Ireland and UK
At the beginning
of August I was “baby-sitting” that is, looking after the community house and
basic activities in Dublin while Fathers John Carmel and Michael Moss were on
retreat with the other confreres from the UK and Br Francis from the Vatican at
the Jesuit retreat house of St Beuno in North Wales. I then flew from Dublin to Liverpool where Br
Firas met me and I stayed with Fr Stephen and Br Firas for a few days at Up
Holland. At Cardinal Heenan House there
is wonderful work going on caring for elderly people, many suffering from
dementia and Alzheimer’s. Fr Stephen
supervises the lay manager and celebrates Mass and sacraments and Br Firas was
daily with the staff and residents. I
was able to visit Mr Joseph Tipping, an ardent benefactor of our Delegation and
with him went to visit some of the other friends and benefactors in Penwortham,
near Preston. Then I went down to London with Br Firas who was changing
communities from Up Holland to London.
He was sorely missed by the staff and residents of the Home. I spent the week-end in Hampton Wick, spent
some time in Orione House for elderly people where again great work is going on
in caring for our needy older brothers and sisters. I also had a cup of tea with our Polish
brothers and sisters who attend Mass in Polish with Fr Henryk Halman after the
earlier Mass in English with Fr Philip and Fr Joseph Tirello. I
returned to Rome on 13th August.
It is good to note that in the UK the Charity of the Sons of Divine
Providence is now legally modified with greater participation in
decision-making of the “Members” that is, the Confreres, the Delegation Council
and Fr Flavio Peloso. The Board of
Management consists of Fr Philip Kehoe, Chairman, Fr John Carmel Perrotta, Fr
Stephen Beale, Fr Michael Moss, and the newly appointed Mrs Ursula Harrison and
Mrs Bernadette Griffin, old friends of the Congregation. The two lay-members are appointed by the
Members for a three-year term of office and can be re-appointed.
Payatas
On 17th August Fr Eucinei Antonio De
Souza, was officially installed as parish priest in our parish at Payatas,
Quezon City, Metro-Manila by His Excellency Antonio Tobias, Bishop of
Novaliches. Best wishes to him in this very
demanding role in an enormous and very poor parish. He is together with Fr Julio Cuesta, the
vicar and bursar and Br Mark Mangulabnan, doing his first year of tirocinium
and they are joined by Fr Diego Lorenzi until next June. Fr Martin Mroz is also involved in the
parish, even though he belongs to the community of Lucena, because he is in
charge of PAOFI which runs the medical and social programmes for the
Parish. Also Frs Anderson, Stefan and
John Castillo and the novices and seminarians, from Montalban, also come to
assist in the parish on Sundays
Secretariat
Meetings via Skype
I must confess that I failed to participate in two or
more Secretariat meetings via Skype which I had planned - because of
forgetfulness! My apologies to all
concerned. Let us not be discouraged
but try to continue these very useful meetings.
Annual Retreat
This year I joined confreres from Italy and other
countries at Montebello from 22nd to 28th August, some of
whom were celebrating 25th, 50th, 60th or 70th
anniversaries of religious vows or priestly ordination for my annual retreat. The preacher was H.E. Mons. Giovanni
Scanavino OSA, emeritus bishop of Orvieto and Todi. He spoke very much and passionately about the
love of God dwelling within us because of our Baptism in the light of St
Augustine’s “Confessions”.
Feast of Our
Lady of Safe-keeping (Madonna della Guardia) Tortona, 29th August
Brs. Ian Kiprotich, Gideon Ombwori and Sunil Raja
were called to serve at the altar for the novena leading up to and including
the feast day itself. My participation
was mostly by being available for Confessions and I hardly ever had a spare
moment in all the six hours. On the
following day I went with them on foot and by car to visit the house where Don
Orione spent much of his life, the “Paterno” in Tortona, our parish in Voghera
which was a Franciscan convent where little Luigi Orione first tried his
vocation, the house where he was born and the church where he was baptised in
Pontecurone, the chapel which he rebuilt of Our Lady of “La Fogliata” and the
Hermitage of “Sant’Alberto”. They had
previously visited the Cottolengo of Tortona where seriously disabled children
a very lovingly cared for by our Sisters and many volunteers. I managed also to visit Sr Leonarda who had
spent many years serving the people of Kenya, especially in Meru and Igoji and
was now in the “Mother House” where Don Orione started his first college, cared
for by Sr Evangeline from Meru, Kenya.
We all returned by train to Rome on 31st August.
Synod for
Africa and Madagascar
On 6th August I went with Fr Flavio, Fr
Eldo and Fr Pierangelo, the Provincial
of Italy, to the Ivory Coast to participate in the Orionine Synod for Africa
and Madagascar. It was about sixteen
years since I had visited the Ivory Coast where a good number of our confreres
from Kenya have spent some of their initial formation, starting in 1992. I saw many developments, especially the enormous
shrine of Our Lady of Safe-keeping (“Notre Dame de la Guarde”) and the
Provincial House and additional buildings at the nearby novitiate, the women’s
hospital near Anyama, the new Theological House at Anyama, the Sisters
Novitiate near Anyama, the new Church of Our Lady Mother of Divine Providence
at Bonoua and several new developments at the Centre for the Handicapped at Bonoua.
