ROME, Italy - Here we are on the Saturday of our first week at the General Chapter. The first part of the day, until lunchtime, is still used to work in five workshops.

Today was characterized by work in small groups formed around the thematic priorities. This allows me to describe the general development nowadays. The first appointment is in the chapel of the house of the Passionist Fathers at 7.30 am. A half-hour prayer of adoration is led each day by an entity...

ROME, Italy - This morning, we continued our tour through the entities of old Europe with its wealth, but also with its poverty, its fears and its uncertainties. A common reality among the seven European entities is the presence of oversea confreres from Madagascar, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, the DRC, Haiti and Malawi.

To tell all that Fr. Angelo VITALI, SMM, made us relive with his testimony of commitment to the poor, young drug addicts, AIDS patients and in prisons, is impossible. This demand from young people: "tell us about death" which killed our colleague all night, will destroy us too! ....

The morning opens with the visit of Fr. Pier Luigi NAVA, SMM Italian currently under-secretary of the Dicastery of Consecrated Life. With his very lively speech, he offers us orientations for our congregational journey in fidelity to the Church and to our mission in the challenges of today....

The 38th General Chapter of the Company of Mary opened this morning in the splendid setting of the retreat house of the Passionist Fathers in Rome. After the innumerable round trips to Fiumicino airport by Brother Désiré and the other members of the Generalate, we were almost complete this morning....