Fr. General in Council named Fr. Kalondo Kabila Protais Provincial of the Province of Africa this past Saturday, March 3, 2012.
Fr. Protais is currently the regional superior of the Assumptionists in East Africa and a member of the outgoing provincial council. So he understands the Province of Africa well. He is particularly known as an outstanding pastor, a man passionate about the causes of God and of man.
In 1983 at the age of 61, Fr. Morand Kleiber, a former provincial and teacher, was asked to pack up his bags and undertake a new mission, professor of philosophy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where the Assumptionists were experiencing an influx of vocations thanks to the openness of the second bishop of the diocese of Beni-Butembo, Most Rev. Emmanuel Kataliko. Bishop Kataliko, trained by the Assumptionists, who had from the beginning of their efforts in the diocese chosen to orient all vocations to the diocesan clergy, came to the conclusion that it was time to encourage the presence of male religious life in his diocese and where better to start than with the Assumptionists themselves? Thus it was that the first young Congolese entered the Assumptionist formation program in 1979. By the time Fr. Morand came in 1983 there was already a sufficient number of young religious that a house of philosophy was opened.
Sunday’s Gospel reading from Mark took me back to another Sunday in the recent past and far away.
I was blessed to be a part of a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land last October/November, and joined 8 others in a group lead by Fr. Peter R. Precourt, A.A., our pastor here at St. Anne-St. Patrick Parish in Fiskdale, MA. Each day we travelled to a different place were our Lord had actually been; where He was born, lived, preached, fed, healed, prayed, died and rose.
As we continued our fourth year of “Conversations…” at the Assumptionist Center in Brighton, MA, the community, residents and guests were asked to reflect on “The Gospel in Your Life” ahead of time. Using a different format by not inviting a guest presenter who would address a particular theme or topic, participants came prepared to share their thoughts and reflections on the fundamental question: “What gospel message inspires me in my life choices?”
Assumption College’s Campus Ministry staff welcomed the campus community to an open house on Feb. 15 to showcase our newest building. After 20 years of planning and discussions, the Tinsley Family Campus Ministry Center has opened its doors. In October, the Board of Trustees unanimously approved the naming of the center in recognition of the $1 million leadership gift provided to the College from the Tinsley family. This leadership gift was the anchor to a successful fundraising effort that raised over $4.2 million for this beautiful addition to our campus.
Title Marie-Claire Blais: A Vision of Our Tortured Times Location La Maison Française Auditorium Start Time 3/20/2012 2:30 PM End Time 3/20/2012 3:30 PM Description Marie-Claire Blais presents “A Vision of Our Tortured Times.” Reading by award-winning Quebec novelist Marie-Claire Blais Tuesday March 20, 2012 from 2:30 PM-3:30 PM in La Maison Française Auditorium.
- Fr. Jean Daniel, you have been in Jerusalem for several months. Could you tell us how you see our presence there within the framework of the Assumptionist « Mission d’Orient” (Near Eastern Mission)?
- Let me underline what you say: I have only lived in Jerusalem several months. Since 1973 I have taken about 60 groups of pilgrims there. But it’s one thing to bring a group of pilgrims and another thing altogether to live there.
To answer your question, I would say that Jerusalem holds a unique place within the « Mission d’Orient », because it is at the very source of this mission. Ah, yes! The creation in Jerusalem of a Maronite seminary to train young seminarians whom Fr. d’Alzon received at his collège in Nîmes after the massacres of Christians in the Lebanese hills in 1860 was supposed to be our first foundation in the Near East. Fr. d’Alzon had been informed of the possibility of buying the Cenacle and had obtained the agreement of the Patriarch of Jerusalem and of Cardinal Barnabo, Prefect of the Propaganda Fidei in Rome. Filled with enthusiasm, Fr. d’Alzon even thought of buying the Tomb of the Virgin as a foundation site for the Religious of the Assumption!
Based in Rome at Santa Maria Basilica in Trastevere and named after the church where they were founded, the community of Sant’Egidio was the topic and focus of the recent ‘Conversations at the Center,’ in Brighton. As a canonically recognized Catholic lay movement in the Church, the community, whose pillars are prayer, friendship and service to the poor, is also a dynamic humanitarian effort in the world today.
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