Category Archives: News

50th aniversary of the Cominitat de Jesús, family of Charles de FOUCAULD

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Dear friends,

September 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the consecration of the first brothers and sisters to the Community of Jesus. The first commitments were made in the hermitage of Santa Creu in Montserrat (Barcelona) on 29th September 1968, our official birthday, in the presence of founder layman Pere Vilaplana who died thirty-five years ago. Today, accompanied by you all, relatives and friends, we celebrate 50 years of community life.

Montserrat saw the birth of our community after ties of communion and friendship with several monks of that abbey, especially with hermit monk Father Estanislau Llopart. He presided over that celebration and was during all the early years a spiritual counselor and guide in our personal growth and in that of the young community.

It was three years since the closing of Council Vatican II and renovation could still be felt in the Church. We, students, workers, young men and women who were making our way in life heard the call to commit to the Gospel in our daily lives. Our country was then under a dictatorship, after a fratricidal war of painful memory. However, cultural and social changes were underway, and a number of trade and students’ unions as well as cultural and spiritual associations were emerging. With some more permeable Pyrenees that allowed us to look beyond, especially towards France, we got to know movements of spiritual renewal. We were drawn by the message of Charles de Foucauld and Albert Peyriguère: living Nazareth, being Christians “at the heart of the world”. Contemplative and missionary at the same time. A maybe too ambitious objective but one which has been essential to us all the way through the years and still is today.

All of you children, parents, friends, companions in faith, neighbours of Tarrés know we have tried to lead dedicated lives. Each of us in different ways, according to our ages, jobs and personal and family situations. The gift of God has brought us here with the help of caring counsellors, your generous love and the contribution of all our brothers and sisters who have devoted part of their lives to the Community of Jesus. Inevitably, and due to our fragile human nature, we have gone through difficulties, crises and split-ups. However, there have been joyful times of sincere inner research, of gratuitousness in our commitment, of risk, growth and maturation.

Our community, a gift of God. Living the Gospel in community, a gift of God. Friendship, a charisma that identifies us, has knotted us and given us the strength to be faithful to God’s project: “Love”. Jesus and his disciples have shown us what spiritual friendship is: both demanding and respectful, always loving.

Before finishing, we would like to say thank you to those we have met along our long journey.

First of all, we would like to thank Claretian Father Antoni Andrés who has accompanied us during all these years, discretely, humbly, always there for us. He has been a great example to all of us and a devoted friend for whom we feel the deepest affection.

We are profoundly grateful to the monks of the Benedictine abbey of Montserrat, wise counsellors and beloved friends, already departed: Father Abat Cassià Just, Father Estanislau Llopart, Father Vilanova, Father Oriol Diví and, lately, Father Joan Carles Elvira. They will always be with us.

We would like to thank the diocesan bishops of Barcelona, Tarragona, Lleida, Valencia and Jaca for their support, and all the priests, monks and nuns from these and other dioceses. Most especially, Cardinal Narcís Jubany, who firmly believed in our project and promoted it.

We cannot forget the religious order of Hieronymite nuns at Sant Maties Monastery in Barcelona, a community of contemplative nuns who have offered us counsel and unconditional friendship along these fifty years.

Our most sincere gratitude to fraternities, communities and groups of the Spiritual Family of Charles de Foucauld in our country and abroad. They have been and are an example of commitment for us, and most of all, friends in the Friend.

We are particularly grateful to the people of Tarrés. The community of Jesus would not be what it is today without that first warm welcome 50 years ago. You are the reason why we are celebrating our anniversary here, today.

Finally, it would be unfair not to express our gratitude and love to our families: to our parents, most of them already departed, to our children and grandchildren. They all carry with them a trace of the spirit of the Community of Jesus. We humbly and joyfully believe that, with the help of God, we have instilled in them some of the values that guide us, like True Friendship.

Thank you very much to all of you on behalf of the brothers and sisters of the Community of Jesus.

Tarrés, 16th September 2018

PDF: 50th aniversary Comunitat de Jesús, family Charles de FOUCAULD, eng

Our brother Silvio GUTERRES DUTRA, new bishop

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The nomination by Pope Francis of our brother Silvio as bishop is a great joy for the Fraternity and for the Church.

