LETTER FROM CEBU. Asian Assemble 2016

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Celebrating 100 years of Bro Charles, a witness of Jesus and his Gospel

Asian Assembly 2016 – July 15-22, 2016

In the centenary year of the martyrdom of Blessed Charles de Foucauld (1916-2016), we, the 57 participants came together in Cebu City – Philippines. Our Assembly was composed of Priests, Little Sisters of Jesus, Little Brothers and Members of the Lay Fraternity.

We came from 6 Asian Countries (South Korea, Myanmar, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Philippines). We were blessed with the presence of our International Responsible, Fr. Aurelio Sanz Baeza of Spain, a member of the International Council, Fr Emmanuel Asi of Pakistan, Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, a founding member of the Philippine Fraternity, Archbishop Angel Lagdameo of Iloilo and Archbishop Jose Palma of Cebu.

We send you greetings of fraternal joy. We are specially happy and grateful to the Spirit who gathered the Spiritual Family of Bro. Charles for the first time with our Lay Fraternity Members and the strong presence of our Korean brothers – 11 young, enthusiastic priests!

We are grateful for the gift of Bro. Charles whose martyrdom we remembered with renewed spirit and hope for our fraternities all over the world. We celebrated Bro Charles, who as a witness to Jesus and his gospel, simply “steps forward, states his name and then steps back because he is not the message” (from a talk given by Little Sister Kathleen in Montreal in 2016).

The beauty and significance of the place

We gathered in the beautiful and historic place of Cebu, the seat of Christianity in the Philippines where in 1521, Magellan and his men, together with some Friars landed in search of spices. The natives welcomed the visitors. Following their leader, Rajah Jumabon and the Queen who accepted the faith, the natives received baptism and as a reward, the Queen received the image of the Santo Nino (image of the infant Jesus) whose devotion is synonymous with Christianity in the southern Philippines.

Nestling on a hill with a good panoramic view of the city of Cebu, House of Silence is a Retreat House on a 6-hectare hilly land managed by the Franciscan Sisters Pro Infante et Familia. It is not only a House of Silence but a house of awe and wonder at the beauty of Cebu city from afar with matching fruit-bearing trees planted all over the place. It was a joy to pick Avocados during our manualia. We also enjoyed fresh herb-combo drinks at mealtime.

Coming from parish exposures, the airport and the pier, we all converged on the 18th of July at the Archbishop’s Residence for a continental lunch warmly hosted by Archbishop Jose Palma after which we moved to the House of Silence and settled down.

As we unpacked our bags, we also unpacked ourselves to each other in Introduction Session. We felt the fraternal welcome and it is in the same spirit that we celebrated the Opening Liturgy with Archbishop Jose Palma of Cebu presiding.

In this five-day Asian Assembly, we always started the day with an Hour of Adoration to the Blessed Sacrament and ended the day with the Holy Eucharist. We continued with the usual practice of the fraternity – Lectio Divina, Review of Life, Manualia, dishwashing, socializing and Desert Day. It was suggested not to bring any book or pen or anything unnecessary in our Desert Day and meet the God who is always in search of us in our abject poverty. The day in the desert was a special grace for most of the participants. Many discovered the need to face the contradictions in our own life. Very often, what we say sometimes contradicts how we live.

Nazareth, Universal Brotherhood and the gift of Brother Charles’ Martyrdom

We listened to the presentations of Fr. Aurelio and Fr. Asi. Fr. Aurelio encouraged us to feel the pulse of our brothers and sisters and open ourselves to allow God to find us where we are; that membership in the fraternity is not membership to a religious group although we are the fourth largest group of priests (4,500) in terms of membership after the Jesuits, Franciscans and the Salesians but to a movement, a way of being universal brothers founded on empathy, listening, transparency, respect and self-giving. He further said that the challenge of Bro Charles to our Church today is how to live Nazareth.

