FROM OUR MISSIONS
Savino Palermo, scj
From 23 to 28 April 2001 the XVII Congolese Provincial Conference was held at the Bishop Grison Center.
Because of the relative military and political calm, which has returned in these last few months, we were able to have this S.C.J. Assembly which by now has become a tradition. The new Provincial administration (July 2000 - June 2003) did everything necessary to get things in motion.
In his opening address the Provincial Superior, Rev. Fr. Dino Ruaro, after having welcomed all participants, guests, and in particular the General Councillor, Rev. Fr. Zolile Mpambani, who makes visible the presence of our Superior General, gave a clear and realistic outline of the state of the Zaire-Congo Province in this year of grace 2001.
The Province numbers 14 communities in the Congo and one in Brussels. 83 religious, of whom 31 have taken temporary vows (29 scholars and 3 brothers). The novices number 12, the postulants 9 and the propaedeutics 12.
The Province suffers severely for the lack of personnel: 5 communities are composed of only two brethren. 2 communities have only a single religious, a novitiate and a first year school; (however the novitiate, which is located very close to St. Gabriel, is strongly supported by Fathers M. Konings and S. Palermo). After the war of June 2000, which vomited tons of steel and fire on Kisangani, devastated several formation houses, both ours and those of other Institutes, and devastated the cathedral, traumatizing the people to the point of anguish and nightmares, the situation of our personnel has become more critical than ever, to the point of being almost untenable.
Several brethren have left on their sabbatical year, some of them having anticipated and requested it in advance; others having requested it giving very short notice, because of the trials they had lived through during the war of June 2000 and the military troubles of the preceding years.
Other brethren are lodged far from the Province for reasons of health or study.
In Kisangani there are three formation houses with a total of 50 of our young men. The field of formation has occupied the attention of the Province and the Provincial Council for years. Several prepared and committed brethren have been sent out to the formation houses as formation directors and professors, but their number is not sufficient.
The philosophy scolasticate, the novitiate, the postulate and propaedeutic school have all taken off successfully and promise a great deal.
At the theological scolasticate of Ngoya, in Cameroon, which is in a consortium made up of Cameroon, Mozambique and Congo, there are 9 Congolese.
The collaboration between Congo and Cameroon will continue with regard to philosophical studies in Kisangani as soon as peace in the Congo will permit the people of Cameroon to return. While, for the formation of novices, the two Provinces have come to an agreement to leave it in the hands of each novice’s respective country of origin.
For the novitiate of the Congolese, a relocation from Kisangani to Butembo is anticipated.
At this point the opening address changed course and referred above all to the priorities of the Provincial Apostolic Project agreed upon in 1996: “community life, vocations and formation, working with the young, social work, formation of the people”.
The opening address privileged three of these priorities: the social work which had been urged by the General Conference of Recife; the education of the young which we are currently promoting through the “Maele” Secondary Institute in Kisangani and by the “B. Longo” Technical Institute in Mambasa; and the formation of the people, an option with a privileged place at the Bishop Grison Center - especially for the catechists of our parishes and missions.
In truth, this formation has not yet reached most of the people directly but rather indirectly, according to the motto of the S.C.J. Spirituality and Apostolate Commission, formulated during the centenary of our Mission in Congo: Strengthen the catechesis of our catechists, strengthen the formation of lay formation directors, our collaborators (Cf. the report of the Commission delivered at the XVII Provincial Conference).
Most of the time it is the catechists themselves who are involved with the formation of the people.
After having sketched in this “state of the Province”, the Provincial Superior asked some questions regarding the future of the Province: how to prepare for it, through which choices.
The August 12, 1998 letter from the Superior General warned that the next ten years would be decisive for the Zaire Province and that in particular the provincial programming would have to “take full responsibility for the destiny of the Province by taking charge itself of the people, their resources and their projects...”.
The new Provincial administration (2000-2003) puts great weight on this challenge of the future of the Province.
All the questions or problems are especially concerned with the number and the quality of the personnel required for so many urgent and necessary works.
The Provincial Council has chosen not to close communities, estimating that the present situation of an acute scarcity of personnel will only be temporary. They feel they can anticipate, in a short term, the relief which will come to us on the part of some S.C.J. Provinces, on the part of a dozen of our theological scholars and of some formation directors who are currently being prepared.
Another challenge to be dealt with is the formation of the candidate brethren who from now on will have their formation house in Lemba-Kinshasa.
A plan of formation must be defined for them.
A second locale for theological studies, in addition to that of Cameroon, is being considered in South Africa, in an Anglophone milieu, for students from different Provinces.
The other priorities of the Provincial Apostolic Project (social work, education of youth, formation of the people) will perhaps be reformulated and re-launched by the XVII Conference, always keeping our current situation in mind: of the 49 brethren with perpetual vows, 37 are expatriates and 12 are Congolese; 12 of our expatriates are older than 70; the oldest of our Congolese is 46. In 2006 the Province could have more than 30 Congolese brethren with perpetual vows, and the brethren with temporary vows could exceed 40.
