Divine Word Missionaries SVD MISSION 2018 ls us - El am pe or m d i e t is C r r i h s C t o f o n o e s v o u l r g e e h T Rooted in the Word, Commited to His Mission Reports for the XVIII General Chapter from the Provinces, Regions and Missions SVD Publications - Generalate - Rome Divine Word Missionaries SVD MISSION 2018 Rooted in the Word, Commited to His Mission Reports for the XVIII General Chapter from the Provinces, Regions and Missions 2018 SVD Publications - Generalate - Rome Editorial Team: Lazar T. Stanislaus, Mark Weber and Crescente de Rivera Design and Layout: Sandy Tjandra Ashadi Original Texts: Zonal Coordinators, Provincial, Regional and Mission Superiors AFRAM ZONE TABLE OF CONTENTS Presentations 5 SVD Foundations 9 AFRAM Africa – Madagascar Zone 11 Our Resources and Trust in God: AFRAM 13 ANG Angola Province 17 BOT Botswana Province 22 CNG Congo Province 29 GHA Ghana Province 36 AFRAM ZONE KEN Kenya Province 43 MAD Madagascar Region 49 MOZ Mozambique Region 55 SSD South Sudan Mission 61 TCD Tchad Mission 67 TOG Togo Province 72 ZAM Zambia Mission 79 ZIM Zimbabwe Region 84 ASPAC Asia Pacific oneZ 91 Hope and Concerns: ASPAC 93 AUS Australia Province 98 BGD Bangladesh Mission 105 IDE Indonesia - Ende Province 107 IDJ Indonesia - Java Province 114 IDR Indonesia - Ruteng Province 121 IDT Indonesia - Timor Province 138 INC India - Central Province 134 INE India - Eastern Province 141 ING India - Guwahati Region 147 INH India - Hyderabad Province 154 INM India - Mumbai Province 161 JPN Japan Province 168 KOR Korea Region 175 PHC Philippines - Central Province 180 PHN Philippines - Northern Province 187 PHS Philippines - Southern Province 194 PNG Papua New Guinea Province 200 SIN China Province 207 TLS Timor Leste Region 214 VIE Vietnam Province 220 SVD MISSION 2018 3 AFRAM ZONE EUROPA European Zone 227 Towards Optimism : EUROPA 229 ECP Europe Central Province 235 ESP Spain Province 240 GER Germany Province 246 HUN Hungary Province 253 IBP The Irish and British rovinceP 261 ITA Italy Province 268 NEB Netherlands - Belgium Province 273 POL Poland Province 280 POR Portugal Province 285 ROM Rome communities and Nemi 291 SLO Slovakia Province 296 URL Ural Region 302 PANAM Pan American Zone 309 Blessings, Initiatives and Strategies: PANAM 311 ARE Argentina - Eastern Province 316 ARS Argentina - Southern Province 321 BOL Bolivia Region 327 BRA Brazil - Amazon Region 333 BRC Brazil - Central Province 339 BRN Brazil - Northern Province 345 BRS Brazil - Southern Province 352 CAM Central American Region 357 CHI Chile Province 363 COL Colombia Province 369 ECU Ecuador Province 375 MEX Mexico Province 381 PAR Paraguay Province 388 USC Chicago Province 394 USS USA - Southern Province 400 USW USA - Western Province 407 4 SVD MISSION 2018 AFRAM ZONE PRESENTATION We initiated the preparation of the 18th general tions, giving more stress to the chosen priorities chapter nearly three years ago. We had outlined of ad extra and the fivead intra aspects, and fin- that the objective of this general chapter would ding ways our Society could be more relevant be to foster a process of spiritual rekindling, brin- and effective in the contemporary world. Du- AFRAM ZONE ging us back to the Word of God as the source ring these years, every PRM continued its mis- of our life, vocation, mission and our religious sionary activities with this focus along with what missionary commitment. Thus, the aim of this they have been doing traditionally, but the stress chapter is the renewal of oneself, community life was on living and doing everything in the light and mission. To renew oneself/community and of the challenging and nourishing dimension of provinces/regions and missions (PRM), we need interculturality. to see where we stand or where we are at present; to do that it is useful to look back to the previous We have sailed through safely, especially keeping general chapters. our intercultural life and mission with much more intensity and witness value; thus other The 15th general chapter dwelled on the mission congregations are looking towards our growth commitment to the four dialogue partners – the in intercultural life and mission. That is leading ad extra aspects; and 16th general chapter guided us to discern: where are we now and what does us towards our self-understanding in five impor- God want us to do now? To discern where we tant elements of our life together – the ad intra are now, we need to go to our roots – the love aspects. In the 17th general chapter, we focused of God, the Word of God, the Founders’ lives, on our intercultural life and mission leading us the Society’s charism, etc. To discern what God to formulate Congregational Directions which want us to