CONGREGATION FOR THE INSTITUTES OF CONSECRATED LIFE AND SOCIETIES OF APOSTOLIC LIFE

Vatican City, 20 January 2016

 Year of Consecrated Life: great conclusive event

More than 4000 consecrated men and women, belonging to various forms of Consecrated Life, are converging upon Rome form all parts of the world to take part in the great conclusive event of the Year of Consecrated Life, which will be held from January 28 till February 2, 2016. The title of the meeting is: Consecrated Life in Communion: the common foundation in the diversity of the forms. During the six-day meeting the participants will have meetings, prayer vigils, specific meetings to go in depth in each Form with a prophetic gaze toward the future.

The aims of the meeting are: to know better the great mosaic which makes up of Consecrated Life, to live communion through the discovery of the common calling in the various forms: Ordo Virginum, Monastic cloistered life, Religious Institutes of Apostolic Life, of Male Monastic Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Secular Institutes, New Institutes and New Forms of Consecrated Life); to start together the journey of the Holy Year of Mercy which, once again, entrusts to all consecrated persons the specific mandate of their vocation: to be the countenance of the Father’s mercy, witnesses and builders of an authentic lived-out fraternity.

The event kicks off with a Prayer Vigil on January 28; it will be presided by H.Ex. Mgr José Rodríguez Carballo, OFM, Archbishop Secretary CICLSAL. H.Em. Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, Prefect of CICLSAL will attend.

These are some details about the days that follow: January 29, all the consecrated men and women will gather in the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican. On January 30 and 31, they will be split according to the Form to which they belong to go in depth into some specific aspects of their proper vocation. They will be all together again on February 1 in the Paul VI Hall for an audience with Pope Francis and to enjoy the Oratorio “On Beauty’s Trail’, composed and directed by Mgr Marco Frisina.

The event will come to an end with a Holy Year pilgrimage on February 2, in the morning. Then, in the afternoon, at St Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis will concelebrate the concluding Eucharist which will also coincide with the XX World Day of Consecrated Life.

  PROGRAMME