On April 11-15, 2011, there was a meeting in
Aix-en-Provence to continue the dialogue regarding important decisions that
need to be made in the coming months concerning the future of the house and the
international community at Aix.
Taking part in the meeting were representatives of the
various bodies that have been dialoguing on this subject for some time now: the
General Administration (the Vicar General, the General Bursar, and the General
Councillor for Europe); the Province of France (the Provincial and the
provincial bursar); the International de Mazenod Centre (the director) and the
local community (the superior and the house bursar who is also bursar of the
Centre).
The participants of the last General Chapter were
brought up to date about this project which is in the process of being realized
and which essentially impacts the house and the community at Aix. As far as the
house is concerned, we spent a morning working with Mr. Eric Ferment, the
project manager who is working on a plan to remodel our building, in order to
discuss with him several matters relating to the work being considered for
restructuring the house. Concerning the total project and the future
international community, we worked a whole morning with three other experts (an
accountant, a member of the Province of France`s finance committee and the
lawyer of the General Administration) to discuss the juridical aspects involved
in this project.
As was already communicated during the last General
Chapter, the international community of Aix-en-Provence will be the
responsibility of the Superior General while the location will remain the
property of the Province of France; this facilitates the legal questions and
other issues related to the civil authorities.
The “new” community will be made up of five members “coming from different places in the
Congregation and having a clear communal and missionary identity.” Its main
objective will be “the service of
formation and animation about the charism for the entire Congregation and the
mazenodian family.” An integral part of this objective will be ministry at
the Church of the Mission, as well as other activities that will be better
defined in the future, always keeping in mind the preference of Eugene for
youth and the most abandoned.
The recent meeting also continued the process of
studying the arrangement of the house so that this structure will allow the
Oblates who live there to “consecrate
themselves entirely to the mission that will be given them and to achieve a
level of self-sufficiency so as not to impose an added burden on the
Congregation.”
As was emphasized at our last Chapter, this project
cannot happen without the solid commitment of all Oblates and all Units of the
Congregation. That is why we think it is important that information concerning
this project reach all Oblates and that each Oblate feel that he is involved in
making it happen. (Fr. Paolo ARCHIATI, Vicar General)
