16 June 2001

What's New?

India

The SCJ website in India has moved to a new location. Please make note of this change. It will also be updated on our links page. Their new URL is: http://home.talkcity.com/DharmaDr/scjindia

Feast of the Sacred Heart Letter

Last week we posted Fr. General's letter for the Feast of the Sacred Heart in the original Italian this week we are adding translations in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French (Cf. Messaggio in occasione della Festa del Sacro Cuore del 2001). The theme of this year's letter is "The Future of the Congregation."

Justice & Peace

Warjito (CU) has forwarded an appeal from Sister Patrizia and supported by 77 congregations of men and women religious on debt relief in preparation of the G8 meeting in Genoa (Cf. G8: Everyone in Genoa Including Men and Women Religious for Debt Forgiveness).

Missions

This week's addition to the mission section (in preparation for the November meeting of mission secretaries in Rome) is on Byelorussia (cf. Belarus).

Rome

The office of the secretary general is considering creating an elenchus of personal scj email addresses. At present only scj houses are kept (and can be found on our links page). The office we appreciate your thoughts on the value of this project. Also keep in mind it will take cooperation of scjs to make is a useful tool. Please send your comments to: scjcuriagen@scj.org. Please put "personal email address" in the subject box as it will help in sorting these from the many email documents received by the secretary's office.

What's Happening?

Asia

The first all Asian SCJ Conference on SCJ Formation and Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation

25 SCJs from the Indonesia Province, the Districts of the Philippines and India, and the JPIC General Councilor, Carlos Alberto da Costa Silva, participated in the first SCJ Asia Conference, held in Indonesia, May 23 - 31, 2001.

The theme of the Conference was: SCJ FORMATION & Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation

NB The photo and article are from the SCJ Indian District website.

British - Irish Province

One week to go!

It is now only a week to the start of out international summer course "A Journey of Reconciliation". Final details of travel arrangements are being made and the 101 things that need to be prepared are slowly falling into place. We hope to see as many of our website readers as possible at our welcome concert- see below -- or somewhere else along the journey. Please keep the success of the program in your prayers

NB We hope to have several updates during the month long scj ongoing formation program sponsored this year by the British-Irish Province and under the direction of Chris Jenkins (BH), director of the Malpas Retreat and Conference Centre.

North Brazil

The Province of North Brazil held it's election assembly on June 5, 2001, and with 48 of 55 members present elected the following administration. The superior general and his council have confirmed the new provincial team consisting of:

Provincial: Fr. Tarcísio Pereira de Paiva

Council

  1. Fr. André Vital Félix da Silva
  2. Pe. João Meijners
  3. Fr. Renato Maia de Ataíde
  4. Fr. Marcos Antônio Alves de Lima
  5. Fr. Dagnaldo Alexandre de Oliveira
Spanish and Portuguese Novices Meet

Five Novices from Portugal and three from Spain met at Aveiro, Portugal, from May 31 to June 4. This is not the first time that has happened.

During their encounter both groups talked about formation, life in the two provinces, giving special emphasis to the missionary activities in Ecuador, Venezuela and the preparation of lay missionaries for Mozambique.

They also visited some ministries of the Portuguese Province in Coimbra, Aveiro and Porto.

Another important moment was the pilgrimage to Fátima together with 200 people from Aveiro. At the end a tree was planted in memory of the meeting and as a sign of hope for those Provinces. The following message was written too, to be sent to the General Superior and the Provincial Superiors of their provinces.

At Aveiro, from May 31 to June 4, SCJ novices from Spain and Portugal met together.

Through this meeting we tried to respond to the invitation of the General Superior to: "We, the Congregation, in the service to Mission".

This contact with a different culture and a different language was something new for us, but helped make us aware that in the Congregations there are no isolated "tribes".

For the Spanish novices it was a surprise to learn that the Portuguese novices practice manual work on their property. Another good experience was the great activity around Fátima, on the occasion of the pilgrimage of the Dehonian Family to the shrine.

We all had the opportunity to understand better the Dehonian charism which call us to pay more attention and to be involved in the social needs of people.

The meeting was very useful and we are sure that it will be repeated in the future. The joy and the search for what is essential is a challenge during the novitiate year and for all our lives as a witness for all religious.

We celebrated joyfully our faith, in union with the Lord, in payers and canticles and we wish for future novices a meeting as good as this.

South Brazil


SCJ School of Theology of Taubaté

On May 5, 2001, a special Commission from the Brazilian Office of Education ended its oversight visit to the SCJ School of Theology of Taubaté. The school has applied for official recognition of its program. The school received second highest ranking in their class. This means that the school will receive approval and will be able to grant official diplomas. In 2001 there were about 140 students including 38 scjs attending the School of Theology of Taubaté.