Dear confreres,
May the grace and peace of Jesus be always with us!
On 17 April 2023, we had the joy of beginning the three-year spiritual preparation for the upcoming 400th Anniversary of the Foundation of the Congregation of the Mission of Saint Vincent de Paul.
During this three-year interior pilgrimage, taken on by each one of us through different initiatives, prepared materials shared with the whole Congregation, and the personal inventiveness of each province, vice-province, and region, we will be focusing, in the first place, on our own personal renewal and conversion, so that, fully revitalized in our spiritual life, each one of us and the whole Little Company will arrive at a new Pentecost!
One of our very important tools on this interior pilgrimage is our Common Rules, Constitutions and Statutes. I often expressed, during the previous six years of service, and repeated as part of the 11 points I shared at the 43rd General Assembly held last year in Rome, a deep yearning for this to be fulfilled in the next six years leading us, if Providence so desires, to our next General Assembly in 2028.
The Final Document of the 43rd General Assembly, in its first point under the title “Spirituality,” encourages every confrere “to reading the Common Rules, the Constitutions and Statutes.” In my sharing of the 11 points under the general title: “The Little Company in
the next six years (2022-2028)” and under the first title of the first point: “Identity of the CM at the beginning of the 5th Century,” I expressed my deep desire to reconnect with our roots by reading and praying with our Common Rules, Constitutions and Statutes, alternatively throughout our lives.
To facilitate the process for every confrere, from the oldest to the youngest, to have a printed copy of the Common Rules, Constitutions and Statutes, four Visitors put themselves at our disposition to print the necessary copies in Spanish, French, English, and Portuguese and send them to the provinces, vice-provinces, and regions, which use one of those four languages. Please write to the Visitor and request the number of copies you would like to order, so we can arrive at the approximate number of exemplars we will need to print. I would like to invite every province, vice-province, and region also to have a good reserve of copies for the next 15 years, thinking of the new confreres who, God willing, will join us in that period of time. I believe that in the next 15 years, even at the next General Assembly or the one after it, we may start reflecting on updating our Constitutions, a process that will take many years to reach their final ratification.
The names of the Visitors putting themselves at our disposition to print the needed copies of the Common Rules, Constitutions and Statutes are:
SPANISH
Province of Saint Vincent de Paul – Spain Rev. José Manuel Villar Suarez – Visitor
E-mail: svpprov@cmglobal.org; svpsec@planalfa.es
FRENCH
Province of France
Rev. Frédéric Pellefigue – Visitor E-mail: fraprov@cmglobal.org
ENGLISH
Province of the USA Western Rev. Patrick McDevitt – Visitor E-mail: occprov@cmglobal.org
PORTUGESE
Province of Fortaleza
Rev. Antônio de Assis Da Silva – Visitor E-mail: forprov@cmglobal.org
I encourage the Visitors and Regional Superiors of every province, vice-province, and region that needs to order copies to write directly to the respective Visitor no later than 15 July 2023.
May this request and encouragement to every single confrere of your province, vice- province, or region, if not already the practice, to begin reading and praying them, be one very concrete and enriching way of revitalizing our Little Company on the way to our 400th Anniversary celebration and our next General Assembly in 2028!
Your brother in Saint Vincent,
Tomaž Mavrič, CM Superior General
