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“The Kingdom of God is like a man who finds a pearl in a field. From this Gospel text, the Polish Sisters led us in morning prayer on this our third day. Afterwards, we worked in small groups to share our reflections on yesterday’s dialogue in order to deepen our understanding of the Unit Reports. We reflected using questions referring to what strengthens or threatens Solidarity, Life and Hope in our being Salvatorians and in our Salvatorian work. After this rich sharing within the diversity of the languages and cultures of the Chapter members, we went to the conversation between Fr. Libânio and the Salvatorian Units of Hungry, Poland, South Tyrol, Sri Lanka and Tanzania. The first topic that was broached was the positive and negative aspects perceived in communist societies, as lived in Poland and Hungary, and the transition to a neo-liberal, capitalist and western system. In another moment, the Sisters of Sri Lanka shared their experiences and the lessons they learned from the disaster of the Tsunami. The Sisters told of their solidarity with the victims of the Tsunami, who now suffer anew with the renewal of the civil war. Furthermore, analyses of the following subjects were carried out with these Units; -- the difference between cultural imposition and western forms of living Religious Life and the inculturation of the Christian faith, formation and Salvatorian Religious Life in the countries and cultures where we are present; -- the search for the meaning of life in modern societies that do not have consideration for the practice of the Christian faith; inter-religious dialogue among Christians, Moslems, Buddhists, Hindus and African religious traditions. During the afternoon, another block of Salvatorian Units dialogued with Fr. Libânio: Italy, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, England, the Holy Land, India, Malaysia and Taiwan, analyzing and deepening our understanding of the following themes: -- the phenomenon of the displacement of Christianism from the North to the South, from the First World where it first established itself to the Third and Fourth Worlds; --the emergence of minority and non-western cultures; --the differences between the western and eastern conceptualizations and their ways of relating to nature. Inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue in Asiatic countries like Taiwan, Pakistan, Malaysia and India was well reflected on, as well as the experiences of our Sisters living in these countries. Another subject that was well debated was how to live Reconciliation in countries that go through such difficult conflicts as in the Middle East. This topic was studied together with the Sister Delegates who live in this region, in the countries of Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Syria. Fr. Libânio specifically asked Sr. Damiana Zoczek to share how hope is lived out in the Congo, in the face of so much suffering for the Congolese people because of the constant wars. She spoke of the joy of the people and their will to overcome, as well as the potential of the youth and the richness of the country. Sr. Damiana only managed to arrive at the Chapter yesterday, and our Congolese Sisters have not yet received their visas to leave the Congo, because the political situation is very delicate at this time – but we are very hopeful that they will be able to arrive in Rome this week. The day was drawn to a close with the Eucharistic Celebration presided by Fr. Libânio. During the homily today, the Units of the Philippines and the United States presented their logos based on the theme of the Chapter.
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