Joint-Meeting of the O.Carm & OCD General Councils

COMMUNICATIONES N. 72

01-01-2007

CONTENTS

- Joint-meeting of the O.Carm & OCD General Councils

- Joint-meeting of the Spanish O.Carm & OCD Provincials

- A secular Carmelite in Slovakia

- New Blesseds soon

- First centenary of the restoration of the Catalonian province.

- The Secular Order

- The Centenary of Elizabeth throughout the world

Joint-meeting of the two General Councils, O.Carm – OCD

The regular six-monthly meeting took place on 18th December in the OCD General Curia, Corso d’Italia. Fr. General, Luis Arostegui, presented the following themes: 1) The celebration, last October, of 800 years of the Carmelite Rule at the Lima (Peru) congress, with the participation of 120 people, including the two superior generals. 2) A joint-letter from the two generals for the 800th anniversary of the Rule in 2007. There will be a short letter asking the Holy Father to make a public statement. 3) Celebration of the 800 years of the Rule of St. Albert. It will begin with a Eucharist in the O.Carm parish beside the Vatican. Cardinal Franc Rodé, the Prefect of the Congregation ‘for Religious’ will preside. 4) The general chapter of the Carmelites of the Ancient Observance from September 4 – 22 next. Our General will give a talk and a homily. All on our Council are invited to participate on one day. 5) The Carmelite dictionary: all the material has been collated, now it will be sent for publication.

The next meeting will take place on May 12, with a commemorative mass of the Rule.

Joint-meeting of the Spanish O.Carm & OCD Provincials

On November 13 the Provincials of the two Carmelite branches met in Madrid, at the Plaza d’ Espagna priory, a few were not able to attend. They spoke about the first centenary of the death of Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity and the 8th centenary of the Carmelite Rule. On this last point there was a lot of discussion, recalling the recent congress in Lima (Peru) when the two Generals were present together with 120 participants. They fixed the dates for a meeting of the Carmelite family next July in Madrid on “The response of the Rule to the challenges of the modern world”, with a talk by Fr. Carlos Meesters, O.Carm. They also discussed, without coming to a conclusion, the possibility of translating into Spanish two scientific studies on the Rule, one in Italian the other in French. On January 20 the two Carmelite families will con-celebrate in Valencia the opening of the centenary. They gave thought to organizing a pilgrimage to the holy places connected with the Rule on Mount Carmel.

They also thought about the possibility of setting up joint meetings of the two branches of Carmel in the Spanish and Portuguese provinces, where both are present. The representatives from Castile and Aragon-Valencia proposed to begin walking together. They also listened to information on the working of the Spirituality Institute based in Burgos, and the possibility of preparing a Carmelite formation programme, like the one that is already working in Washington. They discussed producing liturgical books for the two families, such as a missal, lectionary and breviary.

A Secular Carmelite in Slovakia

Maria Milcevicova died in Kosice (Slovakia) on December 22 . Fr. General had given her a letter of affiliation to the Order on November 26, 2005. She was born April 25, 1947 in Presov. From her earliest years she loved Carmelite spirituality. Due to the communist regime she could not live as a Carmelite; however, she made a private vow of chastity in 1968, which she renewed in 1983. She was a secret but efficient assistant to priests in hiding. When the political situation changed she helped the Carmelites in Kosice. From 1990 she had a Carmelite nun as her spiritual director.

In 2000 she defended her doctoral thesis in the theological faculty in Cracow, and was a lecturer of spiritual theology in the Kosice diocesan seminary. She predeceased her mother whom she looked after.

New Blesseds Soon

On December 16, in the presence of the Holy Father, the decree was promulgated that recognizes the martyrdom of Fr. Eufrasio of the Child Jesus (Barredo Fernandez), Carmelite of the Burgos Province, who was shot for his faith by firing squad, aged 37, during what has been called the “October revolution” of 1934 in the Asturias region of Spain. His beatification will be held at a later date. Another announcement of the same order refers to a miracle attributed to the intercession of the Ven. M. Mary Joseph (Cataneo) of Jesus Crucified (1894-1948), from the Pointi Rossi carmel in Naples, Italy. After the medical consultation and the favourable opinion of the commission of theologians on 1st December, the commission of cardinals will soon meet to give the definitive approval of the miracle for the beatification.

