Asia Pacific Commission (APC) Meeting at Amadeo
From 21st
to 22nd March Provincial’s and Delegate of APC met together for
their annual meeting at Amadeo. All Provincials and Delegate were present. Bro.
Luigi Gagliardotto, the Roman Provincial along with Dr. Antonio Barnaba were
present. Bro. Jose Manuel Leonardo from East Timor represented Bro. Jose Paulo
from the Portuguese Provincial. Bro. Peter Van Peperstraten represented Oceania
Province and Bro. Chris Kasoni represented PNG. Both General Councilors, Bro.
Joseph Smith and Bro. Vincent attended the meeting as well. Korean Provincial
secretary Ms. Lydia translated for Bro. John Jung and Bro. Paul translated for
the Vietnamese provincial. Dr. Maria Lee, chair of the regional Bio ethics
commission attended the meeting and presented a report about the Bio ethics
commission activities in the region.
Bro. John Jung, the
chair of the commission chaired the meeting. After the welcome address of Bro.
John Jung and the address of the president Bro. Vincent, Bro. Joseph Van
presented the regional formation report. There are 13 novices, 9 novices in the
second year and 4 in the first year. 6 novices come from Vietnam, 2 novices from
Philippines and 5 novices from East Timor. There are no postulants but there
are 2 candidates in the postulant’s house and studying English before they
enter into the postulancy. There are also 3 candidates in the Philippine
Provincial Delegation, two from Sri Lanka and one from Pakistan.
The meetings also
discussed the following points among other matters.
1. The Commission
members discussed about the future of Papua New Guinean Brothers, The
participants all agreed the fact that as we are all Brothers we have the
obligation to support and care our Brothers in PNG. Bro. Vincent has informed
the members the various options suggested by the General government and the
General Government is on the process to find a solution. The meeting also
suggested to start a process of dialogue between Philippine Brothers and PNG
Brothers, as all the members of the Provincial delegation of Philippines are in
favor of giving support to the PNG Brothers.
2. Provincial’s and
delegate are recommitted to support the formators in the regional formation
house by sending at least two more Brothers from the region to assist the
novice Master and the postulant Master.
3. The meeting
identified the urgency of preparing Brothers as formators. Provincials are
asked to choose few Brothers from their provinces to prepare as formators as a
matter of urgency.
4. The meeting has also
identified that the various regional commission needs to strengthen their
activities and to conduct regular meetings and seminars on each area of
commission in order to animate the Brothers and Co-Workers.
After the meeting the
participants also attended the jubilee celebration of Bro. Romanito Salada from
the Provincial delegation of Philippines on 23rd March 2024.