Meeting with the General Administration
As has become its custom, the General Council, following its long Council sessions, reported to the members of the General Administration on the main topics discussed.
On 23 January 2009, they dedicated the morning to sharing with the brothers and lay persons of the General Administration the work and decisions made during the winter session. This year the winter session was shortened to make space for a second session at the beginning of summer.
The meeting took place in two sessions with a brief pause for relaxation. The first session was begun with a short prayer, a welcome from Brother Sean and a reminder of the World Forum which is being held in Brazil. The report on activities opened with the describing of the calendar of the General Council?s activities for the next months up to the holding of the General Chapter. The details of this calendar will be published on another page recording the activities of the Brother Superior General and his counselors.
To adjust the periods of some services which are carrying out the administrative process which will originate the holding of the General Chapter, it has been decided to extend the mandate in office of Brothers Pau Fornells (30 June 2010), Pedro Ost (20 November 2009) and Jean Ronzon (31 March 2010). In the same way, information was given of the restructuring carried out in the offices of the General Administration. In the Archives Dorotea Cinanni has begun her work as secretary; Emanuela Lisciarelli has taken charge of the statistics services and Gabriela Scanavino has transferred to become Spanish translator. Likewise, Brother Luis GarcĂa Sobrado informed the group that Brother Antonio MartĂnez Fernández has completed his service as General Administrator, at the same time expressing his gratitude, in the name of the Institute, for the valuable services he has provided in organising the finances. After this, there was a description of some of the operations which are going to be undertaken in the house to adapt it to the needs of the General Chapter meeting.
The most arduous task performed by the General Council during the winter session, recently concluded, had been the drawing up of the Report which they will present to the General Chapter. Brother Emili TurĂş explained to all the members of the General Administration the methodology used by the General Council in drawing up this Report. The contents of the same revolve around five main areas of work.
Brother Teodoro Grageda, secretary of the Preparatory Commission of the Chapter, spoke about the presentation of the documents which are being used in preparation for the XXIst General Chapter, while Brother Maurice Berquet explained the structure of the new web page dedicated to the General Chapter at www.champagnat.org
The second session of the morning began with the meeting in small groups for sharing what the General Administration thought about the holding of the General Chapter and how we might give it a warm welcome.
In the plenary session there was a sharing of some ideas about preparing the General House for the Chapter and welcoming the capitulants following on the experience of organising the event of the Beatifications. Brother Sean, Superior General, concluded the session by expressing thanks for the work done by all the members of the General Administration for the good functioning of the Institute.