Missionary diocesan priests in the light of Blessed Brother Charles de Foucauld, Jean-François BERJONNEAU, assembly of Cebu.

Before presenting to you some aspects of Brother Carlos’ message that would inspire our ministry as diocesan priests, I would like to highlight some elements of the global context in which we find ourselves that give the theme of universal fraternity a burning topicality.

More than ever, we find that in this globalized society where interdependencies develop, the future of our planet is at stake in our ability to live an effective solidarity between the South and the North!

Today, at the beginning of this year 2019, we find ourselves in a new and surprising international context with several challenges.

Read the entire document (PDF): Missionary diocesan priests in the light of Blessed Brother Charles de Foucauld, Jean-François BERJONNEAU, assembly of Cebu.

The Crowning Truth. Matthew Ne Win Mookapaw, Fraternity of Myanmar

The Resurrection of Jesus is the crowning truth of our faith in Christ, a faith believed and lived as the central truth by the first Christian community; handed on as fundamental by Tradition; …….. and preached as an essential part of the Paschal mystery along with the cross.”

“The Paschal mystery of Christ’s cross and Resurrection stands at the centre of the Good News that the Apostles and the Church following them, are to proclaim to the world.”

Who am I to advise or suggest that the image of the Risen Jesus be placed at the center of the background wall of churches instead of the cross? Or to place the image of the Risen Lord along with the cross ,side by side at the center.? In all churches all over the world, in Rome,in Vatican?; new insight? Initiative? New inspiration? Courage?

Saint Francis Assisi created Christmas Crib.Has anyone created ” Easter Crib”, or “Easter Tomb”, or ” The Resurrection Tomb” or ” the Resurrection Cave” Easter / Resurrection scene with 3 dimensional images or statues? e.g, Thomas touching Jesus’ side, Encounter of Jesus with Mary Magdalene and the other holy women near the tomb,

One friend said to me: ” You need to be a saint to create an ” Easter Crib”. Is that so?

Shouldn’t we/I make Easter more popular than Christmas?

In Myanmar ,the National Marian Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes celebrated annually in Nyaunglaypin town is most popular and most crowded.

There are grottos of Our Lady of Lourdes in almost every parish church. The Protestants and the Buddhists think that we Catholics adore Mary; Misconception .Is there such misconception in India,Bangladesh & Pakistan?

We have the grottos of Our Lady of Lourdes everywhere or in many places.Do we have ” Grottos of Our Lord” Or ” Resurrection Cave” or Resurrection Tomb , Scene of the Risen Lord with images and Statues, in many places?

Who am I to wish and pray that this message of mine reach the ears of the Cardinals and the Pope? To display scene of the Resurrected Lord/ Resurrection Tomb, ” Easter Crib”, in Vatican Square during Eastertide/ throughout Easter Season?

Who am I to dare to say, ” How I wish Pope Francis create ” Easter Crib” or ” Easter Tomb” or ” Easter Cave” as his namesake did Christmas Crib ? “.For the sake of Evangelization, to preach the Resurrected Lord Jesus more vividly with visualization.

Who am I to put up such suggestion? Poor me, an insignificant priest of Jesus Caritas Fraternity Of Priests.

Is the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus well known by nonChristians as much as his crucifixion? They see crosses ( symbol of crucifixion) .Do they also see the symbols or images of the Risen Lord ?

St.Paul said,” If Christ has not been raised , then empty (too) is our preaching;empty,too,your faith”. ( 1 Cor 15:14)

Fr.Matthew Ne Win Mookapaw
Office of Evangelization & Culture
Yangon Archdiocese, MYANMAR.

Guidelines for Month of Nazareth (for his aprobal in world assembly of Cebu)

The First Pan American Assembly of our Priestly Fraternity held in Cuernavaca, Mexico, in February 2015, proposed to the International Team “to convene a team of four people to carry out a specific study on the identity, purpose, content and manner of carrying out the Month of Nazareth that allows writing a document with Common Orientations, respecting the cultural particularities of each country. This document would be presented for approval at the next General Assembly”.

