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Superior General reports on foreign missions – 2013 Mission Appeal

Toma — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 23:38:33 +0000

In October, the month of the foreign mission Father Gregory Gay, Superior General of the Congregation of the Mission addresses Confreres with annual update on situation and needs of foreign missions staffed by Vincentian missionaries. This letter is known as Mission Appeal. This year, along with the news about mission Superior General briefly reflects on history of Vincentian Province of Columbia in the centenary since it was erected in 1913: “They who were once missionary territory have now become missionaries to the world!”

We learn form Father Greg’s Letter, that “143 years ago when two confreres, true to our tradition as Vincentian missioners, left France to go to a faraway unfamiliar place. On November 9, 1870, Fathers Gustave Foing and Augustine Rieux landed at the Port of Bonaventura in Colombia, South America and began the work of formation of the clergy and parish missions. These brave confreres were the first missioners in what was then called the Central American Province, stretching from Guatemala to Lima, Peru. On August 11, 1913, Fr Antonio Fiat, Superior General, at a time of expansion, erected the Province of Colombia, separating it from the Central American Province. At the time of its creation, seven of the ten houses in the Central America Province were in Colombia… Today, this Province has 25 houses, with 137 confreres and 50 seminarians.”

If you are interested in where Vincentians are involved in ad gentes missions and what are their needs in distant territories read the full text on line (at Scribd.com) or download as PDF. Both in English and Polish.

“…we rejoice, and ask the Lord of the Harvest to send laborers to the harvest”, Superior General ends his annual Appeal

Mission Appeal – October 2013 [ENGLISH] by CMGlobal.org (PL)

Apel Misyjny – październik 2013 [POLSKI] by CMGlobal.org (PL)

An exclusive interview with Superior General – part two

Toma — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 04:02:16 +0000

On occasion of his visit to Paris in May 2013 Fr. Gregory Gay CM, Superior General of the Congregation of the Mission met Thomas Zielinski of Famvin.org (also a webmaster of cmnewengland.org) for a wide-ranging conversation. This two part recording is result of the meeting held in very fraternal and friendly atmosphere. This is part two.

In part two you Fr.Greg

In part two Fr. Greg shares his reflection on Pope Francis after concelebrating a Holy Mass in Vatican; recalls his recent stay in Poland; brings details of his visit to Vincentian mission in Tanzania; reflects on other foreign missions ff the Congregation of the Mission and finally addresses the Vincentian Family.

shares his reflection on Pope Francis after concelebrating a Holy Mass in Vatican;
recalls in details his recent visit to Vincentian Province of Poland;
brings details of his visit to Congregation of the Mission and Daughters of Charity mission in Tanzania;
reflects on development of other foreign mission run by the Congregation;
acknowledges involvement of Province of Poland in the new mission in Benin, Africa;
addresses the worlwide Vincentian Family with best wishes and blessings.

The interview was recorded live in the Motherhouse of the Congregation of the Mission in Paris.

Mission Appeal of the Superior General

Tom — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 05:45:40 +0000

In October every year Superior General addresses his Mission Appeal to all members of the Congregation of the Mission. “My brothers, we once again are in the month of October, the time when traditionally the Superior General makes an appeal to missionaries throughout the world in order to respond to the needs of our own international missions or requests that have come from particular provinces or from Bishop” – Father Greg begins his Letter and continues encouraging “all to reflect seriously upon the contents of this Mission Appeal Letter. It gives an update on the actual missions that we have, introduces new invitations that we have received and highlights some special missions. At the end of the letter is the procedure that you are asked to follow when you want to consider offering yourself as a missionary beyond the limits of your own province.”

Download: 2011 Mission Appeal (ENGLISH)

Pobierz: Apel Misyjny 2011 (POLSKI)

❦ ❦ ❦

❝ or read it on-line ❞ ❧ ❝ lub przeczytaj online❞

Superior General in Chile 2011, (courtesy of CM Province of Chile)

Mission Appeal is also available in:
❧ Español ❦ Français ❧

World Mission Sunday 2011 – Message of Pope Benedict XVI

Tom — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:29:38 +0000

World Mission Sunday helps to remind us that poor people in our midst are neither forgotten nor unimportant. It is one day each year (one before lat Sunday of October) when the whole Catholic world unites in supporting missionaries in their distant ministries. The missionaries’ concern for the poorest in society is a powerful witness of God’s love. For the theme of his annual message published here Pope Benedict XVI has chosen words from the Gospel of St. John: “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” . This year, Mission Sunday is observed on October 23.

