Report from the 10th General Assembly of the Lay Fraternities of Charles de Foucauld Lebanon 2018

Transcription

1 Report from the 10th General Assembly of the Lay Fraternities of Charles de Foucauld Lebanon 2018 I would like to begin this report by thanking all the members of the UK and Irish Fraternities for supporting me, both materially and by your prayers, to make this amazing journey to Lebanon, a journey in every sense of the word, physically and personally. I will never forget the experience. Thank you from the bottom of my heart I only wish you could all have been there to share the time with me. I hope this report will give you some taste of our two weeks together. Here is a photo of us all, from every continent (Red scarf : North & South America / Yellow scarf : Africa / Green scarf : Asia / White Scarf : Arab Countries / Blue Scarf : Europe) There were 34 Countries represented, with 4 delegates representing two countries as I was. Africa : Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Mauritius, Niger, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania. Americas: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, USA. Arab Countries : Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria. Asia : India, Pakistan, Philippines. Europe : Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Spain, UK 1

2 We were welcomed by our Lebanese hosts to the land of the cedars with the typical Arabic blessing Ahlan wa sahlan, (Ahlan is from the Arabic word for parent). The Lebanese fraternity of 12 people, and especially 4 who did all the incredible organising, helped by the outgoing International Team, were welcoming us as part of their family and telling us to make ourselves at home which we did, in the St Augustine Centre for Retreats, a centre in the Maronite rite. The view from the centre, in the hills above Beirut, with Beirut and the Mediterranean in the distance. It was the first time a General Assembly has been held in an Arab country. The small Lebanese organising team had even written and recorded a special hymn for the Assembly Lets Walk in Hope Together, based on the theme for the meeting. We sang it at every opportunity, and it was a very useful gathering song, when trying to bring to order the very, very lively conversations at the beginning of sessions I know our South American brothers and sisters would not mind my noting that were the most animated in my view! I cannot do justice to all the discussions we had, some in the large group, some in smaller groups and some very important individual conversations, but I hope I can give you the big picture of the main topics that were on the agenda. 1. Assembly theme : Walking Together with Hope - Denouncing, Renouncing and Announcing Fr Jimmy Bonnicci, the priest from Malta who accompanies the International team introduced the theme with his paper, which I am attaching separately. Every delegate shared their country s discussions about the theme, gathered from individual fraternities. You will remember my having circulated many months ago the paper from Claudio Chiarutinni about the theme with attached questions. Thank you to those who responded. 2

3 The final message, which I am also attaching separately, is the distillation of thoughts and conclusions from all countries based on the theme. I hope you will take time to ponder this document and circulate amongst your fraternity groups. 2. Reflections on Martyrdom Fr Emmanuel Asi from Pakistan, read his paper entitled Grace of Martyrdom about the life of Br Charles. I have requested an electronic copy of this paper so that I can send it to you. We held a commemoration of the Martyrs, where every continent spoke about some of their martyrs, you will recognise Bl. Oscar Romero, presented by Myela from Venezuela. Fr Jacques Hamel, Edith Stein and Daphne Caruana Galizia and Jo Cox were named from Europe. We learned that the typical salutation from South America, is to name the martyr and reply Presente meaning I present you to others and you are present here amongst us and will never be forgotten. So.. we say Charles de Foucauld and reply Presente 3

