His Eminence Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales among members of the Assumptionist Community in Brighton and their guests

The Assumptionist Center in Brighton opens its doors to many visitors. On Saturday afternoon and evening (September 30), we were happy to receive the visit of Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, the Archbishop of Manila, Philippines. The Cardinal was in the Boston area to visit and pray with his brothers and sisters in the Filipino-American community and to promote his Pondo ng Pinoy program to feed the poor and provide for the needs of the disadvantaged.

Brothers Eduardo Molina (Ed), Vo Tran Dinh (Dinh) and Carlos Melocoton

On August 28, the feast of St. Augustine, in the Chapel of the Holy Sprit, on the campus of Assumption College, in Worcester, Massachusetts, two young men made their first profession of vowsin the presence of Very Rev. Richard Lamoureux, A.A., superior general,who was home on holiday. As Father Richard said in his homily, "how unpredictable life is!" Ten years ago, Eduardo Molina (Ed), a Filipino, was working as a businessman in Bangkok, Thailand and Vo Tran Dinh (Dinh), a Vietnamese, who was suffering under the historical situation in his homeland as he began his theological studies.

Sr. Diana Wauters elected Superior General, July 24, 2006.

The General Chapter elected Sr. Diana Wauters as the new Superior General of the Religious of the Assumption. We rejoice and are glad!

Sr. Diana Wauters, A.A.

Sr. Diana is from our North American Province and is the Superior of the Chaparral community in New Mexico. She had just been named Provincial Superior and was due to begin her mandate on August 12th.

Cassadaga Reunion

On Sunday July 9, a large contingent of former staff and students of Our Lady of Lourdes High School Seminary (together with a good representation of spouses) attended the first ever reunion, held at St. Anne’s Shrine in Sturbridge, MA. Our Lady of Lourdes opened its doors in 1960 in the western New York village of Cassadaga, an hour’s drive southwest of Buffalo and remained open until 1967. This seminary continued a long tradition of Assumptionist minor seminaries throughout the world known as alumnates. Fr. d’Alzon himself, the founder of the Assumptionists, was responsible for the very first alumnate, not far from his hometown of Nîmes in southern France, Notre Dame des Châteaux. The originality of these alumnates consisted in several factors: that graduates were free to choose any diocese or any congregation they wished; that they welcomed teenagers with very modest means; that classes were kept quite small; that a strong classical curriculum was offered. In approximately the one hundred years of their existence these Assumptionist alumnates worldwide provided the Church with over 4,000 priests and religious, including more than a few bishops.