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Letters of Fr. General |
Lent 2010 |
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Vocationist Missions |
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To Vocationist Religious, Beloved May God the Holy Spirit unite us ever more with the Son to the Father “Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we offer you the most precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ for the universal triumph of truth, justice and charity\love on all the peoples and kingdoms of Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Oceania”. The Vocationist Missionary Year begins For us Vocationists, the year 2010 is dedicated to prayer, study, formation and propagation of the foreign missions. With our celebration of the missionary year, we want to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of our first foreign mission, which is also our first province. We thank the Lord for all the sacrifices and the joyous dedication of our past and present missionaries, who have made possible the growth and development of our missions. It has been an excellent beginning for me and for Fr. Anthony Pittappilly, SDV to have passed the first day of this year, 2010, journeying 16 hours from Tura (North-East India) to Mulayam (South-West India). Between Christmas and the New Year, we visited the Archdiocese of Nagpur (at the heart of India), whose archbishop has humbly and warmly asked our help to preserve and nourish the faith of small number of Catholics in an area intensely populated by Hindus and where there is a scarcity of priests and vocations. From Nagpur, we went to Tura in the State of Meghalaya. This missionary diocese, which shares boundaries with Bangladesh. What brought us there was a sense of admiration and gratitude because, notwithstanding its necessity, the diocese, in 1997, donated to the Congregation our Confrere Fr. Anthony Pittappilly, to whom we owe the present vocational flowering in India. Tura is a relatively new diocese that covers a poor rural zone whose inhabitants live at the tribal state. Its population is spread in very small villages, where the people engage in agriculture and livestock. In the last years, this diocese has recorded about 250,000 conversions, as opposed to the rest of India, where the conversions are difficult and hindered. These tribal people, who have not adhered to Hinduism or to Islam, seem naturally inclined to accept the proclamation of the Gospel message. The catholic mission parishes are organized in such a way that each of them is a religious and, at the same time, a cultural and health centre. Every missionary center besides the Church has both primary and secondary schools, a parish house and a boarding-school for the boys, a convent with a public health centre and a boarding-school for the girls. These boarding schools are necessary because without them, it would have been impossible for many students from these many small villages to go to and come from school, since many of the villages are still inaccessible to the means of transportation. In the boarding schools, one lives as one lived once in our Vocationaries and Orphanages. The solid cultural and spiritual formation imparted in the schools and in the catholic boarding-schools and the fervour of the neophytes are bearing abundant vocational fruits both for the diocesan and religious clergy. We have begun the year dedicated to the missions with the decision to open these two new missions in India, in the territories far from our communities, where they speak other languages, have a different culture and climate. To give time to the future missionaries, we have started these two communities “in fieri”, sending a priest who will serve in the local parish and who will serve also as coordinator of four students of theology at the Major Seminary of the zone; we also intend to send, in each of the missions, two students of the first year of theology and two of the third year, and then to open officially and canonically the missions in January of 2012. Also, in Nigeria, the new year has opened with a new mission in the Archdiocese of Ibadan: St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Adenuga Gbongan, Ayedaade L.G.A, Osun State. The parish covers an entire province. The parish, besides the parochial church, serves also six other small centres where one celebrates regularly every Sunday. The primary mission of this parish is evangelization. The first confreres assigned to this mission are: Fr. Callistus Ekemezie, Fr. Nnaemeka Nwogu and Bro. Emmanuel Maduka. In this zone, Catholics are very few and, therefore, there is much work for our evangelizers. Starting from the 19th of this February, we