Superior of the Sodalitium visits the Sodalite Family’s projects in Guayaquil, Ecuador
Santiago de Guayaquil, 30/8/13 (Sodalite News – Ecuador). Alessandro Moroni, Superior General of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, was eager to see the recent developments of the different projects of the Sodalit Family in Guayaquil, Ecuador. He spent a little over a week getting to know the apostolic projects and dedicating time to the members of the Christian Life Movement.
On August 17, more than 400 members of the Christian Life Movement in Guayaquil, Ecuador, were present to hear the Sodalitium´s Superior give a talk entitled “The Unity in the Mission, Evangelical Horizons.” During the energetic discourse Alessandro encouraged the attendees to go out “to the existential and geographical peripheries.” He followed with the question, “and what are the peripheries? They are those places far from the center, those vital interior spaces where people live distant from the center of existence which is Jesus Christ. The Pope has told us: ‘Going out to the peripheries can sometimes bring problems, the Church could fall and injury itself, but I prefer an injured Church to a sick one.’” Alessandro added also that “to live unity and the evangelical horizon requires humility, which implies recognizing our fragilities and our sins; [it requires] trust in God, since it is He who works in our lives; and finally it requires us to take to heart what Pope Francis has asked of us: to go out to those peripheries.”
On Tuesday, August 20th, Alessandro was accompanied by the Vicar General of the Sodalitium, Fernando Vidal, along with the General Assistant of Financial Affairs, Carlos Neuenschwander, on a visit to the campus of HUMANE Business School and the international consulting firm known as HUMANE Consulting. Moroni greeted warmly many of HUMANE´s leaders while learning about the scope and future plans of both projects.
HUMANE Business School is a center of higher education inspired by Catholic ideals, in the light of the Sodalite Spirituality. HUMANE seeks to form professionals who will be leaders in the business world, and who promote integral human development and service to the common good. The mission of HUMANE Consulting is to help businesses orient their practices towards a respect for human dignity and promote the value of work as an instance for personal fulfillment.
On the same day Alessandro had the opportunity to converse with a group of professionals from CLM Ecuador at the Solidarity Action Foundation. Alessandro encouraged the CLM members to continue being “creative in the apostolate,” and to respond knowing that they are members of a spiritual family that strives to help all the areas of the person. He also added that as a spiritual family, “we have been capable of responding to the needs of the world today, but there are still areas in the culture, in reality, in the society that we are still not capable of responding to. The great richness which we find in our charism and spirituality allows us to have a vision of reality both wide and deep in its scope, and reminds us that our apostolic mission is universal. We ought to be capable of responding with creativity to the ever growing number of situations and circumstances that God presents us.”
On August 21st Alessandro made an official visit to the Solidarity Action Foundation. He was given a tour of the grounds by the Foundations Adjunct director, Francisco Garcia. Garcia enthusiastically depicted the diverse projects that the Foundation oversees. Alessandro´s visit included tours of the Saint James Education Center –a program that works to help eradicate child-labor, the Community Development Program – which works to promote corporate-social responsibility, and the Mobile Unit project which organizes women´s health campaigns and promotes job capacitation in poor and rural areas.
In a dialogue with members of the Foundation, Alessandro shared his experience of the visit and inspired them to, “continue living according to that which the name of the institution denotes: ‘Action in Solidarity,’ that is say, to act and work for a more equal society where each member seeks the betterment of those most in need. That is the spirit which this Foundation needs to breath.” In honor of Alessandro’s visit the children of the Foundation presented him with a painting of Saint James, the project´s Patron, while performing a series of typical dances from the Esmeraldean culture .
The Christian Life Movement was founded in Ecuador in 1996. In order to better accompany the Movement’s growth the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae founded a community in 2002. This initial community was was later followed by the consecrated women´s communities, the Marian Community of Reconciliation and the Servants of the Plan of God, in the following years. The Sodalit Family today has extended to include the Ecuadorean cities of Quito, Cuenca, and Manta among others.