MEETING OF THE XAVERIAN PARISH PRIESTS
Padang, 5-6 September 2018
The Xaverian parish priests gathered in Padang, on September 5-6, 2018, for their annual meeting. This 2 days meeting was attended by seven (7) parish priests: Fr. Gerris (Bintaro), Fr. Yonas (Toasebio, Ad Interim), Fr. Robledo (Padang Baru), Fr. Ignatius (Siberut), Fr. Enrique (Bukittinggi), Fr. Nattye (Rantau Prapat), and Fr. Valentin (Aek Nabara). Fr. Franco (Labuh Baru) was unable to attend. The meeting was officially opened by Fr. Anton, the Regional Superior.
In the first part of this meeting, we read and gave comments on the Letter of the General Direction to the confreres in Indonesia after their visit (March 2018). We specifically highlighted the points about missionary and vocation animation, missionary-pastoral service, financial self-sufficient, and specialization in the field of interreligious dialogue.
In the second part, we listened to the reports/evaluation about the implementation of the Mission Statement that we made during our last meeting. From the various sharing, it appears that there are points that have already been implemented in our respective parishes whereas others still require attention.
The third part of our meeting was a kind of brainstorming and planning. Indeed, given that Pope Francis has declared the month of October 2019 as the Extraordinary Missionary Month in commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of Maximum Illud, we thus exchanged ideas about concrete initiatives and activities that could already be taken as preparation and celebration of the Extraordinary Missionary Month next year.
The last part of our meeting was a sharing of information. The Regional Superior reminded the parochial communities to make and send to the Regional Bursar their Quarterly Financial Reports. He informed us also that the Regional Council has taken a move to financially help the victims of the Lombok earthquake disaster as a sign of solidarity. Other Xaverian parishes (Toasebio, Bintaro, Aek Nabara, and Rantau Prapat) have already collected or are also collecting funds to be sent to Lombok through the parish from our confrere, Fr. Hebry, which was also affected by the earthquake.
Fr. Enrique informed us that without any prior notice, they have been asked to evacuate the place they usually use for Sunday service together with two other Christian denomination churches in Batu Sangkar. For the time being, the three churches temporarily use a hall in the military compound near the Pagaruyung Palace complex.
The next meeting of the Xaverian parish priests will be held around Lent or Easter 2019 in the Xaverian Regional House of Padang.