shall be serving with the missionary spirit also the Parish of Sts. Anthony and Patrick in Ibeku, Diocese of Ahiara, Imo State. The confreres assigned to this parish and who will form the community of St. Joseph the worker are : Fr. Udo J.M. Iwuji, Rector and Parish Priest, Fr. Andrew I. Eburuche, Vice Rector, Bursar and Assistant Parish Priest and the confrere Br. Jeffry C. Nwoke, on pastoral experience. I have asked the confrere Fr. Armando Palmieri to start to study and to explore the possibility of a mission in Australia, where we have already established contacts with the bishop of Sandhurst. Three Confreres are preparing for this future mission which will be opened by the end of 2011 or by the beginning of 2012. We don’t want to speak only of missions or to open new missions, but we want to carry out the missions according to the heart of God and the Spirit and vision of Fr. Justin. What we are saying does not refer only to the missionaries in countries not yet evangelized, but every Vocationist priest or brother, in every field of work, where he has been assigned not by the caprice of this or that superior, but by divine Providence. Fr. Justin and the Missions Fr. Mario De Rosa without giving us much details hints at an attempt by Fr. Justin to go as missionary to a foreign country. The idea to leave for the missions to a foreign country could be seen between the first attempt at community life and the military service. If the information is correct, more than a specific and isolated act, one must talk of the missionary spirit of Fr. Justin, who never got tired of reading missionary journals and the lives of great missionaries of the Church. If it is true that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, it is not strange that in some occasions Fr. Justin may have truly expressed the desire to be a missionary. The simple fact of praying often before the atlas or world map expresses the missionary zeal that resided in his DNA; a born-missionary Fr. Justin! In the first guidelines of the Congregation, which were submitted to Benedict XV in 1917, he wrote: The Sercanta do the Saints would have also foreign missions, proposing to make of every diocese, wherever they establish themselves, a great metropolitan cenacle, with its own colonies of faith among the infidels (Opere, vol.18). In an appeal to the Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Religious in 1936, he wrote: Many of our religious and among them also various priests, yearn to offer themselves for the Foreign Missions. Your Eminence, you will enlighten and direct us on how to do it yourself. We want to be, always more devotedly and diligently, children in obedience to the holy Church (Ibid). In the letter of February 1, 1939 to his Spiritual director, Father, Fr. Michael Mazzei, Fr. Justin wrote: As regards the breadth of the practical program, we have decided to confine it to the Vocationaries, Parishes, Foreign Missions, eliminating all the other good works that we wanted to embrace. We also are disposed, if the superiors would consider this most useful to the service of the holy Church, to become an exclusively missionary Institute, because such was our original idea I would wish, beloved Father, that all these were made present to the Sacred Congregation because, not without basis, I fear that the Most Reverend Ordinaries are inclined to making our Institute an exclusively pious diocesan association, while our vocation has been always to be at the service of the holy Church beyond the limits of parish and diocesan works, aiming especially at the Foreign Missions, as her proper field of Apostolate. When he sent the Vocationist Sisters to Cuccaro Vetere, in 1931, Fr. Justin wrote: Also for the Missionaries of Parma (who worked here at Massa) we want to do something, perhaps also all gratuitously, to take part in their merits and then to leave with them for their missions in China. To console the sisters that decried the poverty and discomforts of their post, Fr. Justin reminded them of the missionary spirit of the Vocationist sisters: It is pleasing to me that our sisters may also be missionaries: in mission countries they will be much worse than at Cuccaro Vetere. One may ask in community: “Who would want to leave for the missions? Even where daily holy communion will not be possible?” Many will offer themselves and among them will be chosen those assigned to the most difficult and painful places like Cuccaro Vetere (Cf. Called to Call, p.172). In 1936, writing to Fr. Anthony Pacifico, he said: Please tell Gentile to whom, I would not know how to say it, but I feel I must tell him, that the foreign missions are approaching (Works, vol. 15, p.93). The thought of the foreign missions is not something irregular, but a constant in the heart and life of the founder. The Missionaries according to Fr. Justin Missionaries are the continuers of the mission of the incarnate Word Jesus Christ, sent by the Father to reveal and teach men the divine faith, and with it to save them from sin and from hell and to bring them to the holy Paradise. Missionaries are those that are sent by Jesus Christ, as he himself was sent by the Father, to establish the kingdom of God in the world.