DR Congo: Uncompromising Reflection on Pitfalls and Challenges of Religious Life

The challenges of consecrated life today

His Eminence Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, on 01^st February, 2022 gave a conference to us as the Consecrated People in DRC. He reflected on the challenges that the consecrated people need to deal with before they turn into serious crises.  The following are some of them.

First, lack of Joyful participation in the common mission: he believes that there are some community members who lack the joy of participating in the common mission. As a result, we find in many communities, embittered, sad and unhappy members. These members always feel unloved and misunderstood. These are the cases of the people who want to be considered as eternal little children. According to him: “Religious life is not the place where people are infantilized. It is a place where we walk together as adults.”  Let us open the windows to the Holy Spirit to create a climate of joy in our communities.

Second, lack of appreciation for each other: according to Cardinal Ambongo, most of our community members hardly encourage and congratulate each or not at all. We are more inclined to negative criticism. If we learn to appreciate ourselves from within, we would feel safe. “The community is my family. The others are my brothers and my sisters. To avoid suspicion and the tendency to belittle others, to create a climate of joy, of trust, to arouse the feeling of belonging and to make the community a place of celebration and forgiveness, such is our task.”

Third, the spiritual crisis: this is a challenge which affects majority of religious people. He urged all of us to “be rooted in the Eucharist, source and summit of all Christian life, and be nourished by prayer (the liturgy of the hours) and various exercises of piety such as retreats, recollections, sessions of training, lectio divina, meditations, etc.”  As community members do we still value prayers? Or many of us are always out of our communities at the time of prayers. He said “a consecrated person who neglects the spiritual life is indeed like an uprooted plant, and therefore doomed to dryness. This disrupts his relationship not only with God, but also with his brothers/sisters. We thus settle into an identity crisis which touches the very root of the human vocation and which becomes the crisis of the negation of the other.”   

Fourth, the leadership war and the race for power. This is mostly seen while electing a superior or appointing a leader. Many leaders are “succumbing to the models of politicians, our elective chapters have become high places of divisions, tensions and low blows, which negatively influence the serenity of the whole community or congregation”.  He revealed that many consecrated people who would like to become leaders often “devote themselves to nocturnal campaigns, to corruption and even to the buying of consciences.”  Some people are being appointed or elected based on their personal relationships with leaders.

Last, mismanagement and abuse of power: poor management of dedicated personnel, the material and financial patrimony of congregation is another challenge. This can result into the loss of the sense of belonging to a congregation. The hearts of such members are full of selfishness and individualism. These people have very little concern for the protection of the common good. He urged the leaders not to appoint people to various responsibility based on their blind obedience or self-interest.

The cardinal concluded by calling up us to be authentic consecrated people.  We are all called to “to take up the challenge of making a difference in our society and of living as brothers and sisters, participating with joy and self-sacrifice in the life of our religious families and of our Church, which is a synodal and fraternal community.”

Patrick Lonkoy Bolengu, MHM