Letter from Coordinator 08 2012

Dear Lay Missionaries of the Most Holy Redeemer, Dear Partners in Mission,
May your Christmas be filled
with the real presence of the new-born Child, and with joy and happiness.
Best wishes for now and the coming year.
Fr. Jacek Zdrzałek CSsR Coordinator of CRE

Letter from the Coordinator, No 8 (2012)
The Mid-sexennial Meeting and the Fifth Assembly of CRE were the most important meetings for us during the last months in our Conference. These meetings took place in Kraków in Poland from 29th of October to 6th of November.
The purpose of the Mid-sexennial Meeting was to conduct a broad consultation of the whole Congregation at the midpoint of the sexennium. The primary purpose of the Mid-sexennial Meeting is consultative. This is different from the primary purpose of the Assembly because the Assembly not only consults, but makes decisions. I would like to share with you in this letter the most important issues which emerged from the Assembly of our Conference.
The Secretariat for Evangelization
The Assembly of the Conference of Europe acknowledges the work undertaken in the course of the past year by the Secretariat for Evangelization of the Conference and its

Commissions, has very positively evaluated it, and has gratefully received its proposals.
The Assembly encourages the Secretariat for Evangelization and its Commissions, to continue this line of work and to develop the proposals laid out its initial work, under the
direction of the Council of the Conference.
By way of priority, this initial phase should favour:
 The preparation of the celebration of a Colloquium to share experiences and reflect on migration in Europe.
 The adoption of the necessary steps to open a Community of shared experience and welcome for pilgrims (one possibility is Astorga).
 The organization of a ‘Evangelization Camp’ some place in Europe in which formation together for both youth and lay men and women will be accompanied by a common
experience in evangelization.
The Council of the Conference will take the appropriate steps so that these actions are realized.

The Secretariat for Formation
 The Assembly accepted the proposal about common preparation for Final Vows for the whole CRE in 2013. There are two possible places for this preparation: Ciorani (Italy) or Tuchów (Poland). The final decision will be taken after the consultation with the Secretariats for Formation in the Naples and Warsaw Provinces.
 The first meeting of all formators of the Conference will take place in Cracow (Poland) from 12th to 16th of July 2013. The meeting will consist of two parts. The first part will be the comprehensive sharing of realities, difficulties and challenges from each individual Unit. The second part will provide input on our new vision for the common missionary endeavor in Europe with the elements of formation. The letter with more information will be sent to the formators in a few weeks.
 The Assembly decided to make more discernment about the forms of the pastoral year for our formandee in Europe. It should be a true missionary experience for our confreres in formation within the guidelines of the Apostolic Priorities of the Conference.
 The proposals about the Summer Language Schools in the two official languages of the Conference must be more prepared and more connected to different levels of participants’ knowledge of the language.
 The Assembly suggested appointing a study group to provide a forum for exchange of
reflections about modern theological issues. The goals for this group will be: to research the best books and the articles in different languages about contemporary theological issues; to provide information about symposia and workshops; to share input on the issues connected to our mission; to reflect on today’s ecclesiologies, evangelization and so on.
 The Assembly commissioned the preparation of The Ratio Formationis for the common formation in our Conference.
The Secretariat for the Brothers
Fr. Edmund Hipp described the work of the Secretariat and the preparation for the meeting for Brothers. On behalf of the Secretariat he wrote a letter to all Brothers in November. This is an excerpt from this letter:
“So we are looking forward to prepare a meeting for all the brothers in next year, in the first half of September. We are discussing about Vienna as the place of our meeting. Just today we want to invite all our brothers (and all other interested confreres) for the meeting. We cordially ask you to reserve the necessary time for the meeting in your calendar. The members of the Secretariat will meet once again in January 2013 in Poland. Until then, please let us know your concerns and wishes. You can send your responses to the President of the Secretariat, Father Edmund Hipp”: hipp@redmuc.de

The Interprovincial Communities
Many times during the Mid-sexennial Meeting and the Assembly we were talking about new interprovincial communities in CRE. In a special way, two projects were discussed: in Luxembourg and in Prague. The Assembly asked also for some discernment about the possibilities of having an interprovincial community in the Balkan Region.
 The Assembly decided to continue the preparations about the project in Luxembourg.
 It is a little bit too early to think about the interprovincial community in Prague, (so-called
“St. Kajetan Project”) but the process of discernment should be continued in future.
 The members of the Assembly suggested further discernment about the possibility of establishing new interprovincial communities in places where we – as Redemptorists – are
not present yet (the suggestions were Albania or other countries of the Balkan Region).
This is all I wanted to share with you at present. Once again have a very blessed Christmas. Fr. Jacek