To Our Fellow Religious in the Congregation and Friends of the Assumption

Dear Friends,

The Assumption in Madagascar became a province at the recent vice-provincial chapter presided by the provincial, Fr. Etienne Ratalata Rafanambinantsoa, and honored by the presence of the superior general, Fr. Benoît Grière. We wish to give thanks to the Lord for the existence of the Assumption and for having placed in the hearts of so many missionaries the desire to implant the Assumptionist charism in Malagasy soil.

From November 19 to 21, in the city of Riobamba, high in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador, the Assumptionist community, lay and religious, welcomed the leadership team/tandem appointed to form lay Assumptionist groups across Latin America: Mrs. Victoria Prada from Bogotá, Colombia (who came with her husband, Orlando) and Fr. Luis-Ramón Rendón from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In the late afternoon of November 17, 2013, after the usual line-up of Sunday masses, the last one having been in Lithuanian, St. Louis des Français parish filled with a wide assortment of international visitors --- from Vietnam, France, Russia, Africa, Italy,  etc.. You could hear just about every language being spoken and even used during the ordination ceremony of Pierre Tran Duc Long. It was a wonderful and joyous occasion to celebrate his priestly ordination in the very place where his vocational journey with the Assumptionists had begun in 2004. Most Rev. Paolo Pezzi, archbishop of the diocese of the Mother of God in Moscow, presided at the celebration and was surrounded by a number of priests including three Assumptionists, (Celeste Pianezze and Slava Gorokhov of the Moscow community and Vincent Cabanac, representing the provincial, Fr. Benoît Gschwind). Two other Assumptionists were there, Brothers Pavel et Viktors, as well as two of Pierre's blood brothers from Viêtnam: one who is a Cistercian monk stationed in Dalat and the other, the Benjamin of the family, who works in Hué.

Interviewer – Fr. Jerome, would you share with us a bit about your background: family, childhood, early education etc.?

Fr. Jerome – I am from Heath, MA and one of eight children. My family’s strong Catholic roots stemmed from their English and French Canadian background. My father was a dairy farmer. Growing up we belonged to St. Joseph’s Parish in Shelburne Falls, MA where I attended CCD during my formative years. I have an uncle, Fr. Joseph Lively who is a diocesan priest in Vermont and an aunt who was a Sister of Mercy. Both parents have since died.