21 April 2001

What's New?

Rome

We are adding to the documentation on Blessed Juan Maria de la Cruz García Méndez the Decree of Martyrdom published by the CONGREGATION FOR THE CAUSES OF SAINTS published on December 18, 2000. It is available in all five website languages plus the original Latin text.

NB We hope to gather in the next few weeks all the related materials posted to the website on Fr. Juan and place them on our Documents & Letters page.

Salamanca

We will be adding the final articles in preparation for the July education conference over the next several weeks. This week there are two by Fr. Dehon:

PREMIER DISCOURS DE L'EDUCATION CHRETIENNE (Son but -- Ses instruments -- Sa méthode -- Ses fruits) [in French]

TRAIT D'UNION. Bulletin de guerre des Anciens Élèves de l'Institution St-Jean de Saint- Quentin (Aisne) - Nº 87 - 3º année, Janvier 1918, p.1-3. [in French and Portuguese]

We will also be posting to our Salamanca page several articles by Yves Ledure (EF) sent to us from France. This week's article appeared in Heimat und Mission 1999 9/10, pp. 14-15.
Défi d'une société sécularisé

What's Happening?

Congo

Zolile Mpambani (CU) is spending Easter in the Congo to attend a provincial assembly. The rest of the general administration stayed in Rome and resumed their spring meetings. The week of April 21st the council will conduct a visitation of the Rome II community.

Necrology

The answer is yes, if you have been wondering about the increase in number of scj deaths this year. In fact, since we have been keeping the necrology on our website, each year has seen an increase in the number of deaths reported as of today's publication date:

  • April 1998 -  7
  • April 1999 -  9
  • April 2000 - 11
  • April 2001 - 20
Youth Ministry

David Jackson (US) passed on the following response to his inquiry about youth ministry in the congregation. This one is from our South Italian Province.

Hi David!

Well I can tell you that we operate in different ways. First of all, we take care of the youth in our parishes. There we plan a project for youth ministry in a broad sense. For example, the preparation for the sacraments (confirmation). But in a special way I take care of the cooperation of all our communities (not only parishes). We organize activities in our houses or in other places (winter camps, summer camps and so on). We organize a youth meeting in spring (next one is from April 28 to May 1, 2001)

I don't know if I answered your questions, however you can visit the sites of our province for youth ministry. It's the site I take care of and the address is: http://www.tenti.tripod.it/dehoniani

Well it's a pleasure to speak to you, if you need something else, don't worry, I will try to answer asap.

Ezio Alessandroni
ezioales@tin.it
31.03.01

Please Remember

+Fr. Giuseppe Rota LU

born: 15.08.1938
first profession: 29.09.1953
ordained: 25.06.1965
died: 10.04.2001 at Lisbon

Born in Lallio, Italy, Giuseppe entered the seminary of the northern Italian Province at Albino. Soon after ordination, in 1965, he went to Portugal. While learning Portuguese he served at the church of Loreto, in Lisbon, known as The Italian Church.

In 1967 he was sent to the scj seminary at Coimbra, to teach French. Later, he went to Madeira, as a teacher and as superior of the SCJ community (1969-1974). For two years (74-75) he was superior of the novitiate community in Aveiro, going then to Vialonga, Santa Iria and Forte da Casa in pastoral work. From 1995 to 1998 he was a member of the first community of Algarve (Azores), his strong pastoral presence is still remembered today.

In the last years of his life he came back to his starting point, Loreto, giving special emphasis to confessions. Death caught him at that place where he started his missionary life. On April 10, at about 11:30 PM, he was setting things in order in the sacristy when a heart attack caught him. His confrere, Fr. Giulio Gritti, found him already dead at midnight.

Fr. Giuseppe's brother Tarcisio is a member of the North Italian Province serving as province archivist at the provincial house in Milan.

NB. For a more complete biography please see the Portuguese original