Official Bulletin for the Acts of the General Council 151151 Decemberdecember 20152015
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Consolata Missionary Institute Official Bulletin For the Acts of the General Council 151151 DecemberDecember 20152015 Summary Blessed Irene Stefani our Protector for 2016 . 02 2015 Christmas Message from Father General . 11 Elderly Missionaries in Renewal . 14 Letter from the General Council to the Missionaries in Asia . 24 Acts from the Generalate . 31 2016 Jubilees . 36 Qui Nos Praecesserunt: - Bro. Francesco Guglielmin Mugion . 39 - Fr. Paul Stefanowich . 43 - Fr. Giuseppe Villa . 46 - Fr. José Oscar Aguilar . 51 - Fr. Giuseppe Fusaroli . 54 - Bro. Roberto Zanchettin . 57 - Fr. Alessandro Busnello . 61 - Fr. Franco Cellana . 65 Editor: Fr. Tobias de Oliveira, IMC Secretary General Viale delle Mura Aurelie, 11 00165 Roma 1 PROTECTOR FOR 2016 WITH BLESSED SISTER IRENE NYAATHA: FACE OF OUR MOTHER CONSOLATA, ICON OF MERCY! 2 Roma – Nepi, 08.12.2015 Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Beginning of the extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy! Very Dear Consolata Missionaries: Sisters, Fathers and Brothers, During this new year dedicated to mercy we want to continue praying and look at Blessed Irene as our annual protector. Papa Francesco presenting the Jubilee year of Mercy explained: «A question is present in the heart of many people: why a Jubilee of Mercy today? Simply because the Church, in this time of great changes, is called upon to offer in a more evident way the signs of the presence and closeness of God. This is not the time for distraction, but rather to remain vigilant and to awaken in us the ability to look to the essentials. It is the time for the Church to rediscover the meaning of the mission that the Lord entrusted to it on the day of Easter: to be a sign and instrument of the Father’s mercy (cfr. John 20, 21-23). It is for this that the Holy Year will have to keep alive the desire to grasp the many signs of the tenderness that God offers to the whole world and especially to those who are suffering, who are alone and abandoned, without the hope of being forgiven and feel loved by the Father. A Holy Year to feel strong within us the joy of being found by Jesus, who as the Good Shepherd has come looking for us because we were lost. A Jubilee to feel the warmth of his love when he places us upon his shoulders to bring us back to the Father’s house. A Year in which we may be touched by the Lord Jesus and be transformed by his mercy, so that we too may become witnesses of mercy. That is the reasons for the Jubilee: because this is the time of mercy. It is the favourable time to heal the wounds, to never tire of meeting those who are waiting to see and touch the signs of the closeness of God, to offer to all, to all, the way of forgiveness and reconciliation. May the Mother of Divine Mercy open our eyes to understand the commitment to which we have been called and obtain for us the grace of living this Jubilee of Mercy with a faithful and fruitful witness.» (Homily of Pope Francesco during the First Vespers of Divine Mercy Sunday, in St. Peter’s Basilica, on the occasion of the delivery and reading of the official announcement «Misericordiae vultus», Rome 11.04.2015). We cannot find more beautiful and important words than these to grasp the great bond between mercy and Irene, “mother all mercy.” We want to go to school to learn mercy precisely from Irene, we ask her to guide us to Jesus to experience mercy. 3 1. Blessed Irene, icon of Mercy Blessed Irene Stefani is characterized precisely by her mercy. It is the name that without her knowledge was given her by the people of Gikondi: Nyaatha, and she is still called so. It was made evident at the beatification. A word that shows the «mother all mercy», the «personified mercy». This is how Mons. Gatimo, Bishop of Nyeri, explained it. For Mons. Nicodemus Kirima, his successor, Nyaatha «is more than a name, it is a program. A project of a life, fully and intensively experienced». About Sister Irene he adds: «This Consolata Missionary was full of goodness, loveliness, meekness and gentleness, as were Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Thus she became a woman, a mother and a person of merciful love». Her charity came from far away. Soon after her religious profession done in the presence of Allamano on January 29 1914, she wrote in her notebook her life program: «Only Jesus. All with Jesus. Nothing from me. All of Jesus. Nothing of me. All for Jesus. Nothing for me. I shall love charity more than myself». It is the proclamation