The Order’s Finance Commission held its final meeting of the Sexennium on 22-23 October 2018, with a very full agenda of important matters.

One of the main agenda items was the latest document of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life, “Economy at the service of charism and mission”, which posed a series of challenges to the Order. It would make it necessary for the forthcoming General Chapter to take a number of decisions. To better understand the document and clarify some of the steps to be taken, the Commission had invited Sr Annunziata Remossi of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life to illustrate the the main points of the guidelines set out by the Congregation.

The Prior General, Brother Jesús Etayo and the Secretary General, Brother André Sène, were also present for her presentation.

The following aspects of the document had to be examined by the next General Chapter:

•          Defining the stable patrimony and taking up the relevant provisions of the document

•          Time-limiting the term of office of the legal representative

•          Provisions for drafting the charismatic plan and the economic directory for the whole Order

•          Reflection on legal distinct legal personalities for the centres.

Other item discussed by the Commissioning included:

•          Examination of the General Curia’s mid-term accounts at 31 August 2018: the accounts were found to be consistent with the budget

•         Examination of the General Curia’s 2019 budget and the criteria for calculating the Provincial contributions: looking ahead to the amalgamation of certain Provinces, new criteria would have to be adopted in future, or at least some modifications made

•          Analysis of the Provinces’ 2017 consolidated financial statements: there were no significant deviations from the 2016 figures

•          Analysis of the of the 2016 care statistics: the Commission saw once again the enormous amount of work being done by the Order; in was necessary to remedy some of the weak points in the survey with the help of the Provinces

•          Conducting the survey of the financial data of the centres in the Europe region and introducing the questionnaire in the America, Africa and Asia regions: the questionnaire had proven effective and could be used through the whole Order.