Dedication Ceremony for the Statue of Venerable Emmanuel d’Alzon
Assumption College. October 23, 2010

This beautiful sculpture in front of the central place of learning on our campus, the library, already named after the founder of the Assumptionists, portrays d’Alzon the teacher: Thinking back to our visit, this past May, to Nimes and the original “Assumption College high school”, I can well imagine him, 150 years ago, sitting in front of the school, surrounded by his students, as we see it here. Well, he wouldn’t have had any female students at that school. It was for boys only. But he always thought of teaching in the “most absolute sense of the word” (as he called it), not just as “school education”, so that the many works of charity he did, e.g. the girls’ shelter he founded in 1836, can also be seen as educational endeavors. D’Alzon with a boy and a girl – that stands, I think, for the entire spectrum of pedagogical activities initiated by the French nobleman turned priest. He actually saw education itself as a “work of charity” and as one of those works “through which we shall seek to extend the reign of our Lord”, as he wrote in 1855.

On a crisp October afternoon, some three hundred people gathered outside the Emmanuel d'Alzon Library on the campus of Assumption College to dedicate a stunningly beautiful bronze statue of Emmanuel d'Alzon, the founder of the Augustinians of the Assumption (Assumptionists), the sponsors of the school. The long-awaited sculpture, a year in the making, was unveiled on Fall Homecoming and Family Weekend.

The dedication ceremony featured opening remarks by Fr. Dennis Gallagher, A.A., Regional Superior of the Assumptionists and Vice President for Mission, and Dr. Francesco Cesareo, president of the College.

On Monday, October 18^th,the National Catholic Development Conference (NCDC) in collaboration with the United States Region of the Assumptionists andAssumption College hosted a workshop "What is Happening in Catholic Fundraising Today" on the Campus of Assumption College in Worcester, MA. The attendees of the conference represented development directors and staffs of religious organizations such as schools, parishes, religious communities and charities.

On Monday, October 4^th, the National Catholic Educational Association honored eight individuals with the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Award, which recognizes those who have made significant contributions to Catholic education through philanthropy, leadership and service.

Among this year’s recipients were Donald and Michele D’Amour of Somers, CT who are major supporters of public and private education in CT, MA and of Assumption College.

On Sunday October 3rd, the "Conversations At The Center" resumed in Brighton, MA. The purpose of this series is to provide a place for the local house community and guests to participate, learn and discuss what it means to be Church.

At this first gathering of the year, which began with Mass, Joshua Johnson, a first year theology student at Boston College and who recently joined the community at the Center, spoke of his experience working at Casa Juan Diego House of Hospitality in Houston, Texas. This facility of the Catholic Worker heroically and selflessly gives life to the dream of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin who worked tirelessly to be a social dynamic force in ministering to the poorest of the poor.

Our own two Assumptionist brothers have joined the Jesuit, Capuchin, and Redemptorist orders whose members are studying at the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College this year. Eddy Gonzalez (left) and Ronald Sibugan, A.A., are pursuing Master of Divinity degrees and preparing for ordination.
Brother Eddy is in the process of becoming a postulant. Brother Ronald, who has completed his novitiate year (and hence wears the habit), has taken his temporary vows.

On Wednesday evening, September 29, 2010, at around 7 p.m. local time, the Reverend Father Augustine SIRIMIRWA, Assumptionist, Superior and Pastor of Our Lady of the Poor Parish of Mbau, in the Diocese of Butembo-Beni, in North-Kivu Province in Eastern D.R.Congo, escaped death.

After the evening prayer, Fr. Augustine took his lamp torch to go around the church building checking whether all the doors were well locked for the night. In the recent past, the parish has had breaks in where valuable items from money to musical instruments were stolen. Half way through his routine checking, he saw a gunman in the Congolese military uniform emerging from the dark with a machine gun that he pointed to his head. As Father Augustine tried to ask what the gunman was looking for, another gunman in civilian clothes emerged from the dark with threatening words. The first thing the gunmen did was to take his lamp torch away. With the gun pointing to his head, the gunmen asked Fr Augustine to give money, a lot of money to save his life. Reaching for his wallet, Father Augustine had only 2200 Congolese Francs, that is a little more than 2 US $. He had nothing else. Dissatisfied, with the $2 , the gunmen became more angry, checking Fr Augustine’s pockets to see whether he was not withholding more cash. At this point, the gunmen were threatening to kill him, as he was unable to give more cash.

Today, September 30^, 2010, we are commemorating the 100^th anniversary of the establishment of the Augustinians of the Assumption in Argentina. For this reason, the wide Assumptionist Family in this country is filled with joy as celebrations take place all week. There have been one hundred years of the hard and fruitful work of evangelization and the development of Catholic education.

It was on September 30, 1910 that Father Roman Heitmann, an Assumptionist born in Fr. d’Alzon’s homeland of France, arrived in Argentina to establish and develop the congregation here. As part of his legacy, the city of Buenos Aires now enjoys the shrine and school of Our Lady of Lourdes as well San Román Institute (named after him), where today, one hundred years later, the process of the evangelization begun by Father Roman continues to grow.

San Donato in Polverosa (Florence, ITALY)

It is an act of trust in themselves and in the future that the religious of the community in Florence (Italy) made in accepting this request of the Archdiocese. Florentin Halandut gives us an overview of the work an the spirit in which the community is approaching it.