General Curia organizes a meeting for friars working in the project of "Solidarity of personnel"
Zell am Harmersbach (Germany): On October 5th and 6th 2010 the little town in the Black forest saw a group of 12 Indian Capuchins gathering in the local friary. The general definitory had asked the friars working in “Solidarity of personnel” to gather according to regions, in order to “animate and to give them an opportunity to share their experiences of working in a different religious and social culture, in a different language, with friars who have a different formation and history”.
The meeting for the firars working in the Mission in Germany and Switzerland was organized by Br. Ephrem Bucher and Br. Helmut Rakowski (members of the commission of Solidarity of Personnel). They also asked for some feed back to the Vademecum published ad experimentum on December 8th 2009.
The meeting was considered very positive. The atmosphere was open and very fraternal.
The opportunity to exchange experiences was not given in the past in such a way. (Even if in the past some meetings were arranged on the level of provinces, some friars have never participated because they arrived afterwards.) The Vadmecum was considered useful and good, the problem was much more seen in the implantation on the level of the province or of the local fraternity.
Beside some recommendations to improve the Vademecum and it’s implantation in the provinces of Germany and Switzerland the friars considered it important for all provinces to
1. Promote a missionary spirit in all provinces.
2. Assure a good preparation of the language before coming. The language course in the new country must be serious (not just 1 hour a day). Emphasis not only on grammar but also on pronunciation. (Take in consideration courses with specialists who train actors…)
In Germany are working brothers from the provinces of St. Joseph and Pavanathma, while in the French speaking part of Switzerland the province of Andhra Orissa is present.
Participants:
1. Br. Alexander Madathil
2. Br. Alexander Joseph
3. Br. Jose Vettikatte
4. Br. Scaria Sabumon Purayidathil
5. Br. Sunil Kachappally
6. Br. Jeby Muckachirayil
7. Fr. Inna Reddy
8. Fr. Kiran Kumar Arravi
9. Fr. Francis Basani
10. Fr. Satish Karumanchi
11. Fr. Abishek Kumar Gali
12. Fr. Jospeh Madanu
13. Br. Ephrem Bucher – Provincial Switzerland
14. Br. Werner Labus, Vicar provincial – Germany
15. Br. Helmut Rakowski – General Mission Secretary Rome
