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A History Full of Hope and a Hope for History
Participants in the Plenary Assembly of the European Conferences of Major Superiors, associated in the Union of the European Conferences of Major Superiors, visited the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum on February 9, 2010.
The presidents and general secretaries of 37 conferences from 25 European countries first toured the grounds of the Auschwitz former Nazi German concentration camp and extermination center. In Auschwitz II-Birkenau they saw the ruins of the gas chambers and crematoria, the ramp, and extant original brick and wooden barracks.
Next, they made their way to the grounds of the former Auschwitz I camp, where they visited the Museum exhibition before praying at the Death Wall and at the cell in the cellar of block 11 where Saint Maximilian Kolbe died.
“The first impression is that it leaves one speechless. That’s a very strong feeling. Of course, everyone has heard, read, or seen something on the subject of Auschwitz, and such things are also spoken about in Belgium, where I live, and yet it is something else entirely to see this place and imagine the masses of people who were murdered here. One might ask oneself, Who indeed is the man who is capable of doing something of this sort? There is one thing we cannot understand: how could all of Europe permit something of the kind? No one had the courage to say no,” said Sr. Lutgardis Craeynest, a Salesian and the president of the Union of the Conference of Major Superiors in Europe.
The guests also attended Mass, celebrated in the historical building of the camp laundry at the Auschwitz I site, immediately adjacent to block 11. Friar Jarosław Zachariasz, Minister Provincial of the Province of the Province of St. Anthony of Padua, Poland-Cracow, of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual (Franciscans), greeted the guests by saying that they were “in a place where a great many people pose the question of where God was when people were dying here. Father Maximilian Kolbe showed us that, at the height of the summer of 1941, in an inhuman place, a love was born that overcame the greatest crime and the greatest evil. May that love, of which we wish to remind ourselves at this altar, also be our strength.”
The principal theme of the Plenary Assembly taking place at the Higher Seminary in Częstochowa is “Monastic Life in Europe: A History Full of Hope and a Hope for History.” Those in attendance will also ponder the issue of hope as a mission of the consecrated life in the continent of Europe, on a biblical and theological foundation.
“The history of Europe and the history of religious orders are inextricably bound up with each other, and on many levels. If today we all need to search for new ways of serving our neighbors, then there is a need to be able to heed the lesson that is represented for each human being by the history of the Holocaust and Auschwitz. Today’s inculturation of the truth requires an understanding of culture after the experience of Auschwitz,” said Museum Director Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywiński.
“During the visit at the site of the camp we heard about man-made situations without any hope or future, from which nevertheless some way out must be found. Our main task is therefore to be a spiritual force for Europe,” said Sr. Craeynest.
The Union of the European Conferences of Major Superiors (UCESM) assembles the Conferences of Major Superiors of 25 countries, representing about 400 thousand Religious men and women, including about 40 thousand from Polan. Since 1996, the Secretariat of the Union has had its seat in Brussels. Plenary Assemblies are held every two years. This is the first time that a Plenary Assembly has been held in Poland.
Aside from members of the Union of the European Conferences of Major Superiors, representatives of communities of the consecrated life from Latvia, Bulgaria, Belarus, Finland, and Bosnia-Herzegovina came to Poland. Representatives of such European Church institutions as the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE), the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE), the European Service for Vocations (SEV), and the Global Conference of Lay Institutions (CMIS) were also present.
