Michel-Bernard, the Emmanuel Community is about to receive an apostolic visitation. What exactly is an apostolic visitation?

An apostolic visitation is a mission entrusted by the Pope, via a dicastery of the Holy See, to qualified outsiders to take stock of and audit a community, or to evaluate a particular situation within it. Apostolic visitors are appointed and tasked with this mission for a period generally ranging from 3 months to 1 year. The mission of these apostolic visitors usually involves observing and analyzing the pastoral, administrative and financial situation, ensuring that the spiritual, moral and communal life is healthy, listening to the leaders and members of the community as well as to people who work with the community, including bishops and external witnesses. At the end of the visitation, they write a detailed and confidential report for the Pope and the dicastery that mandated them. This report includes observations, facts, opinions, as well as encouragement and recommendations to help the community improve or correct certain aspects. In some particular cases, the visitors may recommend sanctions if necessary. This form of accompaniment is becoming increasingly common and regular.

It is healthy to welcome an external perspective on our internal operations. It is with this mindset that we are preparing for this visitation.

Could you clarify the reasons for this apostolic visitation?

During my previous term, we discerned within the International Council that it seemed necessary to plan a visitation of the Community during the following term, conducted by qualified members of the Church, external to the Community. The purpose of this would be to review the implementation of our statutes, the fruits that have been borne, and the functioning of our governance and organizational structures.

Since 2018, our annual summer seminars, which bring together the governing bodies of the Community and the ACCE (Clerical Association of the Emmanuel Community), have nourished these reflections.

With nearly 13,000 members worldwide, the Emmanuel Community has become a large vessel. We are facing many internal challenges: the growth of the Community, the very diverse international realities, the need for inculturation of the charism, and the complexity of our organization. The Community must absolutely prepare itself to respond, within the Church, to the challenges of our time.

This year’s summer seminar, dedicated to the theme of governance, made it clear that it has become necessary to revisit our organization and ways of operating. This led to the launch of four working groups on the following themes (see my address from last August 15):
– Youth ministry
– Internationality & interculturality
– The role of the General Moderator
– The articulation between our different governing bodies

Before and since this summer seminar, we have experienced tensions within the leadership of the Community regarding these issues, and we have realized that we would not be able to move forward on our own.

Therefore, the International Council and I wrote to Cardinal Aveline, who is our ecclesiastical assistant, to seek the help and guidance of the Church. Meetings were held with him, as well as with Cardinal Farrell, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, to which we are attached.

At the beginning of October, I sent a formal report to the dicastery regarding the Community, presenting our current situation and the questions we were facing.
Following all these steps, Cardinal Aveline informed me that, based on the information presented, Cardinal Farrell considered that an apostolic visitation was the most appropriate way to respond to our request.

How will this visitation take place for the Community?

I will be going to Rome shortly to receive from Cardinal Farrell the information needed for its’ preparation. Once the visitors have been appointed by Cardinal Farrell, they will decide on the precise details of the visit. In particular, they will be free to decide whom they wish to meet, in France and throughout the world. Anyone may also ask to be heard by the visitors.

How should we approach this together?

First and foremost, I give thank God for this decision, because I am convinced that it is good to allow ourselves to be looked upon by the Church. I sense the significant work this will require. I am also aware that this visitation will raise questions, and that we will have to address them.

The world is changing and, as I have had the opportunity to say in several addresses, the Emmanuel Community is at an important moment in its history. We are 50 years old. The canonical statutes of the Emmanuel Community, closely linked to the statutes of the ACCE, are recognized by the Church. We are at a stage of generational transition within the Community. We have been greatly enriched during our seminars and general elections, particularly through the contributions of Cardinal Aveline and through the writings and teachings of Luigino Bruni, an Italian scholar from the Focolare Movement who has worked extensively on the stages of growth in communities.

Therefore, my deepest wish is that, once we have completed this work with the Church, the Community will be ever more open to what the Holy Spirit inspires, so as to serve Christ ever more fully, in the Church, and to proclaim His mercy.

In this respect, the publication of Pope Francis’ encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus has been a gift and a true encouragement. The same goes for the recognition of the heroic virtues of our founder, Pierre Goursat.

What would you like to say to your brothers and sisters of the Community?

Every time I travel, including outside of France, I witness the generosity of our brothers and sisters, their dynamism in mission, and their attachment to the Church. I see a beautiful vitality in the Community, and I give thanks for it.

This is why, relying on the discernment of the Church, we are confident in the fruits this visitation will bring, because through it, it is Jesus who is accompanying us.

Yes, we can truly give thanks, because, in fact, this apostolic visitation is a gift from the Church to support us. Through it, the Holy Spirit will once again make all things new.

I am therefore counting on each of your prayers so that this visitation may be fully fruitful. May Mary, Mother of the Church and Mother of Emmanuel, help us to live this time as a true “Visitation”!