Two participants of the course got caught in separate ‘ambush interviews’.  One was Fr. Shukrani Mbirigenda from Tanzania.  The other, a Filipino, who requested anonymity, is referred to here as Father A (for Anonymous).

The two Camillians coming from very different continents and cultures were one in saying that a lot of what they heard in the course was stuff they had tackled in their ‘student days’ and formation years.  Not entirely new, yet the inputs presented from different angles and heard again after years of lived experience as religious brought about the realization that one has forgotten much between ordination and the present.  They also generated paradigm shifts and the revival of desires to live the religious life with renewed fidelity.

Both Fr. A and Fr. Shukrani were asked the question “What impact did the Renewal Course make on you?”

For Fr. A the impact was twofold.  First the course was reviving in terms of community life for the Province.  He saw the importance of “being together” not just as social workers who are there only for the ministry but as witnesses struggling to be faithful to their prayer life and community life.  He also appreciated the highly meaningful bonding with confreres from other countries.

He found the talks on consecrated life and on community life particularly stimulating. He learned anew that religious life cannot be lived without the community dimension and that to nurture community life the members must accept conflict as an unavoidable part of communal living and they must share life, mission and faith – a sharing that is more than just skin deep.  He stressed that amidst conflicts, “the members must learn to accept one another as they are and must exercise fidelity to the community and to one another.”

Secondly, the statistical figure “0.012%” left a deep imprint on Fr. A.  The numbers represent the percentage of religious men and women in proportion to the laity.  For Fr. A, this information presented by one of the speakers showed clearly the importance of the laity and the fact that religious cannot live without the laity.

Still another idea that particularly caught Fr. A’s attention and broadened his awareness came in the form of a question posed by Fr. Guarise.  Alongside our ministry of caring for sick persons, Fr. Guarise brought up the ecological dimension and asked” “Are we also healing the world?”  Fr. A learned that some ways of contributing to this healing are recycling and eating natural food.

For Fr. Shukrani, the ideas about community life were similarly significant.  In particular, he (and Father A too) was impressed by the equation “friends + enemies = complete community.”  He felt challenged to take a closer look at himself and his community by the speaker’s statement that the absence of ‘enemies’ in the community may be an indication of merely superficial harmony in the community.

The renewal course also modified Fr. Shukrani’s concept of the ideal life.  “When I came here I carried with me the idea that most people have, which is that the purpose of life is to be happy,” he explained.  Through one of the resource persons, Fr. Shukrani realized anew that the goal is to find meaning in life, to find out why one is here because when the meaning becomes clear, happiness follows.  With a smile, he added that this is a helpful insight because when one finds meaning in the presence of an ‘enemy’ in the community, then one also finds happiness.