for us of how the living love of Jesus and of brothers and sisters could weld in unity and become flesh in our life to the point of transforming it. The doctors of the military hospital in Dar-es-Salaam said with admiration: «She is not just a woman, she is an angel» and the people of Gikondi confirm it: «She was mware mwendi ando, the Sister who loves everybody». «Visiting the sick, the poor, baptizing the sick and curing them was her daily activity. In fact she used to travel long distances, up and down steep trails, looking for these poor people. She did not take even a minute of rest because she was completely dedicated to these people» (a testimony by Joseph Macharia from Gichuru). In fact, Sister Irene could not stop when faced with the needs of others: an inner impulse was urging her on to go, run, whether in warm or cold weather, in good weather or rain, in physical strength or in tiredness or sickness, without minding sacrifices or obstacles, insults or denials, as long as she could help the people in need. Nothing could hold her uFr. People remember her «quick as a metal spring», in order to go everywhere and even far away, speedily, and to all, almost always running. They comment: «it was evident that it was love that urged her on». At the time of her death they said: «It was not illness that killed her, but love». The people of Gikondi continued to consider her: «a good mother who loved everybody», «secretary of the poor people», «angel of charity». It is like a repeated litany that summarizes the living memory of her, her characteristics, her heart, and the realization of her belief that a missionary «has a heart to love with, and hands to help with» and she must do so with feelings of mercy, goodness, humility, meekness and patience. 4 Her being mother of mercy was also her inspiring principle of her missionary methodology and this can be so also for us today in a world that is in need of tenderness and closeness. «Whenever she saw a person suffering, she was taken by compassion and cried, trying to do all she could to help him. Many people came to the mission to confide to her their sufferings because she was the mother of all» (Bernard Mugambi). Mercy and consolation were the way used by her to bring Jesus and witness his Gospel. It is known to all as she had at heart the catechesis, the Christian teaching and especially the administration of baptism, which she regarded as the greatest gift that a missionary can give. «When a child was born she used to go and congratulate the family or assist the woman herself. I remember that when Marta was in travail for our twins she assisted her and when they were born she held them happily in her arms saying: “Let us thank the Lord who has chosen me to see these creatures who will be baptized and become children of God”» (Martino Wang’Ondu). Sister Irene consoled with her presence, she healed the sick, and she looked for the poor, always close to those who wept, giving herself to God as a pleasing sacrifice. «She shared the joys, the life and sufferings of the people» (Martino Wang’Ondu) and she knew their language. «She was very good, praying God a lot, loving her neighbour; she was a woman of sacrifice as she walked on foot the whole day long, coming home in the evening. She did not despise anybody, but loved everybody» (Pancrazio Gathirwa). She was a strong woman, gentle at the same time. Several witnesses remember her as strong, generous, steady, fearless and determined, zealous in her work. She was meek, she walked briskly to not waste time, affable when she spoke with people, constantly ready to make people share in the greatest good, the eternal salvation, she was a great evangelizer, a true missionary as Blessed Joseph Allamano wants us to be: saints and missionaries, combining the most intimate communion with God with the most intense apostolic activity, with affable mercy. Sister Irene is a model also in the supreme moment of life when death approaches and the return to the Father’s house is near. Dying for love, like Jesus, is her teaching for us. A witness remembers: «I, Pancrazio Gathirwa, knew well Sr. Irene Stefani in the mission of Gikondi during the years 1920-1930. When she came to us I was here and when she died I was still here: that is, we have been with her until she passed away. She got her mortal sickness in the village Mbari ya Ndumbe, here in Gikondi, where she had gone to assist Julius Ngari, sick of plague». 5 She assisted him with love, that teacher who had given her serious problems in the school and she died plagued by his own illness, turning her death in an act of love like Jesus.