CONGREGAZIONE DELLA MISSIONE
CURIA GENERALIZIA
Via dei Capasso, 30 Tel. (39) 06 661 3061
00164 Roma – Italia Fax (39) 06 666 3831
e-mail: cmcuria@tin.it
23 June 2006
Sacred Heart of Jesus
To the members of the Congregation of the Mission
Tempo Forte (12-16 June) Circular
Dear Brothers,
May the grace and peace of Our Lord Jesus Christ fill your hearts now and forever!
In our ongoing formation session, we were accompanied by Dr. Leticia Soberón Mainero, from the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, with the theme, “Technology at the Service of Communication of the Kingdom of God.”
Also present at the Curia, during the time of our tempo forte meeting, were the members of the Preparatory Commission for the International Visitors’ Meeting, which will take place in Mexico in June 2007. The members are: Daniel Borlik (Visitor of the South USA), Francisco Solás (Visitor of Venezuela), Yves Bouchet (Visitor of Toulouse), Antonius Sad Budianto (Visitor of Indonesia), Michael Ngoka (Vice-Visitor of Nigeria), and, as translator from French, Roberto Gómez, missionary of the Province of Toulouse.
1. During the first moment of our session, we evaluated the meeting of the General Council with the Presidents of the Conferences of Visitors and/or Provinces. The week before, from 9-10 June, we met with the representatives of each of the Conferences of the Congregation: Corpus Delgado, President of CEVIM – Europe; Mathew Kallammakal, President of APVC – Asia Pacific; Michael Ngoka, President of COVIAM – Africa and Madagascar; Francisco Solás, President of CLAPVI – Latin America; and Daniel Borlik, representative for the NCV – United States. Each made a brief presentation of his Conference: the strong and weak points, as well as the principal concerns. We then reviewed the commitments that each Conference made during the General Assembly. We also received suggestions for topics for the Visitors’ Meeting in 2007. The Presidents, with the opinions of their Conferences, evaluated the different services that the Curia provides to the Congregation. Then they made recommendations to the Superior General and his council. These were some of the matters that we treated in this two-day meeting.
2. We heard a presentation by Ann Frances Margolies, who is an expert in information technology, concerning the new data base of the General Secretariat. This project has been implemented to modernize the personnel files, as well as to facilitate the publication of the General Catalogue, which we hope will be available on-line for all the confreres.
3. Elmer Bauer, Treasurer General, and José Antonio Ubillús, Assistant General for the Missions, presented the Mission Distribution Fund for 2006. Thirty entities of the Congregation were beneficiaries of this financial assistance, which basically contributes to initial and ongoing formation, as well as providing for the missionaries’ basic needs.
4. We selected the winners of the Mission Award 2006. We received 13 projects from different provinces, from which we selected five winners, whose names will be announced on 30 July, the Feast of St. Justin De Jacobis.
5. We studied the report from the Vincentian Solidarity Office, presented by its administrator, Brother Peter Campbell. Between 1 March and 31 May, the office accepted eight new projects, of which three were completely financed and another five partially so. Seven mini-grants also were given by the Vincentian Solidarity Fund to finance projects. For more information with regard to the activities of the Vincentian Solidarity Office, you can consult its website: www.famvin.org/vso
6. Manuel Ginete, the Delegate of the Superior General for the Vincentian Family, highlighted in his latest report the visits that he made to the Vincentian Family in Brazil, Nigeria, the Philippines, Thailand and Cambodia. He gave some conferences on the themes of the most vulnerable and the worldwide Vincentian Family, which included the principal branches and criteria for mutual collaboration. In the next few days, he will visit, with the Superior General, the Vincentian Family in Ireland. He will also participate in Valencia, Spain, in the Fifth World Meeting of Families.
7. We want to inform you the SIEV (International Secretariat for Vincentian Studies) has prepared, with the collaboration of John Freund and his team, a CD with the digital edition of Vincentiana (1995-2003). This material will be sent by the General Curia to all the provinces. This is the conclusion of a work process which was initiated by the previous SIEV commission.
8. Fr. José Antonio Ubillús, Assistant General for the Missions, presented, for our review, a new draft of the Statutes of the International Missions, with the hope that in the next tempo forte, we will be able to approve it ad experimentum. He also communicated to us with great joy that Frs. Fernando Sánchez and Cyrille de Nanteuil, missionaries in El Alto, Bolivia, have been awarded scholarships by CIAM, the International Missionary Animation Center (of Rome). The course will take place from 16 October – 1 December of this year.
9. We studied the list of volunteers for the missions. We received six offers, of which one confrere was named immediately. Within the next few months, we hope to be able to name another confrere to a needy mission of the Congregation.
10. We then analyzed the various reports from the Conferences of Visitors and/or Provinces.
– CEVIM had its annual meeting in Istanbul, Turkey. Throughout the meeting, Fr. José María Nieto, Assistant General, was present. I also joined them for two days. All the information that was shared in this meeting of the Visitors of Europe and the Middle East can be found on the Conference’s website: www.cevim.org.
– COVIAM, had its General Assembly in Madagascar from 4-9 May. I was present throughout the course of the meeting, being the representative from the Curia to the Conference of Africa and Madagascar. Fr. Sylvester Peterka, from the Eastern USA Province, was present. He will be supporting COVIAM in different aspects of formation. Michael Ngoka was elected President and Emmanuel Typamm was reelected as Executive Secretary of the Conference.
– The NCV had its meeting on 9 February in Los Altos Hills, California. It was decided to move ahead with the process of a two-province model for the United States. Each province will do its own process in order to gather information from the grass-roots level.
– The APVC had its annual meeting in Surabaya, Indonesia, from 1-12 May. The first part of the meeting was an ongoing formation session concerning Islam. At the same time, the confreres visited various communities in the Province of Indonesia. At the APVC meeting, the representative of the Congregation to the United Nations, Fr. Joseph Foley, was present. He gave a presentation to the Visitors concerning the nature of his work and how the Conferences can benefit from his services. At this meeting, they elected a new Executive Secretary, Fr. Serafín Peralta, former Visitor of the Province of the Philippines, as well as former Director of the Daughters of Charity there. Fr. Gérard Du, Assistant General, also participated in this meeting.
11. One of the central points of this tempo forte was the preparation for the International Visitors’ Meeting. The theme of the meeting will be: “Ongoing formation for a Vincentian missionary today.” This theme will be developed by way of two conferences and group work. Within the next few weeks, the Preparatory Commission will be sending more information about the development of this meeting.
Many other subjects were treated in this tempo forte, but I have mentioned some of the more important matters.
I hope that this information is helpful to you as members of the Congregation of the Mission. Your comments and suggestions are always welcome.
Your brother in St. Vincent,
G. Gregory Gay, C.M.
Superior General
