Consecrated persons from different realities of the Church delve into the topic at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum

“Free to love, is it possible to live the evangelical counsels in the world?” is the title of a meeting that took place on November 14th at the Pontifical Regina Apostolorum Athenaeum, in Rome, involving consecrated men and women from different realities of the Church to deepen this topic. Leading this research group are the consecrated women of Regnum Christi Mª José Chávez and Vero Fernández, and among their objectives is to develop research on the theological basis of consecration, considering both historical-cultural, psychosociological, and legal aspects, as well as the conditions in which the charismatic mission develops in the world for the renewal desired by the Second Vatican Council.

The event was inaugurated by Nancy Nohrden, General Director of the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi, and by Fr. Marcelo Bravo, LC, director of the Higher Institute of Religious Sciences of the APRA. Participants included prominent figures such as Don J.J. Pérez-Soba, from the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family in Rome, who spoke on “The vocation to love as the foundation of all states of life,” or Monsignor Martinelli, Auxiliary Bishop of Milan, on “The anthropological sense of the evangelical counsels in the world.”

Within the framework of a roundtable on “Unity and practice of the evangelical counsels in the life of consecrated laity,” Emilio Martínez Albesa, professor at the APRA and territorial director of the Consecrated Laity of Regnum Christi in Spain, participated. And in another on “Families and the experience of the evangelical counsels,” Carmen Fernández, a lay member of Regnum Christi in Spain and a professor at UNIR, took part.

Various lay realities participated in the event, such as Memores Domine (Communion and Liberation), Focolare, Canção Nova, Apostles of Inner Life, Sodalities, Marian Fraternity of Reconciliation, Verbum Dei… In total, 26 ecclesial realities, along with parishes and dioceses from Italy, France, and Mexico.

This day continued the line set by a previous congress held five years ago, titled “Sending in consecration. Lay consecration in the Church of the Third Millennium in the light of the Second Vatican Council.”