OUR LOVE FOR THE CHURCH INSPIRES US TO FULFIL OUR MISSION IN A PARTICULAR  RELATIONSHIP WITH THE BISHOPS (C6)

Posted on July 15, 2025 by franksantucci

Our love for the Church inspires us to fulfil our mission in communion with the pastors whom the Lord has given to his people; we accept loyally, with an enlightened faith, the guidance and teachings of the successors of Peter and the Apostles. (Constitution 6)

Writing to the Bishop of Quebec Eugene has one sentence in this regard:

They are essentially men of the bishops. It is with this in view that I have founded them and, thanks be to God, they are all imbued with this spirit that belongs to their Institute.

Letter to the Bishop of Quebec, 10 August 1843, EO I n 22

The phrase “they are men of the bishops” has been misused at times. It does not mean that Oblate missionaries are to be treated by the local bishop as diocesan priests. The second part of Eugene’s statement gives the key to understanding this assertion: “they are all imbued with this spirit that belongs to their Institute.” There is a specific charism and spirit that they contribute to the local diocese and with which they do their ministry. On several occasions, Eugene withdrew Oblates from a place or refused an invitation to take on a ministry because the specific aspect of being missionary preachers, in an apostolic community, to the “poor with their many faces” was absent.

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One Response to OUR LOVE FOR THE CHURCH INSPIRES US TO FULFIL OUR MISSION IN A PARTICULAR  RELATIONSHIP WITH THE BISHOPS (C6)

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate Associate says:
    July 15, 2025 at 13:30

    This morning I find myself reflecting on living in the enlightened faith of obedience, fidelity and the guidance and teachings of the successors of Peter and the Apostles.
    Constitution 6 reminds me of St. Eugene’s Icosia Affair in the 1830s before he was installed as a Bishop. It was in obedience to the Pope and Church hierarchy that he was silenced by the Church. (Al Hubenig, OMI: “St. Eugene de Mazenod – Living in the Spirit’s Fire” Rome 2004)

    What are the faces of the charism which has been shared with all of us, be we part of the Church hierarchy or simply ordinary lay members of the Oblate Charismatic Family? Have we not also have been imbued with this spirit in our lives?

    During the period Eugene’s “dark night of the soul” he was prepared by God to live his oblation in such a way that his love of God was honed to perfection – that is how he stood in the light of God’s salvation. We never know who else might be called to this specific way of being, be they Oblate Bishops, priests, religious and laity. We are all sons and daughters of St. Eugene and so are hopefully imbued with the same spirit of the saints/Saints who walk among us.

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