4 3. Reports from every country on their national fraternities. I have all reports, in hard copy, from every country. If anyone would like to know about a particular country I would be happy to share that report with them. I have also photos of posters about their fraternities, which many countries prepared. I hope to create a slide show of those posters and other photos, which I will show when we meet in Walsingham, and next year during the European holiday in Minsteracres. I presented two reports, from the UK and Ireland, which I am attaching separately. I also prepared a short power point presentation, which I can send anyone who is interested. There were common themes the aging of fraternity members, the challenges of an increasingly secular society and inter-religious relationships. All agreed that small is beautiful and we should not be unduly worried about numbers or indicators of success as defined by the world. I was particularly struck by the vibrancy of the fraternities in Madagascar, and they appear to have a very successful programme of outreach to young people. The fraternities in South America are very aware politically, and particularly hurt by past collusion of the institutional church with the ruling powers in some countries, to the detriment of the poor in those countries. We were shown a very powerful film about the lives of the Little Brothers of the Gospel in Argentina in the late 1970 s, during the so-called dirty war, and in particular the work of Fr Arturo Paoli, a Little Brother, who died in 2015 at the age of 102. The fraternity in Chile is struggling with the very recent events concerning the cover-up, by many of the country s bishops, of the sexual abuse of children. Pope Francis, as you will know, has been actively involved in this situation. 4. Election of new International Team Back row from left to right : Brigitte Leport (France), Alisbah Javed (Pakistan), Laurence Fernandez (France), Maria Bouali (Algeria), Dominique Bertinau (Madagascar), François Citera (Democratic Republic of Congo) Front row from left to right : Myrna Aquino (Phillipines), Mayela Olmos (Venezuela), Willian Olmos (Venezuela) 4

5 5. Recognition of the Fraternity by the Vatican You may remember that some time ago I circulated a discussion paper from Claudio Chiaruttini, co-ordinator of the outgoing International Team, with a request for us to contact the bishops in the dioceses where fraternities are present, to seek their support for formal recognition by the Vatican of the Lay Fraternity as an International Association of the Christian Faithful. The Fraternity is recognised in some countries by national bishops conferences, including France, Malta, Algeria and Syria. At the time I sent our views on this move to Claudio. I believe it is true to say that our major concerns were the potential loss of our particular charism by formal recognition, risking us becoming just another group in the Church, rather than a way of life based on the model of Nazareth. We were also concerned about the impact on non-catholic members of our fraternities, in particular our Anglican brothers and sisters. Claudio presented a further paper to the General Assembly, noting these concerns, which are shared, and outlining the history of the initiative, which was strongly supported by Fr Voillaume (founder of the Little Brothers of Jesus) in I will try to obtain an electronic copy of Claudio s paper for anyone interested. We discussed this issue at the Assembly, with every country reporting back on their national views. It raised very strong feelings, both for and against the initiative. The countries of Latin America were particular negative about the proposal in the light of their particular histories and contexts, which I have outlined above in section 4. In the end we did not vote on the issue, fearing a split in the group, which would have been very unfortunate as we wished to respect our unity in spite of our diversities. The agreement was for the new International Team to review progress and consider how to proceed in the light of our discussions. 6. Fraternity Finances Claudio presented a report of the current state of finances, unfortunately only in hard copy, which I can send to anyone interested. Of particular note was the outline of the financial system that is supposed to operate across the fraternity. Here is a copy of the system from Claudio s report. Collection Personal Contribution 1 day income per year or equivalent - National Fund National Fund Surplus - Continental Fund Continental Fund Surplus - International Fund Finance System Redeployment International Fund - Advances to continental funds Continental Funds - Advances to the national funds Note : Costs incurred for Fraternity service should be refunded! 5

6 The system is apparently not new and outlines a flow of resources. You will see from the table that the expectation is that every member of the fraternity makes an annual personal contribution to the national fund, to support the work of the national Responsible and the national team. The suggested amount is equivalent to one day s income if possible. At this point I have to make a plea on behalf of our national finances: We are very short of funds, as no annual system of contributions has been in place for some time and we are currently relying on the generosity of one or two individuals to keep some sort of income flow. Our heartfelt thanks go to them. We are potentially facing some support costs to host the European holiday in July 2019, in addition to my travel costs incurred in my journeyings around the country and beyond, undertaking fraternity business. Please contact me or our treasurer Simon Scott-Plumer on simon.scottplummer@gmail.com if you wish to discuss this further. Thank you. 7. Other contributions to the Assembly We had the privilege to be addressed by two leading figures in charities in Lebanon. Melhem Khalaf is a Christian lawyer and co-founder of an NGO called OffreJoie, started during the Lebanese war in He was a really engaging speaker, full of life and hope. You can read more about his organisation at Mrs Rabat Al-Sadr is a Muslim women, celebrated in Lebanon as the director of an organisation called founded by her brother, who was the political and spiritual leader of the Shiite community in Lebanon and who disappeared in Libya in 1978 in mysterious circumstances. We were visited one evening by Little Brothers and Little Sisters of Jesus living in Lebanon and Syria, they joined us for evening meal and our European night. We also met and heard testimony from Little Sisters of the Gospel who live in the two large refugee camps for Palestinian and other refugees fleeing from war zones around Lebanon, including Syria. These camps have been in existence since the first war with Israel in 1982 and are now settled homes for many Palestinians. 8. Worship We enjoyed lively and creative morning and evening prayer sessions led by each continent. We attended Mass in the Maronite rite at the summer residence of the Patriarch, Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-rahi, high above the Quadisha Valley or Valley of the Saints / Holy Valley so-called because of the many hermitages and monasteries hidden in the caves up and down the massive gorge, formed by a geological fault. 6

