The Fides Agency, of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples of the Holy See, has published a Dossier which includes an interview with Luis Fernando Figari, Founder of the Sodalit Family. The publication has been released in Italian, Spanish and English by the news agency.
The following is the interview made by the Vatican agency.
• Could you explain this new ecclesial reality known as the Sodalit Family?
The Sodalit Family arose around the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, an institution which after a process of ecclesial maturation and discernment of its Canonic form was approved by Servant of God, John Paul II, on July 8th, 1997 as a Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right. From its beginnings in 1971, the Sodalitium arose in the trough of the Second Vatican Council. The Sodalitium was fascinated by the conciliar diffusion of the layperson and his mission as a baptized person. The inspiration of the Christian community of the Apostolic Era moves us to build communities of Christian life in the world within which the different states of life and vocational characteristics exist in a living harmony. The idea of cooperation between laymen and priests supporting one another mutually to serve the mission of the Church arose from an impulse to commit fully to the renewal of Christian life and to the transformation of the world according to the Plan of God. Since the 70s, various groups and associations have grown out of the Sodalitium that, though living the same charism, are distinct from one another. This, for example, is how the Christian Life Movement was born in 1985 and later on in 1994 received the Pontifical recognition. There are two associations of consecrated women that are oriented to be Societies of Apostolic Life. There exist other associations, organizations of solidarity and cultural service through which thousands of people personally participate in the Sodalit spirituality and identify themselves with this spiritual family. The most widespread and most numerous of them, already reaching five continents with a membership in the tens of thousands, is the Christian Life Movement. All of these ecclesial realities are included in the Sodalit Family.
• Is it common that a layman be the founder of an Ecclesial Movement that includes priests, religious and consecrated laymen?
In fact it's not that strange. Think of St. Francis of Assisi, who upon founding was a layman. We can also recall the layman John Ciudad Duarte, more widely known as St. John of God, founder of the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God, comprised of laymen and priests. Likewise we can remember Conception Cabrera de Armida, foundress of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit. There have been more than a few laymen that the Lord has invited to found forms of associated life in the Church. This can be seen in our own times in Pierre Goursat, Chiara Lubic, Kiko Arguello, Jean Vanier and others in the line of movements and new associations. All of them are lay. I think that it speaks of a charism as an unbounded blessing that God gives and the person receives. By responding to such a charism from his/her freedom a person is converted, by pure gift, into a founder or initiator of an Ecclesial Movement, a Society of Apostolic Life, a Congregation or more than one.
• What moved you to found a Society of Apostolic Life, an Ecclesial Movement, and two Societies of consecrated women?
Let's get right to the answer: God! Yes, it is precisely Him that awakened in me a process of searching for the meaning of my own life and also the awareness that it was extremely urgent to build a more just society, one more respectful of human dignity and rights, one more fraternal and peaceful. It was an intense process, illuminated by faith, that became life and led me to the deep conviction that the key to all change is within the human being. At the same time, there appeared the certainty that the only force that can produce this change in the person is faith. The grace of God and the aid of Holy Mary enliven an inner ardor, a living fire that sometimes I describe as fed by the oil of the Holy Spirit, that continues leading me to interiorize this horizon and turn it into action. That's how the idea was born to join with other people for the great dream to live the reconciliation brought by Jesus and to become servants of the Word, announcing to all that the mirages and false substitutes that so abound are not the solution, but that the solution can only be found in the Lord Jesus. Thus the circumstances presented themselves as conditions for living a Christian Life and for radiating the faith to a world that is changing so rapidly that it seems to have lost its course. More than some clear plans, the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae grew and took shape by the breath of the Holy Spirit. Reflecting upon the fruits from the first years, it was clear that there was a disproportion between them and the poor clay jar that saw itself urged to undertake such a great commitment. Precisely in this way the light of God shined more clearly showing that these fruits and all that was happening came from Him. From the beginning the closeness and accompaniment of various Successors of the Apostles were reason for greater ardor in the commitment to adhere to the faith, bring it to the heart and give it shape in action, cooperating with the loving grace that the Spirit pours into hearts, searching in everything to respond to the divine Plan. Today with immense gratitude to God the "least" Sodalitium is serving the mission of the Church in numerous countries.
The Christian Life Movement was born on the heels of an intense spiritual experience had in Rome on the occasion of the Youth Jubilee in 1984. I perceived an interior impulse that brought me to the conviction that in order to guide this family which had begun to form around the Sodalitium, an Ecclesial Movement would be wonderful - if it was God's Plan. After a process of prayer and discernment the Christian Life Movement was born in 1985.
The two foundations of female consecrated life had to wait, like everything, for the rhythm of God. That, after all, is what it's all about, since the initiative always comes from Him. The first attempt at female consecrated life was in 1975, but it didn't work out. After a prayer and discernment processes, which lasted some years, the Marian Community of Reconciliation was born. This Community for consecrated women was approved in the Archdiocese of Lima in 1991. Then, in face of new signs, the Servants of the Plan of God were born and approved at the Archdiocesan level in 1998. Both have been growing consistently, which leads me to exclaim with a grateful heart: Praised be Jesus Christ!
• In a short time the Movement has extended throughout the world, especially in Latin America. To what do you attribute its growth?
I believe that there is a great hunger for God that must be attended to. Today we live a painful crisis of identity as children of the Church. Only a short while ago Pope Benedict XVI had shown on Latin American soil the existence of a certain weakening in the affiliation to the Church. Some twenty years ago, in Peru, the Servant of God John Paul II had warned of something similar, as he had done in other places. There are many socio-cultural factors that demand a greater coherence in the knowledge of the faith, in the life of the faith, and in the celebration of the faith.
At the same time the existential adherence to Jesus, to his teachings, and to love of the Church go together with the concern to build a more just, fraternal and reconciled society, from the only perspective that can make it possible - the reconciliation with God and with oneself. Only from this dimension will a change be generated that, centered in love and solidarity, carries a reconciling dynamism that constructs a more just and peaceful world. This vision and commitment are part of the worldview and action of the members of the Christian Life Movement.
This perspective directed to the whole human being is rooted in the life of the Movement, but I don't think its growth can be attributed to it, nor to the pedagogical method with which the itinerary of faith is lived, nor to the sense of communion and brotherhood, but perhaps to the invitation made to each person, that he take responsibility for his own freedom according to his dignity as a human person. Perhaps there is a key there? In hearts so disposed, the loving grace that the Spirit pours out finds an effective cooperation. Ultimately all goodness, everything good, comes from God.