Fr. Emmanuel Asi spoke about the Grace of the Martyrdom of Bro. Charles. Fr Asi emphasized that martyrdom is not one single event but an evolutionary process of dying to self until it is culminated in the final act of self-giving. He challenged us that in our Asian context, we need to rediscover the meaning of martyrdom today. We have to reach out to each human family in Asia and to live out “Universal Brotherhood” in the mind and spirit of Blessed Charles. This is our Asian way of celebrating the 100 years of Charles de Foucauld, a witness to Jesus and his Gospel.

Gifts, Realities and Challenges of the Fraternities in Asia

We listened to the reports from the different Asian countries and from Little Sisters, Little Brothers and Members of Lay Fraternity about the realities and challenges we are facing. Our Asian Assembly this year was unique in having representatives from priests, sisters, brothers and lay people. We celebrate the gifts of Missionaries founding fraternities, the inspiring presence of Little Brothers and Little Sisters to our local fraternities, the witness and fidelity of old members, the enthusiasm of the young members, old members reuniting with other members, of being a minority and of the gift of Asian contemplative spirit in doing mission.

We see the reality of the Paschal Mystery (dying and coming back to life) and the vulnerability of our Fraternities, of members lukewarm, divided by distance, not faithful to monthly meetings, of the poor quality of our monthly meetings, not doing the Review of Life faithfully, of local fraternities perceived as elite group, (the bishop’s inner circle), of using the Fraternity as passport to travel abroad for free, members in crisis feeling not supported by brothers, fraternity reduced as “mutual affirmation club.” We are challenged to:

  • First, strengthen our local fraternity as a support system, especially through fraternal visits and being available to brothers in crisis;
  • Second, to deepen the quality of our sharing by honestly doing the review of life in the desert;
  • Third, to discover, uncover and recover the Asian face of the fraternity by constantly going back to the core of our being – following Jesus of Nazareth through Bro. Charles– as we constantly live the paradox of Gospel in dialogue with culture;
  • Fourth, to make our fraternities more life-giving by always referring ourselves to the directory as our guide to practice Nazareth, universal brotherhood, simplicity of life and to even critique our lifestyles that are counter to them.

In the course of our business meeting, Fr Arthur Charles, our Asian Responsible, while thanking his previous councillors, announced two new councillors, namely; Fr. Prakash Sagili from India and Fr. Philipp Yon from South Korea.

We look forward to the future with renewed enthusiasm and hope as we venture on the following:

  • Week of Spirituality in Pakistan in November 2017
  • Month of Nazareth in the Philippines in July 2018
  • Asian Assembly in Korea in October 2019 and
  • World Assembly in Bangalore, India in January 2019.

The Assembly ended (or began) on the Feast Day of Mary Magdalene, the Apostle to the Apostles. We went home bringing with us Jesus’ command to Mary, “go and tell the brothers.” With Mary’s joyful enthusiasm, we can only tell you what we see – Jesus and his Gospel is very much alive in our fraternities and that we are invited to be universal brothers in the spirit of our very own Bro Charles de Foucauld.

From
Sisters and Brothers of Asian Assembly
Friday, July 22, 2016

PDF: Letter from Cebu

Jacques GAILLOT, Blessed are the Merciful

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If I were asked to draw mercy, how would I do it? A person approaches me with arms extended, with a face full of goodness and eyes that speak of the tenderness of his/her heart.

Mercy shows excess, disproportion, superabundance, gratuitousness… It goes beyond our pittances.

It is no wonder that we are surprised and taken aback.

Surpassing the logic of giving and receiving, it exceeds strict justice, expecting nothing in return.

Mercy is Jesus’ signature: a gift that exceeds all justice.

In the Gospel, only women show evidence of superabundance!

“I love them so much I find them beautiful”

Some time ago I was invited to visit a home for people with severe disabilities. It was a house that lay on the outskirts of a town. The person who accompanied me through the different rooms was a priest. Normally he worked at night but he had to be there so that I could pay the visit.

