By Fr. Lucas Chuffart, A.A.
Moscow, December 2, 2012

During the 2011-2012 year, I was able to send some news from our communities in Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Israel where I spend a part of the sabbatical year I had been granted. It all began right where the Congregation did here in 1862, that is to say, Istanbul.

Making full circle, so to speak, of the Near Eastern Mission, here I am in Moscow, the northernmost city of the Mission. I was only able to get here on November 22 since the visa paperwork which I officially began in August met with frustrating delays, perhaps because I was asking for a resident’s visa in view of religious activity at our parish, St. Louis des Français. Others much less patient than I have also become discouraged with this process. On the advice of Fr. Slava Gorokhov, I had begun preparing all my documents in June, but only received my visa on November 15.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We would like to share with you a little bit about our lives here in Goma. Many of you have been waiting for a substantial update on this mission, which is the second outside of the Beni-Butembo area, the first being the capital city, Kinshasa. The mission is really still in its infancy.

(Fr. Daniel, a 51 year old Frenchman, arrived in the Near East 20 years ago. He has spent the entire time in the Assumptionist parish in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, where he had to learn how to speak a new language and how to celebrate Mass in a new rite. The Assumptionists founded their first mission in the Near East in Bulgaria. Fr. Victorin Galabert, an extraordinary missionary, who held doctorates both in medicine and theology, arrived in 1863 in Plovdiv which became the launch site for more than 30 Assumptionist communities in the Near East. The Assumptionists are still present in Bulgaria as well as in Romania, Greece, Turkey, Israel, and Russia. The following interview was conducted by Sr. Laurence Levisse, an Oblate Sister of the Assumption living in Lille, France. It appeared in the November/December 2012 issue of L’Assomption et ses oeuvres.)

Certainly the first meetings of the Plenary General Council gave rise to certain hesitations. But we must accept that for this third edition, the Council has begun to forge its own experience. After an apprenticeship phase, we are now used to working together. Each one knows that the work of the PGC is founded on the work of the base and the co-responsibility of the Provincials and their various Councils.

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"Restless Heart" explores the life and times of St. Augustine.

The film Restless Heart will be screened
at 7 p.m. Feb. 5 in Assumption College’s Hagan Campus Center Hall, at 500 Salisbury St.

Filmed in Europe, Restless Heart is the first full-length feature movie on St. Augustine. Born in North Africa, Augustine studied in Carthage, becoming an accomplished but dissolute orator. After converting to Manichaeism, a guilt-free religion, he was called to the imperial court in Milan to serve as an opponent to the Christian Bishop Ambrose. But when the Empress Justina sent imperial guards to clear a basilica where Augustine’s mother, Monica, was worshipping, her constant prayers and the witness of Ambrose won him over to Christianity. Serving in Hippo in 420 AD, Bishop Augustine urged the Roman garrison to negotiate with the Vandal King Genseric, but they proudly refused. He passed up a chance to escape on a ship sent to rescue him by the Pope, and stayed by the side of his people. Christian Duguay directed the film. The cast includes Franco Nero, Johannes Brandrup, Monica Guerritore, and Alessandro Preziosi.

The Sixth Annual Assumption Day was held this month at Assumption College in Worcester, MA. This event was originally inspired by Dr. Francesco Cesareo, president of the college, in order to share Assumptionist spirituality with the entire college community.

Presentation to the Plenary General Council (Rome, Dec.12, 2012)

Fr. Michel Kubler, A.A., director, St. Peter-St. Andrew Center, Bucharest, Romania

Introduction

First of all, I would like to thank you for the welcome you've given me – and above all to thank our Superior General for inviting me, first of all to be present with you at this important moment in the life of the Congregation when we met Pope Benedict XVI and, then, for the opportunity to speak to you about ecumenism at the Assumption (as I did last year, at the same time, on the Near Eastern Mission, "Mission d’Orient").

«It is a time of encounter, a time of discovery for the readers of Le Pèlerin ("The Pilgrim"), an Assumptionist magazine, and at the same time an interior journey during which we want to give those who come the greatest opportunity to deepen their lives, their Christian faith, and their love of the Church. For me it is a pastoral ministry since I am the spiritual director. It's my work. I am very conscious of what such a cruise represents in the context of the economic crisis we are in, both for them and for us. As for me, I am not going "on a cruise," but on a pilgrimage, and I insist on that with the 12 members of my team on board. My experience is that pilgrims are extremely grateful for the chance to speak at length with a priest.