From the General Curia:The Students from the Leonine at the Curia; Three Polish Visitors; Ongoing Formation; Condolences to Father Claudio; Activities of the Superior General; Visits of the Assistants General: Barcelona; Cif; Vice-Province of Saints Cyril and Methodius; Israel; Indonesia. Other News from the Provinces: Turin, Meeting of Superiors and Treasurers; Fortaleza: Formation Commission, Ordinations
NUNTIA. December 2007
From the General Curia:
The Students from the Leonine at the Curia: On 2 December, the First Sunday of Advent, we took pleasure in welcoming to the General Curia the priest-students of the C.M., who live at the Leonine. This is an annual meeting, which, by the diversity of languages and countries of origin, in a certain way represents the entire Congregation. Sharing with the young men of the Congregation their happiness and enthusiasm for renewed formation was one more sign of prophetic hope in Advent just begun.
Three Polish Visitors: Before the end of November, on the 29th, the Visitor of Hungary and the Visitor of Poland came to Rome to meet with Father Rafał Kopystynski, the new Visitor of New England. We shared good moments of fraternity at Mass and at table with the three Polish Visitors that the C.M. has now.
Ongoing Formation: One of the mornings during the tempo forte meetings is reserved for the ongoing formation of all the members of the Curia. This time, Father W. Müller, a Divine Word priest, explained to us, with simplicity, experimental knowledge and liveliness, the situation of the Church in China. He also made us happy by declaring himself close to the CM, not only for the knowledge of the work of our Congregation in China, but also because they, the Divine Word Missionaries, from their foundation have invoked Saint Vincent three times a day as special patron and protector.
Condolences to Father Claudio: The entire community shared the sorrow and the pain of Father Claudio Santangelo, Secretary General of the C.M., on the death of his father at the age of 68. For six long months, Father Claudio gave himself to his work with the uncertainty and anguish of an end that he saw ever closer and inevitable.
Up to the small village of Isola, in the region of Le Marche, covered with a heavy cap of snow, six representatives of our community, and one of the sisters who works in the secretariat, made their way to take part in the funeral. There we met the Visitor of Rome and two missionaries from the Leonine. On the octave of his death, the whole house met to celebrate, with Father Claudio, a Mass for the eternal repose of his father.
Activities of the Superior General: Besides attending to our above-mentioned guests, he presided at the tempo forte council meeting from 3 to 7 December; from the 8th to the 9th, he took part in the Meeting of JMV’s National Councils of Europe and the Middle East in Slovakia; and, from the 12th to the 23rd, he visited the Province of the Orient. This gave him the opportunity to visit the Holy Places and pray for the whole Vincentian Family, as he related in his letter of Christmas greetings.
On 27-28 December, he moved with the council to Casa Maria Immacolata on Via Ezio in order to evaluate the functioning of the council in its diverse activities and relationships.
Visits of the Assistants General:
José María Nieto visited the Province of Barcelona from 18 October to 15 November.
This is the smallest (44 missionaries) and also the youngest (average age 60.9 years) province of the four Provinces of Spain. The origins of this province go back to 1774. In 1902, Barcelona attained its present-day configuration.
Barcelona had a long missionary history in Peru (1914-1951) and in the United States (1914-2004), a history that continues today in Moskitia, Honduras. There 11 missionaries work at present: 25% of the province. In Spain, the province devotes itself to several ministries: two of the most important are parishes and spiritual accompaniment of the Vincentian Family.
The province has several young missionaries, but few candidates, and, for this reason, vocational promotion is a priority. The secularized social environment, religious indifference and the progressive aging of our missionaries mean that ongoing formation is also one of the most important provincial challenges.
The regions of this province (Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands) welcome tourists and also many immigrants. These latter, among whom are many poor, are a difficult area, open to the evangelizing and missionary work of our confreres.
A brother of Barcelona directs “COVIDE-AMVE,” which is an NGO sponsored by the CM Visitors and the DC Visitatrixes of Spain. This NGO, an important means of awareness-building and missionary formation, is a channel of help for social and cultural development in places where Spanish missionaries work. In 2006, it supported 87 projects in Africa, Latin America and Asia, to the amount of € 1,650,000.
