From Rome February 21, 1998  

New bishop named

The Holy Father has named Father Geraldo Dantas de Andrade (BM) auxiliary bishop of São Luis diocese in the province of Maranhao.

Bishop elect Dantas de Andrade was born on September 29, 1931, was professed on February 2, 1953, and was ordained on December 18, 1957.
 
When more news becomes available we will post it here. (link)

French Canadians discuss their future

Maurice Légaré & Richard Woodbury
The French Canadian Province met with Tom Cassidy (CU) from the general council in Montreal on February 12, 1998 to discuss plans for changing the juridical status of the province at the end of Légaré's third mandate in June '98.

The province currently consists of eight scjs who staff four parishes, a secondary (high) school, and Maison Dehon, a well known Montréal AIDS hospice (cf. the article below: Maison Dehon to celebrate 10 years of service)

Council travels

Umberto Chiarello (CU) is in France brushing up on his French, while Zolile Mpambani (CU) is in Perugia learning Italian.

Publishing email addresses

Recently we were asked to publish several email address. While we do so here, we would like to point out a web page is like a 'public' document open to scrutiny by anyone with access to the Internet. Several religious communities have tried to publish email listings of their members, but quickly learned this was not a good idea, as soon their members were inundated with unwanted email.

It is our hope that in time we will be able to develop a 'secure' page open to only scjs where it might be possible to publish an email address book. That being said, we include here the following two messages we have received:

We are several fathers watching your pages and so people can send messages for scjs in both communities please publish the email address for Nijmegan I & II: eykyanse@worldonline.nl

Please publish the following email address from Chile: Thank you, Hernan Leemrysee, scj: scjancud@telsur.cl

Maison Dehon to celebrate 10 years of service

Maison Dehon, Montréal
On August 15, 1998 Maison Dehon will celebrate 10 years as an AIDS hospice. Established as the second Canadian AIDS hospice in 1988, it is now one of six in Montréal, and one of 14 in Canada. What may make Maison Dehon unique is its spirituality based care drawn from the SCJ charism, with its strong emphasis on God's love, says founder Claude Bédard (CG). The program stresses residents come to Maison Dehon not to die with AIDS, but to live with AIDS. A better explanation of this approach can be found in Nouveau regard sur l'homosexualité Questions d'éthique: Actes d'un colloque tenu sous l'égide de la Faculté de théologie de l'Université de Montréal en novembre 1996 (Éditions Fides, 1997). Look for the article Accueil pastoral au-delà l'étiquetage: positions éthiques by Claude Bédard.

Maison Dehon was at one time a house of formation for the French Canadian scjs. The small house has room at any given time for six residents. In its 10 year history 134 residents have made their final journey here. Due to the advancement in AIDS treatment the typical stay has increased from less then six months to up to two years.

While Maison Dehon has a full time staff, including two nurses, the secret to its success is its large staff of over 80 volunteers ranging in age from five to seventy-five, who help to contain the cost of running the hospice. While support from the Province of Quebec has increased from 10% to about 23% of the budget, Maison Dehon must raise the rest from outside sources.

Last year the Maison Dehon Annex was opened in another building next door to the hospice providing space for: arts and crafts, learning computer skills, as well as, The Center of Spirituality for Discovering Christ's Love through AIDS. In addition the Annex also provides a focal point for developing the spirituality of professionals, and a place for the staffs of other Canadian AIDS hospices to reflect, meditate and hold conferences.

Both the XXth General Chapter and The Plan: We The Congregation in Service to the Mission -- 1997-2003 speak of developing prophetic communities in each geographic zone. Some have pointed to Maison Dehon as a living example of what a prophetic community might encompass (cf. The Plan #15. 3).