After nine years of service at the Curia General as president of the General Commission for Spirituality and the Apostolate, director of the Centro Studi and coordinator of publications, Fr. Andrea Tessarolo has asked the Superior General to authorize his return to the Province of his origins, Northern Italy. Dehoniana would like to explicate the feelings of sincere gratitude on the part of the entire Congregation and, in particular, of the Centro Studi, for what Fr. Andrea has achieved during these past years: his constant and faithful dedication to promoting research and reflection on the sources of our spirituality. His competence regarding various subjects and his human and spiritual qualities have been appreciated, not only by his brethren but also by the many religious, both male and female, who have collaborated with him at the diverse meetings of the Institutes associated with the spirituality of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, without forgetting the numerous communities which call on him regularly both as a speaker and as a spiritual director.
The attentive reader will not fail to notice that the current issue bears the number one of year 1. Our magazine, born as a simple bulletin for internal use within the Congregation, has had to conform to Italian regulation. We are, therefore, obliged to commence a new series.
This number is introduced by an unpublished page of the writings of our Father Founder, one which reveals his deep devotion to the Holy Trinity. It is a homily delivered by the young parish vicar, Leo Dehon, in the Basilica of St. Quentin on June 8, 1873, the feast of the Most Holy Trinity. The author himself summarizes and comments on this homily in NHV V, 171-173, observing that it was greatly inspired by the famous Jesuit preacher Louis Bourdaloue.
The central dossier, dedicated to the theme of the Charism of the Religious Institutes, includes two reports presented in Rome on the occasion of the monthly meetings of the Association of General Curia Members (May 19 and June 16, 2001). The first, edited by Sister Maria Grazia Bianco, Missionary of the School of St. Catherine of Siena, develops a stimulating argument of perennial actuality: “The Passion of Christ in its own light. It consists of a reflection on the dynamic richness of charism with regard to consecration, to living one’s vows, to fraternal life in the community, to prayer, to apostolic commitment, to the administration of goods, to the service of government, to the opening out to the laity and to the local and universal Church.
In the second, the writer, the Salesian Luc Van Looy, points out the importance of the sharing of charism, avoiding every kind of monopoly.
This is followed by the section Theology and Spirituality, with two contributions. The first is entitled “The Mystery of the Heart”. The author is Fr. Marcial Maçaneiro S.C.J., of the Province of South Brazil, who received his degree in dogmatic theology at the Gregorian University in June 2001. Starting from the turning point of the Council, based on the return to the sources, to the biblical and theological roots of Christian faith and life, his article has as its central point a reflection of the spirituality of the Heart of Jesus, with the aim of presenting it according to contemporary demands and sentiments.
In gratitude for the kind cooperation of the Administration of the Apostolate of Prayer, we offer our readers an article by Fr. Charles Delhez, SJ, Regional Secretary of the AP for French-speaking Belgium, published in N. 2 (April-June 2001) of the magazine PRIER ET SERVIR (Pray and Serve). It is entitled “Can We Offer Our Pains and Sufferings to God?”. The Dehonians called to renew their active oblation every day, will find in this reflection a valuable aid and a stimulus for transforming even suffering into an expression of love.
The section dedicated to the Life of the Congregation and to the Missions starts with a study by Fr. Umberto Chiarello, S.C.J. Assistant General, on the revision of our Rule of Life. Since such a revision was proposed as one of the possible themes to be dealt with at the next General Chapter, the study is being published to permit the communities of the Congregation to discuss the open questions listed in the article, and to then communicate the results of their reflections to their respective Provincial, Regional and District Superiors who will be meeting with the general administration next November.
After an article on the part of Fr. Egidio Driedonkx, regarding his historical research on the origin of the statue of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, kept in the chapel of Rome I, there follows a report by Fr. Savino Palermo on the last Provincial Conference of the Province of Zaire. It seems opportune to us to share with our readers this information on the life of a Province sorely tried by the recent civil war, in view of the fact that direct communication with our brethren on the spot is still difficult.
The following three articles illustrate some aspects of the general context in which our brethren in Asia are working. Fr. John Mangkey, Indonesian General Councilor of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a native of Tondano (Northern Celebes), tells of the new challenges which the Church has to face in the pluralized society of Indonesia (the article is dated September 1, 2000). Fr. Francis de Sales, S.C.J. (IN Province), specialized in the various means of social communication, describes the impact of the globalization of the media on the local culture in Indonesia. Lastly, two brethren, belonging to the District of the Philippines, Fr. Jerry Sheehy and Br. Wieslaw Bysiek, tell of their first impressions during a journey which took place in Vietnam in the month of March of this year. The journey had been motivated by the desire to get to know the Vietnamese culture and to establish contacts with exponents of the Catholic Church in this country. This was being done in order to better accompany, in their vocational progress, the young Vietnamese immigrants who knock at the door of our formation house; all the more because there are already brethren of vietnamese origin in the Provinces of the United States and of French-speaking Europe.
The present issue concludes with a long and extended review by Fr. Evaristo Martínez de Alegría, regarding the new edition of the book “Christian Social Renewal” by Fr. Dehon, introduced and commented upon by Fr. André Perroux.