CEVIM – CRACOW 2002, FINAL DOCUMENT
From April 11th to the 16th of this year, the 13th Meeting of the Visitors from Europe and the Orient (CEVIM) was celebrated in Cracow, Poland. The Meeting was prepared and organized by the “group of three”: Fr. Kevin O’Shea (host of CEVIM 2001), Fr. Bronislaw Sienczak (present host of Cracow 2002), Fr. Giuseppe Guerra (host of Naples 2003), together with the secretary of CEVIM, Fr. Arkadiusz Zakreta.
According to the suggestions presented in Dublin, it had been proposed that the next meeting be celebrated during the second week after Easter which necessitates a different date than that which was settled on in the Statutes of CEVIM.
The CEVIM Meeting Cracow 2002 was organized with the intention of expanding the knowledge about the Province of Poland and to exchange ideas about collaboration among the Central European Provinces now that the countries of Central Europe form part of the European Union.
The Province of Poland made a presentation about the 350 yrs. of its history (Fr. Stanislaw Rospond), the history of the House of Stradom and the Theological Institute of the Missionary Priests in Cracow (Fr. Kryspin Banko), the present state of the Province of Poland (Fr. Bronislaw Sieneczak) and its collaboration with other provinces (Fr. Arkadiusz Zakreta).
The participants of this Meeting were made aware of the charitable social initiatives extended towards children and unfortunate youth which is a continuation of the activity of Fr. Siemaszko (1947 – 1904). They also saw a movie made to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the arrival of the missionaries to Poland, which was titled: The Infinite Mission. The participants also visited the Central House (the church, the museum, the library, the publishiing house). They visited the Education Center “Good News 2000” in Pickary, two pastoral centers: Our Lady of Lourdes Parish and the Parish of Blessed Anicla Salawa as well as the house in Kleparz which was the Mother House of the Province of Cracow after the supression of the Province of Warsaw in 1864.
To facilitate the exchange of ideas on the theme of the Central European countries (Poland, Checloslavakia, Solvenia, Hungary) joining the European Union, the appropriate questionnaire had been sent to all the Visitors involved. The responses and the contents of the letter that Fr. General sent to the participants on CEVIM Cracow – 2002 became the object of detailed discussion and reflection.
The following priorities were arrived at:
— formation of candidates for the Congregation;
help with personnel; material help;
pastoral care of emmigrants;
and the creation of a permanent office for CEVIM.
Taking into account the fact that the personnel help is fruit of an agreement between two or more provinces and that the material help is a voluntary act of one or more provinces towards another province or a concrete program, these themes were excluided from the discussion that followed.
The Conference only asks its representatives that the Visitors be open when asked for personnel or material help.
On the point of the pastoral care of emmigrants, whose number is growing, it was noted that this problem has to be handled in a much more organized way.
As regards the opening of a permanent office of CEVIM, two concepts became clear: some underlined the necessity of the creation of an office of this type for the exclusive use of CEVIM, and others maintained that the office ought to be located near the Seat of the European Union in Brussels, so that the Congregation could become a spokesperson for the unfortunate to carry out concrete projects and influence the formulation of laws favorable to the poor, since normally this voice is not heard nor are the reasons of those absent taken into consideration.
At the same time, we were reminded of some decisions taken in Dublin according to which Fr. Kevin Ruffery was going to take charge of investigating the possibilities of opening an office in Brussels.
The task was given to the present president of CEVIM, Fr. Bronislaw Sienczak (Poloand) and Frs. Viktor Grottelars (Holland) and Norbert Ensch (Germany) who offered the house in Trier to be the Seat of the Office not only because of its location (not too far from Brussels and Strasbourg) but also becasue of the possiblity of uniting the two concepts.
Also, the Conference will wait on the input of Fr. General and his Council aftrer the meeting of the Provincial Economes which will be held in November of this year.
During the CEVIM Meeting – Cracow 2002, the program rigorously carried out the pilgrimages and visits to places of interest (Cracow, Kalwaria, Wadowice, Oswiecin, Czestochowa). Before the Meeting closed, the participants met with Cardinal Franciszek Macharski.
Translated by Jack Kane, CM from an item which appeared on the www.famvin.org spanish site.
