Region of Canada

The General Administration asked the Provinces and Regions to present a six-year plan prior to the meeting of the Major Superiors in Rome (November 28 – December 2). The Region of Canada presented the following plan, based on our discussions during the Assembly in August and the subsequent meeting of Council in September. The plan was received without comment.

Ten-year Plan

 

With the accession of the new administration in November 2015,  the Region of Canada considered it essential that it initiate a ten-year plan for the Region. The Region wanted to be assured that with the aging of its original members, it would be enabled to gauge with its members how the Region might continue. At this point the composition of the Region is as follows:

 

Name	Age	community	Region ministry	Canadian	Other province	Years in Canada	language
Walter van As	1923	M	Retraité		NLV	1951	Fr/En
Herman Falke	1928	O	Retired		NLV	1952	En
Reinier van Leeuwen	1929	M	Retraité		NLV	2002	Fr/En
William Marrevee	1936	O	Retired/ superior		NLV	1960	En/Fr
James Casper	1938	T	Retired	CAN			En
Roger Phaneuf	1938	M	Retraité	CAN			Fr
John van den Hengel	1939	O	Reg. Sup.	CAN			En/Fr
Peter Sanders	1940	O	Ott. School Board Chaplain	CAN			En/Fr
Claude Bédard	1940	M	Retraité: Procure	CAN			Fr/En
Paul Tennyson	1944	O	Chaplain	CAN			En
Richard Woodbury	1944	M	Sem. + par	CAN			Fr/En
Peter McKenna	1949	T	Refugees	CAN			En
Luc Coursol	1950	M	Retraité	CAN			Fr/En
Maurice Légaré	1954	M	Econome	CAN			Fr/En
Louis-Marie Butari	1957	M	Paroisse		RDC	2016	Fr
Gregory Murray	1957	O	Parish/ mission	CAN			En/Fr
Dieudonné Tchouteu	1962	M	Projets		CAM	2002	Fr
Engelbert Fotsing	1962	M	Paroisse		CAM	2014	Fr
Giovani Pontes	1963	T	Parish		BSP	2016	En
Johannes Yuliwan Maslim	1964	T	Indonesian Community		INE	2014	En/Fr
Aegidius Warsito	1965	T	Parish		INE	2005	En
Elie Muzungu Kasongo Ngoy	1967	O	Paroisse	CAN			Fr/En
Gustave Lulendo	1973	M	Paroisse et supérieur		RDC	2008	Fr/En
Anthony Purwono	1974	T	Youth		INE	2013	En
Willyans Prado Rapozo	1982	T	Parish		BSP	2012	En
Total: 25

 

In summary, there are 25 members divided along the three communities and different ministries:                   Retired with non full-time ministries:                                               9

Full time active in ministries                                                              16

Chaplaincies  (Yuliwan, Paul)                                                            2

Refugees (Peter)                                                                                1

Parish ministry                                                                                   9

4 in Montréal

2 in Ottawa

3 in Toronto

(CAN: 2 / Other entities 7)

Internal ministry (regional)                                                               2

Other (youth + projects)                                                                   2

 

The following members of the Region of Canada have come originally from other provinces or Regions. The following graph shows their names and whether or not an agreement was made with the Province or Region of origin to remain in Canada for a set number of years.

 

Name	Date arrival	Agreement	Renewal/replacement
Walter van As	1951	Life time	Na
Herman Falke	1952	Life time	Na
Reinier van Leeuwen	2002	Retraité	Na
William Marrevee	1960	Life time	Na
Louis-Marie Butari	2016
Dieudonné Tchouteu	2002	permanent	na
Engelbert Fotsing	2014
Giovani Pontes	2016
Johannes Yuliwan Maslim	2014
Aegidius Warsito	2005
Gustave Lulendo	2008
Willyans Prado Rapozo	2012

 

 

 

 

In August (8-11) the Region of Canada met to discern how it might plan to move ahead with a ten-year plan. We chose a ten-year plan in order to receive a sense of the membership of what they expected the leadership to do in the long term. At the end of the assembly the Region had adopted a twelve-point plan. The following seven points summarize the most important elements of the plan. From the initial survey of the members it appeared that these seven points received the highest level of interest from the members.