(Cf. Dev. P. 1422). Missionaries are the evangelizers of the people, the founders of Christianity, the initiators of dioceses, the precursors of Jesus, the bearers of Jesus, the glorifiers of Jesus in all the world (Cf. Ibid). Also, missionaries are those who confront an uneasy going, a great labour of eradication from vices, of battles against the infernal powers, to break the chains that keep the unfaithful and sinful populations bound. Missionaries are those who combat the infernal powers and their mortal tyranny (Cf. Dev. P.423). Missionaries are men and women animated by the supernatural zeal, sustained by the divine power and consoled by Christian victories, they are persons faithful, docile and generous in receiving and developing the divine talents, allowing themselves to be flooded by the light of God, the force of God and grace of God so that they may work through them. (Cf. Ibid). The Vocationist Missionaries are those that cultivate and enjoy a largeness of views, a greatness of ideas, a richness of sentiments and fullness of heart necessary to understand and receive the religious ideal of every institute, the spiritual needs of every diocese, the moral necessity of every people, and thus being capable of complying wisely and efficiently with every divine vocation “so that each of us (Internal and external Vocationists) may feel and nourish supernatural esteem and love more than maternal for every missionary and ascetic work, so that one may force oneself constantly and may succeed victoriously to increase, always with good subjects more than zeal, the interest of every kind of the Congregation.(Cf. Ibid). From these teachings of Fr. Justin, we understand that the missionary is he who goes out of himself to the souls and from the souls to God. The missionary, therefore, is not he who goes to other countries or nations, a missionary is he who fulfils the mission so well presented by Fr. Justin. As I thought quite early in my youth, many also today erroneously think that to be missionaries mean to go outside of one’s own nation. We can also go to the extreme bouderies of the world, but if we don’t burn with love and bring souls to God and God to souls, we are not missionaries The missionary is he, who while among the unfaithful, searches to convert and bring every soul to the holy Church, and while among the faithful he searches to elevate and sanctify every soul in the Holy Church (Cf. Works, vol.3, p.254). Being a missionary is not determined by the place in which one works, but by the activity that he carries out for the salvation and sanctification of souls. Quality of the Missionary According to the teachings of Fr. Justin man needs of esteem more than love and that esteem is the first element of love, the missionary must have a great esteem, must understand the great worth of the soul and of its salvation. This esteem brings the missionary to make his the love of God for every soul. Without this esteem, be it explicit or implicit, the missionary cannot have the generosity that renders him such. It is a common teaching that Christ would have incarnated himself for the salvation of one single soul! This tells us how and how much our Lord values the salvation of a soul. The success of a missionary cannot be judged by the number of conversions, by the works or constructions realized, but by the souls that are saved. It follows from this that the more one values the salvation of a soul, the more disposed one is to sacrifice and donate oneself for its salvation. Generosity is that virtuous quality that brings us to give and to do more than and above the minimum necessary as requested by justice. Generosity is that face of charity that expands and dilates “the unlimited limits of our unlimited limitation”. In this sense, generosity, practical expression and fruit of love, becomes also the generator of new energies. If it were a disease , it would be catalogued among the infectious diseases, it contaminates (in the good sense) those who experience it in others. The unforgettable and beloved confrere and friend, Fr. Vincenzo Angiuoni, often recounted this episode of his missionary life in Brazil. One morning he left early on horse to go to celebrate the holy Mass in a