From 16-20 September, Frs. Robert Maloney, Superior General, and Józef Kapu_ciak, Assistant General, were in Kiev (Ukraine), participating in the first-ever meeting of the confreres of this newly erected vice-province (2001). Almost all participated: 21 priests, two deacons, one brother and seven students. Also attending were the Visitors of Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, as well as some representatives of AIC. On this occasion the participants not only “dreamed” about how the vice-province will be in the future, but also talked concretely about the importance of a healthy, integral spirituality for the individual missionaries. Fr. Maloney encouraged them to draw up a personal plan that encompasses the human, spiritual, Vincentian-apostolic, community, and ongoing formation dimensions of their lives.
During the meeting, the confreres from all the houses (one in Belarus, one in Russia, and three in Ukraine), presented the situation in which their pastoral ministry is lived out, dialogued on apostolic priorities (in view to developing the Vice-Provincial Plan) and made some decisions on the process of developing the Vice-Provincial Norms. Fr. Paul Roche, the Vice-Visitor, has just purchased a house in Kiev that will serve as a Provincial House and Internal Seminary. The province, thanks be to God, has vocations. Recently, four of its students began the Internal Seminary in Slovakia with Fr. Toma_ Mavri_ as Director.
