The 2016 General Chapter began on July 4, 2016
The 2016 General Chapter of the Congregation of Holy Cross is now underway in Rome, Italy, having been officially called to order on Monday, July 4, by the Superior General, Fr. Richard V. Warner, C.S.C. The General Chapter, which meets ordinarily every six years, is the highest authority in the Congregation.
Although all General Chapters are important moments for the Congregation in its mission and life, the 2016 Chapter comes at a particularly critical moment in Holy Cross�s history. The 2010 General Chapter initiated a Congregational planning process to read the signs of the times and discern how best to carry out the Congregation�s charism and mission entrusted to it by its founder, Blessed Basile Moreau. That planning process has been completed and its results handed over to the General Chapter.
�I believe this is the most important and critical moment for us as a Congregation for the next thirty or forty years,� said Fr. Warner. �We are truly determining our preferred future after many thousands of hours at meetings of task forces, consultation with the members of the Council of the Congregation, and consultation with our membership. I hope we will all have come to Rome aware of the need for us to be open to the Spirit and to think and act from a Congregational perspective.�
According to the Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross, the Chapter �must discern and decide the largest issues of the common good and regulate relations between the societies and among the provinces. � It analyzes the state of our common life and mission, promotes and safeguards the heritage of the congregation, reviews and amends the statutes, issues decrees, recommendations and declarations, elects the superior general and the general assistants, and erects, divides or suppresses provinces� (VII, 99-100).