“As the Father has sent me,
even so I send you” (Jn 20:21)

On the occasion of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, at the beginning of a new millennium of the Christian era Venerable John Paul II forcefully reaffirmed the need to renew the commitment to bear the proclamation of the Gospel to everyone, sharing “the enthusiasm of the very first Christians” (Novo Millennio Ineunte, n. 58).

It is the most precious service that the Church can render to humanity and to all individuals who are seeking the profound reasons to live their life to the full. This same invitation therefore resonates every year during the celebration of World Mission Day. Continuous proclamation of the Gospel, in fact, also invigorates the Church, her fervour and her apostolic spirit. It renews her pastoral methods so that they may be ever better suited to the new situations — even those which require a new evangelization — and enlivened by missionary zeal: “missionary activity renews the Church, revitalizes faith and Christian identity, and offers fresh enthusiasm and new incentive. Faith is strengthened when it is given to others! It is in commitment to the Church’s universal mission that the new evangelization of Christian peoples will find inspiration and support” (John Paul II, Encyclical Redemptoris Missio, n. 2).

Go and proclaim

This objective is continually revived by the celebration of the Liturgy, especially of the Eucharist which always concludes by re-echoing the mandate the Risen Jesus gave to the Apostles: “Go…” (Mt 28:19). The Liturgy is always a call “from the world” and a new missionary mandate “in the world” in order to witness to what has been experienced: the saving power of the word of God, the saving power of Christ’s Paschal Mystery.

All those who have encountered the Risen Lord have felt the need to proclaim the news of it to others, as did the two disciples of Emmaus. After recognizing the Lord in the breaking of the bread, “they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the Eleven gathered together” and reported what had happened to them on the road (Lk 24:33-34).

Pope John Paul II urged the faithful to be “watchful, ready to recognize his face and run to our brothers and sisters with the Good News: ‘We have seen the Lord!’” (Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte n. 59).

To all

The proclamation of the Gospel is intended for all peoples. The Church is “by her very nature missionary since, according to the plan of the Father, she has her origin in the mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity Ad Gentes, n. 2).

This is “the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize” (Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, n. 14). Consequently she can never be closed in on herself. She is rooted in specific places in order to go beyond them. Her action, in adherence to Christ’s word and under the influence of his grace and his charity, is fully and currently present to all people and all peoples, to lead them to faith in Christ, (cf. Ad Gentes, n. 5).

This task has lost none of its urgency. Indeed “The mission of Christ the Redeemer, which is entrusted to the Church, is still very far from completion… an overall view of the human race shows that this mission is still only beginning and that we must commit ourselves wholeheartedly to its service” (John Paul II, Encyclical Redemptoris Missio, n. 1). We cannot reconcile ourselves to the thought that after 2,000 years there are still people who do not know Christ and have never heard his Message of salvation.

And this is not all; an increasing number of people, although they have received the Gospel proclamation, have forgotten or abandoned it and no longer recognize that they belong to the Church; and in many contemporary contexts, even in traditionally Christian societies, people are averse to opening themselves to the word of faith. A cultural change nourished by globalization, by currents of thought and by the prevalent relativism, is taking place. This change is leading to a mindset and lifestyle that ignore the Gospel Message, as though God did not exist, and exalt the quest for well-being, easy earnings, a career and success as life’s purpose, even to the detriment of moral values.

The corresponsibility of all

The universal mission involves all, all things and always. The Gospel is not an exclusive possession of whoever has received it but a gift to share, good news to communicate. And this gift-commitment is not only entrusted to a few but on the contrary to all the baptized, who are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people” (1 Pt 2:9), so that they may declare his wonderful deeds.

All activities are involved in it. Attention to and cooperation in the Church’s evangelizing work in the world cannot be limited to a few moments or special occasions nor can they be considered as one of the many pastoral activities: the Church’s missionary dimension is essential and must therefore always be borne in mind.

