NUNTIA. January 2008

From the General Curia: New Visitors’ Meeting; Condolences to Father Ubillús; Father Manuel Ginete. From the Provinces: Kenya: Worrying Days; North India: Uncontrolled Violence; Brazil, Curitiba: A festive 25 January; Slovenia: The Celje House; Vice-Province of Nigeria: Annual Vice-Provincial Meeting; Diaconal Ordination and Vows; Blessing and Official Opening of the AIC National Secretariat, Nigeria; Venezuela: Formation Session; Mexico: Newly Incorporated into the C.M. Solidarity with DREAM; Nominationes; Ordinationes; Necrologium
From the General Curia:
New Visitors’ Meeting: This is, without doubt, the month’s most important event. It tied up the Superior General completely from 9-15 January, and the different members of the Curia more or less intensely.
The meeting is faithfully reported on the Website of the C.M.: https://cmglobal.org. We were happy to receive the participants in the Curia House and thank them for their visit, which will be preserved in our memory by this photo for Nuntia.
The Superior General: After visiting the JMV International Council in Madrid and the Internal Seminary and Vincentian groups in Avila, he returned to Rome on the 8th to be present at the New Visitors’ Meeting. On  the 19th he left for Cameroon, from where he returned on the 29th. He will conclude the month by taking part in the Meeting of the International Heads of some branches of the Vincentian Family.
Condolences to Father Ubillús: Once again the Curia had to accompany one of its members in his sorrow. This time it was Father Jose Antonio Ubillús, who, on 20 January, received from Peru the sad news of the death of his mother. He left for Peru that very day. We accompany him with our prayer.
Father Manuel Ginete, Delegate of the Superior General to the Vincentian Family, visited diverse countries where the presence of the Vincentian Family is advancing steadily, although they hardly appear in the limelight of Vincentian news.
Last November he participated in and gave a conference at the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Vincentian Family’s foundation, as a group, in Holland. Among the most impressive things that he discovered on this trip is that the Congregations with the most number of members in this country, which take part in our Family, are not the ones that we usually know. Rather, they are the Sisters of the Charity of Our Lady, Mother of Mercy and the Brothers of Our Lady, Mother of Mercy. These are two Congregations founded by Johannes Zwijsen, the first Archbishop of Utrecht after the Church’s reorganization in the Netherlands. He was deeply inspired by Saint Vincent de Paul. The Congregations are present in several other countries, among which are Indonesia and Brazil, where they are very involved in Vincentian Family movements. More than ten other Congregations or Institutes belong to the Vincentian Family too. The Delegate, on this occasion, visited the General Houses of some of them in Utrecht and in Tilburg and spoke to their respective General Councils. He also stayed with the missionaries in Panningen and Nijmegen.
From Holland, he went to Paris in order to give talks on the Vincentian Family to the missionaries at the CIF session.
From 10-23 February, Father Ginete traveled to Puerto Rico, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. In these countries he met with the respective coordinating groups of the Vincentian Family, with the National Councils of some branches of the Vincentian Family and with representatives of AIC, JMV, DC, SVP and CM. He also visited some important social centers in Port-au-Prince, Santo Domingo, San Juan and Ponce. In all of them the spirit is clearly Vincentian and there remains a strong desire to work for the poor. In the midst of so much poverty and need, the members of the Vincentian Family are inventive and have much initiative in their service to the poor.
From the Provinces:
Kenya: Worrying Days. In a state of uneasiness, we got the news from Kenya that came through the mass media or particular communiqués to the Superior General. The violence unleashed after the elections, with many dead and missing persons, with much difficulty in finding provisions or simply going out of house, put at serious risk the lives of our confreres, their families and the poor. The final days of December and the first ones of January were particularly difficult. Things seemed to be calming down from the 6th, but still we need insistent prayer to obtain from the Lord a sure and lasting peace.
North India: Uncontrolled Violence. For numerous western missionaries, especially the Spanish, the State of Orissa is familiar. The former Mission of Cuttack, which supported the missionary vocation of so many confreres, was located there. In the final days of December, the violence of a group of Hindu fundamentalists was unleashed. The FIDES Agency says that at least 71 churches ― many of them Catholic ― were destroyed and burnt, more than 500 houses of Christian citizens were assaulted and, among their goods and properties, more than 100 were devastated.
The Congregation of the Mission has 23 centers in Orissa and four parishes in the zone affected by the violence: Jubaguda, Dukuma, Padangui and Kotogorh. In Padangui, they came in to sack, destroying all that they could, though the structure was saved; in Kotogorh, they threw bombs into the house and students’ residence, but nothing serious happened to the missionary center. The missionaries and the sisters fled to the Christian settlements of the interior or hid in the jungle for fear of their lives.
Although this is not the first time that the Christians have been bothered by the Hindu fundamentalists, no one had ever organized a massive assault of such proportions.
According to EFE (Spain’s world news agency), the recent report of an organ of the Indian Federation, the National Commission on Religious Minorities of non-denominational nature, confirmed that the violence of last December “was premeditated and organized,” and that episodes of this type might be repeated. It is of concern, the report indicates, that, although the attacks were announced in advance, nothing was done to prepare and protect the Indian citizens of Christian faith, who experienced days of terror and saw their places of worship and own homes torched and devastated.
