190 beatifi cation seems to create favorable conditions for these nostalgic tendencies. Indeed, should such decisions be made, should our religious community reach the conclusion to bring back the status quo ante, then we should act very prudently and in consultation with the Apostolic See. I’m not sure if the people who joined the Congregation renewed by the Church, after all, should not be dispensed from their vows and asked to make new vows in the Congregation from before the renewal. It is quite obvious that the Congregation’s style, its manner of being and acting, which were assigned to the community by Blessed Fr. Matulewicz during his short lifetime, is subject to evolution. They were slightly different in the times of the Renewal than they are today. When I joined the Congregation, being admitted by the Renovator’s direct co-workers, it was quite unimaginable that the main work of the Marians would be running shrines and spreading The Divine Mercy devotion according to Sr. Faustina. But such was the turn that took the Congregation’s life and such were its challenges and needs. A religious order is a live organism living as best it can by the Lord’s guidance. Once, the typical works of the Marian were to run schools according to well-planned programs and to co-operate with scholars. In like manner, the manner and means of proclaiming Christ wherever He is less known or loved have changed. In this evolution, I see elements of the “white tradition” manifesting themselves in our attending to the poorest and the abandoned in Brazil in the manner of the white Marians. My last remark. Our Founder’s beatifi cation obligates us to a renewal, an updating. This is always necessary, but I advise caution in such reforms. We have lived through some sort of a “movement” which was supposed to renew our Congregation and bring back its original faithfulness. People who truly achieved a community renewal, as well as those who were at the onset of great religious communities, were persons gifted with a charism. Let us recall the people who were at the beginning of our renewal communities in Poland, Latvia, Brazil (e.g., Fr. Zenon Rosłoń). Originators of a true renewal, naturally performed in co-operation with the grace of God, were saintly people. Our communities must create favorable conditions for sanctity, must produce saintly people, but not necessarily such to be elevated to the altars at once. Vytautas Brilius, MIC Lithuania, Kaunas, Vicariate Superior First, I would like to give thanks to the General Government and to all those who worked at the preparations of the solemn beatifi cation of Fr. Stanislaus
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