TAIWAN, June 2003: Writing about a particular period of Vincentian history in China (Dancing in Tight Shoes – the Vincentian Vicariates in China, 1840-1911, China Sparks, June 2003, IX, 2, p9), Joseph Loftus CM has this to say in a note at the end of the article – The CM (Congregation of the Mission) is not a missionary congregation as it is known. The genius of Vincent DePaul was to gather a group of priests together in France to meet the needs which the diocesan structures of the time were unable to attend to. The Congregation can be described as a group of auxiliaries to the bishops of a country or region who have a particular concern for the regeneration of parish life and the formation of clergy.
According to our congregational myth “we are a group of secular clergy (and brothers) who live in community, with a spirit closer to the diocesan clergy than to the religious orders. The Vincentian is, as it were, in close coordination with the National Church of his country of origin with a strong identification with its particular concerns.
In practice, this position is difficult to maintain and the challenge has always been to avoid the twin dangers of either being “diocesianized” (i.e., absorbed into the ordinary work of the dioceses, with an associated loss of flexibility) or being “regularized” (i.e., having too distinctive identity among ourselves with an associated loss of relationship with the diocesan clergy).
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