. As one member put it adroitly: "we have warmed up the engine...and now we are ready for the crucial week ahead". One of the objectives of this first week was to provide a space where the members of the Congregation could come to know each other better. After the first two days when the meetings were organised Assistancy-wise, that is, regionally, during the last two days all the members met in 21 small linguistic groups of ten members each.

The Commission in charge of this process assigned each participant to a group speaking a language different from the one officially spoken in his region (quite a test for some of us!) to ensure that certain groups did not get too large and unwieldy. The final list gives some idea of the distribution of language skills: 3 French groups, 2 Italian, 6 Spanish and 10 English.

A couple of days ago, someone prepared a list of the most widely spoken mother-tongues. Spanish was first, not so surprising; what surprised many was the fact that Malayalam, Konkani and Tamil, three Indian languages, were among the top seven. As the Commission on the state of the Society worked hard to prepare a report on the lights and shadows of the Society, the regional and linguistic meetings have achieved the desired purpose of facilitating communication among the members and familiarising many with some of the main issues and themes that the Congregation will have to deal after the election.

There is a quiet sense of optimism and trust in the Lord that has called all of us. Laughter and bonhomie have accompanied the preliminary discussion on some important matters. The week ahead is probably the most crucial one for the future of the Society.

After discussing the resignation already submitted by Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, the members of the Congregation will enter four days of silence and prayer before the scheduled election to be held on Saturday 19th of January. Prayer will be accompanied by fasting. There were light-hearted comments when the Congregation was informed that during the four days of silence and prayer, only sandwiches would be served in the afternoon!

Fernando Franco SJ

Tower of Babel (here)

Link (here)