CLC Charism

In the Hong Kong Assembly we evaluated our "way of being in the world", the means used to do that, while all the time trying to hear the call of the Lord in the various workshops.

From the conclusions of the Assembly we realised that for many of our members "neither the way of giving and receiving the Spiritual Exercises nor the Plans of Formation" were sufficiently helpful for us to be christians that are commited to the building of the Kingdom of God. The need for a clearer presentation of the vocation of the CLC lay member and their growth process was also felt. This clearer presentation would offer guidelines which would enrich the formation plans of the national communities and foster a greater unity in the World Community.

The ExCo’s response was to write a brief document called "Criteria for CLC Formation" put together by an International Team. This first draft was developed, enriched and added to in the light of the International Encounters that happened in Europe, Africa, Latin America and Australia between Jesuits and CLC members.

A supplement of PROGRESSIO (n. 45-46) was published in December 1996 to be used and tried out by the national communities as a working document in preparation for the World Assembly.

During 1997 the ExCo received comments and suggestions refering not only the more practical aspects of the document (length, style, clarification of the index etc) but also the subject matter of the same (Spiritual Exercises, vocational and apostolic discernment, mission etc).

With these recommendations, the ExCo entrusted a team of Jesuits and lay people with the task of revising the document. Now it is offered again to the World Community as a valid expression of the Ignatian charism that characterizes us.

This offering will be presented in the celebration of the Eucharist as a gift from the Holy Spirit. It is a gift received through the work of many CLC members in their national communities and in their participation in the aforementioned International Encounters.

This gift that we have received will be further enriched as it comes through the Plans of Formation and the experience of each national community, which expresses of course the rich diversity of the World Community. For this reason it seemed opportune to keep the text as a working document.

This document needs to be understood not so much as a reflexion of the diversity of the lived experiences in the plurality of the World Community, nor even as a CLC pocket manual, but rather as a document that will throw light on the application of Ignatian spirituality to the lay charism. It is therefore a dense document that needs to be developed and incorporated into the national communities’ Plans of Formation, their encounters and their retreats etc. And so it is mainly to be used by the guides, assistants and other people responsible for CLC formation.

The revision of the second part of the PROGRESSIO supplement has already begun. However, because of the increased expectations and the demands expressed by the different national communities, the current ExCo will ask the new ExCo either to work with the text or nominate a commission to develop and complete it. It would then be submitted to the World Community as an instrument that can be used to help the growth of the national communities.