Franciscan Missionaries of Mary
Via Giusti, 12
I – 00185 – ROMA
N° 1
January-March 2015
Dear Sisters,
St. Michael’s fraternity is complete since mid-January, after
having had the time for the ‘new councillors’ to do the
transmission of the Chapter and to bid farewell to our respective
provinces; for “those with the second mandate”, a time of rest…
We started off taking some time to know each other in order to
build our team with its different dynamics in view of what we
want to live as a fraternity and to understand a little more, our
role in relation to the provinces, with the secretariat and the
general treasurer’s office. For this purpose we went for four days
to a retreat house at Monte Cucco, situated at the edge of the
city of Rome with a magnificent view.
During these days we decided to continue with LIEN-LINK-LAZO
while changing the logo through which we could express the
continuity of the General Chapter by focusing on the three key
words that we want to live and to be brought to life:
Contemplation – Communication – Collaboration, without
being closed in on ourselves, but open to the world and to the
future.
We made the choice right after the elections to work first of all
with one councillor in charge of one province. At Mount Cucco,
we went over this question by exchanging the experiences of the
past with two councillors for each province… this reflection
confirmed our choice of having one councillor per province for
the contacts, and at the time of visits, a second councillor would
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join her. The list of the councillors with seven provinces that you
have received during the chapter remains valid.
From the beginning of our mission
Since our fraternity is located within the large community of the
generalate which is composed of St. Helen’s at Via Giusti and
Sta. Rosa at Grottaferrata, sisters Françoise and Jolanda paid
them a contact visit . The two communities have had many
changes to live through these last years because of the situation
of restructuring of Via Giusti. St. Helen’s community that was at
Grotta was obliged to return to Via Giusti after the completion of
its work and had to right away start preparing for the General
Chapter. So this is the time for the community to consolidate its
integration for a new start. Meanwhile the community of Grotta
found that their life has been completely changed.
Our first task together was to resume the deepening of the
chapter documents in order to further clarify the priorities to be
taken for the next 6 years. It became very clear to us that there
are two main areas that deserve all our energy and our time:
Formation and restructuring.
Formation
We have embarked upon a reflection on the areas of ongoing
formation and formation to the charism but we have above all
focused during this intense period of time on initial formation.
In order to situate ourselves better, we looked into all stages of
initial formation separately in the continents and also as a
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whole. We shared on the experiences of the existing common
novitiates of the Institute giving special attention to the sending
of our young sisters as we focused our reflection on how to
implement the recommendations of the Chapter.
We currently have 21 novitiates in the Institute. There is a great
diversity in the number of novices, the composition of the
novitiates (different regions or provinces) and the formative
community.
Some provinces are searching for a way to continue to give the
best possible formation in situations where there are fewer
sisters available for accompaniment or only a few young people
in formation.
As we pursued our reflections we found that it was necessary to
keep in touch with some of our realities with regard to initial
formation. We have already made contact visits to the two
provinces of Europe who are searching for an English-speaking
novitiate: the province of United Kingdom, Ireland, and Malta by
Sisters Andrina and Jolanda and the province of Central and
Eastern Europe by Sisters Narelle and Jolanda. These visits paved
the way for a direct exchange with the young in formation, their
formators and gave the provinces an opportunity to express
their desires and their fears. These exchanges between the
provinces and the general council seem to favor a path of
dialogue and discernment together.
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Restructuring
Sisters Françoise and Narelle made a contact visit last February
to the provinces of Morocco and Algeria-Tunisia. In past years,
each province in its turn has made efforts for internal
restructuring and some means have already been taken to
facilitate the two provinces coming together. However, at the
end of the general chapter the two provincials expressed the
urgency to go further in this direction.
The need for reflection on a common future became crucial with
the process initiated for the designation of new provincials. The
general council therefore decided first of all, to consult the two
provincials and then all the sisters, on the alternative of electing
a provincial for each province or even one provincial for the two
provinces.
After this consultation, the on-the-spot meetings with sisters
who were at the provincial gatherings have been a truly positive
experience. It has enabled us to confirm the consensus to
choose only one provincial and allowed us to envisage a way of
doing the path of restructuring together in the years to come.
The two provinces have now entered in the same process as all
the provinces of the Institute for the first mandate, to choose
between election or nomination.
In line with the orientations of the General Chapter 2014 that
asked us to explore “the best ways with which we can continue
to animate the process of restructuring…”1 we invited Fr. Emili
1
Chapter Document: 2.1.3
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Turú, Superior General of the Marist Brothers who shared with
us their experience of restructuring. We had very enriching
exchanges that clarified, inspired and encouraged us in this
perspective. They have initiated this process from 1993 and it
provided their congregation with a new impetus.
The Year of Consecrated Life
On the occasion of the Year of Consecrated Life, the
Congregation for the Institutes for Consecrated Life and the
Societies of Apostolic Life (CICLSAL) scheduled a seminar for the
Formators, to be held in Rome from 8 to 11 April 2015. Two
FMM sisters will participate in this formation: Sr. Shoko Aoki, the
former mistress of novices of the Chinese-language novitiate in
the Philippines and Sr. Georgette Ngom of the province of
Mauritania-Senegal, now in the process of preparing for a
common pre-novitiate for the two provinces (Burkina- Faso,
Niger, Togo and Mauritania-Senegal).
Encounters
Some of us were able to participate in an afternoon session
organized by the executive office of USIG for the new sisters,
members of their General Council in Rome. This meeting was to
communicate to the new arrivals the functioning of this body
which works to promote understanding and the living of
consecrated life at an international level.
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We had the visit of three bishops of Algeria who were passing
through Rome for their “ad liminal visit “, also that of a new
cardinal from Vietnam just after the Consistory. We were able to
share with them during the course of a meal.
The situation in the world
We are affected and we continue to carry in our prayer the
tragic situations of our world:

The situations of migrants /refugees who die in the
Mediterranean, etc.

