Dear Confrères,
Tomorrow morning, Friday the 30th June, Gérard Chabanon and Georges Jacques will arrive here in Brussels. One comes from Uganda, the other from Abidjan. Didier Lemaire and I will collect them at the airport. In the evening, in the company of our neighbours at the Belgian Sector, we will come together to raise a cup of good cheer. The following day, Saturday the 1st of July, Gérard and Georges will take up their respective duties. For me, it will be end of my sixyear mandate as Provincial of Europe.
Today, my thoughts return firstly to the confreres who formed part of the Provincial Team over the last six years: Fons Vanden Boer, Henri Menoud, Dick Kinlen, Francis Barnes and Didier Lemaire. To those, I would add First Councillors Jan Mol and Paul Hannon, with whom I got together on occasion at that time. They served me all well in planning my tasks and in discernment. These meetings were above all the opportunity to give new heart one another. Then there were all the members of the Provincial Council. I was able to maintain regular contact with most of them. To all, I extend my gratitude for their presence, their friendship and their contribution to the smooth running of the Province.
Of all the events that punctuated my mandate, I would especially underline two points. The first was when during the Plenary Council at Ouagadougou in September 2013, I raised, in the name of the Provincial Council, the following question: What future does the Society desire for Europe? The context of this question was on the one hand the inevitable aging and decrease in the personnel of the Society in Europe. Parallel to this there was also the trend of thinking that arose during the 2010 Chapter concerning the Mission of the Society outside Africa. Our question was received with a great deal of openness and it resulted in a constructive discussion. Two months later, Pope Francis published what we could perhaps call the charter of his pontificate: The Joy of the Gospel. This Apostolic Exhortation on the proclamation of the Gospel in today’s world enabled the General Council and the Society to move forward in their considerations. Through the power of the Spirit, a more balanced, open and richer vision of the Mission of the Society was able to take shape. The past was duly appraised and was combined with concern to be present to the major issues of our world today. This uniting of the past and present was crowned with an unshakeable hope in the future.
This brings me to my second point: the 2016 Chapter. This Chapter Assembly, thanks to the method chosen, namely appreciative discernment, was for me a long exercise in discernment, of receptivity and of listening to what the Spirit is saying to the Society. Undoubtedly, the major sign of the work of the Spirit is to gather us all around a single divine will. By ‘all’, I mean all the members of our Society, regardless of age, health, religious or cultural susceptibility or their missionary placement. The Post-Capitular of the Province sought to facilitate this process in making it more tangible and anchored in the realities of the Province of Europe. I wish Gérard, Georges and Didier well in continuing this task undertaken, in particular in the four areas chosen by the Post-Capitular: openness to the Africa world, to refugees and Muslims; missionary and vocation promotion; the meaning of our vocation and community life.
Finally, a last word. In all sincerity, I would beg pardon from all those among you that I have offended or hurt. I ask forgiveness also of those for whom my support or help has not been enough.
Fraternally yours,
André-L. Simonart
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