By Fr. Lucas Chuffart, A.A.
Moscow, December 2, 2012

During the 2011-2012 year, I was able to send some news from our communities in Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Israel where I spend a part of the sabbatical year I had been granted. It all began right where the Congregation did here in 1862, that is to say, Istanbul.

Making full circle, so to speak, of the Near Eastern Mission, here I am in Moscow, the northernmost city of the Mission. I was only able to get here on November 22 since the visa paperwork which I officially began in August met with frustrating delays, perhaps because I was asking for a resident’s visa in view of religious activity at our parish, St. Louis des Français. Others much less patient than I have also become discouraged with this process. On the advice of Fr. Slava Gorokhov, I had begun preparing all my documents in June, but only received my visa on November 15.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We would like to share with you a little bit about our lives here in Goma. Many of you have been waiting for a substantial update on this mission, which is the second outside of the Beni-Butembo area, the first being the capital city, Kinshasa. The mission is really still in its infancy.

(Fr. Daniel, a 51 year old Frenchman, arrived in the Near East 20 years ago. He has spent the entire time in the Assumptionist parish in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, where he had to learn how to speak a new language and how to celebrate Mass in a new rite. The Assumptionists founded their first mission in the Near East in Bulgaria. Fr. Victorin Galabert, an extraordinary missionary, who held doctorates both in medicine and theology, arrived in 1863 in Plovdiv which became the launch site for more than 30 Assumptionist communities in the Near East. The Assumptionists are still present in Bulgaria as well as in Romania, Greece, Turkey, Israel, and Russia. The following interview was conducted by Sr. Laurence Levisse, an Oblate Sister of the Assumption living in Lille, France. It appeared in the November/December 2012 issue of L’Assomption et ses oeuvres.)

Certainly the first meetings of the Plenary General Council gave rise to certain hesitations. But we must accept that for this third edition, the Council has begun to forge its own experience. After an apprenticeship phase, we are now used to working together. Each one knows that the work of the PGC is founded on the work of the base and the co-responsibility of the Provincials and their various Councils.

Read more » PDF version