distant village under the scorching sun of Bahia. After about three hours of horse riding, he noticed a poor woman who appeared to him, battered and exhausted, who carried in her arms a baby. Just like the priest in the gospel who saw the assailed, robed and unfortunate man who was left half-dead on the edge of the road, he watched and continued his journey. He came back to the house tired and exhausted toward five in the evening. He felt the need to rest and didn’t want to be disturbed. After a short time, someone started knocking insistently on his door. Annoyed because they couldn’t allow him to rest, in bad mood, he went to the door decided in his heart to give a lesson to the importune visitor. When he opened the door, he saw seated on the ground the same woman that he had met in the morning; she looked at him and before Fr. Vincenzo could start his litany of insults, she said: “Father, forgive me, but yesterday evening the doctor told me that this child of mine is dying; I don’t want that he dies without baptism, may you do me the favour of baptizing him”. Fr. Vincenzo not only baptized him, but experienced in his life a true and proper conversion from his philosophy of “everything at its time and at the established hour” to the availability to serve every hour and moment of his life. This availability made him loved and lovable throughout his life. Few days after I was transferred from Penns Grove to our community of Newark, at 2:00 a.m. in the night, the telephone rang and the voice of a man said: “Father my wife is in labour, she must go to hospital, please, help me”. With the human logic I responded to him: “Call the ambulance and bring her to the hospital”! The poor man replied: “You don’t understand anything, call Fr. Vincenzo for me”. I called him and a few minutes minutes later I saw him running towards his car. During breakfast that morning, I asked Fr. Vincenzo if perhaps he was also an obstetrician, he looked at me and said: “You don’t understand anything”. Then Fr. Vincenzo explained to me how these people who didn’t speak English were terrorized by fear of making or not making themselves understood and the presence of a priest was their sign and guarantee of security and tranquility. Generosity demands and generates flexibility. Fr. Justin explains to us that more than sons in a family we wish to be servants declaring that one can be son only in one family, while the servant cann extend his service to a plurality of families. To be able to render services to the various families, one must be, by force, flexible. Flexibility is what St. Paul practices and preaches when he says that I have made myself all in all to bring all to Christ. For those who need the sacraments, the missionary is a priest, for those who need a nurse, the missionary becomes a nurse, for those who need to be taught, the missionary becomes a teacher, for those who need food, the missionary becomes a cook, for those who need to go from one post to the other, the missionary becomes a driver, for those who need consolation, the missionary becomes the comforter. There is a time for every thing. Fr. Justin has put adaptability among the characteristics of the Vocationist: The Society of the Servants of Divine Vocations, must be tenaciously attached to the use of the best means, which are the sacraments, prayer and the multiform ministry of the word, so that in the choice and in the use of the minor means, which are all the others, even without fickleness, she must be easy to adapt herself to all circumstances (1R. art. 55) Flexibility brings with it a spirit of sacrifice in as much as the flexible missionary puts always before his own needs, the needs of others and, therefore, for the good of others, must sacrifice his way of seeing and doing things. Flexibility entails a spirit of welcoming and of hearing. The missionary keeps always present and imitates the example of Jesus, who even after having decided to withdraw with the apostles in order to rest, when he arrived at the other side and saw the need of many people who waited him, instead of resting he decided to teach and take care of the people. For the missionary the needs of the others are more impelling than his! When the superior General, Fr. John Galasso, asked me to go the United States I accepted in obedience, but for a long time, I lamented in my heart the lost possibility to go as a missionary in Brazil (which I had asked and which had been granted to me). I didn’t understand that one could be a missionary in the United States! Many years passed before I started to thank the Lord and Fr. Galasso for the opportunity that he had given me to be missionary in America. In 1991, I had the honour and pleasure of accompanying