Dear confrere!
I have just returned from a very enriching week in Salespuram and I now come to you to fill you in on what is happening in the Region and around the world.
Let me start with letting you know the three major decisions we took at our General Meeting. Before that I would like to share my great joy over the meeting itself. I enjoyed our common search for the good of the Region, I enjoyed the openness of each and everyone, I enjoyed the fraternal spirit, and I enjoyed the results of our meeting.
RETREAT AND GENERAL MEETING IN MAY
We have decided unanimously
“that the time for the General Meeting be shifted from the last weekend of October to the second week of May. It should start with a retreat for the Fathers and finally professed members and be followed by the General Meeting. The Delegate Superior should look into organizing the venue and the retreat preacher who should preferably be from a Salesian - Oblate background.”
I am happy to inform you, that the retreat for Fathers and finally professed members will take place from Sunday, May 7th 2006, starting with supper, and will last till Friday, May 12th 2006. I will let you know the venue later. Then we will move to Samarpanaram and have our General Meeting 2006 on Saturday May 13th and Sunday May 14th. Fr. Konrad Esser, an expert in Salesian matters and a General Councilor you all know, has agreed to give us the retreat. He will then stay on and also give the retreat to our scholastics and novices. I think that this decision will help us to grow as community in India and I urge you to make sure you can attend both, the retreat as well as the General Meeting.
THE PHILIPPINES
Before I write about the second decision I want to make a short statement about the Philippines. You all know that I have visited Fr. Josef in the month of October. I have found in Fr. Josef a wonderful host. I admire the way Fr. Josef is dealing with his personal situation in the Philippines. The death of Fr. Ceresko having been a great challenge, he now is again quite focused and enthusiastic about the future of the Oblates in the Philippines. My time with him was a blessing in many ways. We enjoyed each others company, and spent some quality time together, searching for meaning in our own lives, sharing points of view, opinions, struggles, challenges and joys. Fr. Josef showed me the property that has been given to the OSFS in Balete, near Taal Lake – Lipa. Right next to it he also showed me the house we have been given freely to use for the next 10 years. As it looks like Fr. Josef will be able to be living there by December. At present he is renovating the house.
What touched me most during the visit was our two walks, one into the rice terraces and one into the crater of a volcano. You can imagine that walking into hilly areas has not been one of my talents so far. With Josef, I found a companion who patiently waited for me, supported me in my searching for breath, in being there walking with me, but never commenting on my weak walking or the reasons for it. And this gave me a lot of strength and I really experienced a brother walking with me. I thank Josef for that.
Back to our prospects for a start in the Philippines I could discover many opportunities, possibilities and signs that tell and confirm me that the start there has been a wise decision and will be supported by me wholeheartedly by all means available to me.
I am delighted that you, the Indian confreres have joined me in this perception. Together we have decided unanimously:
“that the Indian confreres commit themselves to contribute one Indian Father to support the Philippine project and to ensure its continuity. This commitment will start after the General Chapter of 2006. For the time the Indian confrere is in the Philippines he would fall under the authority of the local superior in the Philippines.”
We perceive this decision as contribution from our side to the endeavors of the Congregation, in gratitude for the confreres who have been in India for a similar reason, in making more concrete our decision of October 2003 regarding an outreach of the Indian community to the Philippines.
I would like to applaud you. I feel that you are catching on the right spirit of the Congregation and I am absolutely delighted about it.
B.A. BEFORE NOVITIATE
Our next decision has to be applauded as well. One year back we started to think of ensuring that you, our Indian confreres, are to be enabled in the future to minister the church of India in a better way and provide the region with qualified confreres who could also make some income with their work in order to be more independent. As consequence of this thinking process we had to become more concrete. Higher studies in India are only possible when the basic school years are already of quality. Furthermore it had been our experience over the last years that some of our confreres in novitiate were a little bit too young for that important year of formation. In consequence, the advisory board proposed to the General Meeting a major change in our formation program and you have consented to it unanimously. We have decided
“that the formation program be changed as follows for all candidates
After having completed their +2 studies or their year of orientation in Salespuram, every candidate will first be asked to study for his BA in a regular College according to the needs of the Congregation and the talents of the individual person. He will live in Samarpanaram. After these 3 years of attending a regular College, he will then join the novitiate. Finally he will attend the two years program of Philosophy at Suvidya as professed religious.”
This has major implications for the coming years. We have to prepare the Congregation that there will be no novitiate in India for the next three years. This is not because there are no brothers, but it is because we have a change of program.
We will evaluate this decision as the life of the region goes on but I am very optimistic of the wisdom of that decision. There have been remarks concerning the financial aspects involved in regard of this decision, but I believe we have addressed them appropriately. Some risks are involved in such a decision, but I believe it to be worth taking for the good of the region and for the good of the confreres who are being equipped in a better way.
ADVISORY BOARD
I am happy to inform you that the General Council has unanimously approved our decisions.
In a few words this was the core of our decision taken at the meeting. We also elected at the General Meeting a new advisory board that will support me in my work.
I am happy that you have elected Fr. Shaju, Fr. Mathew and Fr. Fred Smuda as the new members of the advisory board, which will function till the General Meeting of 2007. I am happy to inform you that I have appointed Fr. Xavier to be the fourth member of the advisory board and welcome all four of them on the team. Let me also tell you that I have selected Fr. Shaju as my assistant. The General Council has approved the elections and appointments. I thank the confreres for accepting their elections and/or nominations and am looking forward to work with them. Please keep us in your prayers.
