(the following is a letter sent by Fr. Michel Kubler, AA, superior of the new community, to his friends)

Dear Friends,

Thank you for the many wonderful responses I received from the first letter I sent out four months ago. The new year presents a perfect opportunity to bring you up to date  on what has been happening.

Although I was supposed to arrive in Bucharest on September 14, 2010,  I decided to come a day early because of the death of Fr. Bernard Stef. This Assumptionist was an esteemed figure in the Greco-Catholic Church (Oriental rite) to which he remained faithful in spite of some of the worst persecutions. I wanted to try my best to be present at his funeral, and it was a powerful symbol that my new community was united for the first time to bid farewell to this older brother of ours who left us at the very moment our house in Bucharest was being reborn. If you believe in signs, well, the day of my arrival in Romania was the feast of the Triumph of the Cross, which filled me with the conviction that it was the right time to be turning the page on my former life, my 20 years at a newspaper (La Croix) of the same name. The following day - therefore, my first full day in our new house - the Catholic Church celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, under whose patronage the Assumptionist mission in Eastern Europe, to which I am now committed to serve, has been placed.

The retreats at Assumption have become an integral part of Campus Ministry at Assumption and a meaningful experience for the students who choose to participate in them. The mission of the retreat program is to provide student-centered opportunities for faith development that take place in a communal environment. The retreats are intended to encourage reflection on one’s self and one’s relationship with God, while helping to nurture new relationships among retreatants.  In my ten years at Assumption, I have seen these retreats fulfill their mission time and time again.

On Sunday, January 2, 2011, in the late afternoon, in the Assumptionist parish of Santa Ana in Rengo (Chile), two   young men made their first vows, Fabián Guzmán Neves (Colombian) and Juan José Antunes (Brazilian). Very Rev. Juan Carlos Cisterna, the provincial of Chile-Argentina accompanied by Very Rev. Luiz Carlos de Oliveira, provincial of Brazil, presided at the Mass.

As we come to the close of our celebrations of the bicentennial of the birth of our founder, Venerable Emmanuel d'Alzon, Cardinal Jean-Louis TAURAN, President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue honored us with a visit to the general house in Rome on December 18th. This close collaborator of Pope Benedict XVI presided at the Eucharist that day.

During his homily, he reminded us of this thought from Blaise Pascal:·“Apart from Jesus-Christ we know nothing about life, nor about death, nor who God is or who we are for that matter.”