Brazil, Curitiba: A festive 25 January. The Visitor, Father Euzébio Spisla, began his homily thus: “On this 25th of January 2008, when we commemorate once again the foundation of the Congregation of the Mission, we gather in this chapel of the former Saint Vincent’s Seminary, now Saint Vincent’s School, to celebrate the Eucharist with much happiness.”
“We know, and we teach the faithful, that to celebrate the Eucharist is to celebrate Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection, the great mystery of our faith. But to celebrate the Eucharist is also to celebrate life’s events. Today we celebrate the Golden Jubilees of Monsignor Isidoro Kosinski and Father João Gorka; we also celebrate the Silver Jubilees of Fathers Lourenço Mika and Arno Longo. We will bring to this celebration too the next step that our brothers on their vocational journey. Clóvis Marques da Silva Oliveira, Fernando Pimentel, Joelsio Saibot and Nilton Nantes make Good Purposes to devote themselves to the poor throughout their entire life. Joubert Luciano Ferrarezi and Marco Aurelio Soares da Costa take their vows, demonstrating that they want to consecrate themselves faithfully to the evangelization of the poor for all their life in the Congregation of the Mission, following Christ the Evangelizer.”
“All of us, brothers and priests, who one day made our vows, renew our donation to God for the sake of our suffering brothers.”
Slovenia: The Celje House. The oldest of the Slovenian Province, has had its ups and downs. The most difficult trials it had to support were the German occupation at the beginning of World War II and, after the war, nationalization by the Communist power. In 1990, the house was returned to the province. Reconstructed, it was blessed in 1997 by Father Maloney, Superior General. Since then, a small part has been reserved for the missionaries, while most is used for retreats, conferences, courses and other meetings of a spiritual nature. The house fulfills an important missionary service, since it is open to non-believers and people little inclined to the Church. At the end of 2007, it was enlarged with a residence for retreats, blessed by Father Gregory Gay, Superior General. The Mass, celebrated by many missionary and diocesan priests, in the presence of Monsignor Anton Stres CM, was presided by his Eminence Cardinal Franc Rodé.
Vice-Province of Nigeria:
Annual Vice-Provincial Meeting: From 7-10 January 2008, the confreres of the Vice-Province of Nigeria met in the Blessed Ghebre Michael House, Abiakpo Ntak Inyang, for their Annual General Meeting. The theme was: A Healthy Community for a Healthy Mission. We invited a team from the Security in Health of a famous hospital, which gave the confreres a one-day workshop on health. On 9 January, the missionaries began to discuss matters of the vice-province itself. During the meeting many pertinent issues were treated, including the health of the missionaries. At the end of the meeting the missionaries decided that it was necessary to put funds aside annually for the health needs of the confreres in the vice-province.
Diaconal Ordination and Vows: The vice-province was blessed with the diaconal ordination of two confreres: Nicholas Ikpeme, C.M. and Nicholas Ibeneme, C.M. on the 6th and 26th respectively. Nicholas Ikpeme was ordained deacon in the Cardinal Ekandem Minor Seminary, Uyo, by Bishop Joseph Ekuwem of the Diocese of Uyo, while Nicholas Ibeneme (who made his vows in the Saint Vincent de Paul House, Maryland, Enugu, on 24 January 2008) was ordained in Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church, Mgbidi, Diocese of Orlu, by Bishop Gregory Ochiagha of the Diocese of Orlu. Nicholas Ikpeme has returned to the Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu, to complete his theology studies, while Nicholas Ibeneme, who studied theology in Tangaza College, Kenya, is doing pastoral work at Immaculate Conception Parish in Utagba-Uno, Diocese of Warri.
Blessing and Official Opening of the AIC National Secretariat, Nigeria (Ladies of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul): On 27 January 2008, the local community of Enugu hosted Bishop Anthony Gbuji, who came to officially inaugurate and bless the AIC National Secretariat. The event attracted many people, including Vincentian missionaries, the president and members of AIC-Nigeria, parishioners of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Maryland, Enugu and others from different areas of life, who wanted to congratulate us. After the ceremony, the local community invited the Bishop and some guests to a well served luncheon in the Provincial House of the Congregation in Maryland, Enugu.
Venezuela: Formation Session. According to provincial planning, at the beginning of the year we have a formation session for the province’s missionaries. The subject matter was in accord with the Document that CELAM gave us as a result of the Conference held in APARECIDA, Brazil. The topics studied were the following:
1- Brief overview of the Document according to its text and context
2- Sense of being: “Disciples and Missionaries in order that the world (and in our case, VENEZUELA) might believe and have Life in Him”
3- Catechizing in the here and now of Latin America and the Caribbean
4- Vocational promotion
5- Mission: Be Church = Be Missionaries and Be Missionaries = Be Church
As one can see, this is a subject matter very much of the Church and of our Continent, as well as proper to our Congregation and missionary vocation.
Mexico: Newly Incorporated into the C.M.. This Province too celebrated, with solemnity and happiness, the feast of 25 January. In Lagos de Moreno, at a meeting of those responsible for formation, three theology students made vows in the Congregation of the Mission.
Solidarity with DREAM: As a sign of solidarity, the Congregation is trying to collect US $100,000 every year, for a period of five years, to help the Daughters of the Charity and Community of Sant’Egidio in their Project DREAM to fight AIDS, especially in Africa (where DREAM presently has centers in ten countries). An anonymous donor has offered to match every annual contribution, up to this sum, for a period of five years.
Errata: In the previous issue, December 2007, NUNTIA, in describing the international composition of the Vice-Province of Saints Cyril and Methodius, omitted the participation of three missionaries from Slovenia, in spite of the fact that they were included in the report that Father Kapuściak gave. We regret the omission.
Nominationes

Ordinationes

Necrologium