From Rome January 10, 1998  

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Council Travels

Fr. Virginio Bressanelli (CU), accompanied by Fr. Ryszard Mis (CU), continues his visitation to the scjs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They will return to Rome toward the end of the month in time to participate in meetings of the newly formed ad hoc commission on governance, to be followed by a meeting of the general finance commission.

Umberto Chiarello, scj (CU) and Zolile Mpambani (CU) are in Mozambique for the episcopal ordination of Tomé Makhwéliha (MOZ).

Carlos Alberto da Costa Silva (CU) is in South America. The provinces in this geographic zone are holding their annual provincial assemblies.

Tom Cassidy, scj (CU) is currently visiting the Anglo Canadian Province conducting the consultation for a new provincial administration, scheduled to take office in June '98.

Fr. Wardjito (CU) leaves next week for the Far East. He will be visiting the scjs in the Philippines, as well as, conducting the consultation for a new Indonesian provincial administration scheduled to take office in July '98.

We the Congregation in Action

Fr. Teja Anthara (IN) is a living example of We the Congregation in action. He is a member of the Indonesian Province working in Toronto, Canada as pastor to the local Indonesian Catholic Community, about 500 strong. In cooperation with the archdiocese of Toronto, the Anglo Canadian SCJ Province, and the Indonesian Province, an scj has been sent to Canada to serve the pastoral needs of the local Catholic Indonesian community, while at the same time pursuing graduate studies and living at St.Joan of Arc Parish.

Fr. Teja Anthara, scj

Teja, ordained in April of 1991, came to Canada in January 1995. Prior to his arrival in Toronto, he worked as associate pastor at St. Stefanus, Cilandak, a large urban parish in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. He will earn a masters degree in Ministry and Spirituality this spring from University of Toronto, Regis College. Later this year he will return to Indonesia to take up new duties.

The Indonesian Province has promised to send a replacement to continue this joint cooperation between the local church and scj community first begun around 1980. Upon his arrival, he will be the fifth Indonesian scj to take up this ministry.

Montréal Vocation Meeting

The directors of vocation ministry for the three provinces in North America will meet in Montréal on January 12, 1998. This meeting will continue the on going dialogue between the provinces pertaining to the problems and opportunities for vocation ministry in North America.

Congratulations

To the new Polish Provincial administration taking office on January 15, 1998, and a word of gratitude to the out going administration for their service of authority to the province.
 

New Administration	Old Administration
Provincial: Jòsef Gawel	Czeslaw Konior
1 Zbigniew Bogacz	Eugeniusz Ziemann
2 Jan Strzalka	Zbigniew Bogacz
3 Tadeusz Michalek	Gerard Swoboda
4 Jerzy Welna	Jerzy Welna

 

January 8, 1998

The situation here is really catastrophic. Well, when I say "here", I mean in the city and the province. Fortunately, we still have power at the house. We feel very fortunate as there is one third of the Quebec population who miss electricity!

The school in Pointe-au-Chêne closed early Tuesday morning. Power failed at 1:00 a.m. there. They first planned to reopen yesterday, but the weather was still too bad, so the school will be closed for the rest of the week.

Gérard Schoonebeck (CG) stayed in his rectory (St. Philippe de Lapraire) without power for 36 hours. I talked to him on the phone yesterday night, just after lights and heat were on again.

Now, Claude Bédard (CG) just told me that he called again, and out of power. He is at a parishioner's house. He was thinking of coming here, but the roads are quite dangerous.

It seems to be quite the same in St. Édouard de Napierrville for Roger Phaneuf (CG). He called here yesterday morning, telling the secretary that he might come to Montréal with his mother. Since then, no more news. Apparently, he is at the parish secretary's house. I don't have her phone number, and don't even know her name, so I just have to wait for him to call.

Nlandu Ngaka (ZA), a young brother from Congo who is studying in Taubaté, was here to visit with his brother, who works at the Congolese embassy in Ottawa. Nlandu was supposed to leave Monday night for Brazil, but has been stuck here since. We'll try again tomorrow to get him on a flight to São Paolo, via Toronto.

As I am writing this, at my desk, I hear pieces of ice dropping from the big tree in the garden. Some of them fall near my window. I hope it won't crack! That was the case all night long. Since my room is on the garden side -- so beautiful in summer -- I did not sleep very well, nor very long. I heard branches cracking all night, and a few, one of them really big, fell to the ground.

January 9, 1998

A few words to give you an update about our situation, while we still have power. We really don't know how long it will last. We had a half an hour failure at 5:30 a.m. this morning. As of 7:00 p.m. last night Maison Dehon has been without power. People stayed there for the night, but now we have begun to move them into our house. The Health Department also asked Maison Dehon to be ready to host more people with AIDS . We said Maison Dehon could not, but offered our house to help.

There is still no power in Pointe-au-Chêne, nor Gérard's or Roger's places.

Now, the freezing rain is back, and we even hear thunder and see lightning. Never seen that at this time of the year! A big branch is broken in front of Maison Dehon, near the wires, and the police just blocked this area, so people cannot get in by car that way.

Hope it comes to an end soon, without more power failures!

Editors note: As of last evening (January 9, 1998) we received word from Montréal that the power also failed at the provincial house. The headline in the morning Toronto Morning Star read: "Millions Shiver in the Dark!"

I use Roland's account because my server is down. I just want to give some news about our situation. Power is back since 15 minutes here. We lost it Friday, at 12h15. So we were out of this world for almost 48 hours.

As you know, we were hosting people from Maison Dehon. Most of the residents found friens or relatives where to go, except one of them. Those who went away were replaced by employees or volunteers. To add to the problems, the Mayor announced, late Friday night, that water was contaminated. You can imagine that stores quickly ran out of bottled water Saturday morning!

We were very fortunate, because Maison Dehon had power back Saturdy morning. So we could have hot meals in a warm place, have warm showers, even if nights here were a little chilly.

As far as I know, Gérard and Roger are still out of electricity, that means for 5-6 days, I guess. The school in Pointe-au-Chêne serves hot meals to people of the area, as their kitchen equipment uses gas.

Well, that's it for now. I'll go to check out the food in the freezer...