Leaving all that is familiar – your home, your family and friends, and your culture – creates an environment that encourages profound reflection, new perspectives and personal transformation, says Fr. John Franck, A.A. ’70. For many of the hundreds of Assumption students and alumni who have participated in the College’s annual Mexico Mission trips, those changes have lasted a lifetime. This year the Mexico Mission program is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

The celebration of the bicentennial of our Founder has taken its cue from the theme "Following Jesus Christ with Emmanuel d’Alzon", developed according to the three dimensions evoked by Fr. d’Alzon in a letter that he wrote on September 2, 1878, to Sr. Marie-Véronique Guiraud, on the occasion of the anniversary of his baptism: "Sixty-eight years ago today I was baptized, my dear child, and I have chosen this day to answer you in the hope that you will make a novena for me to obtain from Our Lord the grace to hold fast to the vows of my baptism, my ordination, and my profession".

Fr. d’Alzon, it is said, preferred to recall the anniversary of his baptism rather than that of his birth. In fact, one can find in his correspondence the date of his baptism mentioned at least nine times (in 1849, 1859, 1867, 1869, 1875, 1877 two letters, 1878, two letters).

His baptism took place in the parish church of St. Peter's in Le Vigan, where a plaque still commemorates the occasion.

Dear Friends,

After leaving La Croix (Assumptionist daily newspaper in Paris) as an editor-in-chief at theend of 2009 and having enjoyed a sabbatical, my superiors have asked me to goto Romania.  I will begin my new ministryon September 14 in Bucharest, where the Congregation will re-open a large houseto serve dialogue among the Churches and the unity of all Christians.

Being involved inreconciliation between divided communities of faith has been one of our"trademarks" and was particularly developed in Eastern Europe, a land which isalmost 90% Orthodox. So it is that, for more than 100 years, the Augustiniansof the Assumption have been present in Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey,as well as Jerusalem, in what we call the "Mission d'Orient" (Eastern Mission).