66. Holy See
Vincentian Bishop is new Bishop of a new Diocese in Brazil. Pope Benedict XVI erected the Diocese of São José dos Pinhais, with territory taken from the Archdiocese of Curitiba, and named, as first bishop of the new diocese, Msgr. Ladislau Biernaski, CM, until now, Titular Bishop of Tetci and Auxiliary Bishop of Curitiba. Monsignor Biernaski was born on 24 October 1937 in Almirante Tamandaré, state of Paraná. He studied philosophy and theology in the Studium Theologicum of the Claretian Fathers. He made his first vows on 27 February 1955 and was ordained a priest on 6 June 1963. He received a degree in philosophy from the Catholic Institute of Paris. He was professor and rector of the seminary of the Congregation in Curitiba, Assistant Provincial and member of the Priests’ Council of the Archdiocese. On 19 April 1979, he was named Auxiliary Bishop of Curitiba and was ordained bishop by Pope John Paul II in the Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican on the following 27 May. The new diocese, suffragan of the Metropolitan Church of Curitiba, is situated in the southern state of Paraná and has as an area of 172 square kilometres. São José dos Pinhais has a population of almost 650 thousand inhabitants, 500 thousand of them Catholic. For the pastoral care of the diocese, which is composed of 31 parishes, Monsignor Biernaski can count on 58 diocesan priests and 165 religious priests.
67. Curia
Activities of the Superior General. From 3-15 November, he was in Venezuela sharing with the entire Vincentian Family the 75th anniversary of the presence of the Congregation of the Mission in Venezuela. On 16 November, in Rome, he participated in a meeting on the History Project of the Congregation of the Mission. From 17-19 November, he was in Madrid to participate in a meeting with MISEVI International. On 21 November, he participated in a meeting of members of Societies of Apostolic Life in Rome. From 22-24 November, he participated in the Assembly of the Union of Superiors General in Rome. On 2 December, he was at the Provincial House of the Daughters of Charity in Rome. On 3 December, he participated in the annual meeting with the students of the Leonine College at the General Curia. From 4-8 December, he participated in a Tempo Forte council meeting in the Curia. From 12-22, he traveled to Eritrea. On the 23rd, he was at the Casa Maria Immacolata of the Daughters of Charity in Rome. From 24-29 December, he was in the United States, for the burial of his father, Mr. George Gay. On 31 December 2006 and 1 January 2007, he was at the Motherhouse of the Daughters of Charity in Paris.
Tempo Forte. The Superior General and his council met from 4-8 December in a tempo forte council session. The theme of the ongoing formation was: “Islam, the poor and poverty: a theological challenge,” given by Ahmet Eren Kademoğlu, a Muslim Theologian. The points on the agenda were: Report of the Preparatory Commission for the International Meeting of Visitors in Mexico; Report on the preparations for the Workshop to help confreres in difficulty (10-16 January 2007 Rome); They decided to contact a consultant to study the possibilities for im-proving the General Archives and the library; Report on the database of the General Secretariat and the new e-mail address of the General Curia; Report on the situation of seeking a new coadjutor brother for the Curia, who will replace Brother Adam Budzyna; Study and approval of the budgets of the Curia offices, which are at the service of the entire Congregation, and the budgets of the international missions; Study of 18 projects for the Systemic Change Award 2007; three winners were chosen, who will be made known at the end of January 2007; Appointment of Fr. Carl Pieber as Director of the International Development Office of the Congregation of the Mission; Study of the Report of Fr. Joseph Foley, NGO representative to the United Nations; Study of the Report of Frs. Hugh O’Donnell and Juan Julián Díaz Catalán, responsible for the Program of the International Formation Center (CIF); Report of Fr. John Freund, webmaster for the Vincentian Family; Appointment of Fr. Julio Suescun, in charge of the Spanish section of the website of the Vincentian Family, as Editor of Vincentiana and Executive Secretary of the programs developed by the International Secretariat for Vincentian Studies (SIEV); Study of the Report of the Delegate of the Superior General for the Vincentian Family, Fr. Manuel Ginete; The International Mission in the Solomon Islands will begin, in 2007, a formation program for candidates to the Congregation of the Mission; The latest two missionaries for the International Mission of El Alto, Bolivia, Frs. Fernando Sánchez and Cyrille de la Barre de Nanteuil, completed a course of animation and renewal for missionaries; Received a request from the Regional Superior of the Daughters of Charity of Albania-Kosovo for a confrere to help in the spiritual animation of the sisters. The council is in the process of naming a Subdirector for the Daughters of Charity of that region; Studied the offers of 12 volunteers for the missions ad gentes: some will soon be given destinations, others within a few years; The Superior General named Fr. Pedro Castillo for another three-year period as Subdirector of the International Council of JMV and Director of the International Secretariat of JMV; In the last Assembly of the Union of Superiors General, the Superior General was elected member of the Executive Committee, as the representative of Societies of Apostolic Life; Invitation to the Visitors and Vice-Visitors to collaborate in scheduling the visits and canonical visitations, which the Superior General and the Assistants General carry out.
