<Bulletin No. 9>

.........APAC - the Asia-Pacific Augustinian Conference - is a voluntary association for religious congregations of men and for women in Asia and the Pacific that follow the Rule of Augustine of Hippo and his spirituality. This includes over thirty religious congregations, with most of the congregations and their membership in the Philippines and India.

............For the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the Asia-Pacific Augustinian Conference (APAC), the main commemoration was a Mass of Thanksgiving and a dinner on Saturday, 10th November 2007. The concelebrated Mass took place in the magnificent and ancient Church of San Agustin at Intramuros, Manila.

............Among the twenty concelebrants were Augustinians of the Assumption, Augustinian Recollects and representatives of six of the seven jurisdictions of the Order of Saint Augustine in the Asia-Pacific. Various congregations of Augustinian sisters attended the Mass.

............The presider at the Mass was Fr Rommel Par O.S.A., as a delegate of the Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine. At the end of the Mass, three APAC Social Justice Awards were given to projects in the Philippines and Japan, in memory of the late Fr Miguel Manrique O.S.A., who was a founding figure in APAC.

............The banquet after the Mass was hosted by the Vicariate of the Orient in San Agustin Plaza adjacent to the church, under the direction of Fr Jose William Arana O.S.A. (regional superior). There were 400 guests, comprising male and female religious and Augustinian lay associates.

Until three years ago, the APAC Secretariat changed address each time a new APAC executive secretary was elected at the triennial APAC Convention. At the Convention in Incheon in 2005, the delegates accepted the generous offer of the Augustinian Sisters of Our Lady of Consolation to have the secretariat permanently established at their motherhouse at San Jan, Manila.

This has allowed the creation of an APAC Archives, for which material is being sought from previous APAC executive secretaries.

Should you wish to make any enquiries regarding APAC archives or coming APAC activities please do not hesitate to contact the Secretariat. If she cannot help you she will at least be able to put you in touch with someone who can do so.

............On Saturday, 8th September 2007 the 182nd General Chapter of the Order of Saint Augustine re-elected Fr Robert Prevost O.S.A. for a second six-year term as the Prior General (international leader) of the Order.

............The re-elected Prior General, Robert Francis Prevost, was born on 14th September 1955 in Chicago, Illinios, United States of America. He made his first profession as an Augustinian there on 2nd September 1978. He was ordained a priest in Rome on 19th June 1982. In 1985 he finished a doctorate in Canon Law at the Angelicum in Rome.

............ He was elected Provincial of the Chicago Province in 1998, and then on his forty-sixth anniversary of birth on 14th September 2001 was elected Prior General for his first term of office.

............On the newly-elected General Council, the Assistant General made responsible for the Asia-Pacific is Fr Rommel Par O.S.A. (photo at left), who in 2003-2006 was the Rector and President of Colegio San Agustin at Biñan, Philippines.

............He is fluent in Tagalog and two other Filipino dialects, as well as in English, Italian and Spanish.

..........Within the Order of Saint Augustine, the longest-serving Augustinians in Korea are three Australian Augustinians, two of whom were among the first arrivals in 1985. The Australians join with two Augustinians from the Province of Cebu (Philippines) in a Delegation with just under twenty Korean-born Augustinians.

..........The delegation in February 2007 accepted its latest novices. The place of novitiate is the first priory (religious house) founded by the Order in Korea twenty-one years ago.It is located in the capital city of South Korea in a suburb that recently has been re-named as Seoul Forest.

..........Now in full operation in Incheon is the recently-completed the St. Rita Spirituality Centre and the new accommodation for those living at the Augustinian home for boys, “No-rang Na-rang” (“You and I”).

............The two new buildings (see architectural sketch below) are situated directly behind St. Augustine’s Priory in Incheon on the former site of the old No-rang Na-rang Home, which has been demolished, and on a small adjacent block of land purchased three years ago.

............The St. Rita Spirituality Centre seats more than 200 people for lectures and one-day conferences. In the new No-rang Na-rang Home there is accommodation for two Augustinians, a house mother, and up to eight boys.

............For sixty photographs of the Order of Saint Augustine in South Korea, choose the photo gallery named Korea after you click on the link below: http://augnet.org/default.asp?ipageid=6

............After arriving in Manila and establishing a community in a rented building two years ago, the Augustinians of the Assumption have now purchased and renovated a house of their own in the Loyola Heights section of Quezon City, Metro Manila.

............The building (photo above) was solemnly blessed on 17th November 2007 in the presence of the Assumptionist Prior General, who came from Rome for the ceremony. In the community are Assumptionists priests from France, Canada, Congo and the Philippines, and in Pavel House nearby are five postulants and aspirants.