The numerical weight of the Province therefore will swing over to the side of the Congolese: an event which we all hope for and which we await with fraternal joy and with gratitude to the Heart of Jesus.
After the opening address, the Conference set about its work: brief expositions, discussions, plenary meetings and debates, etc.
The average number of participants faithful to the tasks was always about 20. The work essentially regarded those priorities of the Provincial Apostolic Project of 1996 which had to be kept, reformulated or regrouped in another way; the “Provincial Communal Funds”, and the “preeminent” and immediate priority which had been requested at Recife .
It is enough for us to report the conclusions in brief.
“The preeminent priority for our Province is fraternal life, characterized by prayer and solidarity and manifested through the communion of goods (Provincial Communal Funds), in the cause of the Kingdom of God”.
The other priorities are grouped as follows -
- the priority of vocations, formation, community life and ongoing formation will be tackled and animated by the Provincial Commission for Vocations and Formation;
- the problems relative to the “Treasury and Provincial Communal Funds” are entrusted to the Provincial Economic Commission for studies, analyses and suggestions. This Commission must present the provisional budget to the Provincial Council every year, at the end of September.
- the animation of the “ministry of the spiritual formation of the people, of catechists, and of youth and the witness of Dehonian charism” is entrusted to the Commission for “S.C.J. Spirituality and Apostolate”.
- the animation of social works (formation, justice and peace, development, etc.) is entrusted to the Commission for Justice and Peace.
An agreement was made not to set up a commission for youth.
Concerning the “Provincial Communal Funds”, it was noted that the pros and cons were not sufficiently discussed; especially when one considers the fact that it has already been talked about for several years and that, on many occasions, the Superior General has urged it with insistence.
Recently (see his letter of April 8, 2001 to the Provincial Superior, Fr. D. Ruaro on the occasion of the Provincial Conference of 2001), the Superior General’s request has become more pressing. He gives very precise indications on the importance of Provincial Communal Funds, on what the existence of these funds demand of the Provincial Treasurer, on the need to reach a clear statute, and on the concrete modalities of setting up and utilizing the Provincial Communal Funds.
In fact the theory of Provincial Communal Funds found full consensus from the participants; but one could have wished for a more sustained debate, particularly on the concrete methods to be used for their realization and for their management.
Lastly the Assembly made an evaluation of this Conference, some points of which are presented below. The natural milieu where the Conference took place was greatly favorable to the work: indubitably the fact that our Bishop Grison Center and its surrounding environment is at a high altitude is one of the many reasons that make it ideal for spirituality. Among other blessings, there are no mosquitoes here.
The general climate was fraternal and relaxed. Anyone who spoke, did so freely and openly.
The number of participants at this Conference can be considered ample, given the fact that many members of the Province were not able to participate (forty or so were not there because of studies or because they were abroad). Of the 23 participants who faithfully appeared at all the meetings, 11 were Congolese. Their assiduous and lively participation clearly manifested their attachment to the Province, as did their sense of responsibility regarding those individual and community tasks awaiting them for a better running of the Province; in effect, they will shortly have to take over almost totally.
“From the reasonable point of view, in spite of the fact that some people were absent, the Assembly was positive and up-to-date according to the realities of the Province”.
“Agreement was perhaps too easily reached on certain decisions or propositions, concerning, for example, the Provincial Communal Funds”.
During the debates there were also remarks or evaluations; such as the fact that the parishes and those who work there were almost ignored. Are not they the ones who bring the pondus diei et aestus?
A somewhat feeble contribution on the part of the Economic Commission was noted in the debate on the Provincial Communal Funds and on its work during past years (no report was presented).
There is no doubt that this Commission, and particularly the Provincial Treasurer, will have a role of great importance to play in making it possible for the option of a Provincial Communal Fund to become a living reality in our communities and in our Province.
Some people showed their perplexity and warned against a possible danger lying in wait for us: that of a certain enthusiastic confidence and a certain exclusive presumption that the Provincial Communal Fund will be the solution of problems.
The perplexity comes from the fact that our Province has already started the regime of Communal Funds. This regime is already showing positive indications and giving us the instruments of economic government needed to insure that the same advantages will be gained by having Provincial Funds. This provides us with true solidarity and a feeling of communion within, and also among, the communities.
If this has often not been the case, it is because the true obstacle does not lie in certain technical solutions but at the level of the heart, of the real will to share and to have things in common.
Without that, even the option of the Provincial Communal Funds will not lead us anywhere and its course will be swallowed up in the quicksand of the particular interests of individuals.
The day on which we were to listen to the financial reports of the communities, most of the Assembly noticed that seven communities did not present their report, and that those presented were neither complete nor transparent.
Certainly it is necessary that things develop and progress if we truly wish to take concrete steps towards the objective which we have proposed for ourselves.
Loud applause was received by the moderators of the Conference: the Reverend Fathers Zénon and Pross, and the rapporteurs, particularly Fr. Norbert Mazase and Fr. Philémon Congo.
The liturgical celebrations had their splendor at the opening and the closing, presided over by the General Councillor, who gave us lively encouragement with his exhortations and with the messages which he brought from the Superior General.