I had the joy of sharing with him the retreat for the fraternities of Braziil in Florianópolis, and last February the II Panamerican Assembly of the fraternity in Santo Domingo. His close and fraternal style has always been for all a good, a reward of the many that God gives us without earning them.

Silvio was born June 6, 1966 in Encruzilhada do Sul (Rio Grande do Sul). He studied philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.

He was ordained priest on December 18, 1993 in the Diocese of Porto Alegre, and after various pastoral missions in parishes and the seminary, since 2013 he has been Rector of the Seminary of Viamâo.

He is a member of the fraternity of Porto Alegre and is the national responsible of the fraternities of Brazil, in succession to Gildo.

His episcopal ordination will be held in the Charqueadas Sports Arena, which adjoins the church of Cristo Rei (Christ the King), at 3.00 pm on Sunday, July 22, 2018, and he will beginhis ministry as Pastor of the Diocese of Vacaria on 5th August at 10.00 am, in the Cathedral of Nossa Senhora de Oliveira.

Let us add our joy, and prayers for Silvio and his diocesan community, for the simple people who teach us the path of Jesus in its steps, in its hopes and in its just struggles.

Aurelio SANZ BAEZA, brother responsible

PDF: Our brother Silvio GUTERRES DUTRA, new bishop, eng

WEND BE NE DO, Burkina Faso: a projet in Charles de FOUCAULD charisma

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Follow-up report of the project carried out by the aid workers Concepción MARTOS GARCÍA, Carlos LLANO FERNÁNDEZ and Aurelio SANZ BAEZA during their stay at WEND BE NE DO (WBND) in Burkina Faso, from January 29th to February 8th, 2018.

To be at WBND once more is a privilege for our lives. We shared a reality that engages us all year from afar, but which on the ground bolsters and renews us in the work. What is important is to interact with the people, small and great, to listen and to be heard.

PDF: report-wbnd-january-february-2018-en

Liam O’Cuiv: NEWS FROM IRELAND

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BISHOP BRENDAN KELLY TO BE NEW BISHOP OF GALWAY

(Monday 11th December 2017)

A member of the Irish Jesus Caritas Fraternity for nearly all of his priestly life, Bishop Brendan Kelly has been asked by Pope Francis to be the next bishop of Galway. He succeeds Bishop Martin Drennan who has also been a member of the Jesus Caritas Fraternity and who resigned as bishop in 2016 for reasons of health.

Brendan Kelly (71) has been bishop of the small diocese of Achonry (39,000 Catholics) since 2007. His new Diocese of Galway and Kilmacduagh has over 110,000 Catholics. In 1995-96 he spent a year ministering to the sick and disabled of the l’Arche community in France.

On Monday congratulations were sent to Bishop Brendan on behalf of the Irish Fraternity wishing him blessings and good health. Bishop Kelly is due to begin his ministry in Galway in February 2018.

NEW BISHOP OF RAPHOE A MEMBER OF THE IRISH JESUS CARITAS FRATERNITY

Alan McGuckian, a member of a fraternity in the Diocese of Down and Connor and a Jesuit priest was named as the new bishop of the Diocese of Raphoe on 9th June. He was ordained bishop on 6th August, the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. A gifted preacher and noted ecumenist, Bishop Alan had for many years been a visitor to the Irish language speaking areas of County Donegal which are now in his new Diocese. Bishop Alan has two brothers, Michael and Bernard who are also members of the Society of Jesus. He is the first ever member of his order to have been appointed a bishop in Ireland.

Irish Fraternity to meet at the beginning of 2018 to elect new national responsible

Members of the Irish Fraternity will gather at Mount St. Joseph’s Cistercian Abbey at the beginning of 2018 for their annual post-Christmas sharing. This time they will also have to choose as new responsible as the 6-year term of Liam Ó Cuív comes to an end.

The gathering will begin on 1st January and continue until 4th January.

PDF: Liam-OCuiv-NEWS-FROM IRELAND