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.

Above all, we would like to take this occasion to express our deepest gratitude to the Province of France, our "mother" province, that has walked at our side and sustained us during the last 60 years. And thanks for your prayers and good wishes as we begin a new phase of our history in the Assumption. Having started as a small community of three pioneering missionaries in 1953, headed by Fr. Michel Cannonne, who was to become the first bishop of the newly created diocese of Toliara in 1957, the Assumptionist mission here has grown to over 70 members. Today we are experiencing a new internationalization with the arrival of Congolese and Togolese brothers, a trend that we would like to see expand to even other provinces in the world with whom we would like to cultivate new bonds. We  would also like to see more of the members of our own province live, work, and study elsewhere in the congregation as they already are in France, the Congo, Kenya, Rome, and Togo.

Dear Brothers, let us reiterate our thanks to all of you and wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2014.

Your brothers in the newly established Province of Madagascar.

Etienne Ratalata Rafanambinantsoa
Fianarantsoa, December 21, 2013