NUNTIA July 2008

From General Curia: The Superior General; The Asistans Generals; CIF; Visitors’ Conferences: – CEVIM:Meeting of young missionaries. From the Provinces: Japan; Australia; The Fiji Islands Mission. Nominationes; Ordinationes; Necrologium.
From the General Curia.
The Superior General: On 1-2 July, he visited the young missionaries of CEVIM, gathered near Valencia at a meeting of formation and living together internationally. Because Valencia is an important center of activity for the Sisters of the Province of Pamplona, one of the nine Spanish Provinces, it also afforded him the occasion to meet with and speak to a very numerous group of Daughters of Charity coming from the different houses of the capital and surrounding area. From the 3rd to the 5th, he visited with the participants of the Servant-Leadership Course in Paris. On the 6th, he celebrated the Eucharist with the Sisters of the Province of Rome, gathered together in Assembly. On the 7th, he flew to Australia to be present at the meeting of Vincentian Youth, assembled in Bathurst, in preparation for WYD 2008. He will take advantage of the trip to visit various missionary places of the Daughters and confreres in the South Pacific, Australia, and Indonesia. We expect him back on the 30th.
In the photographic composition, there appear different sites of Saint Stanislaus’ College in Bathurst, where the meeting of Vincentian Youth was held at which, along with the Superior General, Father Manuel Ginete, his Delegate for the Vincentian Family, was present.
The Assistants General: The Vicar General, Father Józef Kapuściak, returned on the 21st from his vacation in Poland, during which he also made his annual retreat. Fathers José María Nieto and Gérard Du assisted at the Vincentian Servant-Leadership Course in Paris.
As usually happens in the summer months, the activity in the Curia House has been notably reduced. However, the material activity has increased, with work on a slight renovation of the library and a new, more adequate, space for the archives.
CIF: We transcribe here a brief description by Father José María Nieto of the short course in Paris:
“From 30 June to 18 July 2008, a short course organized by CIF and entitled, Servant-Leadership, took place in Paris. In addition to CIF’s three directors (Fathers Hugh O’Donnell, Juan Julián Díaz Catalán and José Carlos Fonsatti), Fathers Daniel Borlik, Jean-Pierre Renouard, J. Patrick Murphy and Sister Patricia M. Bombard, BVM, participated in the course as experts. The latter two are from the DePaul University’s Leadership Program in Chicago. Since the topic treated servant-leadership, our Superior General had to be present. Besides presiding at the Eucharist, he presented us synthetically his vision of the Congregation of the Mission: our banner and challenge is evangelical charity exercised in a new and updated way through systemic change that radically and integrally transforms the life of the poor and marginalized. An interesting dialog followed his presentation. Passing through Paris, Father Pedro Opeka stimulated us with his enthusiasm as he spoke to us about the Akamasoa (Good Friends) project in Madagascar, which he oversees and at which he has been working for years.
“We were 34 missionaries from 19 provinces and the General Curia. Thirteen participants were Visitors, one was a brother and a good number of the missionaries were young. The meeting was carried out, with the aid of three translators, in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese, and in some other linguistic groups.
“During the meeting each week’s theme was structured around three basic axes: 1) the Christian and Vincentian foundation of servant leadership; 2) some conceptual outlines and several useful tools for the service of leadership; 3) development of a personal plan in order to exercise one’s own leadership and exchange experiences from one’s reality.
“If anyone is interested in the content of this short course, he should know that the participants received a CD-ROM, containing much of the work carried out in these days and that he can consult the Internet site: http://leadership.depaul.edu or the book by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner, The Leadership Challenge, which has been translated into several languages.
“Throughout the three weeks we had time for diverse activities. Certainly we worked, using active methodologies. But we also prayed in the Chapel of the Rue du Bac; thanked Juan Julián Díaz Catalán for his nine years of service to CIF; prayed personally and in community before Saint Vincent; visited Chartres and either Versailles or Folleville; celebrated the French national holiday; walked throughout Paris and visited museums; had parties and sang together; and some of us enjoyed Spain’s victory in the European Football (Soccer) Championship.
“At the end, we had a time of evaluation, personal and in language groups. This meeting was a good experience, full of community values and also with some aspects that, in the future, could be elaborated on or improved. Thank you, in name of all the participants, to the members of the CIF team for their generous dedication and their fraternal availability.”
Visitors’ Conferences: – CEVIM:
Meeting of young missionaries: “On the evening of 25 June, the young missionaries and those collaborating in the development of the meeting came to Castellnovo (Castellón) from the various CM European Provinces. The young missionaries were: two from the Paris Province, one from Germany, three from the Barcelona Province, three from the Zaragoza Province, two from the Madrid Province, two from the Salamanca Province, one from the Hungarian Province, two from the Naples Province, one from the Turin Province, one from the Portuguese Province, three from the Polish Province and two from the Slovakian Province. All together, there were 23 young missionaries ready to reflect on community life.
“The meeting was carried out in a climate of joyful international brotherhood. The carefully prepared and celebrated liturgy, the formation meetings and group work, the relaxing moments and the trips (Teruel and Valencia with a morning at the beach), the welcome of the Daughters of Charity, (the Castellnovo house belongs to the Daughters of Charity of the Province of Pamplona), and the desire to communicate beyond the linguistic barriers meant that the proposed objectives were very satisfactorily attained.”
At the end of the meeting, in which the Superior General took part for a few hours, the young missionaries formulated their conclusions and challenges.
(Excerpt from the Provincial Bulletin of the Vincentian Fathers, Zaragoza, June 2008)
From the Provinces:
