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CGP – Highlight of the day n.1 - Monday, December 2nd, 2024
The general house is really full!
The third CGP (Plenary General Council), since the General Chapter of 2023, has just begun in Rome. The beginnings of this CGP were already palpable in the general house for a week. Indeed, since November 25, the provincial treasurers had begun their work in the Congregational Economic Council (CEC) and the last two recently appointed provincials, Fr. Marcos Antônio Dias and Fr. Jean-Paul Musangania, had benefited on November 28th and 29th from a small session of exchange and training with the Ordinary General Council (CGO)…
The first two days are dedicated to joint work between the members of the CEC and the CGP, and taking this into account we can say that the assembly altogether is impressive: the 5 members of the CGO; the 7 provincial and vice-provincial superiors; the 7 provincial and vice-provincial treasurers; the 3 superiors of our vicariates (traditionally invited to the CGP in December); the general treasurer; the general secretary and the general secretary for formation (invited to part of our discussions) … That is 25 participants altogether to which we should add the brothers who help us with translation (mostly remotely)! In fact, not all of the participants were able to join us in person in Rome: the vice-provincial of East Africa (due to lack of visa) is participating by videoconference; the provincial of Europe (held up for urgent business in his Province) has started his first days by videoconference; and the treasurer of the province of Brazil was unable to free himself from his duties…
The first day was, first of all, one of the technical adjustments, which was a little tedious, with the use of the zoom application both for the videoconference and the translation service… But at the end everything seems to be working relatively satisfactorily… The IT work recently carried out at Due Pini for a more efficient Wi-Fi system was really appreciated for its performance.
Technical matters aside, after the welcoming words and opening remarks by the Superior General, we were able to hold two major rounds of discussions: sharing news from our provinces, on the one hand, and on another hand sharing news from the treasurers about their joys, their difficulties, their questions… With all this, some exchanges and suggestions already shed light on some important issues and challenges awaiting us. There is neither any shortage of challenges, but nor of many reasons to rejoice. The Superior General also strongly invited us to rely on the encouraging achievements in our provinces in order to be creative in the “further steps” to take together…
The end of the day was marked by the sad news of the return to God, in the USA, of Fr. Roland Guilmain (98 years old), who had just become the dean of the congregation, succeeded Fr. Roland Imhoff who died on November 28 at the age of 106 in Albertville (France)! We also remembered in our prayers some of our seriously ill brothers…
We should say that it was a tiring first day, but we will get used to the rhythm…
Fr. Benoît Bigard