On January 8 and 9, at the Alberoni College (Piacenza – Italy), the meeting of the members of the International Secretariat of Vincentian Studies took place. Nelio Pereira Pita, participated together with the coordinator of the team, Fr. Corpus Delgado (Spain), and the secretary, Fr. Isaac Demets (Spain), the other members: Vinícius Teixeira (Brazil), Jakub Kasprzyk (Poland), Jose Mwami (Congo), Binoy Puthussery (India), and Hugo R. Sosa (Paraguay).
The evaluation of the Master in Vincentianism was carried out (of the editions that were concluded last year and of those that are in progress), and strategies were sought for the new edition that is beginning, whose number of participants exceeds 70. A new initiative proposed by the Superior General, Fr. Tomaz Mavric (with whom we had a telematic communication), concerning the formation of formators, was also planned. Other issues addressed were: the school of Vincentian leadership, the relationship of SIEV with the Provinces, with the other formative institutions of the Congregation and with the Vincentian Family, among other topics.
The place where the meeting took place is rich in Vincentian history and constitutes a living testimony of the mission of the Congregation in the formation of the clergy. Cardinal Alberoni, founder of this house, entrusted the Congregation of the Mission with the work, because he had seen in the House of Montecitorio (in Rome) the work of the confreres which was characterised by simplicity and communion between formators and students, where more than a formal relationship, a fraternal one stood out, and which, according to the same Cardinal, formed ‘true apostolic men’. The Missionaries have been in charge of this institution since 1751.
These were days of fruitful work but also of fraternal sharing among the members of SIEV, the confreres who work in the Alberoni College and the Seminarians.
