What's New

The general administration has approved a plan for the initial stages of "preserving - cataloguing - digitizing" the Dehonian Archives. Fr. General has sent a letter to the provincial and regional superiors outlining this plan. The letter (l'Archivio Dehoniano) has been posted to the Letters and Documents page. The French and English texts will be posted when they become available.

The scj community of San Carlos, Venezuela has a new telephone number: 058-331805. The same number also serves as their fax number. Please note, the parish number remains: 058-333257.

During the course of the year we hope to highlight different provinces and scjs using our Vocation Page. This month we will be featuring our British-Irish Province.

What's Happening

In a letter to the congregation dated 20 December, 1999, Fr. General set the dates for the International Encounter of Dehonian Educators for July 2 - 11, 2000, at Salamanca, Spain. This letter has been posted to the Letters and Documents page in Italian. The French and English texts will be posted when they become available.

Madagascar

November 14 1974, was the day that the first SCJ missionary arrived in Madagascar; he was Fr. Nicola Giampetro (IM).

November 14, 1999, was the date this anniversary was celebrated by 47 SCJ religious, Portuguese, Italian, and Malagasy. As the Sunday liturgy parable stated, the talents given by the Lord to the SCJs of Madagascar increased and multiplied.

So begins Umberto Chiarello (CU) short article recounting the 25^th anniversary of our scj presence. The complete text is available in both Italian , English and Portuguese.

Joe Ruiz

The picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe used to end today's news page is the work of Joe Ruiz, a 23 year old member of Our Lady of Guadalupe parish (Raymondville, TX). He is a full time student at the University of Texas at PanAm. The original, a 5' by 6' (1.52m by 1.83m), was placed behind the main altar at OLG parish in Raymondville on the feast Our Lady of Guadalupe (12 December). Joe was kind enough to grant us permission to post it to our website. It originally appeared on the Willacy County Catholic Churches web site (http://www.vsta.com/~spujdak/).

Venezuela Update

As promised on our news insert of 24 December, 1999 we have received the letter (19 December) from the regional superior, Gonzalo Arnaiz (VEN), recounting the aftermath from the December floods. The text is available in Spanish, Italian and English.

Bishop Anton Cosa

On 6 January 2000, Mons. Anton Cosa, apostolic administrator of Moldavia, was ordained bishop by John Paul II. Several scjs participated in the ceremony. Scjs from the Polish province have worked in Moldavia since the opening up of the east after the break up of the Soviet Union.

Towards 2001!

After the meeting of the provincial council with Zolile Mpambani SCJ of the General Council in Rome, held in Malpas last week, plans are in hand for the 2001 International On-going Formation program.

The Focus will be on being "Servants of Reconciliation". Participants will take part in a personal journey of reconciliation as well as reflecting on how to help others experience it. It is hoped as many as 24 SCJs from around the world will come to Malpas for the four weeks, June/July 2001.

Taken from the BH website
http://www.malpas2000.freeserve.co.uk/

Dehon Photo of the Week

While Stefan Tertünte enjoys a few weeks break back home in Germany we have a guest writer this week in Antonio Cuomo (IM) who writes on Fr. Dehon's social commitment at the close of the 19^th century. He begins: "On September 6, 1888, Fr. Dehon came to Rome in order to thank Pope Leo XIII for the Decree of Praise given to his Congregation. Because of his sensitivity toward social matters, he had received from the pope the mission to preach the his encyclicals" (cf. A Century Ago).

Dehon in Canada and America

In this week's excerpt from Selections from Father Dehon's Diary, Fr. Dehon visits the Canadian capital city of Ottawa. Next week he will begin a trek across Canada and the Western United States.
 

by Joe Ruiz©
Raymondville, TX (USA)