20160810_01I passed disjointed bodies, broken faces that seemed covered with masks of ugliness. I found their screams unbearable.

I was anxious and upset. The one accompanying me noted my unease, he looked at me and made this extraordinary statement that I have never forgotten:

“I love them so much I find them beautiful!”

This pierced my heart. A path opened before me to discover my fears and weaknesses. .

I understood that loving is not doing something for someone, it is to discover that it is beautiful. Is happiness not knowing that one is beautiful in the eyes of others?

This priest had a heart of “flesh” not a heart of “stone”. He didn’t put up walls of fear to protect himself from others. He was free to approach them and love them. He could understand each disabled person: “You are important! I love you! With your wounds and your weaknesses, you can be great and be yourself”.

“I can’t forgive”.

One afternoon, a woman I barely knew, begged me insistently to go to see a great friend of hers who was about to die in the Salpêtrière, the great Parisian hospital: she was suffering from Charcot joint disease (hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy).

I refused: to go to the hospital to see a woman I didn’t know and who was about to die; was difficult. Why? But the woman on the telephone ignored my reluctance.

“I beg you, come here”.

I left everything and went to the hospital, with leaden feet and unwillingly: I knew nothing of this sick woman who was about to die, not even her name. Was she married? Was she a Christian? And if there were two patients in the room, which one was her?

20160810_02Knocking at the room door I stopped my questioning and put my trust in the Holy Spirit..

I saw an enormous smile on the face of this woman with Charcot joint disease. The man at the foot of her bed was her husband. He left hurriedly.

I found myself alone with this woman who was very thin and was unable to speak. She was writing on a small slate without pausing and showed me the slate. I liked what she wrote.

  • “Thanks for being here. Can I ask you a few things?”
  • “Yes, if they are not too difficult”

She began to laugh. Her question surprised me:

  • “What will happen when I reach the hereafter?”
  • “You will see when you are there, what is important is what is happening now”

My reply caused her to laugh out loud. All was well between us.

“I think the same as you”

Then came the crucial question:

  • “I haven’t managed to forgive those who have wronged me. I would like to die in peace. I have a weight in my heart”
  • “It is not easy to forgive. Despite our efforts we don’t manage it. Let us both ask our heavenly Father for the strength to forgive those who have harmed us”

I took her hand and slowly said the Lord’s prayer. I noted that she joined in the prayer with all her heart.

I gave her a blessing. I kissed her on the forehead and left.

20160810_03One afternoon I received a text message on my phone:

“I have forgiven. My heart is at peace. Thanks be to God. Thank you for this light-filled encounter”.

Next morning a new text-message:

“My heart is at great peace. I am ready to go when the Lord wants. Thanks again for that meeting of peace and light”.

She died soon afterwards.

Mercy is not manufactured; it is received.

God’s gift is not bought, is not sold, it is not a return call.

Give freely without expecting anything in return, without anybody losing hope.

Risk loving until the end.

”Mercy is the best way to enter the Kingdom of God”. (Pope Francis)

“Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy” Mt 5,7

20160810_04Jacques GAILLOT,
Bishop of Partenia,
Priestly Fraternity Iesus Caritas

Paris, 20 June, 2016
(Text of Jacques GAILLOT exclusively for iesuscaritas.org)
(Thanks, Liam, for English translation)

PDF: Jacques GAILLOT, Blessed are the Merciful

Baba Simon. CAMERÚN

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A SAINTLY PRIEST FOR AFRICA AND THE WORLD
BABA SIMON THE BAREFOOTED MISSIONARY

We want through this paper, to present to you Father Simon Mpeke, a Cameroonian priest whose Beatification process is currently being looked into in Rome, after having being validly accepted by the Diocese.

BabaSimon-02BabaSimon-03BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF BABA SIMON

MPEKE was born around the year 1906, in Batombé (Edéa) in Cameroon, of non-Christian agricultural parents.