• Participation of members of other entities / participation des autres entités (21)
• Refugees and migrants (17)
• Vocation Ministry (14)
• UKI / La communauté indonesienne à Toronto (13)
• Dehonian Family / Famille dehonniene (12)
• The ministry of the Regional Superior / le ministère du Supérieur Régional (8)
• Invitation of students from other entities / étudiants d’autres entités (7)

 

From the assembly results and conversation we ascertained:

(1)   A desire to retain viable, dehonian communities

(2)   A desire to remain socially and religiously relevant

(3)   A desire to keep alive a sense of ministry with the help of other entities

(4)   A desire that our communities be international

(5)   A desire to share our spirituality with others

(6)   A desire to have a leadership that is open to the future

(7)   A desire to seek whether young people might join us

 

Council action plan

 

1.    Community life: that the leadership of the Region undertake action on the following points:

• That communities create a community pastoral plan (In what consists our following of Christ? What makes this community to be a religious community? What makes this community to be a dehonian, religious community? To what do we wish to give witness to the community at large? What is the pastoral project of the community?)
• That communities make an honest assessment of the relationship between community life and the ministries (if community life is of the essence of religious life, how can we make this visible in our daily programs and in our presence to one another?)
• That each community gathers on a regular basis to communicate with one another, to plan its life together, to strengthen its identity, to share our joys and sorrows, to explore future possibilities, to decide on common actions.
• That the superiors of the communities gather from time to time with the regional leadership to stimulate interaction of the three communities, to plan common actions, to meet with other new superiors in North America, to help grow our dehonian identity.
• That each of the communities assess their properties: their viability, their physical state, etc.
• That the Regional Superior undertake a visit of each of the communities at least once a year.

 

2.     Relationship with other entities: that the leadership of the Region undertake action on the following points:

• That the Regional Superior speak with each of the members who have come to Canada from another entity and determine their understanding of their mission to Canada;
• That the Regional Superior create agreements with the entities from which our members have come in order to assure a commitment on their part to retain the member in Canada or to appoint another member of their entity to continue their mission in Canada;
• That the members of other entities working in Canada be invited after their first year of mission in Canada to become a member of the Canadian Region;
• That the communities in which the members from other entities have become members make every effort to become international.
• That the members of the Region be open to welcome all to leadership positions.

 

3.     Refugees and Migrants: that the leadership of the Region take the following actions to integrate the work with migrants and refugees within the JPIC activity of the Region:

• That each of the communities undertake some concrete action on behalf of refugees and/or migrants;
• That the Region work together with the USA Province, as part of a joint commission on migration;
• That two members of the Region be appointed as members of this joint North American commission on migration;
• That the Region through its blog will its blog dehoncanada.org will have a monthly feature on migration and refugees.

 

 

 

 

4.     Vocation ministry: that the leadership of the Region establish and support a vocational ministry in Canada by:

• Establishing a vocation committee with a part-time vocation director;
• Making our current parishes in Montréal and Scarborough the main focus of the activity of the vocation committee
• Meeting of the Regional council with the vocation committee at least once a year and to strategize with them the activities of the members of the committee;
• Engaging the membership of the Region by the vocation committee through regular contacts with the communities and through a report at the annual assembly;
• Collaborating with the Vocation Committee of the USA Province.

 

5.     Dehonian Family: that the leadership of the Region promote the establishment of the Dehonian Family in Canada by:

• Promoting the Dehonian Family in our parishes and our communities;
• Inviting David Schimmel, the director of the Dehonian Family Program in the USA, to introduce the program in our two parishes;
• Establishing a coordinator of the Dehonian Family for the Canadian Region;
• Participating in the international meeting of the Dehonian Family in Rome in May 2017;
• Making known the resources (The Spiritual Path) within the Region.

 

6.     Dehonian Identity: that the leadership of the Region promote the study and understanding of our Dehonian identity and spirituality by:

• Studying and meditating on the Rule of Life;
• Participating in the retreat of North American Dehonians in 2017 and 2018;
• Making available to the members the writings on our Founder and our spirituality;
• Personally researching and studying the life and works of Leo Dehon;
• Participating in the work of the USA Provinces’ Dehon Study Center;
• Establishing a North American Dehonian Theological Commission;
• Participating in the regular international seminars organized by the International Dehonian Theological Commission.

 

7.     Regional Finances: That the Regional Leadership undertake:

• An in-depth financial analysis of the finances of the Region;
• Study the possibility to invite lay participation in our Finance Committee;
• Study the possibility of a lay person as the Regional Bursar
• Study the capacity of the Region to assist other Provinces, Regions or Districts.

Regional Council / Ottawa   September 21, 2016