My dear confreres,
May the grace and peace of Jesus be always with us!
In last year’s Mission Appeal Letter, I wrote: “It is my ardent desire that this year, 2023, and the years to come, we will be able without the slightest hesitation to continue volunteering for the missions ad Gentes, and so keep donating to the Church and the Poor 1% of the confreres, as one of the clear indications of the continued revitalization of our identity, a new missionary springtime, a beginning of a new Pentecost within the Congregation. One of the signs of our revitalized identity will be the opening, year after year, of new missions in countries where our Little Company still is not present: missions inspired and opened by provinces, vice-provinces, and regions or international missions by the General Curia.”
The year 2025 is fast approaching. It is the year, when we will celebrate, if Providence so desires, the 400th Anniversary of the Foundation of the Little Company. The year 2025 can be memorable for many other reasons, of which one of them is the opening of new missions ad Gentes,spreading the Congregation of the Mission to countries where we are not yet present.
In the following countries, the branches of the Vincentian Family are already present—in some countries more, in others fewer—but our Little Company is not present:
Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cayman Islands, Comoros, Curaçao, Djibouti, Dominica, East Timor, Eswatini (Swaziland), Gabon, Gambia, Gibraltar, Granada, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, Hong Kong, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Jordan, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Lithuania, Macao, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Micronesia, Moldavia, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Namibia, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, São Tomé and Principe, Senegal, Singapore, South Korea, South Sudan, Sudan, Sweden, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Vanuatu, Zambia, and Zimbabwe
In a special way, I would like to invite those provinces, vice-provinces, and regions, who presently have large numbers of confreres, to reflect with your Councils and the confreres in general and, after looking at the list of the countries where we are not yet present, to determine in which country you could open a new mission.
However, I do not want to invite only those provinces, vice-provinces, and regions that presently have a large number of confreres, but also those who have fewer, to make a heroic decision on the 400th Anniversary, to open, although it may be with difficulty, a new mission ad Gentes. I am convinced that the reward will be hundred times over!
Please send your reflections to me at segreteria@cmcuria.org for the General Council to consider how we can help you to open the new mission ad Gentes.
I also would like to thank deeply the many provinces, vice- provinces, and regions that are very open about encouraging confreres to go to the missions ad Gentes, to the international missions coordinated by the General Curia, or to the missions coordinated by the individual provinces, vice-provinces, or regions.
As every year, I would like to invite all confreres of the Congregation who feel the call to serve in the missions ad Gentes to volunteer as Jesus’s much-needed collaborators in announcing the Good News to the ends of the earth. This could be in the international missions, regions, or houses coordinated by the General Curia or in the missions coordinated by individual provinces, vice-provinces, or regions. If, after prayer, discernment, and discussion with your Visitor, you wish to volunteer to go to one of our many missions around the world that are so much in need, or to be part of opening a new mission in a country where we are still not present, please write to me segreteria@cmcuria.org.
I have the joy to announce that this year a new mission ad Gentes was opened in Uganda, and still underway, God willing, are the opening of the following new missions in 2024: Congo-Brazzaville, Togo, and the North part of Congo in the city of Goma by the Province of Congo, as well as Pakistan by the Province of Vietnam. The opening of some other new missions is in the process of reflection, as is also the process of some of the International Missions that already had begun being accompanied by a concrete province or vice-province, becoming part of its structure in the near future.
Here are the missions that, at this moment, need special attention and volunteers:
With many hopes, but with no less difficulties, we continue to support the Bolivian Mission, always in need of missionaries, whose goal is to prepare it to have a more stable presence in Bolivia. This Mission is now composed of two major missionary areas:
1. The Parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in Huayllani, Cochabamba, is large in area and has three different missionary levels: one is located very close to the city; another part is a campesino zone; and in the Altiplano part there are a good number of indigenous populations where evangelization has just begun.
This parish has a fairly well-organized pastoral program. he first two zones are quite easy to attend to. Older missionaries could be placed in this community and would form a good team with some younger missionaries for the difficult areas. Thinking that God will bless us with local vocations, we also need a missionary with some experience in formation. We pray to God that someone could volunteer for this mission, because, due to the lack of missionaries, we are studying the possibility of returning this parish to the Diocese of Cochabamba.
2. The Beni Mission includes working in a poor part of the city of Trinidad, but its strength lies in the river region, inhabited by various indigenous ethnic groups, some of which have had very little contact with the Church. The pastoral needs are urgent because it is an area in continuous colonization. It is a mission with many challenges, not only because of the climate (tropical), but also because of the distances and the situations in which the communities find themselves, so far into the jungle. The most important thing in this mission is to organize and form lay pastoral agents who can take care of their own communities. The Bishop also has asked us to collaborate in organizing and developing vocation ministry. This would be done in conjunction with the Daughters of Charity and the other branches of the Vincentian Family present in the region, which are also increasing. The language is Spanish.
Talamanca is the most important indigenous territory in Costa Rica and is located in the south of the country, on the Atlantic coast. Since its origins, the mission has been the responsibility of the Congregation of the Mission. The missionary service has two realities: parish life, providing monthly pastoral care to some 36 communities that are difficult to access (navigating
rivers, by motorcycle, or walking);
and the mission ad Gentes, where it takes up to five days walking through the mountains to visit hundreds of people living in miserable conditions. The indigenous languages are Bribri and Cabécar, but, in most communities, it is possible to communicate in Spanish.
The mission needs four missionaries, two of whom are urgently needed for formation, one formator for the house of formation of the propaedeutic seminary and another for the philosophy and theology house of formation. We would be grateful to confreres who can offer two or three years of service as formators, while the confreres of the region take the courses for formators or spiritual directors, and then will continue their service in this area. Two missionaries would be for the missions that are located in poor areas, in the peripheries, among the suffering and abandoned people. Portuguese is spoken in Mozambique.
The Istanbul mission, due to the global ecclesial responsibility for our Christian presence in an Islamic shaped country, is very important. Presently the Province of Austria-Germany has two confreres in the community in Istanbul.
The community will need at least two more confreres to strengthen the community and try to answer to the growing needs of the mission. In the city of Istanbul, besides the local population, there are many immigrants and students from various countries, where pastoral accompaniment, as well as social help, are much in need. The confreres, who may volunteer for this mission, need to be open to an Ecumenical, Intercultural, and Christian-Muslim dialogue. Regarding languages, it would be important for the confrere first to learn the Turkish language and later also the German language. The Province of Austria-Germany will facilitate the language courses in Istanbul itself.
As always, this portion of the Congregation has many needs. The four works that we have in Cuba require many more confreres. At this moment, the entire Region of Cuba has six missionaries, which means that it needs four more missionaries, and among the most needed is support for formation. Unfortunately, we have lost two missionaries. We ask Jesus to move the hearts of the confreres to help this region in need of development, where, little by little, some improvements have been achieved. The language is Spanish.
The Region of Venezuela has many vocations, but there is a great need for confreres who can accompany the seminarians as formators, as directors of the different stages of initial formation, and as spiritual directors. For the Congregation, the initial formation of our confreres continues to be a priority. We would be deeply grateful to the confreres who can offer two or three years of service as formators, until the confreres of the region can take the courses for formators or spiritual directors, and then continue their service in this area.
May Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, Saint Vincent de Paul, and all the other Saints,
Blessed, and Servants of God of the Little Company, intercede for us!
Your brother in Saint Vincent,
Father Tomaž Mavrič, C.M.
Superior General
