From May 8-22, 2014, ten current and future novice-masters gathered in Rome to discuss their work. The aim of the session was to offer them an opportunity to evaluate their work, to gain insights from their peers, and to make recommendations that might allow them to carry out their duties better and to improve the quality of all novitiates of the Congregation in the future.

Among the participants were the current novice-master of the Province, Fr. Richard Lamoureux, and the incoming novice-master, Fr. Ngoa Ya Tshihemba.  Other novice-masters present came from Vietnam, Madagascar, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Togo, France, and Brazil.  The program was organized by the International Formation Commission and chaired by the head of this commission, Fr. Emmanuel Kahindo Kihugho, the vicar general, and two other general assistants, Frs. Marcelo Marciel and John Franck.

Divided into three main parts, the participants first presented the current state of their novitiates (the milieu in which they are found, the novices themselves, their own vision of their work, and finally their specific programs). Later they evaluated their work and finally proposed recommendations to the Congregation to facilitate their work and that of future novice-masters.

The session benefited greatly from the presentation of two outside experts, one dealing with the means of social communications, Sr. Pina Riccieri, a Daughter of St. Paul, and the other with psychological issues in formation, Fr. Babu Sebastian, a Claretian.

Foreseen in the program were opportunities to attend a papal audience, to celebrate Mass at the tomb of St. Peter, and to retrace the footsteps of the founder of the Assumptionists, Fr. Emmanuel d’Alzon, who studied and was ordained in Rome and returned there any number of times during his life, notably to attend the First Vatican Council.