On Sunday, August 25, the university students living in our residence in Saigon hardly had time to sleep as they usually do on Sundays. Instead, they had to get up early in order to accompany their chaplain, Fr. Pierre-Jean Le Viet Thang, by minibus to the novitiate in Ba Ria.

In another section of Saigon, a large bus with 45 seats was waiting for candidates and postulants of the Assumptionists, the Little Sisters of the Assumption, and the Oblates of the Assumption. They were accompanied by the provincial's delegate in Vietnam, Fr. François Xavier Nguyen Tien Dung, Sr. Marie-Paulette Thanh Khanh, OA, and Sr. Diep, LSA. Fr. Provincial, after the long trip to Vietnam from France, was already resting in Ba Ria, spending a little time with the three novices who were about to make their first vows, and taking the opportunity to meet the local bishop.

Having arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in December 1968, Fr. Joseph, an Assumptionist missionary, loves the media and keeping up with the latest technology. In spite of his advanced age, he's always getting involved in new projects.

Born in France in 1931, Fr. Joseph has lived the last 44 years in the Congo. Son of a blacksmith, he learned how to work hard and without complaint in order to earn a decent life. Already as a child, he showed an interest in religious life. “Next to our house there was a school run by the Sacred Heart brothers. They were filled with joy and worked as a team. I think my vocation took root in the admiration I had for them”, he said. He took his first steps with the Assumptionists in an isolated château near Montreuil by the sea. At the time life was not easy. He slowly became haunted by the idea of working in Africa.

The following article by Fr. Marcel Neusch, a French Assumptionist theologian and well-published author, was taken from the most recent issue, #47, of Itinéraires Augustiniens/Augustinian Journeys)

Augustine Today
Religious Freedom at Vatican II

With the publication of Dignitatis humanae, the declaration on religious freedom, the Second Vatican Council took a decisive step for the Church, and one can hope that it is definitive and irreversible. It took place on December 7, 1965. Up till that time, the Church had at its disposal only two expressions: freedom, which it demanded for itself, and tolerance, which it granted to other religions. To say the least this position was paradoxical: how could the Church refuse to others a freedom that it never ceased claiming as a right for itself? One can understand why a declaration on religious freedom that would go counter to this classical position would have met with resistance among some of the Council Fathers, the most intransigent of whom was Bishop  Lefebvre. To grasp the scope of this text, it would be necessary to retrace its history before pointing out its most hard-hitting affirmations and underlining its limits.

Former resident, Ed Kendrick, came ‘home’ to the Assumptionist Center in Brighton this past summer while visiting friends in the Boston area. Originally from Utah, where he grew up, Ed calls Washington State his home.

Sharing his background in a recent conversation, he recalled his undergraduate degree experience at the University of Portland in Oregon where he met the Holy Cross Fathers and majored in theology with minors in history, math and English literature. As a convert from Mormonism, Ed wanted to do graduate work in theology and literature. It was a professor and friend at the University of Oregon who recommended Boston College as a possible site for further studies.