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Madrid, 8th May, 2007 (CNA) - The secretary
for the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of
Apostolic Life, Archbishop Agostino Gardin, OFM Conv., said this week
religious life in Europe “is currently facing unprepared for difficulties.”
In an interview published in the latest issue of CONFER and summarized by
the IVICON news agency, Archbishop Gardin said, “In the search for what is
essential, we religious should discover what it means to be truly
Christian.”
Archbishop Gardin, who was also Superior General of the Conventual
Franciscans, pointed out as well that the problem of “de-Christianization”
that is plaguing the European continent is having grave repercussions for
religious life, with “a strong decline in the number of vocations, together
with the increasing aging of religious.”
He noted the danger that these problems “monopolize all of the energies of
religious institutes, making it more difficult to carry out a renewal and
adaptation to the signs of the times.”
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