7 View from Bishop s Rock, in the grounds of the home of the Patriarch, overlooking the Quadisha Valley After Mass we were welcomed to a special audience with the Patriarch. We were introduced individually and as he shook my hand he said Ah Great Britain I replied, it s not so great at the moment!. We were also offered very fine chocolates as we left! A tip maybe for papal audiences?? The audiences are apparently real political and diplomatic opportunities if one wants to make an impact on Lebanese affairs before us at the audience were a large group of firefighters who had not been paid for some months and were imploring, very vociferously, help from the Patriarch to put pressure on their employers. We were rather quiet and decorous in contrast, the only noise we made was to sing a blessing in Arabic for the Patriarch! 9. Other activities We worked very hard during our two weeks together, with just two days off. One I have mentioned above when we visited Quadisha Vally and the Patriarch. The same day we also visited the famous Cedars of Lebanon, which are now preserved in a special park at the top 7

8 of the Quadisha Valley, near a place called Bsharri, which is also the birth place of Khalil Gibran, who wrote The Prophet. The cedars, which used to cover most of Lebanon, have been much reduced by deforestation. Over the centuries, cedar wood was exploited by the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans, and others. The Phoenicians used the cedars for their merchant fleets. Our other day s outing took us to see the famous shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon, which is housed in a special enclave, rather like the domain at Lourdes (see photo below). We also visited the hermitage and shrine to Lebanon s most famous saint, Charbel Makhlouf, whom I have to admit I had never heard of (see photos below). There was a small museum attached to the shrine, which displayed many letters from all over the world from people who had received healing or special blessings from the Saint. There were many letters from the UK so I now understand that, despite my ignorance, he is known in our country too. We celebrated Mass close to St Charbel s tomb, which holds his uncorrupted body. There were many people visiting the shrine, which is an important place of pilgrimage for Lebanese Christians. Unfortunately our bus broke down as we were leaving the shrine so we had many more minutes to wonder at the life of the Saint, and in particular his devotion to silence and austerity, after many years living in community with his fellow monks at the nearby abbey. 8

9 Our Lady of Lebanon 9

10 Outside the Church dedicated to St Charbel, containing his tomb St Charbel s Cell in his hermitage : note the wooden block for his pillow 10

11 10. Final Thoughts I am left with all kinds of impressions and blessings from my visit to Lebanon and my participation in the General Assembly. I hope this report has given you some flavour of the unforgettable and extraordinary experience I had the greatest fortune to be part of. Lebanon is a fascinating country where, after years of war, people of all religions and none, and all ethnic groups, live in harmony together unity in diversity it is a beacon of hope in the Middle East. I made new friendships, now enhanced by our regular contacts via WhatsApp thanks to the wonders of our modern technology! I carry the deepest gratitude for the joyful and selfless welcome we received from our Lebanese brothers and sisters. I will remember always the immense generosity of brothers and sisters from all over our world, in particular those from the poorer countries on our planet. They shared themselves, their gifts and their goodies during our celebration nights, with the joyous abandon of the sons and daughters of our bounteous God. Moira Potier 20 August 2018 Evening falls over the Quadisha valley, looking west 11