Today, the Feast of St. Scholastica and the dies natalis of the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master, we thanked the Lord for our sisters precious presence in the Pauline Family, where they are a vital sap for the life and mission of all of us and the whole Church. We want to assure them, during this time of final preparation for their 8th General Chapter, that we are united to them in prayer and affection.
With the presentation to the assembly of the reports of our four continents, we can say that the Interchapter has achieved its first goal, namely: an evaluation of the Congregations journey, which was made through the reports of Sr. M. Antonieta Bruscato, Superior General, Sr. Gabriella Santon, Bursar General, and our circumscriptions and communities dependent on the General Government. The input of our circumscriptions/communities was shared in groups divided by continent, which helped to simplify and speed up our work and also helped to elicit a deeper and more concrete exchange of ideas. This, in turn, made it easier for us to pinpoint initiatives that can be implemented in a more unitary and better coordinated way. Some of these are:
Europe: to intensify vocation work among immigrants; to set up a Central European Delegation made up of the communities of Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland; to research and carry out new forms of apostolate so as to speak about God in the digital world.
America: to have an interdisciplinary team draft a formation itinerary for the two Americas; to send 3 sisters who speak Spanish and Portuguese to evangelize the Latino immigrants in the United States; to redesign SAL (Latin American Secretariat for the Apostolate).
Africa: to carry out pastoral work for vocations in dioceses and countries where we are not present and to make a greater effort with regard to the Christian and vocational formation of the parents of our young women in formation; to continue the continental novitiate; to support the opening of a community in Nampula, Mozambique.
Asia-Pacific: to consolidate the new East Asia Delegation, which will implement our China Project; to support and strengthen the Asia-Pacific Coordination Team (APCT), based in Manila; to make the effort to use English as a common language in all our circumscriptions in this part of the world.
Thank you, sisters, for your efforts to stay in touch with us, not only via our web site but also by means of your affection and prayers.
We will spend 11 February at Assisi, the symbolic seat of peace and fraternity, where John Paul II hosted two important meetings (in 1986 and 2002) for the leaders of the worlds principle religions and where a third ecumenical meeting will be held in October 2011.
We will remember you all in a special way as we visit the places dear to the heart of St. Francis.