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.........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.

APAC celebrates its thirtieth anniversary in September 2007. It will be marked by a Mass of Thanksgiving at the ancient Church of Saint Augustine at Intramuros, Manila at 10.00 am on Saturday, 10th November 2007. There will be a reception afterwards. All are invited. Please e-mail the APAC Secretariate ahead of time if you have a large group coming: apacphil@yahoo.com

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 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.

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.

In 1985-86 he used his training in church law in his appointment as Chancellor of the Augustinian Vicariate of Chulucanas in Peru, South America. In 1987 he was recalled to his home Province of Chicago.

In 1988 he went back to Trujillo, Peru to begin the first common formation house for Augustinian seminarians from three of the Augustinian vicariates in South America.

He occupied various roles there over the following ten years, and from 1991 to 1998 he was also the Judicial Vicar of the Archdiocese of Trujillo. 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.

His second term of office as Prior General (2007 - 2013) began on 8th September 2007.

At his ceremony of installation in the chapel of St Monica's College in Rome on that day, he made his profession of faith and received the warm embrace of the one hundred Augustinians present (see photo at left).

He then addressed the congregation briefly in English and Spanish, expressing his desire to continue his efforts to bring ever greater unity to the Order and to continue initiatives to renew and revitalize the Augustinian spirit. He encouraged all to be willing to take risks for the sake of the Order's life and growth and expressed his dependence upon the grace of God and the collaboration of his fellow Augustinians.

The Order of Saint Augustine has a total of seven jurisdictions based in Philippines (two), India, Japan, Korea, Indonesia and Australia. The leaders of six of these Asia-Pacific jurisdictions met earlier in July 2007 in preparation for the General (i.e., international) Chapter of the Order, held in Rome during most of September 2007.

In compiling a regional presentation for the General Chapter, these Asia-Pacific leaders intend to call for a special focus of the Order upon this region for the next six years, just as the Order did previously with Africa during the six-year period now ending.

The Australian Prior Provincial, Fr Tony Banks O.S.A. (pictured above), was a participant in the recent preparatory meeting. He has commented, “The European / Western influence is in decline in our region, but will the unique qualities of Asia clash with or nourish the Augustinian Order?”

On 5th July 2007 the Augustinian Delegation of Korea joyfully celebrated the ordination to the diaconate by one of its members. On that day Jonah Kyu-Dong Kim O.S.A. was one of eight young candidates in a ceremony conducted by Very Rev. Joseph Han-Teak Lee DD S.J. of the local Uijeongbu Diocese (see photos), which is north of Seoul.

In this ceremony, six young men (including the Augustinian, pictured above) became deacons, and another two were ordained to the Catholic priesthood. The enue was the indoor sports stadium at Uijeongbu, which was large enough to hold more than 230 priests and 4,000 laity who attended the ceremony.

Almost all members of the Augustinian Delegation of Korea witnessed the ceremony, as well as Jonah’s mother and family members. A visitor from England at the ceremony was Father Jacob Heang-Kwon Choi O.S.A., a Korean Augustinian who was ordained in England, and who ministers there. Father Jacob is a member of the St. Mary's Augustinian community at Harbourne in Birmingham, England.

The date of the 5th July was chosen because it was the feastday of St. Andrea Dae-Gon Kim, a martyr and the first Korean priest.The new deacon, Jonah Kyu-Dong Kim O.S.A., is a member of the St. Augustine's Priory at Chon-dong, Incheon. On his path to priesthood, he has studied at Inchon Catholic University for the past six and a half years, and will continue classes there until the end of this year.

Now that he is a deacon, he will also help at one of the local parishes in Incheon on the weekends. This will continue until he is ordained priest sometime in 2008.

Within the Order of Saint Augustine, Jonah professed his solemn vows on 10th September 2006. He is the fourth Korean-born Augustinian working in Korea to have received the diaconate.

Sixty photos of the Order of Saint Augustine in Korea are available on the Internet by selecting the photo gallery named Korea after you click on http://www.augnet.org/default.asp?ipageid=6

St Kieran’s Church is located within the Augustinian Parish of North Harbour, which is in the Northern Beaches area of metropolitan Sydney, Australia.

On Tuesday, 10th July 2007 St Kieran’s Church was the venue of the World Youth Day Cross and Icon that have moved progressively around the world and are now visiting the Catholic dioceses of Australia.

The photographs (above and below) show the arrival of this large wooden cross in the grounds of the church, and in the sanctuary of St Kieran's Church. The cross and icon were welcomed by a capacity congregation, and during the day persons came forward to reverence the cross.

In the meantime, religious activities were conducted in the adjacent parish hall.

The pilgrimage to Australia of the cross and icon is a prelude to the next World Youth Day, which Pope Benedict XVI will attend in Sydney in mid-July 2008.

..........The Vatican has announced that the ceremony of canonisation for Sr Marie-Eugénie of Jesus, foundress of the Religioius of the Assumption, will took place on Rome on 3rd June 2007.

..........His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI presided. A number of members of the Assumptionist family from the APAC region attend the ceremony.

..........Marie Anne Eugénie Milleret de Brou (photo above) was born in Metz, France on 26th August 1817. She grew up in a family that had no interest in religion.