José Antonio Ubillúsvisited, from 27-29 November, the confreres who are presently at the head of CIF, Fathers Hugh O’Donnell, Juan Julián Díaz Catalán and José Carlos Fonsatti. After greeting the participants of the 21st Ongoing Formation Session, he met with those in charge of CIF to talk about the programs for the year 2008, the participation by regions in the Ongoing Formation Program and the finances. FatherUbillús returned to Rome very satisfied for having seen, once again, how well CIF functions.
Józef Kapuściak visited the Vice-Province of Saints Cyril and Methodius.
The Vice-Province was erected in 2001 and it presently has 26 members, among whom, a bishop, (Msgr. Milan Šášik, Apostolic Administrator of Mukachevo, Byzantine – Slavonic rite), 24 priests and a student. In addition, there are six admitted members, two students who have yet to make the Internal Seminary and one postulant. The vice-province is very international. Among the incorporated members there are 12 Polish, six Ukrainians, four Slovaks and one Irish. But it is also very extensive. It has erected houses in three countries of the former Soviet Union, of Orthodox majority: Russia (1), Belarus (1) and Ukraine (4).
Father Kapuściak also reported on the visits:
In Russia, I visited, from April 30 to May 4, both missionaries of Nizhny Tagil’s house (beyond the Urals),who attend to the Catholics spread over the northwestern part of the very vast Diocese of Novosibirsk. The three principal centers of pastoral action are: Nizhny Tagil, Krasnoturinsk and Severouralsk.
From 23-27 November, I visited the five missionaries who work in Belarus: one in the major seminary of the Diocese of Grodno and the other four in parish work in the Diocese of Pinsk. Because of the denominational politics of the country, these four reside in different cities (Prużhany, Shereshevo, Ruzhany and Kosovo) and work individually.
Most of the missionaries of the vice-province live and work in Ukraine, where I was from 7-22 November. The Vice-Provincial House, which is also a house of formation, is in Kiev, the capital. The second house is in Kharkiv, almost 500 kilometers east of Kiev, where three missionaries are committed to parish and charitable activity. The third house, Storozhynets, is near the border with Romania, almost 600 kilometers southeast of Kiev. Three missionaries reside there, attending to the Catholics of the city and six other villages in a radius of 5-35 kilometers. The fourth house, Perečín, is in Western Ukraine, almost 800 kilometers from Kiev, in the region called Zakarpatya. Four missionaries live together there, three of them responsible for the pastoral activity in five parishes and the fourth dedicated part-time to the popular missions.
I was able to note that the missionaries of the vice-province work with great generosity and devotion, dedicating themselves not only to pastoral work, but also to the construction and reconstruction of churches, chapels and pastoral centers.
Also the service of charity, in collaboration with other members of the Vincentian Family, occupies an important place.
Father Gérard Du made two visits: to Israel from 15-23 October and to Indonesia from 27 October to 29 November.
Visit to Israel: Father François Bourzeix was sent by the Superior General of the time, Father Fiat, to found this house. A Daughter of Charity of a house in Brittany took care of the expenses.
The confreres served as chaplains for the Saint Vincent Hospice, run by the Daughters of Charity, which was only five minutes away by foot. Soon afterward they were to give many retreats to priests and then spiritual direction to religious sisters and the Brothers of Christian Schools, who had a school in the city. Finally, there were regular visits for confessions and for certain ceremonies in the houses of the sisters in Bethlehem, Nazareth and Haifa.
Originally, the new house depended directly on the Motherhouse, but soon the community was annexed to the Province of the Orient, under the authority of the Visitor of Beirut.
In 1906, to accept and form candidates, the Visitor of Beirut, in agreement with the Superior General, founded an Apostolic School (Minor Seminary) that would produce a dozen of priests. Unfortunately, this beautiful work was destroyed during the Second World War.
Nowadays only two confreres belong to this house: Father Álvaro Restrepo, Colombian, and the Egyptian, Father Medhat Hafazallah, who is employed at the hospice of the Daughters of Charity. Three Colombian priests also reside there, of whom two are C.M. missionaries and the third is a Eudist, doing Biblical studies in Jerusalem.
Father Gérard took advantage of his stay in Jerusalem to visit the Holy Places and all the houses of the Daughters of Charity who, with love, devotion and competence, serve the poor, patients and handicapped persons, in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Ain Karem, Bethany, Nazareth and Haifa. The Sisters came to the Holy Land 18 years before the missionaries.
Visit to Indonesia: Indonesia is an immense country, with 1,907,000 square kilometers and 17,000 islands, of which 6,000 are inhabited.
