Crossroads Nov 2013

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ment with a panel presentation by the speak-ers joined by Isabel Smythe of the Commit-tee for Interreligious Dialogue and RoryFenton of the British Humanist Associationand moderated by Fr. Carl Chudy SX, US

Provincial of the Xaverian Missionaries.

The conference was conceived by the Xa-verian Missionaries to be just the starting

point of an ongoing intercultural dialogue.Theblog (http://religious-secular-dialogue.blogspot.com/)and Twitter Feed(https://twitter.com/secreldialogue/ )have

been abuzz with activity by conference par-ticipants and interested viewers during and

post the proceedings. Brian Pellot of Reli-gion News Service has written a piece aboutthe conference on hisblog(http://brianpellot.religionnews.com/2013/11/13/atheists-believers-seek-common-ground-scotland/) The picture album of the eventmay be found at:http://www.flickr.com/photos/catholicmissio

n/sets/72157637522554356/

BIRTHDAYS &

ANNIVERSARIES

2013-14

DECEMBER 2-7th death anniversary

of Fr. Gratian Rossato

3-Feast of St. FrancisXavier

4-24th death anniver-sary of Br. Eugene Cu-merlato

6-Birthday of Fr. FrankGrappoli

8- 11th death anniver-

sary of Fr. Pius Devoti

15-Birthday of Fr. Roc-co Puopolo

17-Birthday of Fr. MarkMarangone

JANUARY 29th death anniversary

of Fr. Natale Vaccari

17th death anniversaryof Fr. Romano Rolli

4th death anniversaryof Fr. Lino Pellerzi

FEBRUARY 16- 3rd death anniver-

sary of Fr. Luciano Pe-terlini

16-Birthday of Fr.Adolph Menendez

21-Birthday of Fr. Dom-inic Caldognetto

ISSUE 137

NOVEMBER2013 TTTHEHEHEXXXAVERIANAVERIANAVERIANMMMISSIONARIESISSIONARIESISSIONARIESUSAUSAUSA

The United Kingdom andUSA Provinces of the Xa-verian Missionaries co-

sponsored a conference at theirConforti Institute hereon 8 through10 of November which broughttogether people who believe in Godand those who dont. Common

Ground: A Conversation among

Religious Believers and Human-ists on Values and Ethics,provedto be just that; and showed that thetwo world views can come together

to create a better world.

WHAT HAPPENED

The keynote speakers, AssistantHumanist Chaplain at Harvard University, Mr.Chris Stedman and Fr. John Sivalon MM, pro-fessor, of sociology at the University of Scran-ton, Pennsylvania, shared their lives journeysand then modeled dialogue between a non-

believer and a believer. Ms. Prerna Abbi of theInterfaith Youth Core in Chicago and MaureenSier of the Scottish Interfaith Council provided

practical insight into developing connectionsand relationships between theists and atheists.Dr. Callum Brown presented the statistics ofdeclining religious affiliation and the growth ofthe non-affiliated. Then participants themselves

chose the conversations in an Open Space for-mat. Topics included: Strangers and Stereo-types; Justice Action Plans; The Apathetic andIndifferent; Conflict Resolution; Taking Sidesand Finding Commonality; and Gender Issues.Final discussions centered on the perceived

privilege religion holds in society and how hu-manists and believers can work together to com-

bat injustice and inequality via shared vision,joint statements and united actions through acommon vision of ethics.

The dialogue was brought to the Scottish Parlia-

CCCOMMONOMMONOMMONGROUNDGROUNDGROUNDANDANDANDNEXTNEXTNEXTSTEPSSTEPSSTEPS

The planning team: (left to right) Hugh Foy (UK), John Convery

(UK), Carl Chudy (USA), Mary Aktay (USA), and Tom Welsh (UK)
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ISSUE 137 P AG E 2

WHY DIALOGUE WITH HUMANI-

SIM?

Since the early 1990s the Church haslooked seriously at her commitment to aserious dialogue with the culture

through dialogue with humanists andatheists and the enculturation of faith.Pope Benedict opened this up furtherwith the Courtyard of the Gentilesinformal gatherings of religious believersand humanists in various parts of Eu-

rope in the last few years.