............In their commitment to simplicity in life, the community has decided to have neither a motor vehicle nor a housekeeper. The ministries undertaken variously by priests, postulants and aspirants include catechetics, spiritual direction, prision ministry, pastoral work amongst the poor, a formation program, publications ministry, high school teaching, social justice projects, and vocations ministry.

............Another male Assumptionist community is located at West Changu within Cholla Province in the southern section of South Korea.

...........The Augustinian Recollects held the 3rd OAR Mission Congress in Manila on 4th-6th December 2006 as a fitting way of culminating the Augustinian Jubilee.

...........This was attended by men and women delegates from OAR mission territories all over the world and the members of the OAR Family in the Philippines and Taiwan.

...........The occasion was also a celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the death of St. Ezekiel Moreno O.A.R., European and member of the Augustinian Family, who spent fifteen years of his missionary life among the Filipinos in Asia and eighteen years at Columbia in Latin America.

...........The culmination of the Augustinian Jubilee also coincided with the 400th anniversary of the presence of the Augustinian Recollects in the Philippines and Asia. The Recollects arrived in the Philippines in May 1606.

...........Historical markers on the sites of the first convent and the first church built by the early Recollect missionaries and other signs of OAR heritage (cathedrals, the Black Nazarene and the Virgin de la Salud, towns and churches, the Bamboo organ, to name a few) were erected by the Philippines National Historical Institute.

...........Some of these markers were inaugurated by the Prior General of the Recollects, together with government authorities (headed by the Vice-President of the Philippines) and the superior of the local Recollect Province of St Ezekiel Moreno during the days the Mission Congress last December.

..........Presently the Recollects of the Province of St Ezekiel Moreno focus their attention on the missions in Africa, Latin America, and Taiwan. In support of the brothers in more difficult assignments, the religious in the more established areas of apostolate intensify permanent formation in humility and poverty and the life of stricter community.

...........For the Recollects, the year 2007 has been declared as “The Year of St Ezekiel Moreno”, and 2008 “Augustinian Recollect Vocation Year.”

............ Pope Benedict XVI has endorsed the beatification of 188 Japanese martyrs, including Thomas Jihyoe of Saint Augustine O.S.A. The beatifcation will take place at Nagasaki on 24th November 2008.

............Preparations for the beatification are already well underway in the Archdiocese of Nagasaki, which will host a beatification ceremony for the first time in the history of the Catholic Church in Japan.

.............Photos of Augustinian ministry in Japan are available in two photo galleries named "Japan: Nagasaki" and "Japan: Fukuoka and Tokyo" at: http://www.augnet.org/default.asp?ipageid=6

............The largest congregation of Augustinian religious sisters in APAC are the Augustinian Sisters of Our Lady of Consolation (Consolation Sisters).

............The Augustinian Sisters of Our Lady of Consolation are at the point in their history at which the process of canonisation of one of their co-founders is progressing. The co-foundresses were blood sisters, Mother Rita and Mother Consuelo Barcelo y Pages O.S.A. from Sarria, Cataluna, Spain.

............Both Mother Rita and Mother Consuelo worked in the Philippines from 1883 to 1899, and Mother Consuelo returned there in 1904 and remained until her death in 1940. Mother Conseulo was the first Mother General of the Sisters of Our Lady of Consolation. Her four consecutive terms of office spanned the twenty-four years between 1915 and 1940.

............The cause for the beatification of Mother Consuelo was officially opened in the Archdiocese of Manila on 30th September 2002. It was then forwarded on 6th September 2003 to Rome, where further steps in the process have now happened.

............On 4th August 2005 the mortal remains of Mother Consuelo were transferred from the Congregation's mausoleum at La Loma Cemetry, Manila, and transferred to the back portion of the mother house chapel at La Consolacion Convent, San Juan, Metro Manila.

...........Although the enclosed nature of their religious life precludes the Augustinian contemplative nuns from attending many APAC events, they have been represented at a few of them.

............The monastery was established there in 1998 with the assistance of the Italian Federation of Augustinian Contemplative Nuns. This Federation supplied the founding nuns, and still accepts the newer members of Bulacan for extended periods of formation in Rome, Italy.

............On 29th July 2006 community member Sister Agnes Park O.S.A. became the first Korean-born Augustinian contemplative nun, when she professed her first vows at the Mother of Good Counsel Monastery, Bulacan, Philippines.

............In recent times another woman born in Korea, Emanuela, joined the community as a postulant. This brings to ten the number in the community.