Activities of Assistant General. Fr. José Antonio Ubillús Lamadrid, Assistant General, visited the Province of Ecuador from 1-24 August and the Province of Rio de Janeiro from 17 October to 17 November. In both provinces, Father Ubillús dialogued with every confrere and student. He got to know the pastoral works and met with the Daughters of Charity and other members of the Vicentian Family. Both visits were positive and gave much hope, as Father Ubillús affirmed. He also participated, from 19-24 November, in Mexico, D.F., in the meeting of the Technical Commission for the Meeting of Visitors next year, and from 25-29 November, he was in Paris, visiting those responsible for the International Formation Center (CIF), Frs. Hugh O’Donnell and Julián Díaz Catalán.
History Project of the Congregation of the Mission. Frs. John E. Rybolt (Coordinator – USA Midwest Province), Luigi Mezzadri (Province of Rome) and Luigi Nuovo (Province of Turin), met on 16 November with Frs. G. Gregory Gay and Józef Kapuściak, Superior and Vicar General respectively, in order to exchange some ideas for promoting the History Project of the Congregation of the Mission.
Meeting with the students of the Leonine College. On 3 December, the annual meeting with the students of the Leonine College with the Superior General and members of the General Curia was held. Fr. José María Nieto, Assistant General, offered them a talk on “Our Rights and Duties from Our Constitutions and Statutes.” The Superior General presided the Eucharist for the First Sunday of Advent. There were 20 students present who live in the College, plus four other confrere-students. In all, there were 40 people, including other guests and members of the Curia.
Death of the father of the Superior General. On 20 December, Mr. George Gay, father of the Superior General, died in Kingsville, Maryland. The Superior General was in Eritrea when he died. He concluded his visit and traveled to Rome, from where he left on 24 December for the United States to be with his family and participate in the funeral of his dear father. Our heartfelt condolences to Father Gregory and his family and we offer them our prayers so that they may receive from God the strength and resignation necessary on this occasion.
Toward the International Meeting of Visitors. On 4 December, the members of the Preparatory Commission for the International Meeting of Visitors, which will be held in Mexico in June 2007, met at the General Curia. The members of the Commission are Fathers: Daniel Borlik (Visitor USA South and President of the Commission), Yves Bouchet (Visitor of Toulouse), Francisco Solás Sánchez (Visitor of Venezuela) and Antonius Sad Budianto (Visitor of Indonesia). Fr. Roberto de Jesús Gómez (Province of Toulouse) was present as a translator into French.
68. CLAPVI
Meeting of the Executive Council. The Latin American Conference of Vincentian Provinces (CLAPVI), in keeping with the mandate of its Statutes, held the annual meeting of its Executive Council in the Central House of the Province of Venezuela on 20 and 21 October. Some points on the agenda were: evaluation of the activities undertaken in 2006 and planning of activities for next year, 2007.
Meeting on Vincentian Youth Pastoral Work – Formation of Advisors. Following the programming of the CLAPVI Plan for the year 2006, a meeting on Vincentian Youth Pastoral Work – Formation of Advisors was held in Caracas, from 22-29 October. There were 110 participants from the various branches of the Vincentian Family, from 18 countries throughout Latin American, including representation from the United States, Rome and Spain. In collaboration, the International Team and the various Delegations of JMV in Latin America worked on the content and the development of the meeting. Its methodology was that of See, Judge, Act and Celebrate. The axes around which the meeting turned were anthropological, theological and operative. The thematic lines were: the analysis of the youth situation in Latin America and in Vincentian pastoral work; the theological setting of the Latin American youth pastoral work and the pedagogical ideology of Saint Vincent and Saint Louise; the profile of the Vincentian youth pastoral agent; proposal of a formative itinerary for Latin American and Vincentian youth pastoral work. The formative part was completed with six simultaneous workshops, in order to conclude the meeting with commitments in face of the challenges which arose from the formative part.
