Looking towards the lands of Asia
As the project of mission ad gentes progresses, it is demanding more attention, especially for studying new problems and for better planning. For this new and complex mission, the General Council has appointed a Consultative Council, expressly for the study of new Marist presences in Asia. This Council is formed by Brothers Luis GarcĂa Sobrado, Peter Rodney, Rene Reyes, Michael Flanigan, Tom Chin and Father JosĂ© Doan, sj.
We need to highlight the presence of Brother Tom Chin, former Provincial of the Province of China for nine years and of Father José Doan, Jesuit, who personally knows the Church of Asia very well. In fact, he was the Provincial of the Jesuit Provinces for nine years and Vicar for Religious Life in the Diocese of Ho Chi Min.
This Consultative Council has as its aim to help the co-ordination team of the project to deepen its reflection on concrete matters and to make practical recommendations.
From the 11th to the 13th May, this Consultative Council met for the first time at the General House to look at a first list of topics on their agenda:
1. To deepen the most important dynamics and objectives of the project.
2. To define criteria and strategies for the ?new presences? on the Asian continent.
3. To create structures of animation and government for this project and to co-ordinate those responsible for this.
4. To study the orientation programme that will be offered to the brothers at Davao.
5. To analyse the financing of the project.
At the end of the meeting, a series of recommendations were unanimously agreed to that will be a great help for the good development of activities.
This first meeting brought out the need to consult each other, especially during the first phases of the launching and of the development of this work of evangelisation.
The next meeting of the Consultative Council will take place from the 2nd to the 4th November 2006, when the first participants in the mission will have had three months of formation at Davao.