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We, the members of the 8^th General Chapter of the Society of St. Paul, while reflecting on our vocation to be "St. Paul alive today," recognize ourselves, in the name of the Congregation, to share this special vocation with the whole Pauline Family as well as the consequent duty of corresponding to such grace, by developing always ever more the spirit of Family willed by God for the whole of the Religious Congregations and of the Secular Institutions founded by Blessed Giacomo Alberione. He, in fact, exhorts us: "May the Pauline Family, made up of many members, be Paul alive as a social body." (SP, ottobre 1954).

In particular:

1. We reaffirm our sense of belonging to this "social body" which is the Pauline Family, and the willingness to welcome the special gifts granted to it through its Institutions.
2. We recognize the duty of offering to the whole Pauline Family our special gifts and to serve it according to the correct meaning of the Congregation’s role of "altrice" given us by the Founder (cf. Il ministero dell’unità nella Famiglia Paolina, 1987).
3. We see in the composition of the Pauline Family an icon of the Church, with a variety of members who, although distinct by vocation and tasks, all have equal dignity and equal Pauline character, and all of them contribute to a single mission of giving Jesus Christ to today’s world.
4. We commit ourselves to seek the paths and the means for reaching, in the exercise of the apostolate, that "convergence of goals" (cf. UPS, III, p. 185) willed by Blessed Alberione for the various Institutions of the Pauline Family.
5. We resolve to further cultivate in our Circumscriptions, the knowledge, appreciation, promotion and formation guidance and animation of the Institute of the Consecrated Secular Life aggregated to the Society of St. Paul, the Association of Pauline Cooperators, foremost in the heart of Blessed Alberione (cf. AD, 25).

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Updated 19/05/04 -   [email protected]