Casa D’Esercizi Spirituali dei Passionisti, Rome, Italy 24th – 27th January, 2018
Communion and co-responsibility – celebrating and transmitting the joy of communion and co-responsibility
The 5th Ordinary General Assembly of the Union of Catholic Apostolate took place from January 23rd to 27th 2018, at the Retreat Centre of the Passionist Community in Rome. We were 39 participants: Members of the GCC, Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the National Coordination Councils, 2 representatives of NCC Presidents, the General Secretary and secretarial assistant, the General Bursar, the 3 invited members, the moderators, translators and secretaries.
Fr. David Kinnear Glenday, MCCJ, Rector General Emeritus of the Comboni Missionaries and General Secretary of the Union of Superiors General (USG), the guest speaker invited to enlighten our sharing, provided us with a very incisive reflection which opened our reciprocal dialogue. His starting point was from chapter 10 of St. Luke’s Gospel and he drew a comparison between the work of our Assembly and the dialogue between Jesus and the 72 disciples on their joyful return following the mission Jesus had entrusted to them.
Fr. David invited us to live with intense and justified joy the real life of the Union; his presentation centred on 5 verbs which characterised the life of our Assembly – they were: to remember – our own personal story as disciples; to discern – from what moved us; to desire – the good that is coming to birth in us; to serve – to serve the joy of the People of God in going out, as Jesus did; and, to console – all those we meet in our apostolic mission.
Five verbs, five stepping stones, on which we trod and on which we can continue to journey with confidence. We looked closely at some of the different aspects of the Union which were chosen by the GCC, they were: formation, finance and evangelisation, and this was done in a sincere and open manner, as we sought to move towards a greater harmony in the life of the Union: it is our hope that the fruits of our discussion will lead to incisive action by the new General Coordination Council and by the National Coordination Councils, because, as Fr. David Glenday, pointed out to us – “the first step in co- responsibility is to experiment with courage and humility.”
The Members of the 5th Ordinary UAC General Assembly 2018
Comboni Missionaries 
One would hope too see David Glenday give a talk to the Abuse Panel at some stage in the future. There would be a few good questions they could ask him about the Comboni Missionaries and their abuse procedures when he was in charge.