............Further details of the community and monastery are available on the Internet at http://www.augustiniannunsbulacan.org

Discalced Augustinians in Cebu

After barely ten years at Cebu in the Philippines, the Discalced Augustinian Fathers have instituted a school for the religious aspiring to learn theology and for those seeking renewal courses in theology and religious life.

. .........The St. Monica Institute of Religious Studies (SMIRS - photo at right) began operation in June 2004 under the graduate program of the University of San Agustin-Iloilo.

The teaching faculty comprises of religious priests and sisters from the OAD (Discalced Augustinians), OSA (Order of Saint Augustine), OAR (Augustinian Recollects) and from other congregations who have specialized field of learning in religious life and theological disciplines.

Formators from the diocesan seminary also lend support of their time and expertise from time to time.

A Strategic Plan will be drafted in March 2007 to put in place another three-year program for the SMIRS. Preparations will center on enhancing the teaching-learning strategies, administrative controls and flow of functions, and bringing about an expanded network of resources and pool of additional qualified professors.

Through the SMIRS, the OAD mission in the Philippines is expanding. In SMIRS, academic expertise in spirituality and religious life are some of its major strengths. Some brothers are now taking specialized studies in Rome in view of their apostolate in the religious institute.

...........Specializations in Liturgy, Church History and Patristics, Fundamental theology, Canon Law, Sacraments, etc. are undertaken by those OAD priests and brothers to help provide for the future staffing of SMIRS.

...........The OAD goal for SMIRS is to contribute to the Church a relevant, holistic, spiritual, pastoral, academic formation in religious life and theological enterprise.

...........The dean and communications director of SMIRS is Fr. Robin A. Dumaguit O.A.D.

............Again in 2007 APAC presented a five-day conference in Augustinian Spirituality. Entitled Receiving the Mystery We Are, it has been designed for Augustinian formators, religious and lay animators, campus ministers, liturgists, etc.

.The topics included Augustine and the Eucharist, life chanmges and conversions, and Augustine and sexuality. The presenters were Frs Laurence Mooney O.S.A. and Fr Paul Maloney O.S.A., both from Australia. They presented a similar workshop in Malolos, Bulacan, Philippines in November 2005.

............There were three objectives: (1) to re-encounter the tradition and spirituality of Augustine, (2) to affirm the Eucharistic quality of our shared journey, and (3) to be renewed in Augustinian ways of celebration, liturgy and prayer.

............The conference took place for fifty-six participants on 22nd - 26th October 2007 at Schoenstatt Spirituality Center, Lawaan III, Talisay, Cebu City, Philippines (see photo above).

............For further information contact the APAC Secretariat at apacphil@yahoo.com

............The APAC Youth Commission has organised two youth jamborees for November 2007. The first took place outside Manila, Philippines at Mt Makiling, Laguna on 9th-11th November 2007 (see photo below). It drew 550 high school students from over a dozen apostolates of the Augustinian Sisters of Our Lady of Consolation, the Little Sisters of the Assusption, the Augustinian Vicariate of the Orient, and the Augustinian Province of Cebu.

............The second jamboree takes place at Talisay City, Negros Occidental on 30th November - 2nd December 2007.

............In earlier years the APAC Youth Commission has conducted two Augustinian internatiuonal youth encounters, the first in the Philippines and the second near Sydney, Australia, both with Australian and Filipino participation.

............APAC offered for the first time a six-day Cross Cultural Immersion Program. It took place near Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, Philippines on 11th-19th November 2007 (See maps below).

............The participants were fifty-six APAC religious and educators involved with social justice.

............The program was prepared by the APAC Commission on Justice and Peace, and centred at the Mother Rita Homes II at Candau-ay, Dumaguete City. Two of a number of addresses during the program werel be given by Sr Carmeli Ma. Catan of the Augustinian Sisters of Our Lady of Consolation (APAC Justice and Peace Commission Chair) and Fr Tony Banks O.S.A. of Australia (APAC Justice and Peace Commission Vice-Chair).

............The Immersion Program strove to offer the participants four benefits.

............The first benefit was an experience on how to install a responsive and relevant induction program for agents of community development;

............The second was an initial opportunity to develop and write an effective community development curriculum focusing on fostering cross-cultural understanding, peace and sustainable community development;

............The third was an experience in planning to install an efficient and effective implementation, supervision and evaluation system for the project and expand the prototype model for wider community replication.

............The fourth benefit was an exposure to a cross-cultural experience of immersion to a sustainable community development model.

............Three full days of the program were devoted exclusively to a direct immersion experience.