First centenary of the restoration of the Catalonian Province

With the law of the “sale of church lands” by the Minister Mendizabal in 1835 all the religious orders in Spain were suppressed. The religious of the 13 Catalonian priories of the province of St. Joseph, established in 1588, were dispersed. A victim of the time was Blessed Francesco Palau y Quer of Jesus & Mary. Other similar suppressions took place in Austria, with its Josephism, Portugal with the Minister Pombal, Italy with Napoleon and Garibaldi, France with Jules Ferry and Emile Combes. The Order was restored in Spain in 1868, beginning with the Navarre province, then that of Castile, Andalusia and Aragon-Valencia. Catalonia was dependent on Aragon-Valencia.

In 1906, for reasons of the General visitation by Fr. Valentin of the Assumption, provincial of Navarre and future archbishop in Cuba, it was decided to constitute the Catalonian priories and their religious as a separate entity (cf. Antonio Unzueta, Mons. Valetin Zubizarreta. ABCT 2006, pp. 101-104). On December 3, 1906 the Tarragon and Barcelona communities, with the allocation of Mazatlan and Durango in Mexico, remained directly under the General Definitory. A year later, 1907, the semi-province of Catalonia was created and by 1920 it became fully autonomous. Today the province of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands has houses in Badalona, Barcelona (provincial curia and philosophy-theology college), Lleida (sanctuary of St. Therese and parish), Matadepera (house of prayer), Palafrugell, Palma de Mallorca (parish and college) and Tarragona. From 1912 to 1958 it had a mission in Arizona (USA). In 1918 it founded the Carmelite house in Washington. For a brief time, from 1980 – 1990 it made a foundation in Kelle, Owando diocese, in the Congo.

The Secular Order

On December 14, on the feast of St. John of the Cross, Fr. General sent the major superiors of the Order a document prepared by the General Secretary of the Secular Order on the pastoral assistance to our secular order communities. This document can be read on the Order’s web-page: www.ocd.pcn.net/ocds_ind.htm

The centenary of Elizabeth of the Trinity in the world

The celebrations for the Blessed are on a world wide level. From Lubumbashi (Democratic Republic of Congo) we have news of their centenary celebrations. They began on 12th November. An introductory conference given by the Salesian, Fr. Gavioli, and entitled “Elizabeth of the Trinity, a saint for our times” was held in the chapel of the Discalced Carmelite nuns and many members of the public were present. In that Sunday morning there was a solemn celebration, presided by the Episcopal Vicar, in the forced absence of the Archbishop. The entire Carmelite family was present: the ocd novitiate, the Discalced Carmelite Nuns, the Carmelite Congregations, the Secular Order and the friends of the Order.

A centenary committee has been set up which seeks to ensure that the closure of the centenary will involve the local church as much as possible. In order to spread awareness of our Carmelite from Dijon a two page leaflet was published by Fr. Conrad De Meester, as well as other booklets.

Efforts have also been made in the Central African Republic. The Saint Elias community, from Bouar, began the centenary on 8th November. There were three days of study of the Blessed for the Carmelite community, the members of the newly formed secular order, a group of Carmelite youth, altar servers, and the Oblate Sisters of St. Therese. The event was organized by the religious from this formation house. There was a viewing of the DVD entitled “Sabeth”, a reading of special texts, prayers and commentaries. On the last day the Bishop of Bouar presided at the concluding celebration and gave the homily. “Siriri” radio entrusted the community with preparing programmes on the Carmelite saints. This year preference was given to Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity. During the year there were public talks about her message. Fr. Constantin Kabasubavu and Bro. Frederic collaborated to prepare a leaflet which proved to be popular.

In Buenos Aires, Mendoza and Cordoba in Argentina, Fr. Francis Javier Sancho has organised a series of conferences on the Blessed Carmelite for the secular order, as well as our nuns, priests, seminarians and laity.

The “Institute of Carmelite Studies” in Washington (USA) has prepared the papers of Fr. Daniel Chowning entitled “Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity and baptismal spirituality” given at the John Paul II Centre in the federal capital of America.

The Spanish Conference of Provincials organized a meeting on Bl. Elizabeth from January 8 – 12 in Segovia. Two representatives from every OCD and O. Carm province will participate and two from each Spanish province of the Carmelite Missionary Sisters (CM), and the Teresian Carmelite Missionaries (CMT), the Teresian Carmelites of St. Joseph, the Carmelites of St. Joseph (Horta), and the Secular Institute “Notre Dame de Vie”.

Always with the motive of the centenary the Basque review “Karmel” (n°255, March 2006) published two substantial articles about her, her message and writings (pp. 52-109), adding the translation of four of her poems in the Basque language.