The General Council of the Curia met in Rome for the quarterly Tempo Forte meeting from 4 June to 8 June 2012. I enclose for your review a summary of the main meeting points.
2012-06-20 Tempo Forte June ENG
Dear Confreres:
May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us forever!
The General Council of the Curia met in Rome for the quarterly Tempo Forte meeting from 4 June to 8 June 2012. I enclose for your review a summary of the main meeting points.
2013 Visitors’ Meeting, Open Forum, and Foundation
The first issue we dealt with was a review of the preparation for the 2013 International Visitors meeting to be held at St. John’s University in Queens, NY. In discussion, the Council was able to concretize our various ideas over the design and planning of the Visitors Meeting. After this matter, we held an open forum to discuss our concerns about a number of provinces that are experiencing difficulties for various reasons. We then discussed the possibility of creating a foundation to raise funds for various projects of the Congregation and also building a partnership with a foundation with which the Congregation has an ongoing relationship.
On-Line Catalogue update
We discussed the difficulties we have encountered in bringing the personnel catalogue on-line. Here, I simply want to apologize to all members of the Congregation for the situation we find ourselves in; namely, that the catalogue is not on-line, although we were promised this result over a year ago. As a result of this situation, we will return to our former practice of publishing a catalogue every other year. We believe this practice will complement the on-line catalog when it becomes a reality. At this time we are unsure of when that will be.
Reconfiguration, formation, and Tempo Forte meeting themes
Next, we had an ongoing discussion of reconfiguration, particularly with regard to the northern zone of the Conference of Visitors and Provinces of Latin America. To further this process, either Fr. Eli Chaves, Assistant to the Superior General for Latin America or the Superior General will participate in the meeting of the provinces in Central America and the Caribbean. We discussed reconfiguration as well as a work project for the Council. We had a discussion on themes for ongoing formation, with recommendations that were brought to our local house meeting. Included in these themes were: New Evangelization and the Vincentian charism; the Year of Faith beginning in October, and our Vincentian vocation and identity in a cultural context. These themes were shared with the Curia community at the house meeting.
To better prepare ourselves for a discussion of these themes, we decided to dedicate the Sunday prior to the week of Tempo Forte sessions to prayer and reflection on a particular theme, and we will offer the Sunday Eucharist for the success of the Tempo Forte meeting. This will begin at the next Tempo Forte in September and the theme is “New Evangelization and the Vincentian Charism”. We will also set aside three days at the end of the year for evaluation of our Council work projects and to plan for the coming year.
Communications, VSO, and new commissions
With regard to the different offices of the General Curia, we had a video conference with Fr. John Freund, Webmaster, and Fr. John Maher, Director of Communications, who updated us on the status of the revised www.cmglobal.org web site. It is being redesigned in French and Spanish, so it will represent the three official languages of the Congregation. We were also informed by Fr. Joe Foley, our NGO representative at the United Nations that he would like to have greater contact with the various Conferences of Visitors who are involved in different social works, specifically in the area of migration and working with Pax Christi.
With regard to our Paris CIF program, we discussed possible candidates to replace Fr. Marcelo Manimtim next year. That confrere will be chosen at the next Tempo Forte meeting. We received a report from Fr. Miles Heinen, Director of the Vincentian Solidarity Office (VSO), which contained helpful information on their activities. To learn more about their projects, you can go to their reports, available on the www.cmglobal.org/vso web site.
We discussed the formation of a Commission on Islam made up of members of the Vincentian Family whose membership will be announced shortly. Fr. Claudio Santangelo is the confrere representative for the Congregation, and he will serve as commission coordinator. We studied a report from the Commission for Promoting Systemic Change, and discussed different suggestions on bringing new membership to the commission. We decided to rotate the commission’s membership over a two year period. Fr. Giuseppe Turati, Secretary-General, will serve as coordinator for the commission, transitioning with the present coordinator Fr. Robert Maloney. At this time, I thank the original Commission members for their time and effort in promoting systemic change for the entire Vincentian Family. New members will be announced as they are named and approved by the Council.
Mission distribution fund and International Missions
We received reports from Fr. Joseph Geders, Econome General and Fr. Varghese Thottamkara, Assistant to the Superior General for the Missions, wherein we approved the allocation of our mission distribution fund for this year. Because the global financial crisis has significantly affected our funds in the Congregation, we made the decision to reduce our contribution to Bishops from our Congregation. As of 2013, we will no longer contribute financially to them. We discussed matters relating to the International Missions, and received a report from Fr. Eli Chaves, the Assistant to the International Mission in Bolivia who returned from a canonical visit to the missions in El Alto and Cochabamba, Bolivia. We approved a project of a new “mission in solidum” (meaning the joining of parishes) in the El Alto area. We still seek confreres for this mission, as Fr. Emilio Torres has returned to his province in Peru after serving generously for a year. We named the pastor, Fr. David Paniagua Nova, as superior for the Cochabamba mission.
