There are many different elements in the Dehonian Family: the S.C.J. Religious, the Sisters “Servants” of the Sacred Heart, the Missionary Companies and people consecrated in the secular life, the Dehonian Laity and groups of voluntary workers, etc. I had never thought that there were also DEHONIAN BISHOPS. They made their presence felt recently with the meeting “S.C.J. Bishops of Portuguese/Spanish Language”. It took place 26-29 July, 1999. There were ten participants. The Superior General, in a letter of greeting, hoped that “the meeting may serve to keep and strengthen links with the Congregation and nurture the spirituality of the Heart of Jesus, in which you were generated as religious presbyters and bishops”.

“We are and we will always be Dehonians,” replied the Bishops. “We do not want to forget our origins, nor lose our specific values. We love the Congregation. Dehonian spirituality illuminates our mission and gives a new meaning to our ministry... The people of God must be aware of the fact that we are Bishops of the Heart of Jesus”.

In his letter calling his brother bishops to the meeting, Dom Murilo Krieger, S.C.J., Archbishop of Marignà wrote: “We are S.C.J., we are bishops, we have a lot to learn from each other”. He then invited them to share fraternally how they live the Dehonian charism as bishops, how they face the problems, what are their individual plans, hopes, dreams... From the replies to these questions there resulted a wide and evocative panorama. We present below only a few reflections related to “S.C.J. spirituality”.

“The motto Scio cui credidi”, writes dom De Andrade, Auxiliary Bishop of San Luìs del Maranhào, “is my program of life. S.C.J. formation was excellent for my present mission... The spirituality of the Congregation continues to be like a second nature to me”.

At Paranatinga (Mato Grosso) dom Chitolina is Bishop. To the question “How does one live S.C.J. spirituality?” he replied: “One lives, and that’s enough”. Paranatinga “is an abandoned town... No public transport reaches it, neither daily nor weekly... It has 16,000 inhabitants and 25 brothels... The population lacks everything... With these people God cannot fail to be merciful... Here only the pastor can reach the people’s heart, provided he is a pastor according to the merciful heart of God”.

The reflection of dom José Nelson Westrupp, S.C.J. Bishop of San José dos Campos (San Paolo) is broad and motivated: “I live my S.C.J. spirituality”, he writes, “by performing every day my Act of oblation, in which I include all the preoccupations of the day. I try to transform the ecce venio and the ecce ancilla into action, into lived life, all in a spirit of love and oblation, in an attitude of availability and solidarity... Availability and solidarity united to mercy are my rule of life”. To the question: “Keeping in mind the mystery of the Heart of Jesus, what response can one give to the challenges of the world, of the church and of the dioceses?”, he replies: “Being a prophet of love and hope, the diocesan bishop feels called to respond to them through his charism”. And, rereading John Paul II’s message to the pilgrims gathered in the sanctuary of Paray-le-Monial, he says that he finds in it “a message which is valid also for those who desire to be a minister according to the Heart of Christ”. And he concludes by quoting the Pope in Warsaw on the centenary of the consecration of the world to the Heart of Jesus when he said “The man of the year 2000 needs the Heart of Jesus in order to know God and to know himself, he needs it to build a civilization of love”.

Faced with the grave problems of his diocese, dom Carmo J. Rhoden scj, Bishop of Taubaté, confirms without hesitation the validity and the relevance to the presence of S.C.J. spirituality. “I live the S.C.J. spirituality”, he writes, “working at being merciful, without allowing ‘prophetism’ to come into the picture. I consider the Dehonian spirituality, one of the many forms of spirituality of the Heart of Jesus, to be existential, attractive and consistent.

“Existential: it is a beautiful summing up of life. Love with the Heart of Christ, the meeting place of human and divine love. The world today is cold, rationalistic, egoistic, hedonistic, consumerist. Without love it will not have salvation. To love is to have feelings which resemble those of the Heart of Jesus.

