Letter of convocation of the XIV General Synod of the Congregation of the Passion

Dear brothers, women religious and laity of the Passionist Family, I send greetings to all of you on my part, and also on behalf of the members of the General Council who at this time are making canonical visitations in preparation for the celebration of various provincial chapters. My means of this letter and according to the norms of our Constitutions at numbers 144, 145 and 146, I am hereby convoking the XIV General Synod of the Congregation.

As was stated in Cuernavaca, Mexico, during the last Synod of 2008, the next Synod of 2010 will be celebrated in Rome at our Generalate of Sts. John and Paul during 21 -31 October 2010. The participants can begin arriving in Rome on Monday, 18 October in order to be able to celebrate together the solemnity of our Holy Founder, St. Paul of the Cross, the following day, Tuesday, 19 October. However, everyone must be present by Wednesday, 20 October because the Synod will begin on Thursday morning, the 21st, and will conclude on the morning of Sunday, 31 October. That same evening and during the following days everyone will be at liberty to depart.

The members of the Synod are those who participate “ex officio” at the General Chapter or their substitutes according to the Constitutions, No. 147. Therefore, these “ex officio” members are the General Curia, the Provincial and Vice-Provincial Superiors, as well as the Regional Vicars of those Vicariates that are comprised of at least twentyfive religious as of the date of the convocation of the Synod. Those Vicariates with at least twenty-five religious are as follows: CARLW-CORM (Kenya); RES-CORI (Peru); THOM-CRUC (India); VICT-DOL (Brazil); and DOMIN-PRAES (Brazil). 

Furthermore, since the main topic of the Synod will be that of Restructuring, the General Council decided that it would be opportune to invite the Coordinator of the CPA Configuration (Africa), Fr. Michael Owengo (MATAF) who is not an “ex-officio” participant. Additionally, for the same reason, the following Regional Vicars are also invited: GEMM-CORM (Tanzania); MATAF-PATR (Botswana/South Africa); and PAC-CORI (Puerto Rico/The Dominican Republic).

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