In the United States, dialogue with hu-manism and atheism has become partand parcel of interfaith dialogue, alt-hough many humanists who wish to bein dialogue and collaboration with be-lievers would not call it an interfaithdialogue. For us, this type of dialogue,

which underlines our commitment tointerfaith and intercultural dialogue, isan opportunity to witness to the localchurch the urgency of the missio ad

gentes here at home and abroad. In factthis kind of dialogue is the most effica-cious way we can help the local churchin their intercultural dialogue and find-ing ways to live alongside secular cul-ture. It is an effective mission animation

project.

WHERE TO FROM HERE

In our evaluation of this important eventwe found it to be a new experience, notonly for us but also for the humanismcommunities. The positive experiencehad by all was an impetus to find moreopportunities for dialogue and collabo-

ration in the area of justice and peace.

Our province will be publishing an e-journal of the event by late Februarythat will include the talks, a synthesis ofthe dialogue among the participants andsome a couple of reflections by a Catho-

lic and a humanist.

We will also explore having a similarevent here in the United States. After

going through this initial experience wehave learned much and even though thecultural context in the US is differentthan in Scotland, there are many simi-

larities we may build on.

Conforti Institute in Scotland too re-ceived good publicity in this dialogueevent and there are plans for ongoing

projects in dialogue with the ScottishInterfaith Council and with humanists

organizations.

Earlier in the year, theProvincial Council creat-

ed the Communications Boardas a way to replace the olderEditorial Board of the printednewsletter. The purpose of theCB is to have a group of con-freres who oversee our com-munications both in printedand internet media. The Boardmeets twice a year, in the

Spring and Fall. We took inaccount all of the tools of me-dia currently in use, both print-

ed and online.

Provincial Communications

Plan: The CB approved a newplan that outlines the use ofmedia in the three pillars ofthe province: youth and youngadult reachout, interfaith andintercultural dialogue, and

fundraising and development.

Update on media use for

intra-provincial dialogueproject: A report of the use ofthe conference blog and twitterfeed, along with ways to en-hance our follow up to this

project through the media.

Printed newsletter: Thenewsletter, published throughthe Provincial Media Office is

prepared by our Communications Di-rector, Mary Aktay. More less our mail-ing list is a little over 9000, four times ayear. The costs are on average$40,000.00 yearly with the costs sharedall three communities. As the newslet-ter is also online, it is viewed from 350to 500 times for each issue. Coopera-tion with all of the communities is im-

portant in making our newsletter moreeffective as a tool for mission anima-

tion fundraising.

Rosary Booklet: It was reported thatanother 5000 copies are being reprint-ed. The booklet is very popular and wetalked about how to make it a moreeffective mission animation tool. It wassuggested to change the format to theEnglish copy of the mission rosary

booklet published in Italy that combines

mission and Confortian spirituality.

New website: The new website of theprovince will finally be launched in the

first week of December most probably.The home page, pictured above, ismeant to transition from the older sitewith these things in mind: a simplereasy structure to navigate, better inte-gration of media, inclusion of interfaithdialogue matters, and more practicalresource for parishes and schools inglobal mission spirituality and advoca-

cy.

The new site will be maintained by theMedia Office in Wayne. It is importantthat all of the communities provideinformation and resources so that wecan keep the site updated in a timelymanner. We hope the CB members tohelp their communities with this.

The initial launch will be important for usin order for all confreres and friends tolook it over and offer suggestions forimprovement. You can see it under con-struction at:

