17th General Chapter

Yesterday's post noted that the revision of the Constitutions was "brought to completion in the General Chapter of 1978."   This Chapter is more appropriately referred to as the "Seventeenth General Chapter," as it occurred in two sessions -- in July and August of 1977 (Session I) and in July and August of 1978 (Session II).  To inform the Sisters of Christian Charity throughout the world of the Chapter proceedings, General Chapter "Bulletins" were disseminated.  Excerpts of these are shared here:

On July 9, 1977, Father Mark Said, O.P., Professor of Canon Law and chairman of the Commission for the Revision of Canon Law for Religious, gave a conference to prepare the Sisters for their work of revision of the Constitutions:  "We have to go deep; we have to make a real excavation to get to the real core, the gem which is in our own Institute; the inspiration that is at the base of this structure.  Remember that this inspiration comes directly from the Holy Spirit, so that our Institute . . . is not merely a human thing; it is a way of following Christ especially for us as given to us by that holy person whom we call Foundress."

On August 1, 1977, Father Elio Gambari, M.M., an authority on Formation, gave a conference on "the important place Formation holds in the structure of a Community. . . . Father stressed very strongly the idea of "Ongoing Formation" as one of the prescriptions of the Council; the responsibility of each member of the Congregation to continually work at her spiritual and professional formation: theological, scriptural, liturgical, etc., through reading, renewals, retreats, workshops, etc. This is of basic importance for the growth in holiness for the individual as well as for the entire Congregation, and in consequence for becoming more genuine witnesses to Christ and more effective in the service of the Church."

Session I ended on August 15, 1977, but the Constitutions were still incomplete and remained that way until session II began in July 1978.

Session II of the Seventeenth General Chapter began on July 3, 1978, with a Mass celebrated by Bishop Andrea Pangrazio, whose homily "stressed the fact that the Chapter was a praying community, a community of love and an organ of responsibility."  The Sisters also reflected on Cardinal [Eduardo Francisco] Pironio's document on General Chapters in which he states, "A Chapter is always, by force of the Gospel, a call to conversion."

On July 17, 1978, Father Elio Gambari, M.M., offered the Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit prior to the election of the new Superior General.  [During the Chapter of 1966, Mother M. Augustilde had been elected, the first North American to hold the office of Superior General.  She was now at the end of her second six-year term in that ministry.]  In his homily, Father Gambari "stressed that what we were about to do (election) was not our work nor the results of our votes; it was the work of the Holy Spirit.  The election was not merely a juridical act, but a spiritual one. . . . The power given to the person elected does not come from us but from the Holy Spirit."  Following the Mass, Mother M.  Pierre Koesters -- a North American Sister who, at the time of her election was the Provincial Superior in the Uruguay-Argentina Province -- was elected as the ninth General Superior of the Congregation of the Sisters of Christian Charity.

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The Sisters of Christian Charity of the North American Eastern Province will hold our Provincial Chapter from February 14-18, 2019.  Please join us in praying the prayer for our Provincial Chapter.