Fr Provincial writes March 2014...
1st March, 2014
Dear Confreres and friends,
As we prepare for the great season of Lent I wish you well. I know that there will be much extra work during this season leading up to Easter and I hope that the feasts of St. Clement on 15th, St. Patrick on 17th, St. Joseph on 19th and the Annunciation on 25th provide some rest and relaxation.
During February I visited our Novice Master and Novices in South Africa. We are all grateful to Fr. Tryvis Moyo for his ministry there and it was good to see the Novices so engaged in the life. In Zimbabwe I was joined by Fr. Maurice and we managed to visit the three communities and had the opportunity to speak with the ORC on a variety of issues. For Fr. Maurice, this was his first visit to the new mission of Chiweshe which is in the rural areas with 18 Outstations, and the Region is planning to construct a Postulancy and community residence there. Plans will be submitted to the EPC within this coming month and work will commence if approved.
Fr. Guri and I went to Nairobi for a meeting with the Superiors from India and Kenya and from South Africa concerning our common Novitiate and other formation initiatives. All these ongoing plans involve personnel, financial costs and inter cultural and unit cooperation. As with the Conference of Europe, the Conference of Africa is working away step be step to implement greater collaboration.
This past week, the OPC met to discuss a variety of items on a large agenda, and then went to visit the community in Middlesbrough. We were also able to call in to see Fr. Oliver Keyes in Sunderland where is he on loan to the Diocese since the community left the monastery at St. Benet's.
An EPC meeting is due later in this month. The main item on that agenda will be a discussion of the letter of the Superior General and the Report of the Visitors which arrived here last week. A copy of it will be sent to every professed member of the Province in the coming days. We are grateful to Fr. General for his encouraging and positive remarks, and also to the Visitors for their very comprehensive report, for their heartening insights and for the real challenges they present. There are 19 recommendations in all, and I believe all are attainable in the months that lie ahead. I shall send the report to the Rectors under separate cover for photocopying and distribution to members of their communities, and I will endeavour to get copies to those attached to communities who may not receive it. Obviously the report requires study at every level and the EPC will give some direction on areas to be examined at community level. The report is of course confidential to professed members of the Province.
Several of the areas to which Fr. General refers - the Plan of Community Life, Restructuring, and Ongoing Formation will all be subjects of future discussion. What strikes me reading Evangelii Gaudium is how this invitation of the Visitation Report and the spirit of this Apostolic Exhortation dovetail so closely.
In terms of restructuring, Pope Francis says that, "missionary conversion cannot leave things as they presently are," (N.25) and talks about "ecclesial structures which can hamper efforts at evangelisation". He also talks about the danger of not renewing our structures and of "self preservation" which can lead to what the Holy Father calls ecclesial introversion. Again and again the invitation to meet people where they are, is made - to live in a Church "which really is in contact with the homes and lives of the people" is stressed in the section "we are all missionary disciples". (N.119
And the rationale for all of this is given towards the end of the Exhortation (N.264) where the Pope states that "the primary reason for evangelisation is the love of Jesus which we have received." Again and again St. Alphonsus reminds us that this is the whole basis of our Redemptorist life together and our missionary outreach. "The principal thing I recommend to you is the love of Jesus Christ," wrote Alphonsus to the early confreres.
And in stressing ongoing spiritual formation in his letter and the Report, Fr. General calls us back once again to the most fundamental and basic tenet of our life in the Congregation. Life in Christ. If we are going to have any meaningful restructuring or renewal this is where it begins and ends.
Among other pieces of 'news', you will have read in the press that Cardinal Nichols has been assigned our church in Rome as his titular Church. I have written to the Cardinal to congratulate him on behalf of the Province and will let you know when a date is fixed for his taking possession of the Church. Fr. Dickinson sent a copy of an article from the Daily Telegraph, which has a fine picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in it, and there was also an article about our church in Rome in the last issue of the Tablet.
Please pray for Fr. Barrie O'Toole who is scheduled for surgery this coming week. I hope to be able to visit Bishop Eton next week.
Birthdays: 2nd Fr. Richard Reid, 3rd Bp. Ralph Heskett, 11th Fr. Gerry Mulligan, 12th Br. Mike Taylor.
All good wishes for Lent.
In Christ the Redeemer
Ronald J McAinsh C.Ss.R
Provincial Superior