It is important that both individual baptized people and ecclesial communities be involved in the mission, not sporadically or occasionally but in a constant manner, as a form of Christian life. The World Mission Day itself is not an isolated moment in the course of the year but rather a valuable opportunity to pause and reflect on whether and how we respond to our missionary vocation; an essential response for the Church’s life.

Global evangelization

Evangelization is a complex process and entails various elements. Among them missionary animation has always paid special attention to solidarity. This is also one of the objectives of World Mission Day which, through the Pontifical Mission Societies, requests aid in order to carry out the tasks of evangelization in mission territories. It is a matter of supporting institutions necessary for establishing and consolidating the Church through catechists, seminaries and priests, and of making one’s own contribution to improving the standard of living for people in countries where the phenomena of poverty, malnutrition — especially among children — disease, the lack of health care and education are the most serious.

This is also part of the Church’s mission and in proclaiming the Gospel, she takes human life to heart fully. The Servant of God Paul VI reaffirmed that in evangelization it is unacceptable to disregard areas that concern human advancement, justice and liberation from every kind of oppression, obviously with respect for the autonomy of the political sphere.

Lack of concern for the temporal problems of humanity “would be to forget the lesson which comes to us from the Gospel concerning love of our neighbour who is suffering and in need” (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, nn. 31, 34). It would not be in harmony with the behaviour of Jesus who “went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity” (Mt 9:35).

Thus, through co-responsible participation in the Church’s mission, the Christian becomes a builder of the communion, peace and solidarity that Christ has given us, who cooperates in the implementation of God’s saving plan for all humanity. The challenges that this plan encounters calls all Christians to walk together and the mission is an integral part of this journey with everyone. In it – although in earthenware vessels – we bear our Christian vocation, the priceless treasure of the Gospel, the living witness of Jesus dead and Risen, encountered and believed in in the Church.

May World Mission Day revive in each one the desire to go and the joy of “going” to meet humanity, bringing Christ to all. In his name I impart the Apostolic Blessing to you and, in particular, to those who make the greatest efforts and suffer most for the Gospel.

From the Vatican, 6 January 2011, the Solemnity of the Epiphany.

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

© Copyright 2011 – Libreria Editrice Vaticana

❦ Tekst w języku polskim: BENEDYKT XVI – ORĘDZIE NA 85. NIEDZIELĘ MISYJNĄ ❧

Message of Benedict XVI for 84th World Mission Sunday

Tom — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 21:56:32 +0000

To be missionaries today and respond to people’s need for hope and their desire to live in a new way means “to become champions of the newness of life made up of authentic relationships in communities founded on the Gospel,” says Pope Benedict XVI in his message for 84th World Mission Sunday which will observed on October 24, one before last Sunday in the month. The theme of the message: “Building Ecclesial Communion is the key to Mission” encourages all of us at diocesan and parish level as well as the Institutes of Consecrated Life, Ecclesial Movements, and the entire People of God, to renew our commitment to proclaim the Gospel and give pastoral activity a greater missionary character. Text of the Pope’s message follows:

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
FOR THE WORLD MISSION SUNDAY 2010

Building Ecclesial Communion is the Key to Mission

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The month of October, with the celebration of World Mission Sunday, offers to diocesan and parish communities, institutes of consecrated life, ecclesial movements and the entire People of God an opportunity to renew the commitment to proclaim the Gospel and to give pastoral activities greater missionary perspective. This annual event invites us to live intensely the liturgical and catechetical, charitable and cultural processes through which Jesus Christ summons us to the banquet of his word and of the Eucharist, to taste the gift of his presence, to be formed at his school and to live ever more closely united to him, our teacher and Lord. He himself tells us, “He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him” (Jn 14: 21). Only on the basis of this encounter with the Love of God that changes life can we live in communion with him and with one another and offer our brothers and sisters a credible witness, accounting for the hope that is in us (cf. 1 Pt 3: 15). An adult faith, capable of entrusting itself totally to God with a filial attitude fostered by prayer, meditation on the word of God and study of the truth of the faith, is a prerequisite for furthering a new humanism founded on the Gospel of Jesus.

Furthermore, in many countries the various ecclesial activities are resumed in October, after the summer break, and the Church invites us to learn from Mary, by praying the Holy Rosary, to contemplate the Father’s plan of love for humanity, to love her as he loves her. Is not this also the meaning of mission?

