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Year IX - Number 371

13 May 2015

Marist News Marist Brothers - General House - Rome

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Syrian Brothers to speak at Marist European Conference 20 Brothers gather at Marist European Conference in Lebanon

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missions that depend directly on the Conference – Mission, Brothers Today, Vocations, and Communion between lay people and Brothers – are also taking part, as well as two General Councillors, brothers Antonio Ramalho and Ernesto Sanchez.

he three Syrian Marist brothers of Aleppo are giving their testimony during the Marist European Conference currently taking place in Harissa, Lebanon.

Brothers Georges Albert Hakim, Georges Sabe and Bahjat Azrie are updating the Marist Brothers in the May 11-13 Conference on the country’s current situation and their daily struggle to help children and families amidst the ongoing violence.

The encounter is taking place at the Conference Center of Beithania, next to the Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon in the village of Harissa, 20km

Brothers Antonio and Ernesto are the link between the General Council and the European provinces. north of Beirut.

During the event, participants will meet with the head of the Maronite Catholic Church, Patriarch Béchara Boutros Raï, and they will visit important cultural and historical sites of Lebanon.

A total of 20 brothers are participating in the Conference, including Superior General Brother Emili Turú, five brother provincials from Europe and a representative of each Provincial Council.

Brother João Carlos do Prado and Luca Olivari will talk about “New Models of Animation, Government and Management,” one of the meeting’s topics.

Aside from formation, other topics that are being discussed at the Conference include finance, new international communities and a proposal for a retreat for the whole Marist Europe on “regionalization.”

Coordinators of the four European com-

General Administration Superior General Brother Emili Turú and two General Councillors, brothers Antonio Ramalho and Ernesto Sanchez, are taking part in the Marist European Conference from May 11-13 in Harissa, Lebanon. Brother João Carlos do Prado, director of the Secretariat of Mission, is also taking part to present his project “new models.”

General Councillors Josep Maria Soteras and Eugène Kabanguka are accompanying the brothers who are preparing for their perpetual profession in Cochabamba, Bolivia, from May 11-14.

Brother Chris Wills, director of ‘Collaboration for Mission, International’ (Cmi), is heading a formation session of leaders in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from May 13-15.

Brother Tony Leon, director of the Secretariat of Brothers Today, is participating in a meeting with the Brothers who are doing a formation programme in English in Manziana, Italy. He will speak to them about the new way of being a brother today.

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Vatican official praises Marists work with Laity Cardinal João Braz de Aviz lauds Champagnat Followers “In the crisis, the Marists have discovered the work of the laity in the charism, and now they have 50,000 lay people who work with them!,” remarked Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, reffering to the laity.

He made his comments at the Theological Institute of Religious Life, one of Madrid’s home of the Claretians.

“We have to reform the Church all of us together because all of us Christians are the Church,” he added. “We must walk together, we must decentralize this Church.”

The Brazilian cardinal stressed that “we must not consider the laity as proletarians of the Spirit.”

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“It is not true. They are baptized, they have Christ within themselves, His gift. Christian vocation is to live with everyone,” he stated.

Vatican oficial complimented the Marists for incorporating the laity in their work during his book launch on May 6 in Madrid, Spain.

Participants at the event, organized by the Editorial Claretian Publications and the Institute, included Sister Verónica Berzosa, abbess of Iesu Communio, in one of her rare public appearances.

The prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life referred to the Marists as an example to follow during his book launch titled “From the peripheries of the world to the Vatican.”

‘It’s fantastic, enriching, challenging,’ says Philippine Marist Asian, African and Polynesian Marists gather in Italy

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Brother from the Philippines labelled a programme offered for middle-aged Marists in the Italian municipality of Manziana as ‘fantastic, enriching and challenging.’

“So far it’s also inspiring, relaxing and motivating,” Brother Cristino Sta. Ana told Rome’s General House Press Office in an interview.

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He is part of a group of Marists gathered from Asia and Africa in the municipality, located 40 km north of Rome for a three-month course until June 14. For many, it is their first time in Europe.

The seven brothers and a Marist priest from one of Polynesia’s over 1,000 islands – Tonga – are taking part in

Marist News

13 May 2015

the “Mid-Life Renewal Programme” organized each year for English speaking brothers.

“It’s energizing because we have a wonderful group of young men (and) we have new discoveries each day,” remarked Brother Dennis Cooper, one of the organizers. “Making community with brothers from different cultures is a very positive experience.”

The rest come from Nigeria, Madagascar, Malawi and Cameroon.

Br Cooper explained that the programme usually runs for five months but that it was different this time since it was two months shorter. The other

organizer is Br Alfredo Herrera, a Mexican who lived in Korea for 39 years before being transferred to Manziana a year ago.

The encounter, offered to Marists when they have served at least 10 years since their final profession, aims to help Marists as they get older.

Guest speakers included Br Sean Sammon on the psycho-spiritual richness of relationships and theologian Fr John Fuellenbach on the Kingdom of God at mid-life.

“One common thread that runs across the fiber of their presence is our personal prayer,” noted Br Cristino. “We were enlightened into, reminded on, lectured about, challenged to, consoled and inspired by a genuine personal prayer life.”