Our brothers and sisters of other religions, the anguish of
Christians, persecuted and killed.

Natural disasters, plane crashes, road accidents that
cause numerous victims and sometimes even our families
are affected.

Ukraine where we had to permanently close the
community of Crimea-Simféropol on 12 December 2014.
We hope that the existing “cease-fire “will help to
advance dialogue for peace and a lasting peace.

The war in Syria, terrorist attacks where we are: France,
Egypt, Tunisia, Pakistan, violence in the East of the DRC,
in Niger where churches and convents have been burned
down and for which the Institute has recently given
financial assistance.
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Signs of hope
In this world of great tribulation, many people have shown
concrete gestures of solidarity for life and for the common good
etc. We have seen this with the situation of Ebola with its deep
impact on populations on the coast of West Africa.
The international community, the health care personnel who
along with the religious and volunteers have made possible the
care of the sick and some of them even to the gift of their own
life. This terrible epidemic is not yet eradicated; however there is
a significant improvement with several initiatives for
humanitarian assistance with adequate health care facilities
undertaken. The institute has also contributed financially in
assisting teachers of catholic schools of Monrovia and their
families as they had no more their salaries because of the
closure of schools…
We are grateful and in great appreciation for our sisters in
Liberia who with the support of their province were a great help
with regard to the response of the Church of Liberia to the Ebola
crisis. They have made available our facilities to meet the needs;
they have closely accompanied the population… We extend our
gratitude to the two volunteers and their provinces… Sr. Mary
Anne Williamson of the province of East Africa who has returned
to Kenya since February 13 and Sr. Gosia Sieluzycka who
continues her service in a maternity ward in Monrovia.
And how many of our sisters choose to be in solidarity with the
people of God, sharing their situations of insecurity, danger,
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being witnesses of faith and hope? Yes, “We are rediscovering
with enthusiasm and gratitude the ever new freshness of the
FMM charism confided to Mary of the Passion”.2
The Institute was requested by the department of Justice
and Peace to join in the special committee entitled: “To
increase the commitment of the Catholic Church in the
urgent intervention for Ebola “It is an initiative launched
by the Holy See to raise funds, manage and distribute
them to the countries affected by the epidemic… for more
information, see the link below. At our proposal, Sr.
Barbara Brillant of Monrovia has become a member of
the above committee.
http://www.news.va/en/news/vatican-donates-500-thousandto-help-ebola-crisis
Communication
The opening of the column “Latest News” FMM in the reserved
space of the website has already allowed us to draw closer to
one another when the FMM are affected by various situations in
the world. We thank the provinces whose news helped to launch
this initiative. United with them we encourage you to be active
and creative in sending us the news each time we are touched
by a reality as a path of solidarity and unity of our common
2
Vision of General Chapter 2014, 1st paragraph
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mission. As it is indicated in the circular issued for this purpose,
“the responsibility to channel this official information rests with
the provincial of the place”.
News and thanks
Sr. Shiromi Vithanage from the province of Sri Lanka, after 6
years of temporary service with great generosity and love for her
elderly and sick sisters at Grotta will be joining the community of
Citta del Vaticano and now belongs to the province of Italy. We
wish her the best in her new province and mission!
Our deep gratitude goes to Sr. Maria Antonia Alcalde Torrecilla
who will begin her sabbatical next month after many years of
sisterly service through the gift of herself and remarkable
devotedness in the infirmary of Via Giusti. So also Sr. Sylvie
Yeung, who has gone to the Holy Land, after a long and generous
service at the general treasurer’s office. She will return for a
while to Rome then to France before she returns to her province
of origin – Reunion, Mauritius–Seychelles.
To each of them we wish abundance of blessings and a wellearned period of rest and renewal.
We thank Sr. Maria Carmen Ugarte Zudizarreta coming from the
province of Mozambique for the service of the infirmary of Via
Giusti. We wish her good mission among us.
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This ‘intense period of time’ will undoubtedly be long, because
of the formalities of obtaining papers for residence in Italy, for
some among us. This occasion also gives us an opportunity to
move forward with our reflections and planning. We want
through this “Link”, to share with you the news of our ‘halftime’, which will reach you for Easter. The Risen One joins us and
walks with us in our challenges and opportunities of
restructuring requested by the last general chapter. May His
light accompany us during this year dedicated to Consecrated
Life so that we can become more and more credible witnesses of
His resurrection!
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Alleluia!
He is alive; He is among us, He goes before us in Galilee!
Happy Easter to each and every one!
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