Anthony Lim, cicm
General Councilor
"The new context in which we work and live calls for a comprehensive and well-designed program of ongoing formation to sustain our initial formation. ...ongoing formation cannot be viewed as a medley of isolated tasks. Sessions, workshops, lectures, and reading are important. Yet one should never lose sight of the fact that it is really an ongoing process of integrated growth into relationships. For us missionaries, the relationship with God is essential. We are his messengers! We cannot be genuine missionaries if we neglect the relationship with the One who sends us." (GGOF, p.14)
The above text from the General Guidelines of Ongoing Formation clarifies the intention and the objective of Ongoing Formation in CICM. Ongoing Formation is a process of building our relationship with God and strengthening our commitment as CICM religious missionaries. As a Congregation, there is a growing awareness of the importance and the need for ongoing formation to face the rapidly changing world with all its implications on religion, Church, politics, and society.
Changes in the World
What are the significant changes in the world today? Since the 1990s, institutions such as churches, universities, enterprises, trade unions, and traditional and new professions, which gave people their identity, have gradually declined. Being a member of such institutions gave people their identity and defined their appropriate conduct with their wisdom and history. This is gradually breaking down. There is a new, simpler model of society where we are increasingly part of the global buying and selling market. Market forces are replacing traditional institutions. From football to financial banking, people with skills and capacities moved from their native countries to the global centers that hire them.
Social and economic changes in the world are moving people from the villages to the cities. Educated in Science, Mathematics, Economics, Informatics, Music, and the Arts, young people move into the cities to take up jobs in Financial Centers, Industries, Hospitals, Universities, Government Offices, and Media. This results in an increasing number of city dwellers and dwindling rural villages.
The development of medical sciences enabled the demographic boom due to increased life expectancy and growing birth rates in poorer countries. We are living in an increasingly crowded world. Therefore, we must learn how to live in solidarity in a densely populated world with a new scientific and technological environment.
The world is becoming more interdependent. Events happening in one part of the world affect others in another part. Information is transmitted in an instant, and videos are circulated globally. Global communication networks dominate the world, and withholding information is becoming increasingly difficult. An increase in taxes in one country could affect the international market.
Modernity and secularization are creating a crisis in institutionalized religion. Growing mobility, individualism, and competition draw people away from institutional control and dogmatic certainties.
In the light of the rapid changes in the world, missionaries need to continue their study of "things divine and human" in order to "enter with greater advantage into dialogue with their contemporaries". (Presbyterorum Ordinis, 19) In other words, ongoing formation is needed for all CICM missionaries to respond and minister to people affected by these changes in the world. It is also needed for the CICM missionary affected by these changes to have a greater self-awareness and growth in his identity as CICM and God's messenger.
Structures of Ongoing Formation in CICM
The primary responsibility for the ongoing formation lies with each one of us. Unless we acknowledge and accept that we need ongoing formation, we will always have the excuse that we do not have time to join ongoing formation sessions, recollections, and retreats organized by CICM or the diocese. We will always be too busy with our mission work. Therefore, starting from our personal responsibility and conversion in our attitude towards the ongoing formation, we can propose and enter into dialogue with our Superiors to take a sabbatical program, participate in available ongoing formation programs, join CICM-organized ongoing formation sessions, and take up spiritual reading. Regular reading on spirituality, documents of the Church, magazines, and periodicals can strengthen our commitment to God and expand our knowledge of theology and spirituality.
Another level of the structure of Ongoing Formation is that of the CICM Province. It is recommended that every Province have a Provincial Committee for Ongoing Formation (PCOF). The PCOF can help the Province to foresee, plan and organize Ongoing Formation for the members in the Province. Ongoing Formation Sessions must be planned ahead of time so that members can arrange their schedules to participate in these sessions. The PCOF can also assess and plan ongoing formation sessions for a particular group of confreres by age groups, by types of ministries, or according to territorial regions/districts. The role of the PCOF is important because provincial initiatives on ongoing formation begin with it. In CICM Provinces with no PCOF, ongoing formation is often neglected since it can come from a perspective that it is unnecessary. When the Province does not see the need for ongoing formation, it will not set aside funds or make a budget. Expenses incurred on ongoing formation programs are not a "waste of resources."
On the level of the GG, during each term of the General Government, the GG organizes an Ongoing Formation Session for all confreres who have been in active ministry for 5 - 10 years. The current GG is preparing these English and French sessions for those who have completed IF from 2015 to 2019. These Ongoing Formation Sessions will take place in 2027. We encourage all confreres participating in these sessions to make themselves available for these sessions in 2027. The GG is also studying the possibility of holding ongoing formation sessions for those who celebrate their Silver Jubilee, the 25th Anniversary of their Sacerdotal Ordination, or their Perpetual Profession. The GG wants to emphasize the importance and need for Ongoing Formation within our Congregation.
Conclusion: Formation is a Life-long Process.
All of us who have completed Initial Formation move immediately into the phase of Ongoing Formation. The world is rapidly changing, and we need to keep growing. Our GGOF gives the rationale for the need for Ongoing Formation when it says:
John Paul II is quite explicit on this: "Consequently, it will be very important for every institute to provide as part of its ratio institutionis a precise and systematic description of its plan of continuing formation. The chief purpose of this plan is to provide all consecrated persons with a program which encompasses their whole life. Nobody is exempt from the obligation to grow humanly and as religious; likewise, no one can be overconfident as to live in self-sufficient isolation. At no stage of life can people feel so secure and committed that they do not need to give careful attention to ensuring perseverance in faithfulness; just as there is no age at which a person has completely achieved maturity." (GGOF, p.18)