Most of the confreres are Indonesian, although there is also one Dutch, Father Janssen; one Swiss, Father Berset, who is retired; two Italians, Father Ponticelli, pastor and councillor of the Visitor, and Father Catini, director of the Retreat Center, “Domus Mariae.” There is also a Frenchman, Father Gros, who has been a missionary in Papua New Guinea for 11 years, after having lived 20 years in Borneo.
The pastoral activities of the confreres are centered especially in the parishes to the east of the island of Java and more concretely in Surabaya and its surroundings, where the number of Catholics is greater. In 2007, the population was 235 million of whom 86% are Moslem, 5.7% Protestant and 3% Catholic. The confreres also take care of two parishes in the poorest neighborhoods of the capital, Jakarta, which has about ten million inhabitants (23 million with the suburbs).
With the arrival of the foreign missionaries, who were expelled from Vietnam in 1975, the province began, with other missionaries, the evangelization of the country’s largest island, Borneo or Kalimantan. A dozen Indonesian missionaries carry out pastoral work in several localities in the south and west of Borneo. They also visit two dozen villages, which are abandoned both spiritually and materially.
Some confreres work as director or formator in two minor seminaries. Thanks be to God, vocations continue coming. The young men are accompanied and formed from the Internal Seminary to priesthood in two large houses in Malang, an important student city about a hundred kilometers south of Surabaya.
In Malang, the confreres, in collaboration with the Carmelite Fathers, have established an Institute of Philosophy and Theology Studies, of national renown, frequented by approximately 380 students of whom a hundred are seminarians from 13 dioceses of the country and religious from 15 men’s and women’s congregations.
Also in Malang, the Dutch confrere, Father Janssen, who is 85, has established a center for disabled children. This work is carried out in many other localities. Father Janssen is helped by an association of consecrated laity, known as ALMA, which he founded. Today it has approximately 400 members spread out in some 40 communities in a great number of localities. They do an admirable Vincentian work, taking care of disabled or orphaned children. Finally, we should point out that this creative and true son of Saint Vincent has developed two centers for the training of catechists, one in Malang, next to his residence, and the other in Madiun, in the Diocese of Surabaya.
Other News from the Provinces:
Turin, Meeting of Superiors and Treasurers: On 5 December, the superiors and treasurers of the province, a total of 26, met in Milan.
The meeting had two parts: in the first, the Visitor recalled the necessity of a more intense spiritual and prayer life in order to feed fraternal life; then he outlined some ways of sharing expected of those responsible for the community. Some of these were entitled: to place oneself in a wise and theological way in the context in which one lives; to form and be formed in the culture of relationships; to know how to resolve conflicts; to develop a culture of relational humility.
Finally it put the accent on two key, delicate points of community life: the local community meeting and the way of carrying it out, and relations between the local superior and the treasurer.
In the second part of the meeting, the Provincial Treasurer gave an introduction to the complex problematic of provincial and local administration (Communio 40, December 2007).
Fortaleza. Formation Commission: Met in the Provincial House on 3-4 December. Present, together with the Visitor, were Fathers Fantico Nonato Borges Silva, Francisco Ivo Sousa Nascimento, Silvio Batista Mitozo, Evaldo Carvalho dos Santos and seminarians Marcelo Ponte (Theology) and Ediga Morais (Philosophy).
On the topic of the formation of future priests according to Saint Vincent, three aspects closely connected to formation were emphasized: spiritual, theological and liturgical. These are three facets which must shape a complete and balanced priest, crowned with an authentic and lively spiritual charity for all and most especially for the poor. Paul VI’s encyclical, Sacerdotalis Caelibatus, was studied. In the study, adequate formation, personal response to the divine call, plan of nature and grace and reception of celibacy as a gift were highlighted.
Suggestions were made with regard to the various formation houses to present to the Provincial Council.
Fortaleza. Ordinations:
On 1 December, in Belém, two of our confreres were ordained deacons by Msgr. Vicente Zico, C.M., and on 12 December, Deacon Antonio Carlos da Silva Alves was ordained priest by Msgr. Ângelo Pignoli, Bishop of the Diocese of Quixadá-CE (Communication from the Provincial Council).
They received a message in a dream
not to return to Herod,
so they went back to their own country
by another route (Mt 2:12).
May the contemplation of the Mystery of the Incarnation keep us attentive to the voice from heaven
in order to open new ways for defending the poor, in whom we want to see the Child of Bethlehem.
