NUNTIA No. 6, June 2007

The General Curia

The Superior General, the Assistants General, the Secretary General, the three sisters who serve in the Curia, the Treasurer General and Superior of the community, and Fathers Ginete, Suescun and Becerra, as those responsible for other offices of the Curia, moved to Mexico, during the first two weeks of June, in order to participate in the Visitors’ Meeting. Only Father Giuseppe Guerra with the two brothers of the community, L’ubomír Žemla and Fahed Yahya, remained in the house. Brother L’ubomír took advantage of the time to spend a few vacation days in his country. On the 25^th, we said a definitive farewell to Brother Adam Budzyna who, upon returning from Poland, left for his new assignment in New York.

The Visitors’ Meeting

Although the event has had worldwide resonance through https://cmglobal.org, the website of the Congregation, and www.famvin.org/fr with a daily chronicle, and although Vincentiana will dedicate an upcoming issue to collecting the material presented, Nuntia cannot pass by this news, which is so significant for the entire Congregation spread throughout the whole world.

The four tasks, pointed out by the Preparatory Commission, to attain the objectives indicated by the Superior General in the convocation letter of the meeting, were fully accomplished. In deepening the theme of Ongoing Formation, they sought to find tools for a more intense development of this same subject in the provinces and communities. They went over what was called the “Agenda of the Superior General” in which he made known to them the procedures of the various organisms dependent on the Curia, which try to serve the missionaries in their life and apostolic mission. This was opened up frequently to dialogue on what had been presented. There was time for the different Visitors’ Conferences to move forward with their programs. Finally, there were moments of prayer, spontaneous dialogue, relaxation and celebration among the participants of the meeting.

Perhaps without a detailed program, but with no less efficiency, the Technical Commission of the Province of Mexico carried out its assignment. It had three premises, which while not written, quickly became evident: to be attentive to all the needs of the confreres, to be available to resolve them and to be prompt at this. They thus made everyone feel at home, in spite of being in a rented house, the House of the Mexican Episcopal Conference. The moments that we enjoyed together in the Provincial House gave an even more family flavor to our meeting as brothers. The satisfaction and gratitude of all to the Province of Mexico were palpable.

Visitors’ Conferences

Nothing was communicated by the various Visitors’ Conferences about what they treated during their meetings in Mexico, but there are two important, we might say almost historic, events:

In CEVIM the Statutes for the European Internal Seminary were signed

Having evaluated very positively the experience of recent years in Teruel, the Visitors of Southern Europe and the Middle East asked Fathers Santiago Azcárate and Félix Álvarez to prepare a first draft of the new Statute, taking into account the experience and the contributions collected during the meeting.

The Visitors and Fathers Santiago Azcárate and Félix Álvarez met in Madrid on 29 March. Each Visitor, after having studied the draft of the new Statute with his council, evaluated the good work carried out and made some contributions for improving the text. The contributions that substantially modified the text were discussed in order to see if they should be introduced. Once again, it was confided to Fathers Santiago and Félix to prepare a second draft.

The Visitors met again on the occasion of the Meeting of the Visitors of the Congregation, in Mexico on 5 June. They approved, unanimously, the Statute, which was signed on 10 June by the Visitors of the Orient, Paris, Toulouse, Naples, Rome, Turin, Barcelona, Zaragoza, Salamanca, Madrid and Portugal, together with the Superior General.

The Internal Seminary will begin, God willing, in Avila with the following formation team: Father Fernando Casado, Director; Fathers Félix Álvarez and Salvatore Farì. The celebration of the initiation of the Internal Seminary will be on 26 September. There will be eight or nine seminarians for the School Year 2007-2008, according to the estimation of the Visitors.

APCV will supply personnel to the International Mission of the Solomon Islands

In an historical decision, the Asian-Pacific Conference of Visitors has promised to help, by sending personnel, the International Mission of the Solomon Islands. This help will provide personnel for the Holy Name of Mary Seminary, the Nazareth Apostolic Center and the Good Shepherd Parish, located near the capital, Honiara.

As an International Mission, it will continue encouraging and welcoming missionaries coming from other provinces outside the Asian-Pacific area, especially if they are experts in the various fields of philosophy and theology.

From being an initial seminary, taking care of the foreseen theology formation of the diocesan seminarians, the Holy Name of Mary Seminary became, in February 2007, a full seminary.

At present, the missionaries, who work in Honiara, are full-time volunteers coming from Australia-Fiji (2), Indonesia (2), Philippines (2), Slovenia-Croatia (1) and occasional professors from India.

The Nazareth Apostolic Center prepares catechists to work in the various parishes of the dioceses in the Solomon Islands.

The parish is a relatively recent foundation.

The signing of the agreement between the General Curia and APVC took place on 14 June 2007, during the Visitors’ Meeting in Mexico City.

From the Provinces and Vice-Provinces

Poland: “Vincentinum”

On 20 May 2007, in Krzeszowice (25 km. from Kraków), the celebration of the blessing and opening of the Vincentian Formation Center, “Vincentinum,” took place. The solemn celebration was presided by His Eminence Franciszek Cardinal Macharski, former Archbishop of Kraków. Among the participants present were Father Józef Kapuściak (Vicar General), Father Arkadiusz Zakręta (Visitor of Poland), Father Roman Gorowski (Visitor of New England, USA), Father Józef Łucyszyn (Visitor of Hungary), Father Stanislav Zonták (Visitor of Slovakia), and Father Ján Martinček (delegate of the Vice-Visitor of Saints Cyril and Methodius). A large number of missionaries, Daughters of Charity and members of the Vincentian Family participated in this event. That very day was also the 80^th birthday of Cardinal Macharski.

