Marist Novices in Mexico, David Sanchez of Mexico, Walter Chaupin of Peru, Luiz Maciel of Brazil with their New Zealand novice master Peter McAfee

Before entering, David studied refrigeration and air conditioning, Walter operated a cyber cafe in central Ayacucho – a beautiful colonial city in the mountains of Peru, and Luiz did his military training in the Brazil army for a couple of years.

The novitiate year has been punctuated by a 30 day retreat in January and 3 other shorter retreats of 6 days each.

The Novices also took part in a 11 day pilgrimage to key Marist spots in Mexico ending at Guadalupe, where they numbered among the 20 million annual visitors at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe shrine.

In terms of pastoral outreach, there are several villages within walking distance of the novitiate, and each novice has got involved in a different community, and does youth work there.

At the end of the Novitiate, and after a small break, Peter McAfee will be joining Marist formation team in Brazil.

It’s been said of Gerry’s book, that “only a master could write a book like this” and that the book could “bring efforts of inculturation to a new level”.

Gerry is of the view that inculturation is an indispensable task of the church, and as a consequence maintains that inculturation demands all who enter into the dialogue understand what culture means and dialogue entails.

In Culture, Inculturation and Theologians, Gerry,

• traces the history of the development of the concept of culture and the too-often negative, rarely positive effects of encounters between church and culture,
• explores how Jesus Christ approached the cultures of his time, and outlines the current treatment of culture and inculturation in church documents and in Catholic theology, and
• shows that modest progress in understanding has recently stalled, and there are even forces working to turn that progress into regress.

Gerry concludes with a description of inculturation as it needs to happen and a sharp critique of those who resist.

The book is available from Amazon.com and all good bookstores.

The changes of Marist leadership are:

• Canada: On July 1, Fr Jacques Arguin, 56, succeeded Fr Yvan Carré as major superior of the Province of East Canada.
• Europe: The European confreres gathered in retreat at La Neylière have celebrated the accession of Fr Hubert Bonnet-Eymard, 62, to the leadership of the European province. Fr Joaquin Fernández will take on the role of provincial bursar.
• Mexico: Fr Jean Vienne, 64, who has been acting provincial for Mexico, after the departure of Fr Alejandro Muñoz to Rome, has now been elected provincial in his own right.
• Peru-Venezuela: In order to facilitate the restructuring of the district, the Superior General has appointed Fr Alejandro Muñoz major superior of the District of Peru-Venezuela.

Pat Breeze, a member of the international formation team, who was originally going to London to be a consultant formator in the seminary, has now been appointed by the Superior General to the scholasticate of Guadalajara, Mexico.

The SMSM Group spent two weeks at La Neyliere, one week visiting Marist Places of Origin and a second week on retreat.

The Marist Family Renewal Group did the same using the Marist Brothers’ L’Hermitage as their base of operation; they have now returned to Rome for the last month of their program.

John Hannan at lunch during his meeting with the Provincial Council

His primary purpose for being in New Zealand is to visit the 130 Marists in 30 communities located around the country. He will be in New Zealand for six weeks, and although only being here for a few days, John’s warm easy manner means people relax in his presence and are enjoying meeting him and spending time in his company.

John has kindly timed his visit to coincide with the 125th Jubilee of St Patrick’s College Wellington. St Patrick’s College was founded from St Mary’s College Dundalk, where John was educated as a pupil and spent some time on the staff, he is looking forward to being a guest of the New Zealand province at the Grand Jubilee Dinner and Jubilee Mass on Sunday.

New Zealand is the first Marist province John has officially visited, and he is the first Superior General to undertake a formal visitation of the New Zealand Province since the 1980’s.

Another first, he is the first Superior General to bring with him, as support, his favourite, the Irish Rugby Union team who are in New Zealand to play one test against the All Blacks on 12 June.

As part of their approach, they are using the Society of Mary General Index, so have access to names, addresses, phone numbers etc.

So far in Ireland the scammers have phoned four community houses, along with the the Provincial House of the Marist Sisters. They told a story, naming a Marist from the Oceania province who was traveling to Ireland (with his mother) for a funeral, but was being prevented by immigration control at Manila airport from boarding the plane until some tax or other is paid.

He had all the names and places of people. He also had the names, addresses of places to send moneygrams. He also knew of the recent General Chapter.

The scam was revealed by calling the named Marist’s community, finding him to be home.

Paul’s award was primarily in recognition of his written contributions to the work of reconciliation and healing between Australia and Japan over the past 50 years.

A number of Paul’s books tell stories of everyday heroic people who dedicated themselves to peace and reconciliation in the aftermath of World War II.

The best known, Song of Nagasaki tells the story of Dr Takashi Ngai and was first published over 20 years ago. It has been translated into nine languages and is currently being translated into Chinese.

From the sale of his books Paul has been able to direct over AUD$1m into projects of evangelisation, and the alleviation of poverty and health problems in the Third World.

The new address is: www.peterchanel.info

Blood stained diary of martyr St Peter Chanel.

Peter Chanel became virtually homeless when the Society of Mary Australia, Oceania and New Zealand network, sometimes referred to as SMANZO, was replaced by the larger grouping, Marist Asia Pacific (MAP), and the domain name maristpacific.org became redundant.

Lost from the Internet, the original site designed some years back has been restored from an archived backup. All but the “Quiz” is working and we will be upgrading it to a more friendly format.

www.peterchanel.info is of course not the only only resource for Peter Chanel, and given time we will redevelop the site.

If you know or have any resources you’d like to share, please get in contact.

“Thankyou to everyone who was involved in and helped to prepare for the profession; thankyou to everyone who came to celebrate with us, and thankyou to those who supported us with their prayers and their messages of support and best wishes. Thankyou also to everyone who made this past year so special for us – far too many to mention here. Most important of all, thanks be to God and Mother Mary for their call to serve them in this way.”

Along with the full post about their first Marist profession, the Marist Novitiate website has

• lots of photos and
• now a video of the event.

Roque Rebito, Daniel Fernandez, Thilo Saft, Philip Bennenbroek, Nino Memorial, John GuoWang

John Guo Wang, Niňo Memorial and Roque Rebito (Philippines), Daniel Fernandez and Thilo Saft (Europe), and Philip Bennenbroek (New Zealand), made their vows as Marists.

Described as a “joyful occasion” it was was presided over by Fr Larry Sabud, the district superior of the Philippines district. He was assisted by Frs Joaquin Fernandez (Europe) and our own provincial, Brian Cummings, each of whom received the vows of their respective novices.

About 200 people took part in the profession ceremony and joined together after wards for a meal and to further the celebrations.

After eighteen months in the Philippines, the six new Marists will soon head back to their respective countries to continue their formation as Marist priests.