............Within the Order of Saint Augustine, the Province of the Holy Infant of Cebu (Philippines) has plans well underway for the development of a retreat and spirituality centre at Consolacion, Cebu (the second locality north of Cebu City). Five hectares – about 13 acres - of land has been purchased on an elevated sloping terrain, with views to the sea.

............Architectural plans (above) are now completed. Regarding the plan, all three main structures shown are part of the retreat centre. The bigger building on the right contains the main assembly hall. Its upper floor of which is convertible into a big assembly area of over 100 people, and into smaller conference rooms. The lower floor will be the refectory and kitchen. The basement would contain the utility rooms.

............At the left will be the chapel building. Its upper floor will house the chapel proper, while the lower floor will be smaller conference rooms and counselling rooms.

............Beyond the chapel to the top-left edge of the drawing is shown three small buildings, two of which are dormitories for single or double occupancy, and one building is intended for group occupancy.

............For over twenty photographs of the Order of Saint Augustine in the Province of Cebu, choose the photo gallery named Philippines: Province of Cebu after you click here: http://augnet.org/default.asp?ipageid=6

..........A new jurisdiction within the Order of Saint Augustine in the Asia Pacific is now in operation. It is the Delegation of India, with Fr Alexander Palliparambil O.S.A. (pictured) as its first regional superior.

..........The delegation begins with three Augustinian communities in India’s Kerala State; two are formation houses, and one a community in a parish conducted by the Order.

..........The parish is dedicated in honour of St Thomas the Apostle, and is located in the city of Thalappuzha. The Augustinian residence there has been named the Mother of Good Counsel Ashram. Three Augustinians now live there.

..........A fourth community now esists in temporary qusrters near a primary and secondary school of 900 students that the Order has acquired in the adjacent State of Tamil Nadu.The school is named "Sembagam Metric Higher Secondary School" { Run by Augustinian Fathers}. Five Augustinians now live there.

..........In recent times, Augustinian ministry in India was recommenced about twenty years ago by the Vicariate of the Orient, which is based at Intramuros, Manila, Philippines. This Vicariate is part of the Province of the Holy Name of Jesus, which began in Spain to evangelize Asia in 1575, and has popularly long been called the “Philippines Province” (although based in Spain for most of the twentieth century).

..........With the new administrative and juridical arrangement, the Vicariate of the Orient and the Delegation of India will be equal partners within the same Province. Even so, the Delegation of India has been promised the continued support of the Vicariate of the Orient from which it grew.

..........For fifty photographs of the Order of Saint Augustine in India, choose the photo gallery named India after you click here: http://augnet.org/default.asp?ipageid=6

............A printed twenty-page APAC Bulletin is produced and distributed twice yearly. All religious congregations affiliated with APAC are welcome to receive copies of it free of charge. To request a copy, contact the APAC Secretariate in Manila by e-mailing apacphil@yahoo.com

.........The Augustinian Sisters of God's Mercy are an Indonesian congregation with membership in APAC. Much of the ministry of their 105 religious sisters in fourteen different communities focuses on the provision of medical clinics in the region of Indonesia called Kalimantan Barat (formerly Borneo).

........ The first Augustinian Sisters of Divine Mercy arrived in Indonesia from Holland in 1946, but the congregation is now entirely Indonesian in membership. They have fourteen communities and a total of 105 members, including novices and postulants.

..........Their mother house and most of their ministry is in the region of Indonesia called Kalimantan Barat. Their mother house is located at Ketapang, Kalimantan Barat.

..........The Sisters had a General Chapter with the election of the new Mother Superior General and the Council. The chapter took place at their mother house on 5th-15th February 2007.

..........Sr. Lucia Wahyu OSA was elected as the new Mother Superior General, and Sr. Maria Goretti OSA, Sr. Immaculata OSA, Sr. Clara OSA, and Sr. Sesilia OSA as the council members (see photo at right).

The council will be in charge of the congregational concerns for the period 2007 – 2011.

..........In association with another APAC member congregation, the Sisters have one community serving with members of the Delegation of Papua of the Order of Saint Augustine.

...........Sr Augustini (the general superior at that time) and Sr Gabriella Titin (APAC liaison person) attended the APAC Convention in Incheon, Korea in July 2005...

The Delegation of Papua, Indonesia.

Augustinians of Papua.

............The Papuan ministry of the Order of Saint Augustine began on 1st January 1953. (Four hundred years earlier, the first four priests to sail around the world - who were Spanish Augustinians - were in 1544 held nearby by the Portuguese at Ambon on the Malay Peninsula.) Since 1953, fourteen members of the Dutch Province have served there. Of the four who are still there, two have taken out Indonesian citizenship.

