TRAINING PROGRAMFOR SISTERS ENGAGED IN PASTORAL MINISTRY IN ITALY
From September 28 to 30, we spent three days in Albano Laziale dedicated to reflection, listening, and training regarding pastoral ministry.
Guiding our time together was a central theme proposed by Father Ivo Seghedoni, who for four years has offered us his invaluable, wise, and patient contribution and guidance.
The theme of these three days was the Paschal Mystery within one’s own pastoral vocation. It was a theme that required us—more than on other occasions—to fully engage and to bring to the surface those "emotions" which, far more than mere "concepts," have the power to leave a mark on us and guide our lives.
We began with a provocative question, prompted by a reading that sparked discussion: Are we a Church playing defense or offense?
It is a metaphor that deeply challenges our pastoral mindsets. Playing "defense" often means yielding to the temptation of fear: hunkering down to preserve structures, defending the dwindling numbers that remain, and clinging to the reassuring "we’ve always done it this way" in order to shield ourselves from the adversities of a complex, secularized society.
When a community retreats into a defensive stance, it risks becoming an impregnable fortress—a mere container where members console one another, yet risk excluding rather than including.
Playing "offense"—in the spirit of the Gospel—means taking the initiative, stepping out of reassuring enclosures, inhabiting the "peripheries," and seeking out the human element wherever it may be hidden, all while humbly listening.
In light of the Paschal Mystery, we recognize that Jesus transcended both categories by choosing to surrender Himself. Easter teaches us the path of the grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies in order to bear fruit.
This pastoral insight was further enriched during the following day’s work, when we were invited to delve deeply into the story of our own vocations.
Each of us sketched a personal map of the apostolic “homes” where we have lived and continue to live.
Sharing the stories of these experiences with our sisters was a deeply moving moment of great spiritual intensity. In those “homes,” we saw our entire lives reflected—the joys and hopes, the struggles and sorrows of our personal, human, and spiritual journeys.
What struck us most in these accounts was the “Grace” each of us contemplated and recognized in the presence of God the Shepherd—the One who walks the path with us, guiding and faithfully guarding our every step.
To crown and illuminate these reflections, that afternoon we watched Terrence Malick’s film A Hidden Life (2019). This intense and profound work tells the true story of Blessed Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian farmer who chose to say a radical, silent "no" to Nazism and Hitler, paying for his fidelity to his conscience and the Gospel with his martyrdom.
The film deeply engaged us, speaking directly to the question that had prompted our journey. Franz and his wife Franziska do not play "on the offensive"—at least not in the flashy, media-driven sense of the term; theirs is a silent resistance, a daily faithfulness lived out amidst the fields, mutual love, and prayer. They do not seek martyrdom out of a desire for heroism, yet they do not protect themselves by compromising simply to save their own skins.
It is the hidden life that changes history. As George Eliot writes in the quote that concludes the film: "The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited graves."
The greatest message we carry in our hearts concerns our approach to pastoral ministry.
A pastoral ministry imbued with the Paschal mystery calls upon us to adopt the style of the Incarnation and of Easter.
It is a style grounded in listening to the Word of God—a Word that guides our steps and helps us reinterpret our charism so that, while remaining faithful to the mandate we have received, we may succeed in proclaiming and offering Jesus Christ to the people of today.
Piera Cori
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