the first missionaries to Nigeria which, I myself, in a way, had prepare, I felt like Moses to whom it was granted to see the promised land but not to enter it. It was in Nigeria that the Lord made me to intimately understand that the missionary does not choose his mission, but he is chosen and sent, not only to a foreign country, but also to one’s own country. In a letter to our Fr. Penniello, Fr. Justin wrote: The evil is in making personal projects independently of the will of the superiors and then to want to see them actualized at all costs (Works, vol. 15, p.123). This has been my error and the error of every amateur missionary and religious. The Mission of the Vocationist Our mission: to form all to holiness(Works, vol.15, p.27). For us every mission is good.(Ibid. p.441). One of the important ideas of our Congregation is universal sanctification. The Vocationist must make of every church that they serve, and especially of every parish church, the centre of a perpetual mission of sanctification, in the spirit and work of the Congregation (IR. art. 1032). It is for this that Fr. Justin dreamed and prayed that he could establish a Vocationist religious house in every country and in every town and village of the world. It is for this same reason that the Congregation promotes, with great sacrifices, missions in all the world. It is for this that the Congregation is programming a Vocationist mission in Australia. The Vocationist missionary must embrace, always with prayer and sacrifice, and when possible also with the word and external works, above all Islamism as its special external field of work. Similarly, Vocationists must aim not only at the conversion of every singular soul but also at all human collectivity. They will aim, above all else, at transforming into holy militia all the associations neutral or hostile to the holy Church. The Vocationist missionary aims also at the conversion of other non-catholic Christian groups or churches honoring in them all the fragments of truth and all the efforts in life to bring them to the Catholic Church. (Cf. 1R. art. 1025-1030). The missionary and ecumenical work should go hand in hnd. Fr. Justin, had the pleasure of opening only the mission in Brazil, but he also wished to implant Vocationist missions where we arrived after his death, and others yet to come. To Fr. Pietro Montoro, as well as to others who asked to go to the missions, Fr. Justin answered: I am so happy of your aspiration to serve in foreign missions. Prepare yourself with greater zeal in the observance of the integral Rules … other foundations of foreign missions will soon be opened; it is not good to concentrate all our missionaries only in one place, Brazil (Ibid. p.72). To Fr. Ciro who was in the United States to open a mission (Cf. Works, Vol. 15, p.276), Fr. Justin wrote: in the future certainly we will establish ourselves in Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay…in Guatemala and then wherever there are souls we could help to save and sanctify themselves (Ibid). Right now we are in three of the six countries mentioned here! With our presence in thirteen countries, we have made a good missionary journey, but much still remains for us to do. The Vocationist missions and the Vocationary In obedience to the evangelical mandate: to go and teach all the peoples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you(Mt. 28: 19-20), the Congregation, as a child of the Church that lives in time and is missionary by its own nature, works and is always ready for apostolic service in the missions “ad gentes” Following its specific charism, it involves itself also in this field of apostolate, to the search, cultivation and formation of ecclesiastical and religious vocations of the newly established churches (Const. art.20-21; Cf. also IR art 1022). In the Rules, Fr. Justin renders more explicit his thought on the missions, thus: in these foreign missions, whether they are ours or of other institutes, the Vocationist must always aim above all, according to its own goal, to the recruitment and to the formation of the indigenous regular and secular clergy.