The first SVD priest from Madagscar, Luis Albert MAMONJISOA was ordained last July 5, 2009 in the Cathedral of St. Augustine in Mananjary. The ordaining prelate was Bishop Jose Alfredo Cairdes de Nobrega. Fr. Albert got to know the SVD through a booklet containing all the addresses of the different Catholic missions in Madagascar. Fr. Albert contacted the SVD vocation promoter and the rest is a beautiful story of calling and missionary vocation. Fr. Albert is assigned to PNG. The first three SVD missionaries arrived in the Diocese of Mananjary on September 1989.

Fr. Pius Pandai

The 2007 Zonal Assembly has programmed area workshops most of which were set for 2009. The letter from the Generalate concerning the financial crisis made us wonder whether it was possible to push through with them. After consultations and common discernment some workshops took place and the others were postponed. The following workshops that were held were: Workshop for Pre-Novitiate and Novitiate Formators in Lusaka, Zambia (July 27-August 2, 2008), Workshop for Mission Secretaries in Luanda, Angola (March 8-13, 2009), and Workshop for AFRAM Formation Board in Adoagyiri-Nsawam, Ghana (June 8- 13, 2009). On June 13-14, 2009, the Executive Committee (Execom) met to deliberate on the recommendations and programs of actions of the different area workshops.

Some of the deliberations were: the approval of the recommendations of the Lusaka workshop of 2008, recognition of the four plans of action of the Mission Secretaries and their close collaboration with the Provincial and Regional Superiors, the approval of the recommendations of the African Formation Board, the date for the next Zonal Assembly in Togo (January 21-27, 2010), the designation of Bro. Lutwin DOLLWET (BOT) to coordinate the Treasurers’ Meeting, and the preparation of the agenda of the next Zonal Assembly including the revision of the Vision and Mission Statement of the AFRAM Zone.

The Episcopal Ordination of the Most Reverend Alex Thomas Kaliyanil SVD as Archbishop of Bulawayo will be on September 12, 2009 at the Zimbabwe International Trade Grounds in Bulawayo. Fr. Superior General Antonio PERNIA commented “Archbishop Alex takes on the pastoral service and leadership of a local church that was vacated upon the resignation of his controversial predecessor, Archbishop Pius Ncube”. When Archbishop Alex’s appointment was formally announced on July 20, 2009 by the Vatican Radio and the Zimbabwe Papal Nuncio George Kocherry in Bulawayo, newspapers from all over Africa and elsewhere in the world carried this news item.

This politically sensitive appointment has been pending since September 2007 when former Archbishop Ncube’s resignation was accepted on account of a scandal. Archbishop Alex recalls “I was surprised and I never expected it. It was a big shock.” It was only after his conversation with the Papal Nuncio that Archbishop Alex understood the urgency and the importance of his appointment. He believed that the lay people, the religious and other Bishops felt that the Archdiocese needed someone who is neutral, who knows the situation and coordinates things systematically.

Archbishop Alex described the former Archbishop Ncube as the people’s voice. With his fierce criticism of President Mugabe, he became the most articulate and outspoken figure of resistance to the regime. He believes that his role as the Archbishop elect is to inspire and give guidance to the lay people. The lay people should be the ones in the forefront of political and justice issues because it is their role and they are in a better position to do it. He added “I am foreigner and an outsider. My priority is not politics”.

Looking back at the recent assembly on Brother Vocation and Prophetic Dialogue two things come spontaneously to my mind. First, the 2009 Assembly was an opportunity to look back at the first Assembly in 1994. We get a rewarding feeling to realize that most of the recommendations made fifteen years ago have become reality! We see competent Brothers in varied professions in the service of the Church, we see them very active in the formation teams and we are benefiting from their leadership functions. Indeed they are no longer seen as “helpers” but “partners”. Secondly, the Brother Vocation has so much in common with the clerical members of the SVD. Before we focus on functions we underline our “being”, as first and foremost called to be Divine Word Missionaries. Brothers and priests in the Society share the same identity as Religious and Missionaries.

Both are actively engaged in the four-fold dialogue and participate in the four characteristic dimensions. Only then can we talk of a “vocation” within our “common vocation”. Clerics exercise their priestly vocation and Brothers exercise their specific vocations. Brothers can penetrate and “shine” in all walks of life and in all kinds of profession. The presence of Brothers assures the SVD the capacity to answer to the needs and reality of the world today through its closer contact with the people.