Fr Prakash Menezes SVD, parish priest in Alice Springs, will have a good understanding of the Instrumentum Laboris, or working document, of the upcoming SVD General Chapter when he arrives in Rome next month, having been part of the international commission which prepared it.
Fr Prakash was selected to be a member of the 2nd International Preparatory Commission which met in Rome in April.
The 19th SVD General Chapter will be held in Nemi, outside of Rome, in June-July, with the theme: “Your light must shine before others: Faithful and creative disciples in a wounded world.”
The Australia Province will be represented by Fr Prakash and Provincial, Fr Asaeli Rass SVD.
In the lead-up to the General Chapter, each SVD province and mission around the world was asked to reflect on a range of questions on various aspects of the Chapter theme and provide responses within their own local missionary context.
Fr Prakash said that being a part of the 2nd International Preparatory Commission was an interesting and challenging experience.
“The Commission was called to put together the reflections that were asked for from the 1st International Preparatory Commission from around the SVD world,” he said.
“This included reflections from SVD confreres, as well as seminarians and lay partners.
“We were asked to read all the reports and reflections from around the world and bring them together to create the Instrumentum Laboris for the General Chapter.”
The Commission, made up of representatives from each of the four SVD global zones, looked at close to 80 reports, amounting to more than 400 pages.
Before getting down to the work, the Commission members enjoyed a day out together, getting to know one another.
“We were from all different parts of the world, but we worked mostly in the English language. The commonality was that we were all SVD members, so that brought us together,” Fr Prakash said.
Once they got down to the work at hand, the Commission spent the first two days looking at the points of commonality in the reports.
“We were looking for common themes that stood out,” Fr Prakash said. “We also had to take note of issues that were mentioned by fewer voices, but there was still a need to respect and hear those voices.
“From there, we ended up with a long document and on the third day we formulated a table of contents based on what we had gleaned from the reports.”
Fr Prakash said three main areas emerged which will form the basis of the Instrumentum Laboris: Woundedness; Our Light Must Shine; and Becoming Faithful and Creative Missionaries.
On the fourth day, the group broke into three groups to look closely at each chapter.
“That’s when we started to put the content in, based on the reports we’d read, which took us a whole day and then the next day we took our topics back to the facilitator for a brainstorming session, where we asked questions like, ‘Is it desirable?’, ‘Have we missed anything?’ and we went through it line by line,” he said.
“The following day we did some rewriting and then it went back to the facilitator and finally, we got the document that evening.”
That document was then presented to the SVD General Council.
“It was a massive effort. We reduced the reports from 400 pages to a document of 20 pages,” Fr Prakash said.
“This was a different process to what had happened for previous General Chapters, based on Pope Francis’ synodal method.
“The Chapter Delegates, when they gather in Nemi, will have to work through the document and then write it again, as was done for the Synod on Synodality, so it’s a document which is alive in that sense.
“Extensive work has been done before the opening of the Chapter to listen to every voice possible. It’s about listening to the Spirit and listening to every voice and I think this Chapter is going to be quite different to other Chapters in that sense.”
Fr Prakash said that being a part of the Preparatory Commission was an experience to remember, especially as it was his first visit to Rome.
“First of all, it was exhausting,” he said. “And I’m not great with words, so it was challenging too.
“On the other hand, it has given me a picture of the worldwide situation and also given me hope and a resolve that definitely as SVDs, our God-given light must shine and that faithfulness to our missionary vocation will help address the many needs in each of the different places.
“Visiting Rome and being a part of this work was an experience in itself and I’m looking forward to seeing how the Chapter unfolds.”
PHOTOS
TOP RIGHT: Members of the 2nd International Preparatory Commission for the SVD 19th General Chapter on a get-to-know-you day out in Rome.
MIDDLE LEFT: The Commission working as a group on preparing the Instrumentum Laboris for the Chapter.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Fr Prakash Menezes SVD is pictured working in a small group.
BOTTOM LEFT: Fr Prakash, 3rd from left, is pictured with Commission members and Superior-General, Fr Budi Kleden SVD at the celebration of the Eucharist.