The International Team accepted this proposal and at its meeting in October 2016, it resolved to request Manuel Pozo (Spain), Jean Michel Bortheirie (France) and Fernando Tapia (Chile), to set up this commission and draft a document on the Month of Nazareth.

The brothers accepted this assignment, worked from their places of origin, studying articles of the IESUS CARITAS bulletins about the Month of Nazareth, collecting experiences and materials already prepared for previous months of Nazareth from different countries and finally met in Almería, Spain, February 20 to 24, 2017 to formulate these General Guidelines.

The main inspiring framework of this document is the text approved in the International Assembly held by our Fraternity, in Algeria, in 1982, entitled “The Month of Nazareth”. It has been incorporated in the latest editions of the Directory, in chapter IV “Our roads”. We transcribe it below.

This document has as main recipients the Regional Managers and their Teams, as well as the Coordinators of the Months of Nazareth and their Teams. It contains a First Part with Orientations of general type and a Second Part with schemes for the topics of reflection, questions for personal or group work and schemes for the meditations of the week of retreat, with some exercises for personal prayer.

Open the complete document (PDF): Guidelines for Month of Nazareth

WEND BE NE DO, Burkina Faso: December 2018 report

Report of the follow-up visit to the WEND BE NE DO (WBND) project in Burkina Faso, of the partners Carlos LLANO, Alberto HERNANDIS, Andrés Pedro MUÑOZ and Aurelio SANZ, of the Foundation Tienda Asilo de San Pedro of Cartagena (FTASP), Spain, in December 2018.

WBND already has a thirteen-year trajectory in Burkina Faso, being a benchmark as a project of care for the people affected by HIV-AIDS in this African zone stricken by poverty, corruption, and insecurity… 271 adults and 341 children, adolescents and young people are our concern as more than sixty volunteers in Spain, seven in Burkina Faso and the local team formed by five people. “To be with”, to accompany, to put ourselves in their skin, not to remain insensitive to the suffering of others, to partake in their joy: that is WBND.

Fraternity of England: Be Brothers! uk November 2018

Despite this I felt I really couldn’t condense my report on Sr. Kathy’s retreat any further, as she provided us with such an incomparably rich analysis of the meanings inherent in Brother Charles’ life and letters. And we were gifted with the most pleasant and outgoing of personalities to convey them! But your national Team, supporting Peter Stodart as our National Responsible, does freely admit that we didn’t quite have our act together when the application forms went out to the fraternities far too late; the giving of the dates in a single-liner of the November 2017 “BB’s” really didn’t cover. We were left with a viable but quite select attendance! The annual January mini-retreat will hopefully be better attended as the booking forms have already been e.mailed to local Responsibles and thus hopefully put in the hands of all brothers.

Then there’s the plethora of “emails to the editor” this time, updating us on many goings-on among our fraternities; great!

Stephen Squires is working wonders for us all, not only in the website he has established for the British fraternities (DO have a look at https://www.jesuscaritaspriests.org,uk ) but is now organising a “mini-Month” to offer an easy 1-week taster of a full “Month of Nazareth,” that real-life living of some of Brother Charles’ ideals that many find so helpful for making us better priests. Do check out the “mini-Month” at its lovely Midlands venue on page 11 of this issue.

Oh, and by the way, if your fraternity doesn’t feature on the “Fraternities” page of the website, do send the details up to Stephen, as given under his Birmingham fraternities on that page. (Otherwise one is not allowed to bemoan a dearth of new members in your fraternity!)

Please keep the flow of contributions coming– especially if you’d just drop a very few lines (and a picture?) on even the ordinary things you do in your fraternity, on who’s involved, etc. It can en- courage the others! With some good material in too late for full publication this time, may I set a press deadline of mid-April and mid-September for the June and November issues, with very small “stop press” additions possible until the start of May and October.

Finally, don’t miss John Carter’s subs. appeal on page 13; we must keep the show running.


Open the full document (PDF) Be BrothersA4Nov2018