By Fr. Oliver Blanchette, A.A.

“Every century has its own vices, we must above all have the virtues that are contrary to these vices. It is in this sense that we must belong to our times”.  These words of Emmanuel d’Alzon prompt me to offer congratulations to Fr. Julio, postulator for the cause of beatification of Fr. d’Alzon, for choosing to speak in the present and coming issues of the “Signs of God” and in this Year of Faith, of the faith of our founder. There is a crying need for Catholics to deepen their faith. There is a crying need in our country for men and women who live out their faith so that it affects all society for the common good. That’s why, in part at least, we are having this Year of Faith. This offers us a powerful reason for speaking of Fr. d’Alzon’s faith and of showing how it was precisely our founder’s  faith, deeply personal yet very public, that made him a man of his times. In turn, this invites us, if we wish to really be men and women of our times, to seek in Emmanuel d’Alzon an example of living faith, for both our personal lives and in our more public lives as members of the body of Christ, the Church, and as active citizens of our country. And, of course, we hope that this will also advance The Good Cause of Emmanuel d’Alzon’s beatification.

With great hope, the Augustinians of the Assumption together with their lay associates in Chile are preparing for the canonical visit that Fr. Benoît Grière will begin on March 13.

Already the members of the Lay-Religious Alliance have held a meeting to organize their rendezvous with Fr. Benoît.

Fr. Juan Carlos Cisterna Bastías, Provincial Superior, commented, “A visit from Fr. General is always an occasion for us to look at ourselves and discover, in the light of the Gospel and of our own spirituality, how we are living out our commitment as religious. It is always to be seen as a visit from God. It gives Fr. General an opportunity to put names and faces on the religious and communities of the province and to have a better understanding of our works. It is an opportunity to give new life to this work and the men involved in it”.

On this site you have read about the kidnapping of three Assumptionists priests, Jean-Pierre Mumbere Ndulani, 50, superior, Anselme Kakule Wasukundi, 41, pastor, and Edmond Bamtupe Kisughu, 53, pastoral associate, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, abducted from their rectory on October 19, 2012, nearly six months ago. No reliable contact has been made with their kidnapers since.

(This article first appeared in the April/May/June issue of the Assumptionist magazine, L’Assomption et ses oeuvres. Br. Gwenaël Petton spent forty years as a missionary in Brazil. He speaks here about “his” Brazil: the initial difficulties in learning Portuguese and adapting to a new culture and then his pastoral work in a favela, the experience of living through a military regime, and finally the renaissance of Assumptionists vocations in the 80s.)

I arrived in Rio on October 8, 1963, after a thirteen-day transatlantic voyage on the Louis Lumière of the Chargeurs Réunis line out of the port of Le Havre. Four religious were waiting for me on the dock. The welcome was warm and fraternal. I was only 29 years old and timidly began to know this community that awaited me.