69. NCV
Meeting of the National Conference of Visitors of the United States (NCV). Father Józef Kapuściak, Vicar General, participated, from 11-15 October, as the representative from the General Curia, at the annual meeting of the National Conference of Visitors of the United States (NCV). The meeting of the NCV, one of the three of the year, took place at Saint Joseph Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. Father James Swift (Visitor of the USA Midwest Province) substituted for the President of the NCV, Father Andrew Bellisario (USA Province of the West). Some of the topics of the meeting were: continuation of the translation into English of the Works of Saint Vincent, the change of the VSI (Vincentian Studies Institute) to DePaul University, initiatives in the field of ongoing formation of the confreres, forms of collaboration among the Provinces of the United States in the apostolic area, meeting of those responsible for the Vincentian Family in the United States and financial matters. The meeting was well organized and took place in a fraternal, dialogical and constructive atmosphere.
70. Mexico
Meeting of the Technical Commission for the Visitors’ Meeting of 2007. From 21-23 November, the meeting of the Technical Commission of the Visitors’ Meeting in Mexico in 2007 was held at the Provincial House. The participants were Fathers: Daniel Borlik (Visitor USA South and coordinator), Luis Arreola, Silvestre Sánchez González, Miguel Blázquez and Brother Carlos Marcelino Cárdenas (Province of Mexico) and Fathers José Antonio Ubillús Lamadrid and Alfredo Becerra Vázquez (General Curia).
71. Turin
Meeting of Provincial Councils of Italy. The meeting took place from 24-26 October in Casa Maria Immacolata in Roma. Present were all the members of the Provincial Councils of Italy and the Provincial Treasurers. On the afternoon of 24 October, the Superior General, Father Gregory Gay, was there. In his talk, he presented the concern of the General Government on the need to configure the internal geography of the entire Congregation. Although, actually, there exist examples of interprovincial collaboration, the Provincial Councils of Italy continue to reflect on the possibility of this collaboration.
NOMINATIONS
SUESCUN OLCOZ Julio 25-11-2006 Director Vincentiana and Nuntia Executive Secretary SIEV
PANIAGUA NAVA David 25-11-2006 DC Director – Bolivia
GAMERO TORRES Javier 25-11-2006 DC Director – Peru
DELGADO RUBIO Corpus 25-11-2006 Visitor – Zaragoza
CASTILLO T. Pedro 08-12-2006 Subdirector JMV International
Director JMV International Secretariat
CANTY Kevin 09-12-2006 DC Director – Australia
WITZEL Georg 09-12-2006 DC Director – Germany
ROCHE Paul 09-12-2006 Vice-Visitor Sts. Cyril and Methodius
DE LA RIVERA ROJAS Carlos 14-12-2006 Visitor – Chile
SUPARMONO Paulus 14-12-2006 Visitor – Indonesia
TYPAMM Emmanuel 23-12-2006 DC Director – Cameroon
PRIESTLY ORDINATIONS
OZAL Fernando José Ven 04-11-2006
VELÁSQUEZ Oswaldo Antonio Ven 04-11-2006
GARCÍA MATTA Jesús Gilberto Per 11-11-2006
LAI NGOC Joseph Tuan Par 11-11-2006
OTHIRAKUDISSIMAKKAL Christy (Binoy) InM 11-11-2006
MAYLAA Georges Ori 25-11-2006
FILIPPINI VILLALBA Victor Andrés Arg 02-12-2006
NECROLOGIUM
SEBESTYÉN Imre Sac 26-11-2006 Hun 76-58
DECOCK Georges Joseph Lay Fra 04-12-2006 Par 73-54
POYER André Pascal Eugène Sac 04-12-2006 Par 83-65
CALZADA CALZADA Dionisio Fra 05-12-2006 Mat 70-54
DASSENOY Jean Sac 09-12-2006 Par 83-64
SINKA Tarsycjusz Sac 11-12-2006 Pol 74-57
GOLDSPINK Maurice Leo Gerard Sac 13-12-2006 Aul 65-47
BELOTTI Pietro Sac 27-12-2006 Tau 90-73
MULLAN Francis Sac 29-12-2006 Hib 81-61
VIDAURRE GALDEANO Gregorio Sac 29-12-2006 Per 86-71
E-MAIL ADDRESSES:
General Curia: cmcuria@cmglobal.org
Secretary General: secgen@cmglobal.org
Vincentian Family Office: famvin@cmglobal.org
Editor of Vincentiana: vincentiana@cmglobal.org
