News and Events

News and Events... Updated regularly

New President of the Pontifical Alphonsian Academy...

(Rome, 29 November 2023)

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The Academic Community of the Alphonsian Academy is pleased to announce the appointment of Prof. Antonio Donato, CSsR, as the new President of the Alphonsian Academy for the four years 2023-2027.

Fr. Antonio Donato is 48 years old and a member of the Province of Naples. He made his religious profession in the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer in 2000 and was ordained a priest in 2004. From 2005 to 2008, he coordinated Redemptorist youth and vocational pastoral activities in Southern Italy, and from 2008 to 2014, he was in charge of the Italian Redemptorists’ Formation ‘House’.

He obtained a Licentiate in Moral Theology in 2010 at the Alphonsian Academy and a Doctorate in Moral Theology in 2014 with research on the thought and moral proposal of the Redemptorist theologian Dominic Capone (1907-1993).

We warmly congratulate Prof. Donato on this new appointment.

SCALA NEWS

(alfonsiana.org / ed)

Year dedicated to Community Life
Some reflections on the quality of our community life...

Const. 21-75; EG 026-049; Lk 6,12-16

by Fr. Rogério Gomes, C.Ss.R., Superior General

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Introduction

A community is a group of people who share common characteristics, interests, goals, or a sense of identity and belonging. They can be formed based on geographical location, shared interests, hobbies, cultural or ethnic background, professional affiliation, religious identity, etc., and provide a social structure that promotes connections, communication, and cooperation among its members. Through identification or shared interests, individuals interact with each other in different ways according to different needs. This interaction takes place through personal relationships and digital platforms. In this sense, the meaning of community extends beyond people’s immediate environment, so their relationships become much more universal. Today, for example, we talk about digital or virtual communities, which have their values and ambivalences.

For us Redemptorists, the community has a special value. According to Santino Raponi, “the Redemptorist community exists for evangelization, for mission. The community carries out evangelization and fulfills itself through evangelization. Community is a requirement of the ‘mission of the Church’, that is, of the vocation proper to the Congregation”.^[1] In this sense, we are not just a group gathered around a common interest or charism but something beyond our consecration to Christ the Redeemer, the center of communitarian life. Constitution 23 shows us the value of community.

Since the members are called to continue the presence of Christ and his mission of redemption in the world, they choose the person of Christ as the center of their life and strive daily to enter ever more intimately into personal union with him. Thus, the Redeemer and his Spirit of love are at the heart of the community to form and sustain it. And the closer their union with Christ, the stronger will become their union with each other.

Santino Raponi affirms: “Christ is present in the community and is extended through it. There is a symbiotic relationship between the first missionary and the missionary community, so the community’s life is based on Christ. Communion in Christ and mission with Christ are two aspects which require and nourish each other since it is the same person (Christ) who is at the center of fraternal relationships and who is proclaimed in missionary work”.^[2]

Our two Ukrainian Confreres and all civil prisoners...

Ukraine: Bishop Ryabukha SDB (Donetsk),

“Let us pray for the two Redemptorist priests captured one year ago

and the release of all civil prisoners”.

prayer peace ukraine

Msgr. Maksym Ryabukha SDB, auxiliary bishop of the Greek-Catholic Exarchate of Donetsk in the Donbas, Ukraine, joined the Italian bishops gathered in Assisi on 15 November for the “Procession and prayer for peace”.

“These are exceptional days for us because exactly one year ago, on 16 November 2022, two of our Redemptorist religious priests from Berdyansk,

Father Ivan Levytskyi and Father Bohdan Geleta,

were captured by the Russians. They took them hostage, taken away. We have had no news since then. We know neither where they are nor how they are. Among other things, one of them has severe diabetes. For them, we pray every day, and for all those who are prisoners, we ask for prayers”.

A PEACE Maker - Fr Alec Reid CSsR...1931-2013

Wednesday, November 22, marks the tenth death anniversary of Father Alec Reid (August 5, 1931 – November 22, 2013), a Redemptorist priest noted for his facilitator role in the Northern Ireland peace process.

“Fr. Alec Reid was a Redemptorist and peacemaker in Northern Ireland between 1969 and 1998. Fr. Alec Reid risked his life and had an attitude of patience and perseverance to reach his goals: peace in Northern Ireland”, with these words, Father Martin McKeever, CSsR, began his presentation about his book ‘One man, One God – The Peace Ministry of Fr. Alec Reid’ in the monastery of Wittem, the Netherlands on April 2018.
See more about in Scala News:
Master Class about Peace Making by Prof. Martin McKeever
https://www.cssr.news/2018/04/master-class-about-peace-making-by-prof-martin-mckeever/

fr alec reid cssr rip

“Wednesday – November 22 – will mark the tenth anniversary of the death of Father Alec Reid. It is a matter of wonderment that a decade has passed since he left us. Students of the Irish peace process will know that Alec was a central figure in our search for peace. He and Fr Des Wilson were key to the beginning of that process. I won’t deal in this column with all the twists and turns of those times or the stubborn refusal for decades of the establishments, British and Irish, to embrace dialogue. Fr Alec and Des helped to change that. And much more.”
We read on Belfast Media today:
GERRY ADAMS: Father Alec – priest, innovator, peacemaker
https://belfastmedia.com/fr-alec-reid

Remembrance Sunday 2023...

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We will remember them...

Some of our guests this Remembrance weekend at

St Mary's Monastery, Clapham, SW4 7AP

Ground Breaking in Hatcliffe Zimbabwe...

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Fr Kenneth CSsR, the Regional Superior, stands beside the Foundation Stone, it reads

Holy Redeemer Primary School and Church

The Foundation Stone was laid by

Hon Gen (Retd) Dr C G D N Chiwenga

Vice President of the Republic of Zimbabwe

in the Presence of

Fr Kenneth Macharaga CSsR

The Regional Superior of Zimbabwe

on the Solemnity of All Saints Day

05 November 2023

God bless this ministry and this work -

may it be a source of plentiful redemption for many!

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ground breaking hatcliffe 2023

ground breaking hatcliffe 2023iv

hatcliffe school

Sr Angela of the Incarnation OSsR...

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People gathered from many places to be with Sr Angela in person or online as she made her Solemn Profession as a Redemptoristine Nun. Her bishop, Bishop Joseph Toal flew over the morning of the celebration alongside some priests from her home diocese, Motherwell. They were joined by family members, (her mum, her brother and her granny), friends and fellow religous.

The Redemptoristine Community was joined by her brothers, the Redemptorists of both provinces, Dublin and London.

The celebrant was Monsignor John Dolan,

the Vicar for Religious, Archdiocese of Dublin.

Mother Gabrielle Fox OSsR received the Vows

and Fr Stephen Reilly preached the Homily.