www.xaviermissionaries.org/wp

Communication Board Meets
http://www.cultura.va/content/cultura/en/dipartimenti/ateismo-e-non-credenza.htmlC:/Users/Office/Documents/Adobehttp://www.cultura.va/content/cultura/en/dipartimenti/ateismo-e-non-credenza.htmlC:/Users/Office/Documents/Adobehttp://www.cultura.va/content/cultura/en/dipartimenti/ateismo-e-non-credenza.htmlC:/Users/Office/Documents/Adobehttp://www.cultura.va/content/cultura/en/dipartimenti/ateismo-e-non-credenza.htmlC:/Users/Office/Documents/Adobehttp://www.cultura.va/content/cultura/en/dipartimenti/ateismo-e-non-credenza.htmlC:/Users/Office/Documents/Adobehttp://www.cortiledeigentili.com/home/home.aspC:/Users/Office/Documents/Adobehttp://www.cortiledeigentili.com/home/home.aspC:/Users/Office/Documents/Adobehttp://www.xaviermissionaries.org/wphttp://www.xaviermissionaries.org/wphttp://www.xaviermissionaries.org/wphttp://www.cortiledeigentili.com/home/home.aspC:/Users/Office/Documents/Adobehttp://www.cultura.va/content/cultura/en/dipartimenti/ateismo-e-non-credenza.htmlC:/Users/Office/Documents/Adobehttp://www.cultura.va/content/cultura/en/dipartimenti/ateismo-e-non-credenza.htmlC:/Users/Office/Documents/Adobehttp://www.cultura.va/content/cultura/en/dipartimenti/ateismo-e-non-credenza.htmlC:/Users/Office/Documents/Adobehttp://www.cultura.va/content/cultura/en/dipartimenti/ateismo-e-non-credenza.htmlC:/Users/Office/Documents/Adobe


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CROSSROADS P AG E 3

The council heard the reportof the intra-provincial project inScotland and discussed a numberof ways we can follow up on thisproject as well as collaboratewith the UK in future projects.One under consideration is train-ing youth leaders in interfaithand intercultural dialogue.

The council will be attendingthe leadership gathering of theConference of Major Superiorsof Men in Tucson, Arizona inthe last week of January 2014. It

is part of ongoing formation forprovincial leadership.

The council decided to con-tribute a portion of of the Grim-shaw Foundation grant we re-ceive yearly for the help of vic-tims of the super-typhoon in thePhilippines.

The council is considering aretirement plan for our lay em-ployees. More information willbe forthcoming in the next

months.

There is a restructuring of ouraccounts regarding ChristianBrothers. RCT accounts, which

are most of the provincial ac-counts, are being put into othertypes of accounts through theZielinksi Company, which man-ages our IIF accounts. Two oth-er accounts will be deposited inlocal banks.

The council studied the sixyear program of the new Gen-eral Direction. A number issueshave a direct effect on our ownprovince, such as their concern

to have more mission animators,more dialogue projects, and up-coming international gathers.They include mission animatorsof Europe and the USA January2015, two Cosuma gatheringsand the next General Chapter.

The council is working to up-date and revamp our vocationand postulancy programs inlight of the changes in the RFXand concerns for abuse preven-tion.

Fr. Carl Chudy, SX

Office of the Provincial

12 Helene Court

Wayne, New Jersey 08046

973-942-2975

[email protected]

Sharing from the Provincial Council

December 9-11-Special vocationprogram for major superiors andtheir vocation teams sponsored bythe National Religious Vocation

Conference in Indiana. Frs. Chudyand Puopolo will attend.

January 25-28, 2014Leadership

gathering in Tucson, Arizona. TheProvincial and Council will attend.

February 16-21, 2014-NationalBoard of the Conference of MajorSuperiors of Men meetings. Fr.Chudy will attend.

March 6-9, 2014-National Adviso-ry Council of the US Catholic Bish-ops in Baltimore, MD. Fr. Chudywill attend.

March 31-April 1, 2014-

Communications Board and Coun-cil will meet.

Scenes from the Dialogue Conference in Scotland The Provincial wishes towelcome Fr. SalvadorCruz Rojowho will comein March 2014 to studyEnglish in preparation forIndonesia. He studiedTheology in Italy (Parma).After his priestly Ordina-tion (06.12.03), he wasassigned to the XaverianRegion of Mexico where

he has been working forabout ten years. Here hespent most of his time inFormation and Ministry,firstly in San Juan del Rio(2003-2008) and then inArandas (2008-2013),where he became the Rec-tor of the community forthree years. The communi-ty he will study from will

be chosen soon.