From Left to Right are: Koos Janssen, Fachtna O’Driscoll, Antonio Porcellato and Luigino Frattin,
and in the background is Walter Woamade, the English to French translator

It is my pleasure to welcome you all to this the third Plenary Council meeting of this mandate. We are being hosted by the District-in-formation of the Gulf of Guinea at the Regional house at Accra, Ghana. My thanks to Fr Fabien Sognon, DFGG Superior, and to Fr James Owusu-Yeboah, Regional Superior of Ghana, for the warm welcome accorded to all. Special thanks to James and his team of assistants for arranging the facilities to make it possible for us to gather here in Accra for this meeting. I know James will share on some practical issues shortly. 

We are back in Africa for a Plenary Council for the first time since 2005, when we gathered at Nairobi Formation House. It is good that such meetings are held on African soil.  

I welcome in a particular way those who are attending a Plenary Council for the first time: Francois de Paul Houngue was elected to the General Council at our gathering at Chaponost this time last year; Justin Kette represents the District of Strasbourg; I believe I am correct in saying that the three Regional Superior representatives are here for the first time, Fabian Hevi for DF Great Lakes, Bruno Miyigbena for DF Bight of Benin and Severin Kinga for DF Gulf of Guinea. 

Laity
I am particularly delighted that we are joined this year by two representatives of our lay collaborators. I extend a warm welcome to Helene Liet FLM and Gildas Légonou FLMB. This is the first time lay representatives have participated in a Plenary Council. It is a sign of the value SMA places in the missionary call of laity who may wish to live their baptismal call in the footsteps of Melchior de Marion Bresillac. The advancement of collaboration with laity will be a key discussion at this Plenary Council.  At the end of this address I share with you a significant quote from Pope Francis which is significant in this context. 

Review
One of our major tasks this year is to conduct a mid-mandate review. For this we will look at the action plans of GA13 and the PCs of 2014 and 2015.  It is important to recognise that our task is not to change the plan but to augment it. We look at what has been achieved and seek realistic goals for the coming three years. At the recent Synod of Bishops on the Family there was much discussion of whether church doctrine can change. People speak of development rather than change. Though I hesitate to give such exalted status to the documents of SMA Assemblies or Plenary Councils, I think we can make an analogy, which might help us in the task before us: our aim is to develop the plan, not to change it. Where the analogy no longer holds is when we come to GA19. Then the Society delegates are free to alter plans agreed at previous assemblies. That is not what we are called to do during this mid-mandate review. Neither is our task to make negative judgements nor to blame others for not acting on the plans conceived. Rather it is to approach the future years in a positive frame of mind.  In this regard Pope Francis uses a very telling phrase in Amoris Laetitia “We should not be trapped into wasting our energy in doleful laments, but rather seek new forms of missionary creativity”. (AL 57)   

Structures
Since the last Plenary Council at Chaponost, the General Council, as per usual, made many trips out of Rome to the Units and Regions. Many of the remarks I made last year in my opening address remain valid. If I can recall for you just two of these:

• Tension for the young units between on the one hand establishing a solid administrative base and aiming towards self-sufficiency and, on the other hand committing members to mission areas of primary evangelisation;
• Tension, especially in some older units, between on the one hand endeavouring to keep alive the presence of SMA in countries that have had a long SMA presence and, on the other hand being realistic about choosing leaders who can carry forward the ethos of SMA even if the entity itself is somehow modified. 

We will need a healthy and realistic discussion on these issues during this meeting. Some of the texts you have received highlight some of these issues in a clear fashion. Some decry the amount of time and energy we have devoted to our Structures over recent Assemblies and Plenary Councils. Structures are at the service of our mission. Mission, then, remains always the priority. However, structures that do not operate effectively cause a drain on the energy expended on mission. During a period in which we notice obvious growth in newer Units and obvious diminishment in older Units, structures will continue to call for our attention. This is so at the present time, and is likely to be so into the foreseeable future. 

Visits
I had myself the privilege of making canonical visits to the District of Spain and to the Provinces of Ireland, Italy and USA. I continue to be inspired by the efforts made throughout to keep the missionary spirit and the name of SMA alive, in a context of a diminishing and more fragile membership base. My visit to the Region of Togo allowed me to witness the SMA in this strongly international setting working tirelessly with people suffering economic deprivation. This visit also allowed me to see at close hand the administration of the Gulf of Guinea DF and to appreciate the great efforts made to establish solid foundations on which the structures can be established to make mission more effective and more fruitful. During my visit to Sierra Leone in December I saw SMA at its best. The response of our confreres here during the Ebola crisis has won the admiration of the entire people, Christian, Muslim and animist. Our confreres literally put their lives at risk. The archbishop told me that our men showed a level of courage that he could never match. Such heroic missionary service makes one proud to be SMA. 

Jubilee Year of Mercy
This Plenary Council is being conducted during the Jubilee Year of Mercy. In Pope Francis’ message for Mission Sunday 2016 he says the following: The Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, which the Church is celebrating, casts a distinct light on World Mission Sunday 2016: it invites us to consider the missio ad gentes as a great, immense work of mercy, both spiritual and material. On this World Mission Sunday, all of us are invited to “go out” as missionary disciples, each generously offering their talents, creativity, wisdom and experience in order to bring the message of God’s tenderness and compassion to the entire human family. By virtue of the missionary mandate, the Church cares for those who do not know the Gospel, because she wants everyone to be saved and to experience the Lord’s love. She “is commissioned to announce the mercy of God, the beating heart of the Gospel” (Misericordiae Vultus, 12) and to proclaim mercy in every corner of the world, reaching every person, young or old.”

Witness of Laity
Pope Francis goes on to say in the same message: “This merciful love, as in the early days of the Church, is witnessed to by many men and women of every age and condition. The considerable and growing presence of women in the missionary world, working alongside their male counterparts, is a significant sign of God’s maternal love. Women, lay and religious, and today even many families, carry out their missionary vocation in various forms: from announcing the Gospel to charitable service. Together with the evangelizing and sacramental work of missionaries, women and families often more adequately understand people’s problems and know how to deal with them in an appropriate and, at times, fresh way: in caring for life, with a strong focus on people rather than structures, and by allocating human and spiritual resources towards the building of good relations, harmony, peace, solidarity, dialogue, cooperation and fraternity, both among individuals and in social and cultural life, in particular through care for the poor.” 

Conclusion
These inspiring words of Pope Francis in the previous two paragraphs establish a fitting platform from which we launch into our discussions. May the wisdom of the Holy Spirit guide us in our deliberations; may Mary our Mother intercede on our behalf to receive an open ear; may the example of the Servant of God Melchior de Marion Bresillac invigorate us as we aim in our day to live with fidelity the charism that he has bequeathed us. 

With these words I declare Plenary Council 2016 open. 

Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA
30 May 2016