(We continue the transcription of the report, which we began in the previous issue of Nuntia, of the Assistant General, Father Gérard Du Tran Cong, after his visit to various missionary sites during April and May.)
Japan: “The visit’s third stage had for its destination the great industrial cities of Osaka and Kobe. The Provincial House of the Daughters of Charity of Japan is located in a small area near Kobe. There a confrere resides, in a parish of Osaka, and another confrere is the Vicar of Osaka’s Cathedral. The confreres are all members of the Philippine Province and principally take care of the Catholic community of Filipino workers and immigrants. Another confrere has just come from Manila and is taking a two-year intensive course in Japanese before being placed in pastoral ministry in the Hiroshima Diocese.
“Every foreign visitor must recognize the discipline of the Japanese, the cleanliness, prosperity, and beauty of the country, especially in Kyoto, Japan’s former capital, where modernity harmonizes with the purest thousand-year-old tradition.”
Australia: “From 7 May to 5 June, the Assistant made the canonical visitation of the Australian Province. The first Vincentians came to Australia from Ireland in 1885 to run a college and seminary in Bathurst at the request of the (Irish) bishop of that diocese. The province was erected in 1926. The confreres’ principal works were teaching and formation in major seminaries (5), education (two secondary schools) and parishes (8). Nowadays only two confreres are employed at two major seminaries, as teacher and formator (rector). Bathurst’s prestigious college, 200 km. west of Sydney, still belongs to the Vincentians (the superior of the community is the President, helped by a chaplain, who is also a C.M.), but the principal (headmaster), a man really animated by the Vincentian charism, and the entire faculty are lay. The eight parishes that the Vincentians had initially have been reduced to three (one near Melbourne and two on the outskirts of Sydney).
“In recent years, in response to the urgent appeal of the Bishop of Townsville, a port city located on the northeastern coast of Queensland, three confreres volunteered to assist the local bishop in a diocese three-quarters the size of France (435,000 km2). It has 15 priests to serve 75,000 Catholics (30% of the population). The superior of the community is the administrator of the cathedral, to which are attached four other churches in the city.
“The province has five local communities: Malvern (Melbourne), Ashfield and Marsfield (Sydney), Bathurst, and Townsville. Currently there are 43 confreres in Australia. The average age is 65.7. Two admitted seminarians (of Filipino and Indian origins) are taking theology courses at the Catholic Institute of Sydney.”
The Fiji Islands Mission: “Spread out in the very heart of the South Pacific, the Fiji Islands are located northeast of New Caledonia and 3000 kilometers from Australia. In an area of almost 18,000 km2, the archipelago is composed of over 300 islands, of which only a hundred are inhabited.
“Three quarters of the 800,000 Fijians live on the largest islands of the archipelago: Vanua Levu and Viti Levu. Suva, the capital of Fiji since 1882, is located on the latter. This city, with more than 160,000 inhabitants, is one of the largest and most populated in the South Pacific. The population is 51% indigenous and 44% Indo-Fijians. The rest are Europeans, Pacific Islanders and a small number of Chinese. Christians make up 52% of the population of which 37% are Methodists and 9% Catholics. The majority of the Indo-Fijians are Hindus; Muslims make up 8% of the population.
“The French Marist missionaries established the first Catholic mission in 1844, nine years after the arrival of the first Methodists. The Indians came to Fiji to work in sugarcane plantations operated by the English.
“In 1959, two Australian confreres begin the first mission station in Natovi on the east coast of the main island of Viti Levu, 60 kilometers north of Suva. The mission covers a wooded area of 2000 km2. Journeys were made on foot or by boat. The mission of Natovi has contributed significantly to the life of the Church in Fiji. The small primary school of the beginning has developed into a secondary school offering education to hundreds of students. Two homes receive girls and boys whose families live far from the parish. Three nuns from a local congregation collaborate with confreres in teaching, running the girls’ home, catechism and altar service. The house set aside for the Daughters of Charity is still there, only 50 meters from the church, but the sisters from the Philippine Province, who taught in the secondary school and cared for patients at the parish clinic, were withdrawn some time ago to engage in another mission. The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul has been established and vocations to the priesthood are encouraged. Since the arrival of the Vincentians, the parish of Natovi has given eight priests to the Archdiocese of Suva.
“In 1972 the Major Regional Seminary of the Pacific (Pacific Regional Seminary) was founded for the formation of seminarians coming from various Pacific islands. Since then, ten Vincentian confreres have participated in the formation of the area’s priests, as professors and even rector of the P.R.S.
“In the same year, the Vincentians assumed responsibility for pastoral work in a large parish in Nausori, a locality near Suva. In this new parish, another community of Daughters of Charity, coming from Australia and Ireland, has been established.
“Vocations to follow Christ, Evangelizer of the Poor, came rather quickly. Already in 1973, the first Fijian confrere was ordained a priest in Natovi. In 1986, the Saint Vincent de Paul Formation House was established in Wailoku, a few kilometers from Suva. The candidates go to the Regional Seminary with the diocesan seminarians from several Pacific islands. Students from the Marist Fathers, the Saint Columban Fathers, and the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart go to the same seminary.
“Since the establishment of the Formation House, two Brothers made vows and six Fijians were ordained priests. Currently seven Fijian students and three from the Solomon Islands are in formation for priesthood.
“The Vincentian mission in Fiji is preparing to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2009. The Superior General will participate in this celebration. Since its establishment, 18 Australian and four Indian confreres have worked in this mission with true missionary spirit and Vincentian zeal. Father Alan Finn, currently pastor of Nausori, has spent 44 years in this country and will celebrate his Golden Jubilee of priesthood at the same time as the 50th anniversary of the mission.”
Nominationes

Ordinationes

Necrologium