do now leads to more spiritual re- are to give us orientations, ways and targets of newal and commitment. In this renewal pro- our missionary life and activities. Every PRM cess, we are challenged to transform ourselves, was asked to choose its priorities among the ad to become a “new person”, to change our at- extra Congregational Directions according to titudes and habits, etc. Transformation needs their local contexts and work on their missio- to be seen, affects our way of life and mission nary activities, and to draw up a concrete plan. and directs us to be more focused on contem- Throughout the last six years, we have been porary concerns. Transformation involves risks, concentrating on these Congregational Direc- but produces more fruits; the results are to res- SVD MISSION 2018 5 AFRAM ZONE pond to the people’s needs. Thus, the theme of mission. This will enrich our Society and the the 18th general chapter is: “The Love of Christ Church at large. The last general chapter had Impels us” (2 Cor 5:14): Rooted in the Word, given importance to form lay associations; the Committed to His Mission”. reports contain this important element too by various PRMs. Every PRM superior has a responsibility to give a report to the general chapter of the last six In this SVD Mission 2018, every PRM has a so- years’ activities. This task of reporting was first cial setting, which is not exhaustive; here it is channeled through the book entitled SVD Mis- largely pertaining to the local situation where sion in 2000; from then on, it has become a cus- the Society is present. Similarly, the ecclesial set- tom to publish this book before every general ting is also not exhaustive; mostly it delineates chapter, now popularly known as the “Yellow the Society’s activities or presence in a local si- Book”, because of the standardized color of the tuation. Today there are numerous sources/web- book published both in English and Spanish. sites available to get more detailed statistics and information on these aspects. For the statistics Basic questions were sent to all the PRMs regar- of the PRM on the ministries and the number of ding their present state of life and activities, es- personnel, we take the statistics as of 1st January pecially focusing on the chosen priorities among 2018. The average age is of all final vowed mem- the Congregational Directions ad extra of the bers in a PRM, and the number of nationalities last general chapter, the action plan and how is of all the members in the PRM. Mostly, the they had implemented them. Similarly, what format of each report is the same; some varia- steps they had taken to deepen the ad intra life tions are found in some PRMs due to their pre- based on the Congregational Directions. The sentation of the report. PRMs sent their reports to the generalate in re- cent times giving various aspects and activities. The PRMs sent their report according to the The distinctiveness of these reports is that they Report Guide that was sent in July 2016. The contain the implementation of Congregational editorial team was faithful to the report that was Directions. submitted, but also took liberty in editing the texts according to the format that is presented in Being aware of the importance of collaboration this book. Vision-Mission Statements that came in mission with others, some questions were as- from various provinces were in various forms, so ked regarding collaboration with other religious the editorial team edited them to suit a uniform congregations, the local church and the laity. presentation. All these reports were sent to all Lay partners play a vital role in our mission and the PRM superiors for their review and correc- many lay people share our charisms and it is our tion, and that gave more clarity and helped them duty to welcome the lay partners to share our to update the statistics and the reports. 6 SVD MISSION 2018 AFRAM ZONE We would like to express our gratitude to all the and Sandy Ashadi for layout. This project could PRM superiors for sending these reports. They be completed with the immense help of our help us to know where you are now and they translators, thus we are able to publish them in also give you a clear understanding of your PRM English and Spanish, we express our gratitude to situation and how you would like to go forward. the following confreres: Pedro de Dios Martín, Probably, how you would like to go forward Gustavo Aguilera, Carlos Ferrada Montero, could be discerned during the 18th general chap- Roberto Flores, Marcelo Cattáneo, Navil ‘Silva, ter together with others and thereafter in your Walt Miller, Thomas Gerard Umbras, and Maria PRM together with the confreres, lay partners Jeevaraj Arulandu.