Journey of Brother Didier in Mexico

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Father Superior General had asked me to be, among the five members of the General Council, the one who would more closely follow the activities of the « North America – Philippines » province.

The new Superior Provincial of this province, father Miguel Diaz Ayllon, had asked me to become a member of the Assumption College Board of Trustees. These were the two main factors which led to my visit of the Assumptionist communities in Mexico and Massachusetts last February, the trip being also motivated by my attendance of an AC Board of Trustees meeting.

I had never been to Mexico. Just to reach it was exhausting: thanks to a stop-over at JFK, it took me some 26 hours of travelling to reach my destination! The one week I have spent there has been barely enough to start discovering the realities of Assumptionist life in the capital city. I had repeatedly read that Mexico City was a huge city, a nightmare of traffic jams and heavily polluted. Is it because I have been there during winter time? : if there indeed were traffic jams, I must say I have seen worse in Asia ; moreover,  I have found the city quite pleasant, and did not notice any heavy pollution… So much for the preconceived ideas…
 
But I have not had much time for sightseeing. A week-long stay has given me barely enough time to spend two days in each of the three Assumptionist Mexican communities:
- the « Emperatriz » parish, historically the first place where the Assumption started in Mexico, now a parish in a well-off area of the city;
- the new « San Andres » parish of which the Assumption  took the responsibility just three years ago, with its very large territory at the outskirts of the capital ;
- the « casa Manuel » community, with its large and vibrant membership of young candidates, aspirants and postulants, most of whom exercise some form of pastoral work in the two parishes.
 
I also have had the time to visit the two « community centers » which the Mexican Assumptionists have created and still are in charge of: centers where the local population can, at reduced prices, find a huge variety of psychological help, self-help workshops and spiritual counseling.
 
The Assumption presence in Mexico has been initiated by American Assumptionists but there is only one of them left now.  I am happy to have been able to meet each and all my brothers who are living and working in these three communities, including the three ones from the Congo who have adapted so well to the local culture. Even though my own Spanish has been completely destroyed by the Italian I am in the process of learning to survive in Rome (where the General House is), I was able to exchange with all in Spanish…
 
One lasting impression I will keep with me is that there is a great desire from all to foster new vocations and that, because there indeed are new vocations, a great atmosphere of hope permeates the Assumption life in Mexico : beside, the four Mexican fathers who are now holding most of the responsibilities, there are four temporarily professed Mexican brothers, two soon-to-be novices (who have just arrived in Worcester, MA, where they will attend the one-year novitiate program) and quite a few postulants and candidates.
 
Among the challenges the Assumption is facing in Mexico, the most important surely are:
- to find enough well-trained formators to accompany all the young men who are interested in Assumptionist religious life ;
- to find the financial resources needed to sustain the life and development of the Assumption in Mexico ;
- to start thinking about new pastoral fields where the young religious will work at expending the Kingdom after completing their formation years.
 
After these too short days, I had to move on and leave to go to Worcester in the USA.
I was there on better known grounds (I have spent several years of my life in the US.) Based at Emmanuel House on the Assumption College campus, I have had a week to renew and update my knowledge of the Assumption in Massachusetts. These few days have been devoted to meeting and sharing with the Assumptionists of the four communities which are based in this state. I made sure I could at least share a meal with the Assumption communities I was not staying at (Fiskdale and 50 Old English Road). But these days have also given me the opportunity to work on accounting and financial topics with the Provincial Treasurer and his team, to work with Assumption College on the Rome campus project, but also to talk about the possibility of the Editorial Department of Bayard Inc. being relocated on the campus. Of course, I also attended my first meeting of AC Board of Trustees. I have found it very interesting: a whole new world for me, the world of higher education in Catholic liberal art colleges in the US. Fortunately, I have found out that reading beforehand the some 150 pages (!) of the preparatory documents had given me a quite good knowledge of the topics covered by the Board during the meeting!
 
Emmanuel House is bristling with life: living with the Assumptionists I have known since I have done my novitiate in the Boston area (back in 1986-87!), there are quite a few new faces : postulants and candidates from various countries and venues. That is also the case for the Brighton community (in the suburbs of Boston) where I spent my last 32 hours before my flight back to Rome: that community houses over 20 persons, most of them being post-grad students of theology in the nearby colleges. A quite diversified lot: two religious from the Edmundites, a New-Zealand priest, a Benedictine monk, a guy from Singapore, another from Guatemala or the Philippines. I am told that some of these students could be interested in Assumptionist life. It makes for a lively and interesting community where, beside the common prayers and meals, there is always something happening.
 
One word of conclusion: be it in Mexico or in Massachusetts, our Assumptionist communities are full of life and projects. May the Lord accompany them and help them develop at the service of the Kingdom.