Marian Community of Reconciliation is Society of Apostolic Life

 

In a climate of profound joy and immense gratitude to God, having received the Nihil obstat of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the members of the Marian Community of Reconciliation (MCR) received their approval as a lay Society of Apostolic Life of Diocesan Right.

During the afternoon of Friday January 21, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne, Archbishop of Lima and Primate of Peru, received in his home the General Superior of the MCR, Alejandra Keen von Wuthenau, and some members of the Superior Counsel, where he gave them the Decree of Erection by way of which the Marian Community of Reconciliation is declared and ordered to be recognized by all as a Society of Apostolic Life. At the same time the Archbishop approved the Constitutions of the MCR, which, in keeping with Canon 731 of the Code of Canon Law, are the path by which the members of a Society of Apostolic Life “strive for the perfection of charity.”

On that occasion the Prelate encouraged the Fraternas to “live their lives as a constant donation, because that is why we consecrate our lives in the Church, to give ourselves to others, to serve others and to bring them the faith.”

The General Superior of the MCR expressed her gratitude to God for this great blessing for the entire Sodalit Spiritual Family and especially for the MCR, “now that Holy Mother Church has recognized us as a Society of Apostolic Life, thus granting us our definitive canonical figure. This is a day, together with Holy Mary, to raise up songs of thanksgiving from the depths of our hearts, and to celebrate in all humility, as we renew our efforts to be the Holy Fraternas that Our Lord wants us to be.”

Immensely grateful for the approval, on Sunday 23 the Fraternas from Lima and Callao participated in Holy Mass celebrated by their Chaplain, Archbishop José Antonio Eguren, S.C.V., Archbishop of Piura, who exhorted them to bear witness with their lives to the Sodalit Spirituality, to which we have been called as a valid path for the Church. “I ask you all to recognize that it is a blessing what the Lord is asking you, and that demands of you a greater donation,” Archbishop Eguren said. In the other 18 dioceses in which the Fraternas are present, they will also participate in Masses of Thanksgiving for the approval as Society of Apostolic Life.

The Marian Community of Reconciliation is a lay society of Apostolic Life of Diocesan Right founded by Luis Fernando Figari, March 25, 1991. Its members are women who, in response to God’s call, have consecrated their lives to be fully available for the apostolate. Their state as lay consecrated women means that they can be in the world and there proclaim the Lord Jesus with their whole lives.

The Fraternas strive to live their vocation by cooperating actively with grace, making their whole lives be a daily liturgy. Like Holy Mary they try to respond with a free and generous “Yes” to God’s Plan in all concrete circumstances of their lives, so that they can be conformed ever more with the Lord Jesus, the model of full humanity.

Currently there are Fraternas’ communities in various countries in all the Americas, Europe and Oceania.