Nigeria: Workshop on collaboration

From 2-4 May 2007, the Ongoing Formation Commission of the Vice-Province of Nigeria organized a workshop for all the missionaries of the vice-province. The workshop focused on collaboration among confreres, with the diocesan bishops and with other religious and associations, offering compromises among the different ages of the confreres.

The workshop was well attended by the majority of the confreres. At the end, each local community made known its resolution as to how to improve collaboration, especially among the various ministries. The meeting also served for dialogue with other confreres and for some relaxation.

Turin: Spiritual Exercises in Pallanza

The news bulletin, Communio, of the Turin Province for May 2007, tells of the Spiritual Exercises held in Pallanza. The notice is not new, but it is worth recalling so that it might serve as an orientation for other retreats in Community.

They ascertain that there were some lovely days of community life. A flyer was prepared with the retreat plan, which indicated the rhythm of the days. The figures of Nicodemus, Mary Magdalene, Peter, and Thomas were the focus of the reflections on new birth, the experience of Christ, the mystery of God’s mercy, kind humanity that springs forth from the new spiritual birth and, lastly, living kindness, in fraternity, as a means of evangelization.

On three days, in the early evening, they shared reflections in the fraternal style of repetition of prayer. The various times of prayer were presided over, in turn, by one of the participants. To highlight, three of the prayer times were: the recitation of the rosary, passing all together through the gardens of the house; the penitential liturgy; and the hour of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, meditating on the exhortation, Sacramentum Caritatis. The morning meditation was begun by the Visitor with the reading of a paragraph from the talk of Benedict XVI in Verona and a paragraph from the Gospel.

During meals, the first volume of Il Signor Manzella, by Father Sategna, was read to remind us of the 70 years since the death of Father Manzella. In the evening, for those who wished to see them on the large screen some films like The Life and Works of Sister Nicoli, whose beatification approaches, Saint Peter by Giulio Base, and The Great Silence by Philip Groning were shown.

Mexico: Three young men incorporated into the C.M.

On 3 June, the major portion of the missionaries recently arrived in Mexico for the upcoming Visitors’ Meeting, went to the Tlalpan Seminary in order to be with the Province of Mexico for the incorporation into the Congregation of three young men who made their vows on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity.

The resulting celebration was solemn and devout, as Saint Vincent would have liked us to celebrate the feast of this Mystery. The Solemnity shown in a splendid morning, a gift from the Lord for this day, and in the happiness of a celebration animated with the youthful enthusiasm of the songs of our students. The devotion was adorned by the joyful cordiality around the table of the Lord, among many friends, Priests of the Mission, seminarians and lay members of the Vincentian Family and others.

Among them, Eliseo, Juan and Toribio, who made their vows, remind us that today a young person can fall in love with Christ, Evangelizer of the Poor, and commit himself to following him for life in chastity, poverty and obedience.

Chile: Priestly and Diaconal Ordinations

On Saturday, 2 June, the Apostolic Nuncio in Chile, Msgr. Aldo Cavalli, conferred Diaconal Ordination on three students of the Province of Chile. They are Pablo González, Rodis Christensen and Cristian Villalon.

On the same occasion, he also ordained Deacon Luis Montaño, from the Province of Chile, but of Bolivian nationality, to the priesthood. The Visitor and the entire province expressed their great joy at this event, which strengthens the apostolic personnel of the province so necessary to accomplish the various commitments that it has.

A large number of faithful from the various works of the province, family members of those ordained, Daughters of Charity and a majority of the confreres of the province united in the celebration in the Church of Saint Sebastian, next to the Saint Vincent de Paul Seminary in the Macul district, which is located in the southeast section of Santiago. All of them participated in the delight of the province and of each one of the newly ordained.

Rome: Upcoming ordinations

The Provincial Council has given its favorable opinion to the petition of the students, Alberto Quagliaroli, Riccardo Sasso and Bernard Jalkh to be ordained to the priesthood and discussed their future assignments.

Rome: Leonine College

On 31 May, with the signature before the notary of the Holy See, Marin, we took full possession of the property of the Leonine. At the same time, we arrived at an agreement, after much coming and going, with the owners of the Visconti School to relinquish the locality in advance before 31 July 2007. This will permit us to follow through with the project of the University of our confreres of the United States to begin a university campus in the Leonine.

After many years of uncertainty, it appears that we are beginning to see a secure way for the development and transformation of the Leonine.

This operation will permit the Leonine to have a source of income for its maintenance and a solid base for the province to finance its missionary activity and to have greater economic consistency.

Communications Office

The technical means of today allow us to know about events almost in direct. This is undoubtedly a value for feeling united in the mission that the Congregation carries out in the whole world. In the near future, https://cmglobal.org will function in parallel in the three official languages and also in Italian. It will not be the site of the Curia, but it will be managed from the Curia as an open window to the entire Congregation. Keeping it alive will depend upon the frequency with which news arrives from the provinces. The Visitors promised to name correspondents from their respective provinces. We already have the names, now we await the news.

NUNTIA will continue as a written means of communication, but, given its monthly frequency and rather limited diffusion, it cannot aspire to more than being a collection of file news and, maybe, an information resource for those who do not have access to the Internet.

Because of a series of setbacks, the first issue of 2007 of VINCENTIANA is still sleeping. Nevertheless, we are confident in being able to publish it soon, getting out within the year all five issues as planned. Through the indication of the Visitors, we count on a good number of translators, without whose help, hidden but well-merited, it would be impossible to go forward with this project.

Ordinationes

Necrologium

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