What's New

We have posted to the Letters and Documents page a letter from Fr. General dated 31 December 1998: A Road to Build, A Path to Travel for the Years 1999 - 2003. It is availabe in English, French and Italian. Please note, because of its size the three languages are done separately.

The report from the South Italian Province (IM) on their justice and peace activities has been posted to the Justice & Peace page.

The Duth Province has established several new email addresses, including one for the provincial house. Please make note of the following:

provincialate: provincialaat@ned-prov-scj.nl (posted to links page)
provincial treasurer: economaat@ned-prov-scj.nl
Harry Peels: sintjan@worldonline.nl
Jan Eijkman eykyanse@worldonline.nl

There is also a new email address for the provincialate in Chile (CH) dehonchile@entelchile.net. It has been posted to the links page.

What's Happening

A committe to plan the Dehonian Family Assembly, met in Rome the weeknd of January 29-31, 1999. Quoting from Fr. General's letter of 31 December the task of this group is:

The international congress will take place in Rome 9 - 13 October 2000. A committee of experts composed of Fr. Warjito and Fr. Chiarello along with another religious, a lay person and a member of the Compagnia Missionaria will meet in January or February 1999 to prepare:

• reflection points for the preparatory meetings of the various component parts of the family
• gathering together all the responses from the meetings of laity according to geographic area and also the contributions of other recognised groups.
• preparing a work plan for the meeting in 2000
• preparing all that is necessary for the 2000 meeting
• setting the number of participants and the criteria for participation - studying the economics of such a gathering - keeping in mind the costs suggested at the meeting of Major Superiors.

A letter to the Provincial, Regional and District Superiors from the planning group will be sent shortly explaining the process leading up to the assembly in the year 2000.

John Klingler (US), former general councilor (1985-1991), was in Rome for a week long visit on his way to De Aar, South Africa. He will be working there for the next eight months, as part of his sabbatical program. His working in De Aar will free one of the local priests to in turn take some time for personal renwal.

Please Remember

Fr. Emilio Bertuletti (MZ) born: 09/04/30 first profession: 29/09/49 ordination: 22/06/58 died: 29/01/99 at Bolognano

Born at Sotto il Monte (Bergamo) 9 April 1930 of Angelo and Colleoni Lucia. He was very happy to have been born in the same region as John XXIII. He entered the minor seminary at Albino for his initial formation. He made his novitiate at Albisola (Savona) choosing the religious name Giovanni and made his first profession on September 29, 1949.

On June 22, 1958 he was ordained at Bologna. His desire was to go to Africa and he went to Mozambique, dedicating himself to evangelization. Once in Italy he had difficulty returning to Mozambique because of the communist regime and its antireligious policies.

He was able to return to Mozambique as a common laborer hiding the fact that he was priest from the government. His new missionary experience was as a director of a state agricultural company (1981-1985), and put him in direct contact with the people. He remembered the words of Jesus. "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat."

He then became pastor and superior at Quelimane a very active parish. During the revolt he helped many families to cultivate and harvest crops. He did not want to be a missionary who was not concerned for the everyday needs of his people. In 1990 he was assigned to the SCJ community at Maputo. His vast experience working in agriculture aided him in working with the local church. He was able to preserve an excdellent photographic history of his many years of work in Mozambique.

In 1994 he returned to Italy, spending a year of study at Rome and another at Milan. He was then assigned to the community of Bagnarola di Budrio (Bologna) as local house treasurer. He was diagnosed with an incurable disease which led him on the road to Calvary and the immolation of the cross. Despite his sufferings he was always serene and pleasant with everyone he met. He died at Bolognao (Trento) on January 29, 1999.

Obituary prepared by Paolo Gazzotti (IS)

+Johannes van der Straaten (NE)

born: 08/06/20
first profession: 08/09/40
ordination: 14/07/46
died 01/02/99 at Nijmegen

On Monday February 1, 1999, our brother, Fr. Johannes Cornelis van der Straaten, scj, died suddenly at our house for senior religious at Nimega.

He was born at Wanroy on June 8, 1920, and made his first profession of vows on September 8,1940 at Asten. He was ordained on July 14, 1946 at Nijmegen. After ordination he did additional studies in Indian and cultural anthropology at the University of Leida.

From March 28, 1995 until its close in October of the same year he was director of the house for young working people, a social work of the congregation in Rotterdam. In October of 1955 he completed his studies at the Institute for Social Studies at the Haag. He then moved to the community of Liesbosch where he remained until 1960.

From 1960 to 1983 he lived in our house St. Jansklooster at the Haag. During this time he was chaplain at the city jail. He was also a member of the house council from 1980 to 1983. In '83 he left for Rome where he took up the duties of librarian of the congregation, and was named its director in January 1984.

He retired in 1990 to the community of St. Jozefklooster, a community for senior religious. He was happy to be among his old friends in Nijmegen, but also took pride in the fact that he had help to modernize the library of the congregation. He died on Monday, February 4, 1999. His funeral will be in the chapel of St. Joseph in Nijmegen and will be buried in our community cemetery.

Obituary prepared by Rein van Langen (NE)