Inside this issue:
Midwest Province Ordains Rev. Derek Swanson
Perboyre Mission House Opens Its Doors in Chicago
The Partnership Against Poverty
Gateway Vincentian Volunteers 2003-2004
Also visit:
From the Provincial
Of Summer and Beginnings and Children…
Dear Friends,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Glancing through the morning paper, I was surprised to see all the advertisements for "back-to-school" supplies. It suddenly dawned on me that summer is over! It seems like just yesterday that I was looking forward to those days when, as the musical says, "the living is easy." Although I would not say the living was easy this summer, a lot has happened, and maybe that is why it all went so fast.
The season began on the best of notes. In June, Fr. Derek Swanson was ordained a priest for the Midwest Province. Fr. Swanson’s ordination came at the end of our Provincial Assembly, a meeting of the Province held once every three years. Some sixty-plus of us attended the Assembly in Chicago. It was a good couple of days re-connecting with each other and talking about matters important to all of us. At the end of the Assembly, was Fr. Swanson’s ordination at St. Vincent de Paul Church at the Lincoln Park campus of DePaul University. The day was special enough — Derek’s gift of his whole self to the Church as a priest and the Church’s acceptance of that gift through ordination and the grace of the Holy Spirit. It was made even more special by the number of confreres — Vincentian priests and brothers — able to attend because of the Assembly. To top it all off, we had a wonderful bishop doing the ordination — Bishop Lawrence Sabatini, a member of the Scalabrini order. The bishop had done his homework and had studied all about the Vincentians, and so he was able to integrate into his comments and preaching much about our community and charism.
The Assembly (ending with Fr. Swanson’s ordination) had begun on just as high a note with the entrance into the novitiate of six young Vincentians. The six men are our students from Nairobi, Kenya. As you may have previously read, the Midwest Province has begun a seminary program in Kenya for East Africans who are interested in joining the Congregation of the Mission. Four men have already completed novitiate and now are finishing their seminary work in anticipation of being ordained in the next year. These four men, George Busieka, Lennoxie Lusabe, Angelus Njagi, and Philip Njenga, are professing final vows with us this fall. Then come the six East African students who are making their novitiate here in the United States (St. Louis, Missouri) this year and then will return to Nairobi to finish their studies. They are Alex Isonga, Lazarus Kirigia, George Komo, Moses Masibo, Ignatius Mukanzi, and John Ochola. Besides these men, there are another fifteen students in earlier stages of formation in Nairobi — all intending on becoming Vincentians. How blessed we are.
As you read these lines, I will probably be in Chicago blessing our new house of formation for the American seminarians studying for our Province. We moved our American program from St. Louis to Chicago this summer and are hopeful that the exciting atmosphere of DePaul University (near to the formation house) will provide our students many opportunities for service to the poor and perhaps attract other potential Vincentians. Join with us in praying for vocations.
Mid-summer I was privileged to join seven of my original twelve classmates as we celebrated our silver jubilee of ordination. Three of the seven who made the reunion are no longer in active ministry and came with their wives and some of their children. I was a little hesitant going into this weekend, but it turned out to be a truly graced moment. It was wonderful to see how happy we all were as we try, each in our own way, to listen to Providence and respond as best we can. I left the weekend thanking God for each of my classmates and feeling affirmed in my own response to Providence.
The summer has had its sobering moments as well. I recently attended a four-day meeting in Louisville, Kentucky. The meeting was sponsored by an organization called the Conference of Major Superiors of Men. It includes the heads of all the men’s religious communities in the United States. So, the heads of the Jesuits, of the Franciscans, of the Dominicans, and so on, as well as the heads (Provincials) of the five American Vincentian Provinces, were in attendance. While it is always good to be with these men and to share stories only we can appreciate about our jobs, a significant part of the meeting was devoted to the scandal of sexual misconduct by the clergy, especially with minors, and to the mishandling of the abuse by some bishops. I wish each of you could see how much resolve there is to correct the mistakes of the past and to do it right in the future. There was even an opportunity one evening to gather in prayer with some victims of sexual abuse by clergy.
As I write this, I am about to leave for a week of meetings in Colorado Springs. Once a year, provincial administration spends a week looking at strategic questions about our future, how we can better respond to our vocation as Vincentians and so better serve our mission of evangelizing the poor from within the context of a shared life as brothers in St. Vincent. One of the topics for review this year is the Midwest Province’s policy on sexual abuse of minors. I know I speak for all of us in provincial administration and in the Province in saying that we are committed to the protection of our children.
The Province denounces all forms of sexual misconduct by its members. Such transgressions violate the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the teachings of the Church and the very mission of the Province and its spirit, which every Vincentian vows to live. All sexual misconduct, and, in particular, the sexual abuse of minors, is a most serious betrayal of trust and a misuse of ministerial office. The Province will not, under any circumstances, tolerate sexual misconduct, above all, sexual abuse of minors. Our review of our policy is an important component of our response to providing an environment that supports, heals and safeguards all people, especially children.
And then I also think of another group of children, ones we perhaps have not thought about so much this past year-and-a-half as our attention has focused more on victims of sexual abuse. I refer to the pandemic of AIDS among children in Africa. Besides the millions of children born with AIDS, there are also those orphaned and abandoned when their mothers die of AIDS — again a number in the millions. What future do these children have?
When we think about our children, about protecting them, about our hopes and dreams and prayers for them, let us remember the children who are victimized by sexual abusers, but let us also remember so many, many other children in our world who are victimized by so many other factors from AIDS to poverty to lack of access to medical resources to lack of love and affection.
Each of us bears some responsibility for the children of the world. We can begin with raising our awareness and raising our prayers and with begging for the grace to do our part in better caring for God’s little ones.
It has been a full summer but, as I look back, a good summer. I hope yours has been good too. Thank you for all you do for the Church and Congregation. You are in my daily prayers.
Blessings,
James Swift, C.M.
Vincentian is published bimonthly by the Midwest and Southern Provinces of the Congregation of the Mission, the Vincentian Priests and Brothers, to promote the apostolic works of its members and those of the larger Vincentian Family.
Congregation of the Mission, Vincentian
Attn: News Editor
13663 Rider Trail North
Earth City, MO 63045
phone: 314-344-1184
fax: 314-344-2989
email: info@vincentian.org
web: www.vincentian.org