In Papua New Guinea, Fr. Varghese Thottmkara, Assistant to the Superior General for the International Missions, gave an updated report on the situation, along with written reflections from Fr. Justin Eke, a confrere at the mission. We named Fr. Valdimir Malota as the superior of this mission. Fr. Varghese gave an update on the international mission in the Solomon Islands. We studied an initial report from our two confreres serving in at the new mission in Angola, Fr. José Maria Nieto of Spain and Fr. José Ramirez Martinez of Mexico.
With regard to our international mission in Tunis, in August, Br. Henry Escurel from the Province of the Philippines will return home after having served there a year. A confrere has been appointed from the Province of India (South) to Tunis, and will arrive in November. We discussed the international mission in Chad, under the care of the General Curia and the President of COVIAM. With the help of the local superior, the President of COVIAM will assist in visiting the mission, tracking its progress, and will report to the Superior General.
We then discussed new volunteers for international missions. We have assigned Fr. Bruno Enzo Tonelli, a confrere from the province of Argentina, to the new mission in Punta Arenas, Argentina. We hope that he will be able to undertake this mission together with a confrere from the province of Chile, as they will be responsible for this mission.
Vincentian Family news, and 2013 World Youth Day in Rio
We received a report from Fr. Eli Chaves, the Assistant to the Superior General for the Vincentian Family, who updated us on the status of the Vincentian Family project in Haiti that is being developed by a board there and Fr. Joe Agostino as its new coordinator. Fr Eli also spoke about the Vincentian Family gathering in Brazil for Latin America. Over 150 attendees met in a spirit of zeal and collaboration to discuss how to develop our Vincentian charism in Latin America. It was also announced that prior to 2013 World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Vincentian Family Youth will gather from July 18-20 in Belo Horizonte before the start of the World Youth Day programs. We expect some 2000 young Vincentians.
Workshops and programs for Visitors and confreres
We approved a workshop scheduled for August, 2013 entitled “Managing the Patrimony of the Poor as Wise Shepherds.” Fr. Robert Maloney, who is promoting this workshop, has sent flyers advertising it to Vincentian Family members. This flyer was sent by Fr. Joseph Geders, Econome General, to all Visitors and Provincial Economes to encourage their participation.
Another noteworthy project brought to our attention was a program to be held at All Hallows College in Dublin, Ireland to develop spiritual directors in the Vincentian charism. It is sponsored by All Hallows, Daughters of Charity of Ireland, and the Vincentian Center for Spirituality at Work in Denver, Colorado. It is available to Vincentian Family members. Information has been sent to the Conferences of Visitors as well as the individual Visitors.
Reports from Provinces and Visitors’ Conferences
We had reports from the various conferences of Visitors and provinces delivered by the Assistants to the Superior General who are assigned to those specific areas. This included some discussion on CEVIM, the conference of Visitors of Europe, as they reflected on the theme of the New Evangelization in preparation for the Bishops’ Synod in October, 2012. Fr. Zeracristos, Assistant to the Superior General for Africa discussed the events of the Assembly of COVIAM, including their formation program and the international mission in Chad.
Council schedules and travels
We then reviewed our calendars, upcoming canonical visits, and dates for our General Council meetings. The calendar of the Superior General for the next three months is as follows. From July 1-14, he will participate in the meeting in Paris for confreres serving as Directors of the Daughters of Charity. From July 15-25, he will visit the Philippines to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Congregation of the Mission and the Daughters of Charity. From August 3-14, he will visit Ecuador to visit the confreres and Daughters and to participate in the closing of the Vincentian Marian Youth ELMA mission. From August 15- September 15, he will vacation in the USA, along with doing some fundraising. He will also deliver the keynote talk at the annual conference of the Ladies of Charity, USA. Returning to Rome, he will hold meetings and travel in to Slovenia with Fr. Stanislav Zontac, Assistant to the Superior General for Eastern Europe, visiting confreres, Daughters of Charity, and members of the Vincentian Family.
I pray your summer will be a time of rest, reflection, and renewal in the Lord for the mission.
Your brother in St. Vincent,
G. Gregory Gay, C.M.
Superior General
No comments yet.