Participants included Fr Vaioleti Tuione (Tonga), and Brothers Achema Emmanuel Alhassan (Nigeria), Alfred Ramanantsoa (Madagascar), Cristino Sta. Ana (Philippines), Frank Lackwell (Malawi), John Katumbi (Malawi), Martin Mbeng (Cameroon) and Nnodu Chukwubueze (Nigeria).

The programme included trips to Assisi and Rome, as well as Saint Marcellin Champagnat’s native France.

‘Children need us’ says Lay Marist

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lay woman said that children “need the Marists” during a meeting held by the International Mission Commission in Rome.

Sylvia Pérez Vega, a lay Marist of Bolivia, stressed that “one can hear their cry of pain, hunger and sadness,” especially in Latin America.

“They have no education, health, family, recreational or fun moments because they have to work,” she told the press office of the General House on April 23.

Sylvia is a member of the Commission, which met from April 20-24 to discuss new ways of evangelizing and helping the youth.

Sylvia underscored that “children need to be advocates for their own rights” and that “they need to participate and be protagonists of the defence of the rights of children and adolescents everywhere in the world.”

It met to come up with new strategies to carry out during the next three years in different parts of the world.

She noted that the Marists have “a big commitment” in working for the rights of children in a special way.

The director of the Secretariat of Mission and member of the Commission, Brother João Carlos do Prado noted that “during these days a global vision of the Marist mission has been built.”

“Especially children who live in the peripheries, streets and adits, selling newspapers and inhaling glue and drugs to not go hungry,” she remarked.

“It invites us to continue moving to the new territories where we feel called to go to as mystics and prophets in communion,” he told the General House on April 30.

Brother Valdicer Facchi of Porto Alegre, Brazil, another member of the Commission, stated that Marists are mainly called to be

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Year IX - Number 371

with poor children and youth involved in drug trafficking, who live in extreme conditions.

The International Mission Commission will meet in Sydney, Australia from March 15-20 in 2016.

“They are exploited in their agricultural work, they suffer in their family, they have no opportunities to suffer nor do they have the dignity due to them,” said Br Valdicer.

Members of the Commission includeBr Kevin Wanden (Pacific District), Cate Sydes (Australia), Br Willy Lubrico (East Asia), Br John Kusi-Mensah (West Africa District), Br Fortune Chakasara (África Austral), Br Valdicer Fachi (Rio Grande do Sul), Sylvia Pérez (Santa María de los Andes), Br Gabriel Villa-Real (L’Hermitage), Luis Gutiérrez (Mediterránea), Br Chris Wills (International Missionary Cooperation), Br Josep María Soteras (General Council), Br Miguel Ángel Espinosa (Secretariat of Mission), Br João Carlos do Prado (Secretariat of Mission).

But according to a Lay Marist of Granada, Spain, the youth that he encounters are those who “are lost, feel lonely and abandoned in some way.”

“They do not find meaning in life in today’s society of relativism and consumerism,” said Luis Gutiérrez González.

21st Anniversary of the death of Br Henri Vergès

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rother Henri Vergès was killed in Argelia on 8 May 1994 alongside Sister Paul-Hélène, in his office at the library in the street Ben Cheneb in Algiers. Twenty-one years after his death, let us re-read some of the communication fragments that he had sent to the members of the General Chapter in 1976 on the practice of Gospel advice. These texts can resonate in us as a call and an invitation in this Year of Consecrated Life.

Because of its religious significance (detachment to the absoluteness of God), we help the Algerian man not to lose the sense of God because of a purely material technical progress; through community development (shared life), we help him build an authentic socialism where the person becomes increasingly responsible for his own development and everyone else’s.”

Religious obedience and people responsible for themselves "In coming to Argelia, we have responded to God’s call. This call can be reconciled with the desire to actively engage in service to the Third World.

As with poverty, our obedience is religious and in community. Being attentive to God (contemplation), listening to others (sharing), obeying superiors (charismatic expression of God's will), I learn to choose to follow what is more true, being free.

Religious poverty in a world struggling for justice “Through our personal and community poverty, we share the plight of the poor and their active patience, with a view to a better distribution of material and cultural goods.

With humility (= truth), strengthened with God’s faithfulness, we do together what He expects of us, looking at the Kingdom, i.e., the new covenant of God with humanity… MUSLIM means: “subject to God as a free being who knows his limits”. This people, taking responsibility for its own destiny in the

Redaction: Piazzale Marcellino Champagnat, 2, ROME E-mail: comunica@fms.it Site: www.champagnat.org

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world, does the will of God. We join this desire through our availability.”

Consecrated life and chastity in a sexually mixed world “The Muslim world does not know consecrated chastity.

Being a sign of the love of God and a call to universal love, our vow cannot be understood if the person does not present himself as profoundly free (vow of obedience and poverty).

Then our consecration achieves the desire for deliverance of the partner by a love that is that exchange. Every relationship is sexualized: that of parents and children, that of the educator and the student. But this relationship only frees in the overflow of love.

Therefore, in being respectful and open to others, our vow of chastity, sign of belonging exclusively to God who deserves this gift, an eschatological sign, can be understood by the faithful Muslim.

Our behaviour, marked by this love, should not masquerade us as Superman, but rather as men of God." (cf. the book "From Capcir to the Casbah", pages 50-52). - Br Alain Delorme

MARIST NEWS N.º 371 – Year IX – 713 May 2015 Edit by: Marist Brothers' Institute - General House – Rome