The Asia Pacific Visitors’ Conference (APVC) held its annual meeting at Durando Philosophical Institute, Dalat, Vietnam, from Feb. 17-24, 2017.

Among those present:

  • Fr. Mathew Kallammakal (Asst. General),
  • Frs. Venerando Agner (Visitor, Philippines),
  • Tomichan Joseph (Visitor, Southern India),
  • Vijay Kumar Nayak (Visitor, Northern India),
  • Augustine Huu Gia (Vice Visitor, Vietnam),
  • Manuel Edi Prasetyo (Assis. Visitor, Indonesia),
  • Ferdinand EstarejaLabitag (Delegate, China),
  • Peter Reedy (Delegate, Oceania),
  • Paulus Suparmono (Mission Superior, Solomon Islands International Mission),
  • Emmanuel ValmoriaLapaz (Mission Superior, Papua New Guinea Internal Mission), and
  • Baiju A. Chittuparamban (Executive Secretary, APVC).

The APVC Commission on Charism and Culture (CCC) also held its annual meeting at the same venue and interacted with the Visitors and delegates of the APVC concerning the future activities of the commission. The CCC members are Peter Reedy (Chairman, Oceania), Jenson Kalloor (Secretary, Northern India), Joseph Loftus (member, China) and Paul (Member, Vietnam).

The responsibilities of the CCC commission are the following:

  1. To stimulate research and reflection on Vincentian charism within the region
  2. To assist APVC in the formation of formators
  3. To assist the APVC in organizing the regional programs for confreres engaged in various ministries

Visitors of APVC meet every year and the meeting is rotated through each province. The reason for rotating the meeting through each province is to introduce the participants to the life situations, customs and realities of the host province through a personal experience. After the meeting or before the meeting two days are kept for visiting the confreres and their works, for visiting the Daughters and their apostolate and for visiting the local people to get know them first hand. Keeping with this tradition the participants were taken to various mission centers operated by the Vice-Province of Vietnam.

The purpose of APVC is to carry the spirit and charism of St. Vincent into the evangelizing of people and cultures of the Asia-Pacific Region. Thus the  main focus of discussion is always on the ways and means of promoting  interprovincial collaboration in the Asia-Pacific region to advance the Vincentian charism and spirit in this part of the world.

The meeting began with a presentation of a paper on the Catholic Church in Vietnam and the New Evangelization by Fr. Anthony Nguyen Ngoc Son, the secretary of Vietnam Bishops’ Conference. Each Visitor/vice visitor and the delegates presented report of the respective province that included the history, mission, and specific activities and programs. The APVC 2017 discussed the following points and in some cases decisions are made.

 APVC Commission on Charism and Culture (CCC)

  1. The current team members, Peter Reedy (Oceania), Joseph Loftus (China), Jenson Kalloor Northern India), and Paul (Vietnam),  will continue as the core team of the CCC while Southern India, Indonesia and Philippines will nominate a confrere each to the Commission.
  1. The CCC will continue to meet annually to plan its regional workshops and programs. They will work on a long-term plan of action for the APVC and maintain and update the APVC website.

Regional formators’ meeting 2017 in Indonesia

  1. The APVC decided to hold the Formators’ Meeting of 2017 in the province of Indonesia in the month of June and the formation in-charge of Indonesian Province will organize the event this year. And from the next time onwards, the CCC will organize the Formators’meeting in collaboration with the host province.

Common Internal Seminary in Asia-Pacific Region

  1. Based on the agreement arrived at the 2016 APVC meeting held in Chicago, the 2017 APVC meeting decided to have the Common Internal Seminary program for the Asia-Pacific Region. The Common internal seminary will be held in the Province of Philippines from May-June 2019 onwards and each province will send minimum two or more students to the common program. The APVC meeting 2018 will decide the Director and assistant director of the program.

Regional Popular Mission experience

  1. The APVC decided to organize a regional meeting of the confreres engaged in Popular Mission preaching. This will provide an occasion for confreres to share their popular mission experience and learn from one another. The CCC in  collaboration with the Province of Indonesia, will organize the event in March 2018.

APVC Solidarity Fund

  1. The APVC decided to create an APVC Solidarity Fund to support the provinces/vice province of the region in times of natural disaster. Ten percent (10%) from the annual contribution of the member provinces/vice province to the APVC Account at the Curia will be credited to the Solidarity Fund. The President of the APVC,with the executive secretary,will manage the Solidarity Fund.

Regional Ongoing Formation program for confreres under five years of their ordination

  1. The APVC decided to organize a regional ongoing formation program for confreres under five years of their ordination in the Asia-Pacific region. The CCC is entrusted with the responsibility of organizing this program towards the end of 2018. An appropriate topic related to human formation will be selected for this program. The venue of the meeting will be announced later. The proposal to hand over the administrative responsibility of Solomon International mission to Indonesian province by June 2017 was discussed. The details yet have to be worked out.

The first meeting of The Asia-Pacific Visitors Conference was held in Sydney, Australia, in April 1994. At that meeting the Visitors established a simple set of guidelines to govern the conference’s activities, which came to be known as  “A Minute of Understanding:” This Minute of Understanding is reviewed every year and passed with or without changes.

Fr. Baiju A. Chittuparamban

Executive Secretary, APVC