“Charisma and formation: Allamano and the formation today” was the theme presented by the Postulator of the Consolata Missionary Institute, Fr. Giacomo Mazzotti, at the ongoing formation course for formators in Rome on Wednesday 5th September 2024. The course gathered from 2 to 17 September at the IMC General House, 13 formators from Africa, Europe and Latin America and is promoted by the General Secretariat for Formation.
By Josephat Mwanake *
At beginning, Fr. Ernesto Viscardi, one of the coordinators, introduced Fr. Giacomo “as an ardent and passionate missionary who has consumed his missionary zeal in serving the people of DR Congo, serving the Institute as the director of the magazine ‘Amico’ and the community of Porta Pia in Nomentana, Rome”. In 2018, he assumed the Postulation Office at the General House and since then he has been pursuing the cause of canonization of Blessed Joseph Allamano, the Founder of Consolata Missionaries.
Fr. Giacomo centered his reflections around the following themes: “The Founder as a formator, educator and Father of the missionaries; three principles that guided and characterized Allamano’s formation; the virtues embedded and underlined in these principles and the instruments of the transmission of Founder’s spirituality in our formation houses today”.
“Allamano passed all his years as a formator and educator of priests in charge of their spiritual direction but also as a director of the “Convitto Ecclesiastico” a School where he provided formation for the young priests”, said Fr. Giacomo and pointed out that “in renewing the Sanctuary of Consolata, Allamano renewed the Centre of spirituality of the city of Torino. The sanctuary of Consolata became the Centre of Marian Spiritual formation, where Allamano also received an inspiration to form priests for the missions”.
According to Fr. Giacomo, “Allamano never abandoned this inspiration and dream to become formator and educator of missionaries since later his dream became reality when he founded our missionary Institute”.
This aspect of the Founder as a formator and educator of the clergy is well evidenced in the literatures that have been published about Allamano especially by the Frs. Gottardo Pasqualetti (Pedagogia del Fondatore), Mario Bianchi (Fondatore come il formatore), Francesco Pavese (formazione al Carisma dell’Istituto) and Lorenzo Sales.
Fr. Giacomo insisted that the Founder “never understood formation as a way of filling an empty container but a way of helping his formees to take out their strengths and potentialities and re-orienting them in the right direction. Allamano was informed by the situations and realities around the candidates”. In this sense, the Postulator urged the formators “to always ensure that they know well the circumstances, situations and reality of each of their formees just as Allamano did”.
Concerning the fundamental principles that characterized Allamano’s formation, Fr. Giacomo outlined three of them: “Attention at the reality of the students; attention at each student or candidates in person and lastly but not least, the presence. Allamano was very sensible to the environmental background and circumstances in which each formee was coming from”, said Fr. Giacomo and reminded that the Founder “was attentive to this environmental background since they define and condition us”.
By knowing their environmental background, “Allamano wanted to adapt the laws and principles of formation within the context of each missionary so that each one of them would be guided to reach the finality of formation which is the holiness of life: first saints and then missionaries”.
Regarding the attention to each candidate in person, Fr. Giacomo explain that “the Founder understood well that each person is unique and has his own unique needs which should be looked at personal level without generalizing. He paid attention to each missionary so that he may help him overcome his weaknesses, correct him and help to reach the ideal of his vocation. He wanted to be near to each so that he may discover the capacity of each and everyone and help them exploit and develop these capacities for the ideal objective of the mission. This is how he how showed his paternity to them”, concluded Fr. Mazzotti.
On the third, principle, Fr. Giacomo said that though Allamano was not staying together with his formees in the ‘Consolatina’ which was the first formation house where the pioneers of the Institute were formed but he was ever present to them through his conferences. “He was present in their lives to ensure that each had a clear and distinct identity of the community and the Institute. Each missionary should have in his heart the real identity of the Institute as defined by the charism and spirituality of the Founder”.
Fr. Giacomo pointed out that these three principles underline the virtue of quality, clear and distinct identity and missionary zeal. “Allamano never looked for numbers but the quality of his missionary”. He quoted Allamano saying that “the door of entrance in the Institute is narrow but that of exit is wide”. Allamano wanted his missionaries to have clear and distinct missionary identity, ardent desire and zeal for the mission and missionary activity”.
The Postulator concluded his speech by presenting two useful tools to be used by IMC formators to transmit the Founder’s spirit. And they are the two volumes, already translated into the main languages of the Institute: (Così vi voglio) ‘This I want you to be’ edited by Father Francesco Pavese and Sister Angeles Mantineo (a ‘re-edition’, updated, current and… clear of the Spiritual Life; and then ‘Letters to the missionaries and missionaries of the Consolata’, by Father Igino Tubaldo: a volume whose pedagogical and formative value has been ‘rediscovered and illustrated’ by Father Antonio Bellagamba.
Two valuable working tools that should definitely not be missing from every IMC and MC trainer’s library.
* Father Josephat Mwanake, IMC, Porta Pia Formative Community in Rome.