In 1914, while schooling in the school taken care of by the German Pallutine Fathers, he asked to be baptised. His wish came to be realised and he was baptised on 14th August 1918, after the First World War, by the French, Holy Ghost Missionaries in Edéa, with Simon as his Christian name.

He took as job Head Teacher, in the primary schools found in the remote areas in Edéa and later in the main mission in Edéa.

It is here, that in 1921, he will get to know that “a Black could become a priest.” He did not hesitate one bit.

He therefore, turned down his wedding arrangements with a young girl, to whom he was betrothed and began studying Latin with a small group of friends. In August 1924, he gained admission into the Seminary at Yaoundé, which opened its doors in July 1923.

There, he left a rich memory of himself as an excellent, serious, very pious and peaceful Seminarian.

Moreover, he is part of the first batch of 8 priests to be ordained in Cameroon on the 08th of December 1935.

Right from the Seminary, he was accustomed to the practise of Contemplation, and had begun a small project with others, of an active and contemplative congregation.

In the year 1936, he was nominated vicar of a remote mission, where he was remembered as a priest full of zeal, very supernatural, one who did incredible things and who gave of his time without reserve.

Again, being highly influenced by the Theology of his era, he decided to stand out rightly against the Religious Traditional practises of this area.

He was recognized as a priest of great value and this made him to be appointed in 1947 to the large parish of New-Bell in Douala, where he became the Parish priest by the end of the year.

He gave all he had as skills in the parish, by developing various congregations and brotherhoods, in supporting also, the different Catholic Action groups and schools and he was very much available and his generosity for his flock knew no bounds.

Again, during the early years of 1950, the institution of the fraternities of the Brothers and Sisters of Jesus, in his parish, made him discover the Spirituality of Charles de Foucauld.
In 1953, he joined the secular institute of the Brothers of Jesus and asked for a Sabbatical year in order to do his “novitiate” in Algeria.

He will later become one of the founders at the international level of the Union Sacerdotale Jesus-Caritas and its first head in Cameroon and in Africa.

Also, given his love and influence among God’s people, he was even nominated alongside two others for the post of the Auxiliary Bishop to his Bishop.

Towards the year 1954, he had the feeling of a call to evangelise the peoples of North Cameroon who were considered “pagans.” After due prayer and reflection, and filled with the dynamic missionary spirit of the Encyclical “Fidei Donum,” he became, in 1959, the first Cameroonian secular missionary priest in his own country.

After a brief stay in the community of the Brothers of Jesus, he took residence in Tokombéré, where we have the present Diocese of Maroua-Mokolo.

Living alone and in complete destitution, the “barefooted missionary” spent his life fighting misery which, according to a wise Muslim, he saw in it an “enemy of God.”

His intense prayer life and his contagious joy served as luminous testimony of God’s love even in the remotest villages in his large parish.

Through his creation of schools, sanitary structures, undertakings against injustice, setups to cater for the youth and the call for universal brotherhood, he allowed for a real promotion of the population until it became contemptible. His worry of permanent dialogue with the leaders of Religious Traditions and his encounter with the Muslims made him the prophetic precursor of Inter-religious dialogue, which was further reemphasized by Vatican II and gained for him the nickname “Baba Simon” (Father Simon), which is still very much used, even 40 years after his death, by both Christians and non-Christians.

It is on the 13th of August 1975 that he passed away, exhausted, with a life completely dedicated to the service of God and men.

We recommend that you pray therefore, for this cause of Beatification as well as, for our dear Region of the Far-North of Cameroon, still exposed to threats from the terrorist group of Boko-Haram. Through the intercession of Baba Simon, may Christians know how to be at peace and to continue in his footsteps to testify to “the Good News of the Divine Filiation of every human being” (Benedict XVI, Africae Munus, n° 8)

BabaSimon-04BabaSimon-05POSTULATION FOR THE CAUSE OF BABA SIMON
P.0. BOX: 74 MAROUA CAMEROUN
2016

PDF: Baba Simon, EN