..........When she was fifteen, Marie Eugenie’s parents separated. She moved to Paris with her mother and brother, only to see her mother die of cholera shortly afterwards. Her father then sent her to live with relatives whose great interests proved to be money and pleasure.

..........Gathering five women around her when aged twenty-two years, in Paris in 1839 she founded the congregation that later was called the Religious of the Assumption. Her essential vision was one of transforming society through education. The congregation quickly spread throughout Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas.

..........Marie Eugénie taught that faith in Jesus impels us to love the world and all its peoples. She believed that all action should flow from a life of love and prayer and tasked us with responding to the urgent needs of our times. Marie-Eugénie died in Paris in 1898, after having founded thirty communities in nine countries and four continents.

..........In the Asia and Pacific region, various congregations within the Assumption religious family serve in Philippines (since 1892), Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, India, New Zealand, and Tonga. Internationally they now serve in more than thirty-four counties.

............The APAC Formation and Spirituality Commission successfully presented the third Joint Formation Program for Novices on 16th-28th April 2007.

............It will took place at Holy Family Retreat House, Nivel Hills, Lahug, Cebu City in the Philippines.

............The venue overlooks Cebu City (see photo), and is thirty minutes drive from the Minior Basilica of the Santo Nino.

............Twenty-nine novices participated, being ten each from the Province of Cebu and the Vicariate of the Orient of the Order of Saint Augustine, five from the Sisters of Divine Love, and four from the Augustinian Sisters of Our Lady of Consolacion.

............The presenters at the program included Fr Peter Jones O.S.A. of Australia (“Spiritual Interiority”), Fr Andew Batayola O.S.A., Rector of the Minor Basilica (“Confessions of Augustine”), Sr Niceta Vargas O.S.A., President of Regina Carmeli (“Augustine’s Justice and Peace ministry”), Sr Ma. Luz Mijares O.S.A. (“Community Life and Vows”), and Fr John Paul Szura O.S.A. (“Justice and Culture”).

............The Chair of the APAC Formation and Spirituality Commission is Fr. Alan M. Otadoy O.S.A. at SACS in Quezon City. Opening remarks at the Program were be made by Sr Carmeli Catan O.S.A., the Vice-President of APAC.

............The program is planned as an annual event. Other congregations in the APAC Family are invited to send novices. Further information about the Program is available from the APAC Secretariat in Manila: apacphil@yahoo.com

...........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 theRecollects, 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.”

............Regarding the proposed beatification of the 188 Japanese martyrs including Thomas Jihyoe of Saint Augustine O.S.A., there was a meeting of cardinals on 6th February 2007.

............Their beatification was unanimously approved by those present. The final decision is now in the hands of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI.

............However, the preparation for the beatification is 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

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 is offering 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.

Some of the topics covered will be Augustine and the Eucharist, life chanmges and conversions, and Augustine and sexuality. The presenters will be 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 are 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 will take place on 22nd - 26th October 2007 at Schoenstatt Spirituality Center, Lawaan III, Talisay, Cebu City, Philippines.

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

............It is expected that participants will be APAC religious and educators involved with social justice.

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

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

............The second is 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 is 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 is an exposure to a cross-cultural experience of immersion to a sustainable community development model.

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

............For further information and enrolment procedures for the program, contact the APAC Secretariat in Manila at apacphil@yahoo.com

............Paul Yamano O.S.A. of the Augustinian Vicariate of Japan took another step in his progress towards priesthood on Sunday, 11th February 2007 when he was ordained a deacon of the Catholic Church.

............Noritoku was ordained to the deaconate in a religious service that also involved one priest candidate and two diaconal candidates of the Archdiocese of Nagasaki.

............The ceremony took place in Noritoku’s home city of Nagasaki. The venue was the Cathedral Church of Urakami (pictured), which is dedicated in honour of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. This cathedral was completely rebuilt after the atomic bomb of 1945 exploded immediately above this site.

............He is the second member of his family in the Order of Saint Augustine, as his brother became an Augustinian priest last year.

.............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 National Commission of Culture and Arts of the Philippines Government has approved a plan to conserve and repair the historic monastery and church of San Agustin at Intramuros, Manila. This will be a long-term government project in receipt of government funding.

............After recent preparatory studies, the decision was made to give initial priority to the restoration of the stone walls of the inner cloister of the monastery, and to the restoration of the windows on the first and second level of its inner corridors. This work began in October 2006, and is due for completion in February 2007.

............Subsequent stages of the work will be more comprehensive and much more expensive. This includes the repair and improvement of drainage around the buildings, which are 400 years old, and work on the roof.

............Within the monastery the famed Museum of San Agustin, under the direction of Fr Pedro Galende O.S.A., is presenting a display of a hundred archival photographs that show some of the history of the church and monastery. These heritage-listed buildings were constructed by the Order of Saint Augustine between 1587 and 1606.

............As well as the museum, the monastery houses the Augustinians who attend to the Church of San Agustin, and also novices of the Vicariate of the Orient and the Delegation of Tanzania, both of which jurisdictions are part of the Province of the Holy Name of Jesus (the “Philippines Province”).

............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

............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. Two Augustinian priest and a deacon 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}.

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 almost all ofr 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...

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 1,240 pages of text, which also contain over 1,555 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.

..........About 1,950 large images in extensive photo galleries illustrate of Augustinian events and places internationally. The photo galleries most recently added illustrate Augustinian ministry in 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)