SIEV

SIEV

Via dei Capasso, 30

00164 Roma

INFORMATION SHEET

on the work and decisions of SIEV

N° 6

The confrere members of SIEV, Frs. Jean-Yves Ducorneau, John Prager, Kazimierz Stelmach, Julio Suescun Olcoz, Roberto Lovera, executive secretary, and José María Nieto, delegate from the Curia, held their annual meeting in Paris on 20 and 21 September 2001.

During the month of July 2001, the Vincentian Month for Directors of the Daughters of Charity took place in Paris. Sixty-nine Directors participated (only five were not able to be present) and the evaluation was generally positive. The principal talks given during the month will be published in Vincentiana.

The Vincentian Month 2002 for the Assistants and Spiritual Councillors of Vincentian Lay Groups is being prepared. The participation of around 120 people, confreres, Daughters of Charity, and laity, is foreseen. Hospitality will be provided at rue de Sèvres and rue de Bac; the work will take place in the assembly hall of rue du Bac. The session in Paris will last three weeks, from 7-26 July. This Vincentian Month intends to be an experiment which could be repeated, with the necessary adaptions, in various parts of the world in order to promote as great a participation as possible of all the Assistants at formation sessions.

The communication among the various organisms of Vincentian studies in order to collaborate in diverse initiatives still remains difficult. SIEV intends to gather information about the web sites of the various organisms in order to insert them on the web site of the Vincentian Family in such a way that through the links they will be easily accessible to all.

A workshop for the organization and development of the Vincentian Family web site was held in New York in August. Some methods of collaboration between SIEV and the web site were studied in order to communicate news, as well as for the insertion of studies which everyone can readily access.

The study project on the figure of Perboyre on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of his birth is reaching its conclusion. The studies prepared by around ten confreres will be published in an issue of Vincentiana edited by SIEV.

The collection of the Holy See's Documents regarding the Congregation from 1876 to the present is almost completed. The documents up to that date were already published in the volume Acta Apotolica in gratiam Congregationis Missionis. As soon as the research is finished, it will be determined how to put the results at the disposition of all.

A topic of great importance for SIEV is the care of our historical archives, both in regard to the conservation and saving of documents, as well as for cataloguing them so as to permit easy consultation. It seems important to dedicate time, persons, and financial resources for the conservation of such wealth and for its use. SIEV addressed some suggestions to the Superior General and his council.

Once again, SIEV reflected on its role and significance, even in the light of the poor incisiveness of its initiatives and of the difficulty in realizing the task of animation of Vincentian studies. A greater sharing, meeting and collaboration among Vincentian scholars would be desirable. On the one hand, one has the impression that actually there are few young confreres in the Congregation interested in serious study, specializing in and passionate for Vincentian topics. The presence of dedicated confreres in teaching at the university level has been reduced in many scholastic environments. Faced with this fact, it is to be recommended especially that provinces encourage the interest of the young for theological formation and set aside a young confrere for Vincentian specialization studies. On the other hand, SIEV carries out a humble and valuable work at the service of many confreres and keeps ever alive the stimulus to research and to study of texts and of Vincentian spirituality. The reflections on this topic were handed over to the Superior General and his council for further evaluation.

Finally, it was decided to prepare and publish in Vincentiana an article to make known all the wealth of the scholarly magazines which are published in the Congregation.

The next annual meeting of SIEV is scheduled for September 2002 in Kraków.

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