On Friday, February 25, 2015, five young Brazilians began their year of postulancy in Campinas, a university city about an hour west of the metropolis of Sao Paulo. The occasion took place during the visit of Fr. Benoit Griere, superior general, from February 18 to March 4. The five postulants all come from Assumptionist parishes in this largest Catholic country in the world, some 130 million.
Assumptionists arrived from Holland and France in the 1930s and established communities in different parts of this vast country. In the 1970s as more and more vocations arrived, the two groups joined forces to form the newly arrived Brazilians and eventually became a single vice-province and then a province.
The Assumptionists serve 5 parishes, a house of formation, and two retreat centers.
RE: DISTRESS CALL FROM MEMBERS OF GENERAL COUNCILS OF RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES IN THE FACE OF THE BARBARIC MASSACRES TAKING PLACE IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC), ESPECIALLY IN THE DIOCESE OF BENI-BUTEMBO
1. Introduction
We, the members of the general councils of various orders and congregations present in the Diocese of Butembo-Beni, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, have been informed of recent unrest and massacres in the region of the dioceses of Butembo-Beni, Bunia and Goma. We were shocked to learn of the dreadful slaughter of unarmed civilians.
Dear sisters and brothers, we address this message to all men and women of good-will in the name of this suffering people so that you might make your own our cry.
2. The dignity of the human person finds its source in God and is inalienable.
We denounce and condemn the cruelty and brutality of these killings – of adults and children alike – in the regions of the Diocese of Butembo-Beni. We are writing this communiqué in the light of our faith. Each person is created in the image of God (Gn 1:27). The massacres besetting the region of Mbau in the Diocese of Butembo-Beni are clearly a crime against humanity.
The Congregation of the Oblates of the Assumption was founded on May 24, 1865 at Rochebelle (Nîmes-France) by Venerable Emmanuel d’ALZON, with the assistance of Mother Emmanuel-Marie CORRENSON, with a view to working for Church unity, particularly the union of the Eastern Churches, and doing so in close collaboration with the Augustinians of the Assumption.
In 1868, the first Sisters left for Bulgaria. By means of education and medical assistance, these Oblates placed themselves at the service of the neediest and the most disadvantaged, whether they were Catholic, Orthodox, Greek, Armenian, or Jewish --- in Bulgaria, Turkey, and ex-Yugoslavia. Later, with communities in Jerusalem, Romania, and Russia ---- all of these countries where the Oblates and the Assumptionists work for Church unity and inter-religious dialogue came to be known as the « La Mission d’Orient » (“The Near Eastern Mission”). To this day we have communities who live and work within both rites, Eastern and Latin.