............In recent times local vocations have increased. As of July 2008 there were nineteen Indonesian Augustinians in solemn vows (fourteen priests, three lay brother and two clerical students), twenty-two students in temporary vows, eight novices, eight postulants and a good number of candidates.

............The Augustinian Delegation of Papua has a forty-image photo gallery on the Internet. The photographs depict Augustinian life and ministry in Papua, from the largest cities to remote jungle villages.

The photographs have captions written in both the English and Indonesian languages.

Go to http://www.augnet.org/Papua/Page1/index.html

Philippine Church Facades

............Father Pedro G. Galende O.S.A., the third Director of the San Agustin Museum at Intramuros, Manila, has recently produced a large pictorial book that is a major reference work on ecclesiastical architecture in the Philippines between the years 1565 and 1898.

............Called Philippine Church Facades, this large-format book of 334 pages contains 600 new digitally-enhanced colour photographs and 161 archival photographs of 160 of the most significant churches still standing in the Philippines. The 600 colour images were taken over a two-year period by Fr Galende himself and by three professional photographers.

Book cover

............The book was launched at the San Agustin Museum in the presence of the Cardinal Archbishop of Manila, the Mayor of Manila, the Deputy of the Spanish Embassy, the Director of the Instituto Cervantes, and invited guests.

............Fr Galende O.S.A. Ph.D. (photo above) is a member of the Augustinian Vicariate of the Orient, and has served in the Philippines for the past forty-five years. Born in Spain, he became a Filipino citizen in 1975. He has been Director of the San Agustin Museum since 1990, and in 1996 produced Angels in Stone: Augustinian Churches in the Philippines, a book which has recently been reprinted.

............Whereas Angels in Stone dealt with fifty historical churches in the Philippines that were built by the Augustinians, Philippine Church Facades is a more ambitious project. It covers 160 churches built in the Philippines by Augustinians, Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits and by Philippine secular clergy.

............Further details about the book can be obtained from Fr Galende at San Agustin Museum, P.O. Box 3366, Intramuros, Manila 1002, Philippines, or at pedrogalende@yahoo.com The book is ISBN 978-971-07-2433-8 (hard cover) and ISBN 978-971-07-2455-0 (soft cover).

............For thirty photographs of the Order of Saint Augustine in Intramuros, choose the photo gallery named Philippines: Intramuros after you click here: http://augnet.org/default.asp?ipageid=6

A historical reconsideration

..........Saint Augustine of Hippo wrote his Retractationes (“Reconsiderations”).

..........In a somewhat similar spirit, a modern historian of medieval Augustinianism has called for a historical reconsideration of one particular line of thought about the foundation of the Order of Hermits of Saint Augustine – “the Augustinians” – in the mid-thirteenth century.

The historian concerned is Eric Saak Ph.D.(pictured), the Assistant Professor of History at the Indiana University Purdue University in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.A.

..........He expresses concern and calls for caution of the tendency to underestimate the Grand Union of 1256 and its landmark papal bull, Licet ecclesiae catholicae by focusing on the Little Union of 1244 as if 1244 was a de facto beginning of what actually was enacted in 1256.

..........His article on this subject, which will be placed in a broader context in his next book, is available on the internet on the Augnet web site. Go to:
http://augnet.org/default.asp?ipageid=1529&iParentid=992

..........Dr Saak wrote this article based on his thirty years of expertise on the topic. His most recent book is an 886-page publication, High Way to Heaven: The Augustinian Platform Between Reform and Reformation, 1292-1524, which was published in 2002 by Brill Academic Publishers, ISBN 90041 10992.

Augnet

Augnet ...........Augnet, a comprehensive web site on Saint Augustine and the Order of Saint Augustine, was fully redesigned and renovated in May 2006.

..........It now carries over 1,300 pages of text, which also contain over 1,770 illustrations. The Augnet web site was officially "launched" at a ceremony in Sydney in August 2002, with the Augustinian Prior General from Rome as the guest of honour.

..........New technical features in the renovated Augnet include a search engine, which searches every page of Augnet for any word or phrase that is nominated by a user, and a site map, which quickly allows a visitor to see and understand the local arrangement of Augnet's sections and sub-sections.

..........Over 2,500 large images in extensive photo galleries illustrate of Augustinian events and places internationally. The photo galleries most recently added illustrate Augustinian ministry in the Philippines, Indonesia, India, London (England) and at the Escorial (Spain).

.Visit this web site at http://www.augnet.org

Other news

..........News and general details about the Order of Saint Augustine internationally is located at:
www.osanet.org (in English, Italian and Spanish)