(IR. Art. 1023). Thanks to God and our missions, today we have a booming of vocations. Over three hundred young men who lighten up our houses are our most precious treasure. The actuation of our charism has brought us in countries poor in material goods, but rich in vocations. In the letters addressed to Fr. Fraraccio, when the latter was the first superior of the mission in Brazil, Fr. Justin insisted always on the opening of a true and proper Vocationary. Since the Vocationary at Itaparica and Salvador did not take off, Fr. Justin wrote Fr. Ciro, thus; I urge you this year to finally go to the missions and there start a Vocationary be it even a small one, but a true Vocationary (Works, vol. 15, p. 268). It seems that our Father Founder wanted to say that a mission without a Vocationary, is not Vocationist mission! Only so can we manifest the fidelity to our charism to help and to form poor vocations. It is good to remember that the most numerous Vocationaries are those of Ibadan, Davao, Oparanadim, Antananarivo, Maumere and Mulayam. Notwithstanding our economical difficulties, the construction of the Vocationaries of Maumere, Pereira, and Ambatondrazaka are in advanced states while those of Antananarivo and Ruteng are in the planning stages. Preparation for the Mission Accustomed to judge all that the superiors do, often we lament and accuse the superiors of the moment of sending to the missions confreres without adequate preparation. This remark or critique seems justified, at least in the last few years. How can one prepare for the missions? Fr. Vincenzo Mazzocchi, as many others, had asked of Fr. Justin to go as a missionary outside Italy. Fr. Justin instead sent him to Bovino and in the letter of obedience he wrote: Observing well there the holy Constitutions and aiming at the full observance also in all the houses and the activities, you will prepare for the missions that you have asked. (Works, vol. 15, p. 50). Few months before his death, preparing his brother, Fr. Ciro, for the missions, Fr. Justin wrote to him, thus: I cannot tell you anything about your plans in Venezuela. Now all depends on the Vicar General and to him you must make recourse in all, to receive thereof obedience, directions and dispositions. Do not even mention my name for I do not say anything but only: obey and you will do well everywhere. Simply be aware of you instability. Do not deceive yourself, but bind yourself to obedience in order not to make mistakes and to waste time and energy.(Ibid. p.275). This means that more than to elaborate strategies, techniques and methods of missionology, to be a true missionary one needs first to learn how, and to be an excellent religious, accustoming oneself to austerity, to responsibility, to the sense of duty in the full consciousness of one’s own charism and to the physical, moral, spiritual and apostolic strength. A lazy, feeble and languid person cannot be a religious much less a missionary. The knowledge of languages is not absolutely necessary, but it can certainly be useful, as it is useful to have the notions of culture, habits, etiquette, weather, food, clothing of the place etc. I repeat, theoretical knowledge does not prepare us adequately for the mission, but the practice of Christian virtues and of religious discipline predisposes us to acceptance, opening, flexibility, steadfastness, creativity and sacrifice. Conclusion Every single religious must be missionary in spirit and work (IR. Art.972). The Vocationist Congregation must accept in full the mission that Jesus communicates to his apostles and disciple s(Ibid. Art.973). Vocationists will carry on with great interest and zeal the mission of the good and faithful servants of the gospel in bringing invitations and in going to call, to solicit and to force all to come to the banquet of the Lord.(Cf. Ibid. 974). They are equally missionaries, those who leave all to be able to go to the missions and those who sacrifice themselves to sustain their ministry. Thanks to Fr. Capraro, Fr. Limone, Fr. Zeccone and Fr. Antonio Rafael do Nascimento, our Councilor for the Missions, they continue to foster the growth of the group of the Co-operators of the Vocationist Missions, which, with admirable faith and generosity, contribute notably to the maintenance of our missions. I recommend to all of you to encourage and to sustain these groups, to multiply them to the maximum and to form them always more in our spirituality. In the last five months, five confreres have offered their total availability for any kind of mission, wherever the Congregation would have need of them. This availability has increased my joy and my hope. Oh! How I wish that each of us would put himself truly in this disposition: “Here I am, Lord, send me!”. We can do it and we must do it!” I greet, appreciate, thank and bless every confrere who works with heroic generosity in the missions or who, with equal generosity, sustains and promotes the maintenance of our missions. In the light of all I have written in this letter, I conclude, without fear of being wrong, that our missionarity is the most accurate thermometer of our religiosity. Much has been done, but much more still remains to be done. We need your help! May the Lord grant us a truly holy and sanctifying Lenten Period, which, liberating us from every snare or bond with the world, demon and flesh, will prepare us for a fuller and faster resurrection and ascension. In loving union of prayer Your devoted servant Fr. Louis M. Caputo, SDV