FORMATION COMMUNITY OF THEOLOGIANS IN MANGALORE
This having been decided, the coming year is bringing us some new endeavors. We have decided to make the second step towards Mangalore. Br. John George already doing quite well in his studies of theology within the St. Joseph’s seminary, we now want to establish a small community in Mangalore. Most likely there will be five theologians next year, and together with two Fathers (Fr. Fred and one more Father (Fr. Reji or Fr. Maichael), who will do some higher studies in Mangalore), we will rent a place for about 8 to 10 people close to the seminary and send our theologians as day scholars for their studies. Last Thursday I visited the Rector of the seminary and the Bishop of Mangalore and both have promised to help us to settle in an appropriate place. This decision gives us the opportunity to look closer at the seminary and I believe it to be a further small step in a good direction. I will let you know more, once we settle for a place. I already now thank Fr. Fred for agreeing to make this move towards Mangalore.
SCHOOL
At the General Meeting we also talked about a possible venue for a school. You know about our vision concerning a school in India. I thank Fr. Baiju, Fr. Bruzily, Fr. Reji, Fr. Mathew and Fr. Vincent for having helped the advisory board to continue to move towards the realization of that undertaking. The advisory board and I requested the confreres to remain down to the earth in our vision concerning a school. Looking at our financial situation we can’t and don’t want to plan for a full-fledged residential school. We prefer a regular school with boarding facilities. It looks like that the area around Madikeri (between Mysore, Mangalore and Salespuram) sounds promising and needs now more details and data for comparison. However other areas are not yet excluded. Though we may rather soon be ready to settle for a place, we think that the OSFS fathers still need some time to gain more experience in teaching and administration. This means also that the start of a school may be delayed for a few years while our confreres are being formed and will gain some experience in other institutions. The General meeting has requested me to make sure to install a committee that will support the advisory board and the confreres at the General Meeting to make the decisions ahead. I will do so after our next advisory board meeting that will take place on December 9th and 10th 2005 in Samarpanaram.
Fr. Fiorelli wrote in his newsletter to us in February 2005. “As members of Oblate Asia you are now seriously considering apostolates that you will assume and minister. I have read and heard first hand of some of your ideas and plans. In those dreams, I see enthusiasm, confidence and youthful zeal. In no way do I wish to dampen your generous enthusiasm. I do, however, ask you to think carefully through the implications of whatever your heart suggests. Weigh well the costs of those dreams in terms of personnel and finances. Begin slowly, testing the first few steps so that, in time, you will be relatively certain that, having begun so noble a venture (or ventures), you will have the means to see them through to completion. Once begun, you will likely be engaged in those apostolates for years and decades ahead. So dream boldly but plan wisely.” I believe that the region should continue to think in those lines while moving towards the realization of its dreams.
GENERAL CHAPTER, NOVITIATE, FORMATION PROGRAM
At the General Meeting we also elected Fr. Mathew to be the representative of Oblate India at the General Chapter 2006. Fr. Vincent was elected as his alternate. I congratulate the region as it starts to contribute to the life of the Congregation. As for the proposals to the General Chapter we decided to discuss them at the next General meeting in May, so that our representative may be prepared to contribute the regions’ thinking in the proposals’ matters. The discussion about our future novitiate was also put on the agenda for the next General Meeting. We have now three years time to look into that, since the next novitiate will start by May 2009. And the General Meeting made it very clear to continue the effort of working on improving the current formation program, especially its Salesian dimension. A committee in that regard will also be installed soon.
VOCATION PROMOTION
Fr. Mathew and Fr. Xavier will be working together a strategy for the upcoming year. All your suggestions expressed during the General Meeting have been heard and will be taken into consideration. As I said already at the meeting I encourage each one of you – Father, professed member and candidate – to get actively involved in the process of vocation promotion. It is good to extend and intensify our vocation promotion into areas, where there are still plenty of vocations. I appreciate each and every one of you who invests some of his energy into this. It will be for the good of the Congregation.
VISITS
Fortunately we are expecting in 2006 a couple of visits. Fr. John Sankarathil will be in India from December 23 till January 27 2006. Welcome home, Father! Fr. John Dolan and one of his friends are expected from January 21 till February 6 2006 in India. We are looking forward to their visit and I extend a hearty welcome in the name of the Region to both of them. Furthermore Fr. Jim O’Neill has announced his visit at the end of February and the beginning of March. Fr. O’Neill is working for the Chablais Mission Fund and will look into our financial needs. But much more than that he will also enrich us in Samarpanaram and Salespuram with his Salesian knowledge. Also to him already now a hearty welcome!
FINALLY
Four pages are enough for now; I will send you one more letter after the advisory board meeting in December. Until then I wish that the advent season might be good for you. You are preparing for the coming of a God who decided to undertake everything that we may be united with him. Let us take up his challenge; let us also desire nothing else than to be united with him. “Let us belong wholly to God, even amid the tumult and worries involved in the diversity of human affairs. What better proof can we give of our fidelity than perseverance amid such contradictions. Alas! Solitude has its great trials, as the world has its worries and disorder. Nevertheless, we must be of good cheer no matter where we are, remembering that God’s help is always accessible to those who trust him”, Saint Francis de Sales says.
I do not want to close without greeting and remembering in a special way Fr. Baiju in the States, Br. Mathias, Rayappa and Balaswamy P. in the North-East of India, Fr. Vincent in Shivajinagar, Fr. Bruzily in Mudhur, Fr. John in Düdingen, Fr. Xavier in Vissanapetta, Br. John in Mangalore, Fr. Reji in Chandanakkampara, the confreres and candidates in Salespuram, my confreres here in Samarpanaram and Brahma Sparsham and Fr. Josef in Lipa. Let us be united in our common vision!
I remain always your brother!
Fr. Sebastian Leitner
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