3 CM Anniversaries

Province of Germany -150th Anniversary

Curitiba, Brazil – 100th Anniversary

Panningen, Holland – 100th AnniversaryGermany -150th Anniversary.

On 18-20 July, the Superior General was in Trier to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Province of Germany.

The province was begun by four diocesan priests who, seeing the needs of the poor in Germany, decided to preach popular missions. Discovering that this was precisely the charism of St. Vincent de Paul, they went to Paris, where they were received into the Internal Seminary. After completing the Internal Seminary, they returned to Germany and founded the Congregation.

On 19 July, Fr. Maloney celebrated the Eucharist in Paulinuskirche. A large number of confreres and diocesan priests concelebrated. Hundreds of members of the Vincentian Family filled the church. On 20 July, Reinhard Marx, Bishop of Trier, was the principal celebrant of a Mass in the cathedral, which was also filled with members and friends of the Vincentian Family.

The former Chancellor of Germany, Helmut Kohl, took part in the Mass and then gave the principal discourse at a ceremony held later in the afternoon. He remained for dinner with the confreres and many representatives and friends of the Vincentian Family. Among the participants in this Jubilee celebration were a significant number of confreres from the Vice-Province of Costa Rica where many of the German confreres had worked for many years.

Curitiba

One Hundred Years. The Jubilee Celebration of the arrival of the first Polish Vincentian Missionaries to Southern Brazil opened on 25 October 2002 with a meeting of CLAPVI and the presence of Fr. José Ignacio Fernández de Mendoza, Vicar General.

On 4 July 2003 the actual jubilee was celebrated for that was the day when the first confreres from Poland established themselves in communities of Polish immigrants, namely in Tomás Coelho-Araucária (Paraná, Brazil). There, in the Parish of São Miguel, the Superior General presided at the Eucharist, concelebrated by the three Vincentian bishops of the province and the great majority of the confreres.

Also present were Fr. José Antonio Ubillús, Assistant General, the Visitors of the three Brazilian Provinces, Poland and Venezuela. The Daughters of Charity and the coordinators of the branches of the Vincentian Family participated too.

On Sunday, 6 July, representatives of the 24 parishes that serve 430 communities in the province had the opportunity to commemorate this event at a Eucharist presided by the Archbishop of Curitiba. Fr. Maloney gave several conferences to the confreres of the province, to the Daughters of Charity and to the seminarians of the three Brazilian Provinces who had gathered there for the National Meeting of Vincentian Students. He also celebrated the Eucharist for the Vincentian Family and for the students and professors of the Vincentian Institute of Philosophy.

Finally, the Superior General blessed a plaque to commemorate his visit to the new facilities of the above mentioned Institute and inaugurated a Centennial Memorial.

Holland

One hundred years of the house in Panningen. On 6 July the province celebrated the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the house in Panningen (Holland).

Fr. Victor Bieler, Assistant General for the Missions, presided at the centennial celebration in our parish in that city. The church was filled with confreres, family members and parishioners from neighboring parishes.

It should be noted that during these 100 years, 450 priests were ordained from this house (37 of whom were from Panningen and the surrounding area). Seventy percent of these 450 missionaries worked in foreign missions and the remaining 30% worked in the Netherlands.

A commemorative booklet will soon be published entitled: Lazaristen 100 jaar in Panningen. It should also be mentioned here that the Mayor of Helden-Panningen inaugurated a photo exposition in the chapel relating to the centennial. The entire celebration was a way for the Community to give thanks to God and to the many people who helped in the formation of the missionaries throughout these 100 years. Representatives from various missions founded from this house participated in the celebration: Brazil, Taiwan, Indonesia and Ethiopia.

Source: NUNTIA July-August 2003