N.B: We thank the Lord for: a. The priestly ordinations of our confreres Seby Vithayahil (Dec. 27, 2009), Johny Kaitharath( Jan.6, 2010), Leo Mulavarickkal and Nibin Palatty(Jan.9), in India. b. The priestly ordination of Fr. Alfredo Briones in the Philippines on January 20, 2010. c The perpetual vows(January 18) and diaconate ordination (January 20) of Robinson Gonzalez, in Colombia d. The final vows of Andrew Martinez, in Indonesia, January 18, 2010. e. The perpetual vows of Emiliano M. Piran and Gustavo Daniel Ramirez in Argentina, January 31, 2010. f. The admission to priestly ordination of Deacons Daniele Troiani, Antonio Coluccia, Antonio Lubrano, Matthew Mpampaya (Basilica of Pompey, April 24, 2010) and Celso Acuna Pizzaro (Cathedral of Valparaiso, Chile, May 8, 2010). g The admission to the order of diaconate of our confreres Tolas M. Thomas Alukkal, Benny M. Devassy Chittilappilly, Rathish M. Joseph Kottisseril, Shojo M. Anthony Manjadikkal (Marymartha Seminary, Mulayam - March 2010). h. In the Church of St. Sebastian of Olario (Rio de Janerio) on March 14, 2010, our confrere Alessandro Mendonca Nonato will be ordained deacon. Congratulations to the confreres: 1. Fr. Rosario Taliano for his appointment as the Master of Novices in Indonesia starting from September 2010. 2. Fr. Lawrence Edakkalathur, Rector and Master of Novices at Maasin from February 1st , 2010. 3. Fr. Alfredo Briones, Vice Rector and Economo at Maasin from February 1st , 2010. 4. Fr. Anthony Vellappalllil, Regent and Master of Novices at Mulayam from May 11, 2010. 5. Fr. Anthony Pillappilly, Delegate of Fr. General for India, will attend a course of specialization in Missionology in Bangalore. 6. Fr. Joseph Kannanaikal, Vocational Animator for India and Vice Rector at Thalore. 7. Fr. Jimson Alukkal, already Rector of Thalore, has been nominated formator of Postulants. 8. Fr. Johnson Pulikottil, Vice Rector of St. Bartholomew’s Vocationary in Thalassery, from January 16, 2010. 9. Fr. Satish Kanjiraparambil, assigned to the new mission in Nagpur, India - Community in fieri 10. Fr. Alan Varghese Ooken, assigned to the new mission in Tura, India - Community in fieri. 11. Fr. Seby Vithayatil, Vice Rector at Mulayam from February 2010. 12. Fr. Rijo Johnson has been transferred from St. Michael’s Church at Newark and nominated Co- Pastor of the Parishes of St. Michael and St. Gerard in Paterson. 13. Fr. Babu Theolappilly has been transferred from Palisades Park to Newark and nominated Assistant Parish priest at St. Michael. 14. Fr. Linto Sangurikkal, Vice Rector of the Novitiate House at Pereira from February 1st , 2010. Other news 1. The second edition of the Devotional in English has been published; one can contact Fr. Anthony Pittappilly in Mulayam, India, for copies for our English-speaking confreres and Vocationist Sisters. 2. At Pianura, on January 18, the Volume 16, of the Works of Fr. Justin, being the fourth part of the Letters to the Vocationist Fathers, was presented. This volume, as the other Letters, is a gift of the Vocationist Sisters. 3. Our annual Banquet of Beneficence for the missions will be held on March 13. To get the tickets one can contact Frs. Limone, Capraro and Ferrara. It can be good also to organize a similar activity in every regional zone. 4. I ask and await the names, addresses, telephone numbers and some words on the professions or specializations of the possible candidates for the Pro-Beatification Committee. Every Community, every parish in Italy must be represented in this committee. 5. The Bishop of Ahiara, Rt. Rev. Victor Chikwe has given to the Congregation the pastoral care of the Parish of St. Anthony and Patrick in Ibeku Okwuato in Aboh Mbaise, L.G.A, Imo State, Nigeria and the Congregation has accepted this new field of apostolate. 6. For the Communities, Delegations or Provinces that have not sent their second-semester-2009 economic reports to the Economo General, this should have been done by February 15. Who has not done it yet, may send it through e-mail or fax. 7. I ask all to encourage and organize pilgrimage and other spiritual-formative activities to our Mother House, always with adequate notification to the Rector of the House. 8. I urge you to pray for our two deceased confreres from Brazil: Bro. Mamede Lemos de Matos and Fr. Josè Venancio. The priests have the grave obligation to celebrate three holy Masses and non-priest confreres must pray the entire rosary three times for every deceased conferee. |
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