“Attractive: Love is always attractive. The Heart of Jesus is a credible sign of love... He showed compassion and cured the sick, He had compassion and forgiveness for sinners, He had compassion for the widow of Naim and brought her son back to life...

“Consistent: Love is the common denominator in all the circumstances of life. And then God is love. Love is the center. To love is to transmit the tenderness of God to creatures and then return it to the Creator. Without love, life would be hell, Christianity would be hypocrisy and the... religious life a farce.

“How do I live my S.C.J. life?... The same spirit which animated me in the Congregation, that is, never say no, I try to follow even now... The contemporary world is cold, selfish, consumerist and violent, dehumanized... I try to discover more and more... the rich personality of Christ starting from the point of view of the Heart (humanity, the cordiality of Christ and of the Founder)... I think that sanctity also has something to do with being fully human, with the wealth of feelings, of joy, of welcoming... So I try to be someone who lives the values of the heart: welcoming, hospitable... I live my poverty trying to be simple, correct, in solidarity, helping the needy, the poor, the priests... My obedience means, above all, loving the Church with true tenderness... I try to be a presence of the Church of Christ, I place in it my life and my mission”.

Somewhat different is the environment of dom Aloisio Roque Oppermann scj, Archbishop of Uberada, in the state of Minas Gerais, a diocese of over 450,000 inhabitants. It is a region which has not inherited the popular religious feeling, a bit sentimental but deep, that exists in the other regions of Brazil. The city grew up with the exploitation of the mines, therefore one finds much of the lay atmosphere typical of industrialized countries. “In Uberada”, says dom Aloisio, “the first problem is to prove that Jesus is the Son of God. Invoking the Heart of Jesus, full of goodness and of love, would be incomprehensible for these people. In the mining area there has never been an evangelization starting from the wealth of the Heart of Jesus. There has always been insistence on the resurrection and on the divinity of Christ. Therefore, we find that it is more acceptable to use their way of speaking such as: Lord Jesus in whom the fullness of the divinity lives..., Lord Jesus from whose pierced Heart flowed blood and water, etc. In any case, such language is more theological and in speaking like that one can still perceive that the Heart expresses the essence of the person of Jesus.

“Having had the responsibility for three particular Churches, I have been able to understand that moving along Fr. Dehon’s lines of going to the people, it has always been very easy for me to communicate with the communities of the faithful. The people everywhere here are good (a little less when the parish priest has to be transferred...)”.

The testimony of dom Antonio De Souza Braga scj, Bishop of Angra in the Azores: “I live my ministry as a bishop with great spontaneity, animating it with the S.C.J. spirituality which takes concrete form through availability... Before the Council popular religious feeling here was strongly marked by devotion to the Heart of Jesus, above all through the Apostolate of prayer... Now the situation is very different... The Apostolate of prayer has been reduced to small groups of senior citizens... And so far I have not preached much about the Heart of Jesus in an explicit way either. However, the spirituality of the Heart of Jesus is present in my preaching due to the fact that I insist a great deal on the mystery of God/Love and on its practical consequence which is love of one’s neighbor... On the other hand I am greatly inspired by Fr. Dehon’s charism, his love for the Church and for the people. Go out and be with the people and the Sint unum are my mottos also”.

Dom Marcelo Palentini scj, Bishop of San Salvatore di Jujuy (Argentina), first of all describes the social, economic and political situation of his dioceses; then also the family, religious and ecclesial situation. He also says that he tries to adapt his ministerial program to these situations.

With regard to S.C.J. spirituality, he states that he has aspired to express it in the motto Thy Kingdom Come, and to be always inspired by the great values of abandonment, in the readiness to go where the Lord calls, feeling himself consecrated forever without laying down conditions, repeating every day - together with the act of oblation - the “Yes” of the first giving.