Indeed, the Father calls us to be sons and daughters loved in the beloved Son, and to recognize that we are all brothers and sisters in him who is the gift of salvation for humanity divided by discord and sin, and the revealer of the true face of God who “so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3: 16).

“We wish to see Jesus” (Jn 12: 21), is the request in John’s Gospel that some Greeks, who had arrived in Jerusalem for the paschal pilgrimage, address to the Apostle Philip. It also resonates in our hearts during this month of October which reminds us that the commitment to, and task of, Gospel proclamation is a duty of the whole Church, “by her very nature missionary” (Ad gentes, n. 2), and invites us to become champions of the newness of life made up of authentic relationships in communities founded on the Gospel. In a multiethnic society that is experiencing increasingly disturbing forms of loneliness and indifference, Christians must learn to offer signs of hope and to become universal brethren, cultivating the great ideals that transform history and, without false illusions or useless fears, must strive to make the planet a home for all peoples.

Like the Greek pilgrims of two thousand years ago, the people of our time too, even perhaps unbeknown to them, ask believers not only to “speak” of Jesus, but to “make Jesus seen”, to make the face of the Redeemer shine out in every corner of the earth before the generations of the new millennium and especially before the young people of every continent, the privileged ones to whom the Gospel proclamation is intended. They must perceive that Christians bring Christ’s word because he is the truth, because they have found in him the meaning and the truth for their own lives.

These considerations refer to the missionary mandate that all the baptized and the entire Church have received but that cannot be fulfilled without a profound personal, community and pastoral conversion. In fact, awareness of the call to proclaim the Gospel not only encourages every individual member of the faithful but also all diocesan and parish communities to integral renewal and ever greater openness to missionary cooperation among the Churches, to promote the proclamation of the Gospel in the heart of every person, of every people, culture, race and nationality in every place. This awareness is nourished through the work of Fidei Donum priests, consecrated people, catechists and lay missionaries in the constant endeavour to encourage ecclesial communion so that even the phenomenon of “interculturality” may be integrated in a model of unity in which the Gospel is a leaven of freedom and progress, a source of brotherhood, humility and peace (cf. Ad gentes, n. 8). The Church in fact “is in the nature of sacrament a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all men” (Lumen gentium, n. 1).

Ecclesial communion is born from the encounter with the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who, through the Church’s proclamation reaches out to human beings and creates fellowship with himself and hence with the Father and the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Jn 1: 3). Christ establishes the new relationship between man and God. “He reveals to us that “God is love’ (1 Jn 4: 8) and at the same time teaches us that the fundamental law of human perfection, and consequently of the transformation of the world, is the new commandment of love. He assures those who trust in the charity of God that the way of love is open to all men and that the effort to establish a universal brotherhood will not be in vain” (Gaudium et spes, n. 38).

The Church becomes “communion” on the basis of the Eucharist in which Christ, present in bread and in wine with his sacrifice of love builds the Church as his Body, uniting us with the Triune God and with one another (cf. 1 Cor 10: 16ff.). In the Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum caritatis I wrote, “The love that we celebrate in the sacrament is not something we can keep to ourselves. By its very nature it demands to be shared with everyone. What the world needs is God’s love; it needs to encounter Christ and to believe in him” (n. 84). For this reason the Eucharist is not only the source and summit of the Church’s life, but also of her mission: “an authentically Eucharistic Church is a missionary Church” (ibid.), which can bring all to communion with God, proclaiming with conviction “that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us” (1 Jn 1: 3).

Dear friends, on this World Mission Sunday in which the heart’s gaze extends to the immense spaces of mission, let us all be protagonists of the Church’s commitment to proclaim the Gospel. The missionary impulse has always been a sign of vitality for our Churches (cf. Encyclical Letter, Redemptoris missio, n. 2), with their cooperation and their unique witness of unity, brotherhood and solidarity that gives credibility to heralds of the Love that saves!

I therefore renew to everyone the invitation to pray and, despite financial difficulties, to offer fraternal and concrete help to support the young Churches. This act of love and sharing, which the precious service of the Pontifical Missionary Societies to which I express my gratitude will see to allocating, will support the formation of priests, seminarians and catechists in the most distant mission lands and will encourage the young ecclesial communities.