7th
September, World Day of Prayer and Fasting for peace and for Syria.
This was the day of prayer and fasting for peace in
the world and especially in Syria called for by Pope Francis. I would like to thank you all for your
participation in this event of the whole Catholic Church, and all who wished to
take part, like the Muslims in St Peter’s Square, wherever you were. I think we
are seeing the fruits already.
Syrian
Refugees Zarqa
Our Frs Carlo and Hani in Zarqa, Jordan, are
co-operating with Caritas in distributing food, clothing and medicines to the
ever-increasing number of refugees from Syria and are also preparing
accommodation for a number of families with the help of the Fondazione Don
Orione and Fr Alessio.
The Synod
continued
The Synod was composed of four of us from Rome,
representing the General Curia, the Province of Italy, which includes
Madagascar, and the Delegation, Fr Paul Mboche and Peter Wambulwa from Kenya,
Fr Luciano Mariani and Fr Modeste from Madagascar, Fr José Geraldo from
Mozambique and the Provincial for Brazil South, Fr Aparecido Da Silva, Fr
Basile, the superior of the Vice-Province of Africa, Fr Riccardo the bursar, Fr
Fabio and Fr Natale from Togo, Fr Mathieu and Fr Silvain from Burkina Faso and
Fr John Baptiste and Fr Angelo from Ivory Coast. We discussed evangelisation,
culture, inculturation and formation in Africa and Madagascar and also how we
can co-operate better in the future. Some points which I remember are the many
charitable, pastoral and educational activities that we have in all these
countries as well as formation of the numerous young men who are coming forward
to join us. It was mentioned that while respecting culture is important, it can
also be used as a tool to escape the full demands of the Gospel and the
religious life. The meaning of the word “synod” is “seeing together” therefore
sharing experience, ideas, how to improve. So that is what we did and we talked
about many aspects of life in our communities and saw that we must move from
individualism to sharing, from multiculturality to interculturality, from words
to life and action, using especially lectio divina, deeper spirituality,
significant moments from the life of Don Orione as signs of how to live our
charism. We also decided to continue the synodal experience by meeting every
three years and setting up secretariats for all the areas of life in the
congregation in Africa and Madagascar and finding a small group of confreres to
be the permanent committee for motivating the synod. Bishop Raymond kindly
joined us for supper on the last evening.
After the Synod Fr Flavio, Fr Eldo, Fr Pierangelo and
I returned to Italy and Rome on 13th September.
General
Canonical Visit UK & Ireland
From 17th – 27th September Frs.
Fulvio and Joao Batista carried out the General Canonical visit in the UK &
Ireland. They had meetings with all the confreres and visited all the three
communities at Hampton Wick, Up Holland and Dublin and visited all the
properties of the Congregation.
Ist Year
Theology Rome
This year the Delegation has five confreres beginning
theology in Rome – Br Marcio, Br Ian, Br Jeremiah, Br Gideon and Br Sunil. They join Br Raju, now in the second year, Br
Njenga, now in the third year and Deacon Sidon who is completing his license.
Confreres
arriving in Italy for studies and tirocinium
I was able to welcome Br Rey Jones who had arrived
from the Philippines in the Curia as he started studying Italian and then went
to our community at Camaldoli, Genoa. I
also welcomed Fr Praveen who had arrived from India to study for a license in a
branch of theology which was finally decided on, namely, pastoral theology of healthcare
at the Camillianum. Meanwhile Fr Antonio applied and was accepted for a license
in Arabic and Islamic studies with the Missionaries of Africa in Rome.
Visit of Fr Diego
and Nancy Baldwin from the Hickey Foundation
We also had a brief visit in Rome from Nancy Baldwin,
the chief executive of the Hickey Foundation which helps many of our programmes
in the Philippines and now in Kenya. Fr Diego came to Rome to welcome her and
then travelled to the Philippines to join the community at Payatas for about
nine months.
Meeting of the
Executive Council for Formation Rome
On 30th September I took part in the
Executive Council for Formation at the Theology House, Rome with Fr Joao
Batista de Freitas, Fr Carlo, Fr Alessandro, Fr Giacomo, Fr Pierangelo and Fr
Basile, to reflect on the roles of formators and spiritual directors, the
timing and place of tirocinium (the importance of the community receiving the
confrere in tirocinium) and other matters.
Up-coming
events
·
The Orionine Lay Movement
Assembly, Montevideo, Uruguay, 7th
-11th October. Karen Chia
from UK and Fr Mariano Zapico, co-ordinator for India are attending
·
The General Assembly of
Verification at the shrine of Our Lady of
Aparecida, Brazil, 13th – 20th October. Fr Mariano and I will attend. This is also the
start of the Orionine Missionary Year. Each country must prepare a celebration
to remember the foundation of the Congregation in his territory during the
following 12 months. Please let me know the date as soon as possible!
·
Formation in the charism
course, Montebello, Italy, 4th – 15th
November.
·
Delegation Council in the
Philippines 26th– 28th
November.
·
General Canonical Visit
Zarqa, Jordan, 15th - 20th
December.
·
General Canonical visit to
the Philippines, 25th – 31st
January 2014.
I am hoping to visit India and Jordan soon.
Fr. Malcolm Dyer FDP
Delegate
Missionary Delegation "Mother of the Church"
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