What's New

Fr. General has written a letter to members of the congregation reflecting on the life and contributions of Br. Sylvestro. It has been posted to the letters and documents page (CF. Sylvestro).

The US Province has a new email address: scjuspro@aol.com. It will be posted on the email page in our Links section.

Caritas International has requested religious communities in Rome for financial donations to help alleviate the suffering of Kosovo Refugees. The General Council made a substantial donation in response to this plea. You can learn more about the activities of Caritas International by visiting their web site at: http://www.caritas.net/

General Conference:

To help prepare for the next General Conference in Recife, May 2000, the General Secretariat of Justice & Peace - SCJ will publish weekly short articles or digests about the theme of the Conference, i.e., "Economy and the Kingdom of God" along with a bibliography on the topic.

It will not always be possible to offer translations in different languages, but the text in the original language certainly will be useful to many scjs. We ask J&P Promoters and Provincial Superiors to publish and distribute the texts in their province and regions that they judge worthwhile.

Our first is a section of the Pope John Paul II's Message for the World Day for Peace, January 1, 1998, which points well on the main problem of this end of century: Globalization, the Third World Debts and Solidarity.

submitted by Carlos Alberto da Costa Silva (CU)

[Editor's note: We have established a new web site page for the General Conference. Material pertaining to the conference will appear on that page. We also apologize for problems we have been having with the use of PDF files. We hope to have it corrected by the time the news is posted (April 24th).]

A prayer service for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations (April 25, 1999) has been posted. Unfortunately due to time constraints it is only available in English. We thank Jack Kurps (US) for producing this Adoration service. It can be found in the Vocation Section, or by liking here to: Vocation Prayer Service April 25.

What's Happening

Last summer Bishop Paul Verschuren, scj of Helsinki, Finland, was diagnosed with leukemia. Due to his illness he resigned from all his duties and Jan Aarts (FIN) became apostolic administrator of the diocese. The Finish Priest Council met from March 15-19, 1999 at Stella Maris, just outside Helsinki. It was good to see that Bishop Verschuren is recovering well and finds himself among his priests, most of whom are members of the congregation. (CF letter 18.09.98)

Submitted by Adrian Borst (NE)

photo taken from Fides, the Finish diocesan bulletin

 

The General Superior with the consent of his council appointed the following administration for the Spanish Province (HI) to be effective May 1, 1999:

Provincial: Aquilino Mielgo Domíngues (second term)

1. Javier Larrea Pascal
2. José Joaquín Izurzu Satrústegui
3. Julián Arroyo de la Rosa
4. José Luis Munilla Martínez

The General Superior with the consent of his council established the districts of India and the Philippines, as well as accepted the following for first profession. The date of existence for each district will coincide with the first profession of the novices.

India on May 1, 1999 the following will make their first profession:

Louis Mariano Fernandes, from the St.Francis Xavier Parish, Goa, India and Roque Placido Rebello, from the Our Lady of Hope Parish, Goa, India.
 

Martin van Ooy (IN) with the two Indian Novices

At the same time the council approved the following for the new Philippine district. In their case profession (establishment of the district) will take place on May 31, 1999: John K. Cabaluna and Arthur P. Guevara.

Please note the General Secretary has determined that districts will continue to use the same three letter abbreviation, i.e., IND for India and PHI for the Philippines.

The General Superior with the consent of his council accepted the resignation of Sérgio José Hemkemeier as a member of the South Brazilian Provincial Council (BM) so that he could assume the duties of provincial treasurer. In his place, after consultation with the province, José Filipe Dalcegio was appointed to fill out this mandate.

News from Mozambique

The following was excerpted from a report sent by the provincial secretary Alessandro Capoferri, available in Portuguese by linking to: CARTA ÀS COMUNIDADES 7

Fr. Venturini and Fr. Fortuna went to Gilé to begin a new scj presence in that area. Diocesan priests from Brazil will take over the area of Ile which had been entrusted to the scjs.

The novices master from Portugal reported that the three novices from MZ are doing well.

From April 12 to May, 4, Provincial, Fr. Onorio Matti, provincial superior, will be visiting the Province.

Fr. Mario Gritti, presently in Cameroon will take part at the Formation Meeting in Rome, next month.

Fr. Greselin and FR. Rufini will participate at the Ongoing Formation Program in Rome, this fall.

Fr. Regonesi will take part at the Vocation Meeting in Lavras (Brazil) this August.

Formation directors (MZ) met in Quelimane on April 6-. After evaluating their work they began to prepare the Ratio Formationis for the Province.

At the same time the team responsible to write the Provincial Directory met in Quelimane: Fr. Greselin, Fr. Luis Vasco and Fr. Madella. It will be one of the subjects for the Provincial Assembly scheduled for July, 21 - 26 1999.

Translation provided by Odilo Leviski (BM)

 

Leo John Dehon Photo of the Week:

Laying of the Corner Stone for Cristo Rei (Rome Italy)

 

Finally, Mary Gorski was kind enough to send along the color original of the 'self portrait' done by Herman Falke (CA) which we pass along here.
  Herman Falke, scj, Ottawa, Canada