The preferential option for the poor, for the excluded, for the workers, is lived as a spirituality of solidarity and of mercy... This does not exclude constant dialogue with the political authorities, ministers, trade unionists, business men; and for this reason he often finds himself playing the role of mediator between the various parties which sometimes turn to the bishop as their last chance to save a situation. And there is no lack of those who turn to the bishop not because they hope to have a solution from him, but because at least he listens to them, he accompanies them... and gives a blessing!

The S.C.J. spirituality of dom Tomé Makhwéliha scj, Bishop of Pemba (Mozambique), on the other hand, is lived essentially as a spirituality of union: union with Christ, union with the Father, union with the Holy Spirit. But then he adds: “I feel that it is my being a Dehonian that characterizes my being a bishop, a bishop and a pastor, making me anxious to be a pastor according to the Heart of Jesus: to have compassion for the sheep, to know them, to live and suffer for their pains and give my life for them”. And he concludes by affirming that for him “being a Dehonian who lives the spirituality of the Heart and being a bishop, are one single thing”.

Dom Murilo S.R. Krieger scj, who was the instigator of the meeting, is the Archbishop of Maringà, a city that was founded in 1952 and today numbers 270,000 inhabitants, while the whole diocese numbers 570,000 inhabitants. The Christian community has a distinct presence in the media:

a) on TV, a live transmission of the Mass every Sunday and a daily transmission of 5 minutes;

b) in the daily papers, three weekly columns in addition to a monthly magazine of its own with 18,000 copies distributed by means of the parishes;

c) on the radio, it has various programs, the diocese has its own transmitter and the archbishop himself runs a weekly program broadcast over 8 transmitters.

However, there are many “gaps” which the bishop would like to fill as soon as possible: a lack of priests, a lack of financial resources (the diocese has no income of its own to maintain the seminary and depends month by month on the parishes!), a lack of priests trained in philosophy and theology...

But let us come to SCJ spirituality: “I feel myself a child of the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart every day”, states dom Murilo. “The nearly 20 years lived in the BM Province have marked me profoundly. In particular there is availability, fidelity to the Church, the sense of mercy (I am deeply struck by the infinite mercy of the Heart of Jesus, His way of behaving with sinners, His readiness to forgive), the community spirit, the simplicity.

“It was a great pain for me to leave the S.C.J. community... I try to renew the act of oblation daily; I try to perform Eucharistic adoration every day; I follow, as far as it is possible for me, the publications of the Congregation and the conclusions of its most important meetings.

“My greatest joy is to realize that I spend my life for the kingdom... I see that my commitment to evangelization is multiplied by using various means of communication. I have a weekly radio program, I write each week for two daily papers which reach the whole diocese and every month in “Messaggero del S. Cuore”, I participate in two TV programs of the Association “Il Signore Gesù”. In all this I make a point of emphasizing the fact that “God is love”, He is mercy, He is pardon and welcomes sinners with joy. I am convinced that the most difficult thing for a person is to realize “existentially” that he is loved by God. When this happens, it is conversion”.

The Heart of Jesus - In concluding, dom Krieger says that he is convinced that our world of today is marked by several very deep scars: loneliness, the hardness of hearts, the difficulty of pardoning, indifference to confronting the difficulties of the poor, the painful quest for personal fulfillment, the difficulty of correct human relations, etc. He thinks that for this world of ours the spirituality of the Heart of Jesus is particularly relevant...

“Unfortunately however”, he concludes, “I feel that it is easy to let oneself be taken up by immediate urgencies and not set aside the necessary time for prayer, adoration, and listening to the Word. We have a most rich spirituality which, however, we explore too little.

“I also think that I still lack a great deal in order to be, in the diocese and in the Church, that living presence of the Heart of Jesus that the people have a right to receive. Perhaps a meeting such as this one may serve to make us feel that we need to meet each other more often, to discover the “hidden treasure”, “the precious pearl” which has been placed at our disposal: “I leave you the most wonderful treasure, the Heart of Jesus” (Fr. Dehon)”.