NUNTIA, 5, MAYO 2007

1. News from the General Curia
The Superior General animated diverse communities of the Vincentian Family, in different parts of the world.He was in Panama, from 31 March to 17 April, visiting all the houses of the missionariesof the Province of Central America and those of the Province of Philadelphia, as well as all the houses of the Daughters of Charity in that country, preaching the retreat to the confreres and spending Holy Week in a rural parish. From Panama, he went to Mexico, where, from the 18^th to the 23^rd, he assisted at the National Meeting of the AMM and met with various groups of the Vincentian Family, confreres, Daughters of Charity, MISEVI, etc.
Having returned to the Curia on the 24^th, he saw the three Visitors of the western United States, who met to advance the project of reorganization of their provinces, left on a trip to England, where he visited the houses of the Provinces of Ireland and Salamanca, and even made a brief trip to Madrid, on 8 May, with Father Pieber, to meet with JMV and MISEVI. On the 11^th, he was present with some reflections of encouragement and some questions at the beginning of the work of the Finance Commission.
From 14-17 May he led, in the Curia, the tempo forte meeting. Readers will have complete information on that in the usual Circular of the Superior General and the complement to the agenda for the rest of the month of May in due time.
Visits of the Assistants General:
The brief report that they have given us on their visits allows us to feel the spirit of the Congregation in the life of the missionaries and in the works that they perform.
In Siberia, Father Józef Kapuściak made the canonical visitation, from 30 April to 4 May, of the missionaries of the house of Nizhni Tagil (in Siberia), which belongs to the Vice-Province of Saints Cyril and Methodius. Two Slovenian missionaries are working in that distant mission, which, up until the year 2000, depended on the Superior General as an International Mission. They serve a small number of Catholics of Polish, German and Lithuanian descent in an enormously vast region of the Diocese of Novosibirsk, north of the city of Yekaterinburg. They carry out their activity in these three centers: Nizhni Tagil, Krasnoturinsk and Severouralsk. Four Daughters of Charity from the Province of Slovakia also work in Nizhni Tagil.
In Cameroon, Father Gérard Du made the canonical visitation, from 29 March to 30 April, of the Region of Cameroon, which is incorporated in the Province of Paris.
The Vincentians have a Scholasticate on the outskirts of the capital, Yaoundé. In it are brought together the students of Philosophy and Theology, as well as some students in the preparatory year. All the students take classes outside the house, in two institutes open to religious of different congregations. In Bafoussam, some 240 km north of Yaoundé, the confreres animate a growing parish, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, whose church is under construction, with a mission post a kilometer away.
In the English-speaking zone, in the south of the country, the confreres take care of the large rural parish of Saint Andrew in the Diocese of Buéa. It has more than 5000 Christians and occupies a large territory, with two other chapels and a mission post in the rainforest.
Lastly, three confreres recently settled in a district of Douala, the large maritime port of the south, and help the priests with the celebration of Sunday Masses.
In Brazil, Father José Antonio Ubillús during the visit that he made to the Province of Curitiba, from 9 April to 8 May, spoke with all the confreres and students and visited the multiple pastoral, social and formation works for which the province is responsible and which allow its Vincentian identity to appear ever more clearly. He also had the opportunity, on several occasions, to meet with the Daughters of Charity and other members of the Vincentian Family, especially the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul.
In Argentina, Father José María Nieto visited, from 14 March to 10 May, the province and the community that the Province of Slovenia has in this country.
The first CM missionaries arrived in Argentina in 1859. Today, the Province of Argentina has ten communities, seven in Argentina, two in Paraguay and one in Uruguay. It is made up of 43 missionaries (13 of them are younger than 40), with a median age of 53. In the last ten years,
the number of missionaries has gone down a bit, but the province has been notably rejuvenated. In addition, it has 17 candidates in various stages of formation. Of these, two are doing the pastoral year before ordination, four are already admitted and four others will make the Internal Seminary in Lima, along with the seminarians from Peru and Chile. The province has two seminaries for the formation of our own candidates, one in Argentina and the other in Paraguay. Pastoral work with youth, vocational promotion and initial formation are some of the principal provincial concerns.
In 2001, at the request of the bishops and after 129 years, the province left the National Shrine of Our Lady of Luján, Patroness of Argentina. At present, the province takes care of three parish shrines (Buenos Aires, Montevideo, San Juan), two mission parishes, three schools, the two seminaries already mentioned, a mission house, and the Provincial House in Buenos Aires. The social, financial and religious climates of apostolic activity are rather different, because the territory of the province is quite extensive and the three countries in which the province is present are very different. Nevertheless, in the various provincial ministries, the missionaries try to reveal the Vincentian spirit and work with dedication and missionary availability in favor of the poor.
In Uruguay and Argentina the secular mentality is becoming ever more intense and our confreres share with the dioceses in undertaking evangelization, supporting the formation of the laity of the Vincentian Family and accompanying groups of lay missionaries.
Our Slovenian missionaries came to Argentina, accompanying the refugees who left Slovenia at the end of the Second World War. In 1956, they set up a community of the Province of Slovenia in Lanús, near Buenos Aires, and there, in the Mary Our Queen School, four missionaries today carry out an educational ministry. Another missionary is part of this community and, for more than 20 years, he has been caring for the Miraculous Medal Parish in San Carlos de Bariloche, at 1600 km from Lanús, in Patagonia.
