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PGC -Highlights of the day – n#7 – Tuesday, December 9, 2025
Roma
On this penultimate day of our PGC, the Secretary General gives us feedback on the meeting of provincial secretaries held at the General House last October. This meeting was a first in the memory of the religious and was very fruitful in everyone's opinion! In addition to the secretaries of the seven (vice)provinces, the secretaries of the Vicariates of West Africa and Asia-Oceania were also invited (as they have been called by the General Chapter to become vice-provinces in the near future). The provincials also attested to their secretaries' satisfaction with this time of formation and meeting. Since everything cannot be done in one week, it is planned to continue the formation through videoconference meetings, local technical training, and, for some of the participants, through the future meeting planned for the end of 2027 for the archivists of the congregation.
Secretaries' meeting
The second part of the day was devoted to the work planned to update the congregation's own liturgical calendar and publish supplements to the missal and the liturgy of the hours—proper of the congregation—in our three official languages. The first step is to have our updated liturgical calendar validated by the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (to our knowledge, the last approved calendar dates back to June 16, 1975). To achieve this, we are asking each (vice)province to choose a patronal feast to be validated by the Provincial Council. Then we will be able to submit the various changes we wish to make to our calendar to the Dicastery. Finally, we will need to prepare the desired documents in high-quality books for liturgical use, drawing on the many scattered elements that already exist.
In the afternoon, the Assistant Generals reported on their main activities: work in councils; international commissions and thematic projects; accompaniment of the (Vice)Provinces; life of the General House. This time of listening allowed the members of the PGC to express their satisfaction and possible areas for improvement.
Finally, we ended the day with the Postulator's report, which highlighted the salient points of this year 2025, but also the momentum to be maintained and strengthened in order to advance the four causes currently active: those of the Venerable Fathers Emmanuel D'ALZON, Etienne PERNET, Marie Clément STAUB, and the Servant of God Matheus Van HERKHUIZEN. Among the new developments in 2025, we can note in particular the hiring of a lawyer specialized in this field to work on the causes of Fr. PERNET and Van HERKHUIZEN, with the financial support of the Little Sisters of the Assumption and a fund set up for this purpose by lay people in Brazil.
We are ready for the final stretch of tomorrow's day.
Those present at the December 2025 PGC
Fr. Benoît Bigard