January 29, 1999

To all the Visitors of the Congregation of the Mission

My very dear confreres,

May the grace and peace of Our Lord Jesus Christ remain always with us!

From January 14-16, we welcomed the heads of some of the principal branches of the Vincentian Family here to the General Curia in Rome. Representatives came from the Daughters of Charity, the AIC, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Vincentian Marian Youth Groups, the Religious of St. Vincent de Paul, and the Association of the Miraculous Medal. One of the themes which we discussed was the establishment of a central WWW site for the Vincentian Family.

1.As a first step towards the establishment of that site, we agreed that all the branches of the family would gather the WWW addresses for all the sites already established by members of our family. For that reason I am writing to you at this time. I ask that you send to me in Rome all the addresses of the sites established in your province. Even if you have already communicated this information, would you please send it again, since the Internet is a rapidly changing and fluid medium. Please note that I am not asking for e-mail addresses, just web pages.

When all this information is gathered from the various branches of the family, we will post it to a central site soon after April 1. Our hope is that this first step of gathering all the sites at one place will lead to a next step of growth, but we will move patiently in this regard.

2.As a second step towards the development of this site, the representatives of the Vincentian Family agreed to explore the possibility of finding some talented Internet persons within each membership. And so, I am also asking you to suggest members of your province who have an interest and some experience in the use of the Internet and its development. Any confrere who would be willing to cooperate on the maintenance of the CM part of the site could be of help. It may also be possible that there is a member of your province who would be capable of coordinating the whole Vincentian Family site. For either of these roles _ as a local coordinator or the overall coordinator _ a confrere need not be a professional, but only someone who has some knowledge and a desire to develop this medium. This service would surely require a number of hours weekly from the confrere, but it would not demand that he move from where he presently lives or works. We would be interested in knowing who such confreres are.

Please send this information to me by February 14 via the Curia e-mail address (md0801@mclink.it) or via fax (if necessary).

Thank you for your cooperation.

Your brother in St. Vincent,

Robert P. Maloney, CM

Superior General