EXPERIENCES THAT INVITE US TO ARTICULATE-US

From Puerto Maldonado and by this means, I want to look at all the countries where we Dominican Missionary Sisters are present, to approach all the Communities and meet all the sisters to greet them with sororal affection.

There is a magic word that we hear in different meetings, we read it in documents and articles, and I am sure that it is becoming universal: it is the word ARTICULAR.

This is what I want to share with you, the experience of joining the “Mesa de Concertación para la Lucha contra la Pobreza” (MCLCP) or the so-called Fight against Poverty. Space and place of meeting, relation and search between the instances of the State and the Civil Society, to reach an articulated CONCERT on the social, economic, environmental and institutional aspects, after which in a consensual way the Agreements of Governance were elaborated that had to be orienting for the policies of the Regional Government and supervised in their fulfillment by the Civil Society.

When I arrived in Maldonado I found the Community participating in the meetings of the Committee on Agreements and I joined the sisters. Later I was elected as coordinator of the Technical Team and of the Regional Executive Committee of the Board. I knew it was not a Church group and I did not feel so comfortable, but in the 6 years of this service, I understood, not without difficulty and especially in practice, the importance and meaning of the presence of a Missionary Sister in this type of social organization. I carefully took care of the institutional climate and since the Church was a socially credible institution in Maldonado, I was able to encourage respect and the practice of human values, which were evangelical and Christian, through constant presence, punctual interventions and the commitments of coordination.

Now when I write this, the message of Pope Francis in his main documents addressed to the Universal Church comes insistently to my mind, insisting that “EVERYTHING IS INTERCONNECTED”.  Yes, also the presence of the Church is and if it is not, it must be connected to other forces and institutions so that in an interconnected way, that is to say articulated, they seek together the common good. In the end, the values of the Kingdom of God are present in the life of a people and its relationships.