General Postulation: A book, entitled, Santi e Beati della Famiglia Vincenziana (Saints and Blessed of the Vincentian Family) and prepared by the Postulator General, Father Giuseppe Guerra, is about to be published by CLV – Edizioni Vincenziane, Rome.
In the volume are gathered the biographical profiles of the Saints, Blessed, Venerable, and Servants of God of the Vincentian Family. All those whose causes have concluded or, at least, for whom the Diocesan Phase has officially begun are included as Servants of God.
Treasurer General: Father John Gouldrick, visited Hungary from 20-24 April at the request of the Visitor, Father Józef Łucyszyn. From 11-12 May, he led the work of the Finance Commission: Fathers Philippe Lamblin, Province of Paris; Santiago Azcárate, Province of Zaragoza; Bernard Meade, Province of Ireland; José Luis Fernández, Province of Peru; and Thomas Stehlik, Province of the South, USA. They reviewed the report of the past financial year, made some reflections on the information that the Visitors provide each year and discussed the effects, in the short and long term, of the decline in the value of the dollar with respect to the euro.
Curia House. On 17 May, the community bid farewell to Brother Adam Budzyna, thanking him for his many services during his almost eight-year stay in the Curia and asking the Lord to bless his new assignment. On the 6^th, Brother Fahed Yehya arrived to replace Brother Adam.
2. Meeting of the Councils of Italy.
On 11-12 April, at Casa Maria Inmacolata in Rome, the Provincial Councils of the three Provinces of Italy met. There were a total of 18 missionaries, among the Visitors and councillors. The theme was Initial Formation of our own candidates.
Statute for the Internal Seminary of Europe: They began by focusing on the “Statute for the Internal Seminary of Europe.” Father Antonello reported on the most recent steps taken at the meeting of 21-30 March in Madrid, at which the changes suggested by the Provincial Councils were made. These were to be gathered together in a new draft of the project, drawn up by Fathers Santiago Azcárate and Félix Álvarez before 30 April, so that it could be reviewed by the various Provincial Councils and then at the Visitors’ Meeting in Mexico.
National Scholasticate: They moved on with the theme, considering the proposal for beginning a National Scholasticate. Father Albanesi situated the common project in the broader context of the entire initial formation of our candidates on the level of the three Italian provinces. After having set forth the juridical status of the “Fondazione Collegio Alberoni” he threw out the hypothesis of constituting the seat of the National Scholasticate in the said “Collegio Alberoni.”
Formation Team: Given that the council decided in favor of beginning collaboration on the National Scholasticate next year and since they will also have a European Internal Seminary next year, they thought of a formation team to cover the entire formative arc from the Internal Seminary to the Scholasticate. The team will be made up of three people: one to participate on the team of the Internal Seminary (Naples), another as Director of the Theology Scholasticate (Turin) and another as support in the Theology Scholasticate (Rome).
The Councils agreed to meet again in Cagliari, from 3-7 September, in order to make their retreat together and to add an extra day to continue reflecting on this theme.
3. Naples: Consecrated Life and the Formation of the Laity in Today’s Context
On 8-9 May, the Province of Naples organized a meeting in the Provincial House on the theme: Consecrated life and the new formative contexts for the service of the laity.
4. Turin: Animators of Charity
On 26 June, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., in conformity with the calendar of the Provincial Project and in response to the petition of the Provincial Assembly, a meeting will be held in Turin of all the missionaries, who, on various levels, work in the area of animation of charity.
5. Brazil: Interprovincial Internal Seminary
Eleven seminarians and one priest, as superior of the house and Director of the Seminary, began the Interprovincial Internal Seminary. The seminarians are: five from the Province of Rio, three from the Province of Fortaleza and three from the Province of Curitiba. “Juridically we were admitted for our provinces, but with the embrace of our director in welcoming us into the Congregation and in the certainty that the commitment to our vocation assumed on this day obliges us to live this year, and all the following ones, well, we will try, in the light of Vincentian teaching, to empty ourselves and put on the spirit of Jesus Christ.”
6. Rio de Janeiro: Lectio Divina
Sixty-six people from the Vincentian Family (33 from the C.M., 22 Daughters of Charity and 11 laypersons) gathered from 22-28 April in Rio de Janeiro to talk about Lectio Divina, a topic which is always current and also appropriate for Vincentians in the 21^st century. Precisely, in recent days, Benedict XVI, commenting on the figure of Origen, affirmed that “in the prayerful reading of Scripture and in consistent commitment to life, the Church is ever renewed and rejuvenated.” Also in those days, the Press Office of the Holy See presented the “Lineamenta” of the 12^th Ordinary General Assembly, which will be held in the Vatican from 5-26 October 2008, on the theme: “The Word of God in the life and mission of the Church.”
7. Slovakia: Ongoing formation of the youngest
On 10-13 April, at the request of the Visitor, Father Stanislav Zonták, a meeting was held in the Province of Slovakia of the younger missionaries of the province, ordained from 1993. A total of 18 missionaries met. Some are working in Ukraine or in the Czech Republic. The meeting had two parts: the formative first part in which they reflected on two themes: Friendship with women and Lukewarmness and laziness in priestly life; and the second part, which had a communitarian and sporting character. This meeting helped them to see again the greatness of priestly service and to taste the happiness of community life.
8. SIEV
On 12-14 April 2007 SIEV (International Secretariat for Vincentian Studies) met in Paris. It was the first of two meetings scheduled for 2007. They were two and a half days full of work and excitement. More information, in Spanish, can be found on the website of the C.M.: http://www.cmglobal.org/es/institutes/siev/paris07-1.htm
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