One of the tasks indicated on the program for the Visitors’ Meeting was to provide time for the Visitors to meet by Conferences. This was done all day Monday and on Tuesday morning. This chronicler can attest, judging by the time passed in the Conference meetings, that the work was intense. Up until now no information from these Conference meetings has come to the assembly hall. That was why there was no chronicle on Monday. One thing did come out of the Europe and Middle East Conference; they announced they had signed the Statute for the Interprovincial Internal Seminary. But this was in overtime and it went through a rather singular route as was described in the information published on Cmglobal.
Tuesday afternoon brought other matters. The whole assembly began an open dialogue with the Superior General. In this session the first point was to respond to the written questions that had been turned in. they were very few, only two; and they centered on the relationship of the autonomy of the provinces and the authority of the Superior General over the whole Congregation and the vision the Superior General has after his many visits to the whole Congregation. He commented on the spirit of faith with which the whole Congregation and the Vincentian Family receive the successor of St. Vincent; he blessed God for the zeal and the love of the poor he found in the missionaries. But he questioned an excess of activism and the loss of a more contemplative spirit. The questions from the floor were also few in number; and in general, they expressed gratitude for the impulse to the Vincentian spirit that the visits of the Superior General brought to the different provinces.
After the break came a wonderful lesson on the implementation of the Vincentian solidarity plan by the Econome General, Fr. John Gouldrick. With the help of some Power Point slides so we could keep track of the numbers and the structure, he laid out for us the Financial Plan being directed from the General Curia.
He pointed out the three objectives for this plan: increase the cash flow so that all the provinces can meet their ordinary basic and pastoral needs; make capital improvements; and establish endowment funds for the long term needs of the province.
He reminded us that the plan was set in motion in the generalate of Fr. Maloney, and that the three objectives were being pursued by three different structures responsible to the General Curia. The first of these is the Mission Distribution Fund. This was established in Fr. Maloney’s time with the help of a charitable foundation who required that the Congregation supply matching funds to the foundation’s grant. This was done through the generous help of the provinces, especially of Europe and the United States. Lately other provinces have become donor provinces as well, and two former recipient provinces have now become donor provinces. To respond to the second objective the Vincentian Solidarity Office (VSO) was created. In this meeting, Br. Peter Campbell presented a clear and detailed report about his work. And to respond to the third objective the International Development Office was created. Fr. Carl Pieber, together with the Superior General and the Econome General informed us that the goals of this office (viz, the establishment of patrimonial or endowment funds for the provinces) will be pursued with the help of all. Fr. Gouldrick emphasized that this financial plan wants to give concrete expression to a desire to share the responsibility of being the stewards of the patrimony of the poor. Fr. Gouldrick’s intervention ended with applause that expressed everyone’s satisfaction with his report.
Afterwards came three brief reports by the Superior General: insistence on the creation of Financial Councils in the provinces, the need to unify the system of communication between the Curia and the provinces through the internet, and the report of the Commission for Systemic Change.
At the end of the session came a presentation from the Commission on the Revision of the Statutes of the C.M. This report will be taken up later by the Visitors.