At the end of this annual Message for World Mission Sunday, I would like with special affection to express my gratitude to missionaries who bear witness to the coming of the Kingdom of God in the most remote and challenging places, often with their lives. To them, who are in the vanguard of the Gospel’s proclamation, every believer offers friendship, closeness and support. May God who loves a cheerful giver (cf. 2 Cor 9: 7) fill them with spiritual fervour and deep joy.

As with the “Yes” of Mary, every generous response of the ecclesial community to the Divine invitation to love our brothers and sisters, will raise up a new Apostolic and ecclesial motherhood (cf. Gal 4: 4, 19, 26), leaving us struck by the mystery of the God of love who “when the time had fully come… sent forth his Son, born of a woman” (Gal 4: 4) to give faith and boldness to the new Apostles. Such a response will make everyone capable “rejoicing in hope” (Rom 12: 12) by realizing the project of God, who wills “that the whole human race form one people of God, be united in the one body of Christ, and be built up into one temple of the Holy Spirit” (Ad gentes, n. 7).

From the Vatican, 6 February 2010

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

ORĘDZIE PAPIEŻA BENEDYKTA XVI NA NIEDZIELĘ MISYJNĄ po polsku

Haiti: Letter from Polish Daughter of Charity

Toma — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 21:30:35 +0000

Easter edition of PATRON, the weekly bulletin of St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY brings us the letter sent to Fr. Jaroslaw Lawrenz CM, days before Easter from Sr. Lila COCHLA, D.C. from Province of Krakow who is working in Haiti for couple of years. After vacation in Poland she returned to Haiti soon after the earthquake. Fr. Lawrenz was a missionary in Haiti before coming in to New England Province.

Additionally PATRON gives information about Lenten Gift from children of St. Stanislaus Kostka parish. Children were collecting their pennies during the Lent to donate them for needy and poor in Haiti. During the Way of the Cross on Good Friday, children put all their collection of $700 in total on the altar. On this occasion Fr. Jaroslaw Lawrenz, Fr. Jan Szylar and Mr. Krzysztof Gospodarzec are grateful to all children on behalf of Daughters of Charity in Haiti for their donation.

Ten artykuł, łącznie z listem, jest dostępny po polsku w serwisie
FAMVIN.ORG POLSKA

~~

Dear Fr. Jarek,

My cordial greetings from Haiti.
It’s already two months since my departure from Poland. I know, there were numerous news in radio and TV about Haiti, but I want to share some of my impressions. First of all, I want to thank the entire parish [St. Stanislaus Kostka, Brooklyn, NY] for continuous prayers and donations, which are our power and strength. Upon my return, Daughters of Charity have organized a clinic in tents on soccer field so that as many people as possible could have access to medication. Most of the people are sick, either physically or spiritually. Children, most often, suffer from upper respiratory tract inflammation due to sleeping on streets, in makeshift tents, in rain alternating with dust, often lacking drinking water or receiving it like medicine and without regular meals. Such dramatic situation leads to anemia and malnutrition.

After the emergency assistance, a first stage, Sisters decided it was necessary to go outside the capital city of Port-au-Prince, to recognize people’s needs in the region. It turned out, that situation there is very similar to the one in the Capital. Everything devastated. State highway is not passable in many places. For almost a week we, the Sisters, stayed in hardly reachable places in the mountains, where people have no transportation capacity. As we did in the Capital, we undertook medical consultations. After a week we returned to Port-au-Prince. Next, for another week, we moved to other part of the country, further to the east. There we saw the same situation as previously.

I believe, right after Easter we will move again to another part of the country. In the meantime we have to leave the school field where we dwell and where the tents are installed. Last Friday [before Palm Sunday] another strong downpour hit our location flooding it completely. Our small tents looked like islands in the sea, all wet. We didn’t sleep all night trying to form drainage with sweeping brushes to drain out water from the field. After day long intensive work in field conditions each one of us was exhausted. But I was thinking to myself: “at least we have food, the poor people did not even have a tent and eat either once a day or not at all”. Quickly, I dispelled my lamenting on myself! To days later, we had to set up tents in new campsite and move everything spared from our collapsed house [Provincial House]. Looking forward to better future, we have started to organize our new house-to-be in the garden.

On behalf of the poor in Haiti, grateful for all the assistance,

Sr. Lila Cochla,
Daughter of Charity