The Regional Council met for its final meeting of this present administration on November 8, 2018. The following items were discussed:

Invitation from the USA Province

Ed Kilianski, the Provincial Superior of the USA Province,  has invited the members of the Region of Canada to participate in their Province Assembly of next year. The main topic of the assembly will be a discussion of interculturality. It will give the US Province and the Canadian Region an opportunity to discuss together how we live and experience the presence and shared ministry with members of other countries. To help us in the discussion, the USA Province has invited Anthony Gittens, from Manchester, United Kingdom, who in 2017 published a book entitled Living Mission Interculturally lead the discussion. Council gratefully accepted the invitation, and hopes that many of the Region’s members will attend. The Assembly will be at the Provincial Offices in Hales Corners from June 10 to 14, 2019.

News from the communities

Montreal: The community is still mourning the loss of three members in the last year and a half. The deaths of Luc Coursol, Rein van Leeuwen and Walter van As has affected the community deeply. That comes together with the health issues of both Claude Bédard and Maurice Légaré. It has led to the appointment of Dieudonné Tchouteu and Gustave Lulendo as the local bursars. With regard to the Unité pastoral, the interim period for the pastoral team has ended and Fr. Louis Marie Butari has been accepted as the administrator by the Archdiocese of Montréal.

Ottawa: The addition of Fr. Paulin Makiala to the community has been a very welcome. He has been registered in the Conflict Studies program at Saint Paul University, which, as he has said a number of times, has given him a lot of material to read and digest. He has written his first papers. His downtime has been the participation in the Congolese community in Ottawa and his passion to keep the property at 192 Daly Ave in pristine condition. The twelve paper bags with leaves await the attention of the garbage collector.

Toronto: The new vibrancy of the Toronto community was witnessed by all during the Fall assembly of the Region in Kingston. The presence of Thoan and Hung has shifted the energy of the community. Thoan and Hung are still living at 58 High Park. They will move to the rectory of St. Thomas More as soon as the repairs to the garage and the rectory are completed. They have begun to form part of the ministry of the parish by assuming the RCIA program which at this time counts 17 participants. They are also helping the Vietnamese parish in Toronto with their catechism program.

Appointment of an interim bursar

With the illness of Maurice Légaré and his inability to complete the work of the bursar’s office, council has appointed Paul Tennyson as the interim bursar. It means that the bursar’s office will be moving from Montréal to Ottawa. The appointment is an interim appointment, valid until the new administration will be in place. Until further notice all communication about financial matters should be addressed to Paul Tennyson at 192 Daly Avenue in Ottawa (paultennyson@rogers.com). In the near future, Paul will send to the communities a new format for reporting using Excel. It will make the reporting using an electronic form which will allow the making of the annual report of the Region much easier.

Request from the District of Vietnam: 

In 2018 we have accepted some members of the Vietnam District to obtain part of their formation in Canada. In the Spring of 2018 the community of Ottawa hosted Phi and Canh so that they could take ESL in the Ottawa Separate School Board. In Toronto two scholastics Thoan and Hung have begun their pastoral year working with the Pastoral Team of St. Thomas More parish. The Region has accepted that four more students will take part in the ESL program in Ottawa in 2019 and Luan Do will come to Toronto to do theology there, joining Thoan and Hung.

Pointe-au-Chêne

In the past three years the Region has been much involved to help the Séminaire du Sacré-Coeur administration with setting up a new council of administration and to revamp the Fondation of the Séminaire. During this time we offered the Séminaire the financial resources to make possible a more full-time pastoral service at the school. During the fall this has led to the appointment of Robert Laurin as the chaplain by the conseil d’administration. He has already commissioned a piece of art from Fr. Herman (picture included)

Becoming Neighbours

Peter McKenna gave the council a report on the ministry of Becoming Neighbours and on the Migration Commission. In the week prior to the meeting the Toronto Community had helped Peter to move from the premises of Scarborough Foreign Missions’ property to the new Presentation Manor. Council expressed its deepest gratitude to Fr. Peter for his work and the energy that he brings to it.

New administration

Since it is no longer possible to have the new administration take office on the official date of the transfer, it was decided to ask the General Administration to move the date of the inception of the new administration of the Region from November 17 to January 16.

Thanks

Because this was the last meeting of the council for this administration, the council members commemorated this event by going out for supper at Domani. The council did a review of the last three years and tallied up the achievements, but also the missed opportunities. A special reference was made to the ten-year plan that the council put in place in its first year.