From March 7 to 10, 2016, representatives of the only two Assumptionist university-level institutions in the world met in Nairobi for a work session intended to assist the newer of the two institutions, ISEAB. The main theme was the articulation and fine-tuning of a strategic development plan. Assumption College, with over 100 years of experience and several such plans under its belt, offered to help its junior partner in this process. Assumption College allowed two of its expert administrators, Profs. Bart Morrison and Eric Drouat, to lead the Nairobi session to assure ISEAB’s own smooth development.

The delegation from ISEAB elaborated a set of ‘in-put’, which the group analyzed and which will eventually lead to ‘out-put’, namely a text that will serve as the guiding document for ISEAB over the next ten years or so. The time spent analyzing its experience allowed the ISEAB contingent to rediscover its strengths and weaknesses and to identify the external threats and opportunities that exist. Along the way, Assumption College was identified by ISEAB as an opportunity that will allow it to overcome its weaknesses but also to navigate certain threats by establishing a partnership, some of the terms of which were discussed during the session.

February 11, 2016

In the early hours of the morning the first Mass on this feast of Our Lady of Lourdes was celebrated by the shrine's rector, Fr. Aldo Gajardo Álvarez, who recalled the message of Lourdes, highlighting the figure of Mary as mother and of Bernardette as her messenger.

During the morning, defying a scorching sun, thousands of pilgrims came streaming to the shrine from every corner of Santiago and from other cities as well. One pilgrim from Parral, Mecedes, commented, “I have been coming to the feast of Lourdes since I was a child and now I am almost 70 years old. I follow the same schedule--- I get up early, stay all day and go home only late at night". She was happy with this year's event, adding "I inherited this tradition from my mother and I have tried to transmit it to my children. This year I had to come by myslelf because all my children are at work and couldn't get away. One of my daughters who comes with me every year will be going to the evening Mass near her home. At least we'll be united in prayer at that moment”.

This is just one of the many testimonies of faith that one encounters year after year on this feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

College Professors Bart Morrison and Eric Drouart, both of the business department, recently held a strategic-planning meeting with members of the Institut Supérieur Emmanuel d'Alzon de Butembo, or ISEAB, community in Nairobi, Kenya.

ISEAB is located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and, like Assumption, it is an Assumptionist institution of higher education.

Currently Fr. Dinh is serving as director of the Assumptionist shrine of St. Anne in Sturbridge, Massachusetts (USA). A native of Vietnam, Fr. Dinh was ordained in 2011. Fr. Marc Leroy is currently the pastor of the National Basilica of Sacred Heart of Koekelberg in Brussels (Belgium), designated a Year of Mercy basilica.

The “Missionaries of Mercy” are priests from various parts of the world, recommended by their own bishops and religious superiors, who are to be “living signs of the Father’s readiness to welcome those in search of his pardon” (Misericordiae vultus).

At the invitation of local bishops, the missionaries will be sent to dioceses around the world to preach, lead spiritual retreats, and hear confessions. The missionaries number a little over 1000, with some 100 priests being assigned to the United States.

They received from the Holy Father the authority to pardon “even those sins reserved to the Holy See” (Bull of Indiction, n. 18). These sins include: violation or profanation of the Holy Eucharist; absolution of an accomplice in a sin against the sixth commandment; unauthorized ordination of a bishop, which penalty is incurred by both the ordaining bishop and by the bishop who is ordained; direct violation by a confessor of the seal of confession; and physical violence on the Roman Pontiff.